"Now and Then"
Size: 12.5cm x 17.5cm
Medium: Dry point
Date: October 8, 2017
Exhibition Text:
My dry point tends to resemble the affliction and intimacy within relationships. I was inspired by Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec’s art piece, “In Bed; The Kiss”. Now and Then is merely a piece that captures the up and down emotions when it comes to romance.
Artist Inspiration
To begin with, I was inspired by In Bed: The Kiss. The art piece has to do with two woman in a passionate moment. It was made to express the caring love shared by a couple (Totally History, 2009). When I first saw this, I automatically thought about the photo that was taken at Wisconsin State Fair, of the guy and I. It reminded me how at that moment, we shared a softhearted kiss. I thought it was perfect to do for my dry point. Then I started to think about what comes within relationships. Relationships aren't always all fun and games, there's always going to be some kind of argument along the way. After thinking, I had wanted to find an art piece that had symbolic concepts. I ended up turning onto Frida Kahlo. In Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird by Frida, I had came across the meaning behind the piece. For example, the humming bird within her thorn necklace is black and lifeless, which originally symbols life and freedom. The hummingbird is said to symbolize Frida, herself, and the suffering she was going through at the time (Frida Kahlo Org, 2009).
Frida's thorn necklace was part of my inspiration. If one were to look at my dry point, there's thorns surrounding the couple. The thorns in my piece symbolize the sorrow couples go through whether it's from arguments or disappointments. The concept within my piece is that although couples go through rough times, they have their good moments which is why the couple is shown kissing even if they're being poked by a few thorns. Also, instead of a hummingbird, I decided to go with a dove. A dove represents peace. I placed the dove above the couple to show that there always tends to be an inner peace within their relationship no matter how hard it gets. Thirdly, I had noticed the leaves in Frida's work and I wanted to incorporate those leaves in a way within my dry point. After doing some research, I had saw the laurel wreath. The laurel wreath was given to winners in competitions in poetry or sports . I thought to myself and said, this couple within my piece is a winner, maybe not in poetry or sports, but for sticking with each other and getting through arguments and disappointments at the end. I incorporated the leaves on the top, on both sides, curving inwards to represent the laurel wreath.
Overall, I had named my art piece, "Now and Then" because it tends to symbolize that there will be difficult times now and then but there will also be a couple of good moments now and then within partnerships. I made the piece the way it is to capture an emotion theme.
Frida's thorn necklace was part of my inspiration. If one were to look at my dry point, there's thorns surrounding the couple. The thorns in my piece symbolize the sorrow couples go through whether it's from arguments or disappointments. The concept within my piece is that although couples go through rough times, they have their good moments which is why the couple is shown kissing even if they're being poked by a few thorns. Also, instead of a hummingbird, I decided to go with a dove. A dove represents peace. I placed the dove above the couple to show that there always tends to be an inner peace within their relationship no matter how hard it gets. Thirdly, I had noticed the leaves in Frida's work and I wanted to incorporate those leaves in a way within my dry point. After doing some research, I had saw the laurel wreath. The laurel wreath was given to winners in competitions in poetry or sports . I thought to myself and said, this couple within my piece is a winner, maybe not in poetry or sports, but for sticking with each other and getting through arguments and disappointments at the end. I incorporated the leaves on the top, on both sides, curving inwards to represent the laurel wreath.
Overall, I had named my art piece, "Now and Then" because it tends to symbolize that there will be difficult times now and then but there will also be a couple of good moments now and then within partnerships. I made the piece the way it is to capture an emotion theme.
Sketches
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If one takes a look at my sketch, this is the one I officially went with. I picked this sketch because it has symbolism involved and I believe I captured the picture well. I also think I used up the space well, my piece wasn't so dull. The couple was sketched after a picture I had, and most of the symbols had to do with Frida's concepts within her portrait piece.
For this sketch, I had took Frida's concept of her thorn necklace in her self-portrait and contributed it into an realistic heart. I wanted to challenge myself and try making real life heart with some cross scratch shading. The thorns were meant to symbolize the fact that the heart was hurting, which would relate to my emotion theme.
My third sketch was inspired by my love for my dog, coco. It wasn't based off my current inspirations. I wanted to show off the happiness my dog had whenever he went to the park. I stopped sketching this half way because forming his shape was a bit of a challenge for me, but at least I tried.
