Dexter Westbay "NBA is Back"

8.5 x 11 in., Magazines, Paper, Pencil, Glue, Scissors, Year 

My first idea for this artwork is that I wanted to make something that had to do with the NBA. The NBA just came back in season, so I have been watching it a lot and wanted to do something related to that. I first started looking for things to do about it when all of the sudden I got a good idea to use magazines. So, I used these pieces of paper to make my artwork.

First off, I started out with grabbing a piece of paper, and brainstorming with my ideas on this piece. Then, I took some magazines and looked through them till I saw pieces that related to the NBA or basketball. After that I cut them very precisely, and started to set them out on the piece of paper. Then I started to glue those pieces down, and eventually ended up with my completed piece. I used a ton of different cutouts, using scissors, gluesticks,  and paper in the process.  The symbolism behind the piece of art is to show the NBA has started back up, and that it is electric and entertaining. I want my audience to think about the NBA and it's return, and I want more people to be watching. 

The most difficult thing throughout this whole proccess was cutting the magazine without ripping it. The magazine is very flimsy, and could rip easily, so I had to be very gentle with it.  If I had to change one thing about the piece, it's that I wanted to spell something else out, and put it up top becuase it is lacking a little bit of something. I would say that this piece is somewhat abstract. The reason why I think this is because it takes a bunch of pieces from other places, and makes it into one thing. I think this makes it my own piece because it isn't like the rest of collages, in that I put my own twist on it being about basketball and the NBA. I think this is my favorite thing about this piece, is that it's about something I love very much, and that is basketball.

(VISUAL VOICE) What style of art is this?  (Realistic, Abstract, Surreal, Non-Objective?). What makes it unique to your own personal style?  What do you love about it?