Diego Ugarte (HL)

Curatorial Rationale

My body of work all generates minor differences in idea and interpretation, but all display a resemblance of the overall theme, struggles. I did the best I could to explore this theme in as many ways as possible. By doing so, I had to think about many variations of struggle, as there are different types of failure. I first thought of the mental aspect of struggle because it’s the least talked about and most are unaware of it. Furthermore, I thought of those I know who have and opened up to me, helping me understand it’s true challenge. One that does not involve whether one is wealthy or not, or whether someone has it better off than others, but that it’s a struggle that is there and present. I then developed more thoughts on other types of struggles such as politically, environmentally, and socially. Understanding that drawing and painting was not an artistic strength of mine, I took the opportunity to be creative and unique compared to others.

My first piece titled “Inner Struggles” primarily focuses on mental health and struggle, and its seriousness. The use of splatter technique was inspired by the work of a fellow classmate of mine, but also the series of works from Jackson Pollock. However, I differed in theme and representation as I chose something more personal to me and something I thought was important for others to realize as well. I wanted to remind people that we never know what’s going on in a person’s mind and it’s important to always be aware and open if brought up.

From this point, I continued using my personal thoughts to dictate what and how I did things. Self-inspired, I worked with glass to showcase reasons and excuses that lead to the consumption of alcohol. With this piece, “One to Forget”, I wanted to display symbolism through visual painted symbols that imply realistic reasons/excuses for ill-advised drinking. Some of these include family problems, heartbreak, drugs, and academic stress. I also used glass bottles to symbolize the issue of excessive drinking as a result of all these problems. I fit the symbols underneath the glass bottles which I broke in half using the blowing glass process to show the direct potential correlation between the two variables and add uniqueness to my piece.

I wanted to change things up and make some smaller, series artworks. I attempted my first photography piece titled, “Hometown Poverty”. Once again, staying personal and close to heart. With eight total display photos, I lined them up two by four vertically so viewers don’t need to move to look at it. The photographs showed how the quality of life in Cebu is, but that Filipinos always find joy and happiness simply just being alive and living with what they have. My color palette for this series was black and white because it creates a sad and sympathetic theme.

I shifted away from personal momentarily, but still was interested in creating a quick series of works. Realizing I had not done much work with acrylic, I wanted to implement it without having to use a distinct figure knowing it isn’t my strength. I tried brainstorming some future problems that I would encounter, especially in university where I will soon be. Though I couldn’t think of any specifics, It gave me the idea to create an abstract series. With no emphasis, it would be open to interpretation and could represent the future as it is something we can’t predict. I used the dirty pour acrylic method which I came across on youtube. My message is the same as my title, “Expect the Unexpected”.

My mindset slowly shifted from personal to global as I wanted to think about others more than myself. I thought about political, social, and environmental struggles, things that people commonly share worldwide. I displayed this in 3d naming it “Breaking News”. Making a red globe with newspaper and magazine titles to represent the political and social issues of the world. I contained it in a glass box and surrounded it with plastic wrappers and newspaper crumbs to embody the environmental challenges we face and how we should take care of it.