Triptych
Milwaukee
Acrylic Triptych Painting 61cm x 91cm December 2019 Exhibition Text
My Tryptic piece “Milwaukee” represents my relationship with the community in which I live. The left side represents me as an artist, the right is how my community affects me, and the middle represents how I affect the community. The water in the middle is supposed to represent lake michigan. The color dripping from my arms represents different aspects of my life and personality. I also connected this painting to Atheism because of the absence of spirituality in my life as a citizen here in Milwaukee. |
Planning
Inspiration
I was mainly inspired by Salvador Dali’s style, especially his melting clocks which inspired the melting color. Though, the given prompts gave me more inspiration, I knew that I needed to involve Milwaukee because this is the only place I have ever lived. I have sort of a negative view of Milwaukee, mostly because of the gloomy weather. As well as Milwaukee being the most segregated city in the US, which I hate, because you really can see it driving around. All the houses are the same but one block might look nice and the next it's all run down because no one can afford to fix anything well or move out! So, no one with a stable income will move to these areas because they are sometimes just so violent! This is what inspired the far right painting. Anyways, as an artist I try to be colorful, nice and funny as an undertone in my personality. So, I like to use lots of color when painting and drawing, and this inspired the left painting. Since Lake Michigan is a big part of everyone's lives here in Milwaukee, I made the different sets of drips (these represent different aspects of my personality and life) dripping into water, which represents lake Michigan. The piece is also influenced by Atheism, because its so ¨real¨.
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Planning Sketches
At first I wasn't thinking of using any realism, but I still had the idea of color to represent emotion. I liked artwork done with pallet knifes, the wispy yet sharp unique shapes and possible new colors are really fun. This idea also would have been very fun to paint. The left painting would be bright, the middle would be dull, and the right would basically be browns.
For my second sketch I had basically the same layout as the first one (The left painting would be bright, the middle would be dull, and the right would basically be browns), but the color would be dripping from top to bottom. I would also present the paintings lined up vertically to make it look like the color is dripping down. I would have painted them all with separate pigments yet the shape would be continuous/connected over the three pieces. My third sketch is actually the one I went with. I thought that I really didn't want to paint anything in realism or surrealism because its not my strong suit, until I sketched this. I fell in love with the idea and had to bring it to life. As you may be able to see I spent more time on this sketch because of it. |
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Process
Process
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Experimentation
My main points of experimentation is in the drips of color and how I executed them. My favorite part, where they flow together on the hands was totally a thought like; ¨hey this would look cool¨. Also with the drips, how I painted the main stream down was a lot of experiment. For a while I was using a larger flat brush and taking two colors, one of each side of the brush, being careful not to mix them, and painting two lines at a time. Sometimes I did accidentally blend them into a gradient though, you would probably be able to find a section where this had happened. I did end up not covering these though, they do look cool and give the eye more things to look at. also when sketching this onto the canvas I experimented with the perspective points for the drips a little bit; at first they were going to be at the center of the middle painting (as you can see I put a line in the middle to help with putting the perspective point), but they ended up being more on the opposite arm and I think that looks better.
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(Click on pictures for larger viewing and Citations)
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Critique
I feel as though I could have painted the hands/arms and the background better. Both components are pretty feathery and I think if I did more layers they would have been way better. I also probably should have painted the background first but because of it being so dark, I was scared you would have been able to see it under all of the other components. Yet I do like how I painted all of the melting color, looking like it was poured on my hands. Doing this part I took into account the three dimensional shape of my hands and arms and it really shows! I think this part looks really good, my favorite part is were the different pallets of color flow together.
Reflection
I am very happy with the end product of this project. I feel as though I painted all three canvases very well and am proud of the drips of color. I really should have painted the background first and have done more layers if the background showed. I also should have connected this project better to spirituality, I said Atheism but I dont think thats a very strong argument in this context.
ACT Responses
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork:
You are clearly able to see the relation between Dalis Surrealism and my drips of color.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
I was feeling edgy so I wanted to do a darker piece with a darker than normal meaning.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
One of the main conclusions ive had about people in this project is that you can use almost any perspective, even if its incorrect and people will think its cool.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The main theme around my research is the absence of spirituality and that lead me to the energy of my hometown, Milwaukee,Wis.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I have realized that Milwaukee is a darker place than I thought, as is most cities I feel like.
You are clearly able to see the relation between Dalis Surrealism and my drips of color.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
I was feeling edgy so I wanted to do a darker piece with a darker than normal meaning.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
One of the main conclusions ive had about people in this project is that you can use almost any perspective, even if its incorrect and people will think its cool.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The main theme around my research is the absence of spirituality and that lead me to the energy of my hometown, Milwaukee,Wis.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I have realized that Milwaukee is a darker place than I thought, as is most cities I feel like.
Bibliography
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