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Process
1. CARVING PHASE
Once I had picked out the sketch I wanted to do, it was time to transfer it onto the plate. Since my idea was in my sketch book, I taped the plate on top of the sketch so it wouldn't move once I started carving. After that was settled, I began to carve with my tool. At first it was kind of difficult to carve in round areas like the dove, shoulder, hands but overall I got the hang of it. Carving at first was pretty iffy because I was scared that I'd accidentally carve something that I wasn't suppose to carve. I actually carved twice because I had messed up on the first plate I had. |
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2. INKING PROCESS
After I had finished carving out my piece, it was time to start setting the ink on top of the plate. First off, one needs the right kind of ink and a tool to scoop it out. I scooped a good a amount and placed it on top of my plate then I started to spread it out until my whole plate was black. One needs to make sure the whole plate is covered, especially the carved lines because then the outcome won't come out well. Once that is finished, I had to rip pieces of paper and start wiping the ink off. It took a while wiping the ink off because the ink was stiff. The first time I had tried it, it literally took me a good forty minutes, probably because I had placed too much ink. Later on with my other attempts, I made sure to put a fair amount. Anyways, for it to be ready to do, the plate needs to be completely clear except the carved lines of course, but one doesn't want extra ink on the plate because it'll spread and splatter once pressure is applied and will ruin the picture. |
3. APPLYING PRESSURE
Once the plate is cleared, it's time to do the applying pressure process. Before I could even do that, I had to take out my plate from the bucket of water I had put it in. Once I took it out, I had to dry it with a clean towel. After it was dry, I had put a piece of blank white paper under my plate and the piece of dry point paper on top of my plate. I slowly grabbed it and put it under the flap on the machine. Before applying pressure, I had to make sure the right pressure was being applied. To determine that, I had to turn the handle on top to a certain extent. Afterwards, to check the pressure, I'd try to turn the handle on the bottom and if it was hard to turn, it meant that pressure was going to be applied well, but it was easy to turn, it meant that I had to turn the handle on top more, because otherwise, not enough pressure would be applied onto my piece. Later on, when I distinguished the pressure being applied, I turned the handle on the bottom all the way through until my piece was on the opposite side of the machine. Once that was done, I grabbed my piece and took it back to the table. 4. DRYING PROCESS Once I got to the table with my piece, I had took off the top sheet and looked at my piece. My piece would either be nice enough to keep or too light because there wasn't enough pressure applied onto it. After I had decided, I'd either clean up or try doing another one. Creative Idea - A creative idea that was suggested to do was adding water color onto the dry point. Doing that could give the picture more meaning or make it more appealing to the viewer. I decided to create a fading background, from a light color to a dark color just so emphasize the fact that couples go through dark times yet always thee's always some type of light within the relationship. |
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Critique
Between my art piece and inspirations, there's a couple of differences and similarities. For instance, comparing the both, my piece and the In Bed: The Kiss art piece have the same concept about showing affection within a kiss. Also, within both pieces, the couples tend to hold the same body position, holding each other. When it comes to Frida's portrait and my art piece, both tend to use the thorns and some kind of bird as a symbol within our artwork. Besides that, to contrast, the piece In Bed: The Kiss tends to have a background, which seems to be a bed. In my artwork, I didn't create a detailed background. In the other hand, I also didn't contribute animals like the cat and monkey within Frida's piece. Lastly, my medium was a dry point, my two inspirations were painted which gives off a whole different effect.
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Evaluation
Overall, the concepts between my piece and my two inspirations were pretty alike. I feel like I put much more meaning into this piece than my block print. I say that because there was much more symbolism in this piece and it's not what one expects. I noticed how the In Bed: The Kiss art piece tends to have more movement within it, where as in my piece, it looks like the couple it just plain still. Also, Frida's portrait and the meaning behind it really helped me do my piece. Once researching her history, I had all these ideas coming into my head and what I wanted to contribute within my artwork. I'm really glad I filled up the space I was provided with, instead of leaving a lot of negative space.
