Independent Project

Artist Statement

The subject of my creation is a fiery woman under water with cool fish swimming around her, cooling her rage. I made it using myself as a reference and then painting with acrylic paint over the top. I chose to create this piece because I was rather frustrated with my art this whole year, and wanted to make a piece that showed that in a sense. I made a picture of a woman who was red and angry in a dark ocean with calming fish, representing the few projects that actually made me happy.

I used traditional composition in this piece. I wanted to have the woman the centerpiece of the image and have all the focus be on her at first, until the viewer looks around some more. This is why I made the eyes meeting the viewers, so that the character is more entrancing, as well as pulling the viewer into the piece and making them a part of it. It evolved because as I went I sort of decided how I wanted to create each part. I used q-tips to add the color and texture to the face and body, a large for the hair, and a smaller brush for the fish and stippled with that.

The meaning behind this work is what I explained previously. It represents me getting increasingly angry at myself and my art this year and the cooling aspects being things that would have made this year easier, such as more time on the due dates, or more previous experience in the mediums we used. It relates to my life because I based the project on how I was feeling about myself and my work. I think it could be stronger if I had payed more attention to the actual shading in the face I was referencing, rather than just doing generic "face-like" shading to make it look better, because some highlights and shadows are a little off. Also if I had been more careful about mixing my colors to match each other I think it would have been better. But overall, I am pretty proud of this piece.