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Experimentation
First Attempt
My first attempt came out pretty well, not amazing but pretty good for my first time. Seems like I didn't put as much ink as one side than the other. It's either that or I rubbed the ink off really hard to the point that there wasn't enough ink to be pressured on my outcome. Also, for this attempt, my outcome came out crooked, so I had cut the boarders to straighten it out, which is why the outcome looks more rectangular than any other of my attempts. |
Second Attempt
My second attempt was not so good. I'm pretty sure I applied enough ink. The problem here was that I didn't apply enough pressure on the machine for the ink to move on my piece of paper. I know that because when I turned the handle, it was pretty easy to turn. Therefore, my outcome was missing half of my carving. |
Third Attempt
My third attempt came out good, better than the other two. I put enough ink on my plate and I adjusted the machine well enough so it was able to apply pressure from the ink to my piece of paper. All the details within my piece are clear enough to see. |
Reflection
Overall, I thought doing this medium, dry point, was pretty easy to accomplish. First of all, drawing the image was pretty simple just because I had gotten the idea of a photo that was taken. I simply had to look back and forth from the photo to the sketch to be able to draw the image well. Then, came the the scratching into the plastic piece. I thought that was pretty simple as well because all I had to do with carve thin lines to be able to create detail within my piece. I believe the hardest process of this kind of medium was trying to get the ink off the plastic piece. Later on, I got the hang of things, I was able to tell how much ink would be necessary to put on my piece so it wouldn't over flow with ink. Then, when it came to putting pressure on the piece to create my art work, It was pretty simple, all I had to do was determine how much pressure should be demonstrated. Overall, most of my pieces came out good. When I evaluated my outcome, there was form and line presented as art elements. Form was shown within the faces of the couple and what they were wearing in my piece. The shading on the faces made the couple more realistic, creating that 3 Dimensional form humans tend to have. The lines, in the other hand, gave my piece a lot of detail. For example, there was a lot of lines created in the hair of each person within my art work, I tried carving out the hair in directions as it was in the actual picture. Other than that, there was also art principles demonstrated too.
ACT Questions
1. Clearly explain how you were able to identify the cause-effect relationships between you inspiration and it's effect upon your artwork.
When one looks at my art piece, one can tell there's a visual connection between my inspirations and my piece. As I've mentioned before in my Inspiration portion of my website, I talked about how I used symbolism similar to Frida's self portrait and how I had the same concept as In Bed: The Kiss piece. The effect the symbols have within my piece tends to make one wonder why the couple is wrapped around in thorns yet there's no show of pain within their face and area above them.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Frida within her self portrait wanted to display the pain she has gone through by adding the thorn necklace with the lifeless bird, to symbolize that she was hurting at the time. In the other hand, In Bed: The Kiss distinguishes the love affection the couple has. My piece was all about distress couples tend to go through yet love each other at the end no matter what.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
When researching my inspiration, I had realized that Frida used a lot of symbolism within her art pieces and always had a story behind her artwork. I also realized Frida has Hispanic background which was nice to work with, knowing she's part of my Mexican culture. In the other hand, when I looked at In Bed: The Kiss, I automatically thought the couple was a female and a male until I started to read about the painting, learning that it was actually two females showing affection.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My central idea within my piece was to send out a message that relationships are never going to be perfect and filled with joy and happiness. Relationships are filled with different kind of emotions and bumps on the road. Couples can go through so much yet still stick with each other.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
An inference I made was that an art piece can mean anything to anyone but if one takes the time to know the artist's story behind it, it'll change one's thought about the piece.
When one looks at my art piece, one can tell there's a visual connection between my inspirations and my piece. As I've mentioned before in my Inspiration portion of my website, I talked about how I used symbolism similar to Frida's self portrait and how I had the same concept as In Bed: The Kiss piece. The effect the symbols have within my piece tends to make one wonder why the couple is wrapped around in thorns yet there's no show of pain within their face and area above them.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Frida within her self portrait wanted to display the pain she has gone through by adding the thorn necklace with the lifeless bird, to symbolize that she was hurting at the time. In the other hand, In Bed: The Kiss distinguishes the love affection the couple has. My piece was all about distress couples tend to go through yet love each other at the end no matter what.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
When researching my inspiration, I had realized that Frida used a lot of symbolism within her art pieces and always had a story behind her artwork. I also realized Frida has Hispanic background which was nice to work with, knowing she's part of my Mexican culture. In the other hand, when I looked at In Bed: The Kiss, I automatically thought the couple was a female and a male until I started to read about the painting, learning that it was actually two females showing affection.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My central idea within my piece was to send out a message that relationships are never going to be perfect and filled with joy and happiness. Relationships are filled with different kind of emotions and bumps on the road. Couples can go through so much yet still stick with each other.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
An inference I made was that an art piece can mean anything to anyone but if one takes the time to know the artist's story behind it, it'll change one's thought about the piece.