Sustained Investigation #13

I started this project with very little direction. I knew that I wanted to work one composition at a time, and that I wanted to work bigger than I had been in my other projects. I began by painting a yellow background. I flipped through my sketchbook to see if I had drawn anything that could have been fleshed out more, but all that I could really find was some studies of grass, so I started there. I then fleshed out my patch of grass to include a sleeping form, probably because sleep has been on my mind at the time I made this project. After that I added on slowly, with the mugs of tea, and then the tree, and the old tire swing. These three parts of the composition are to add intrigue, and to convey a sense of nostalgia and sleepiness. The tree is based off of a drawing I did of a neighbor's front yard that I have always been fascinated with, it's old and has this gigantic twisted trunk and wild branches that don't sprout leaves anymore. The tire swing is implied to have been removed from the tree, it is laid on the ground. I added the house last, with the fire spewing out of the windows.

As I have with most of my Sustained Investigations so far, I used contrasting colors to echo the theme of comedy/tragedy (or opposing themes/subjects in general). This time the color palette is mostly warm, with details added in with a bright to add contrast. I tried using form and line in the tree and in the fire to show a sense of upward movement on the page, with them both twisting upward off of the page.

The final description that I settled upon for this painting was that it is a continuation and/or conclusion to the "no sleep" zine that I made for SI #11-12. There is a sleeping figure, with chaos happening in the background, but now that they finally have something really threatening to worry about, they have finally fallen asleep. It also was made somewhat about nostalgia and rural isolation, with the tire swing abandoned in the foreground, and an old house (perhaps signifying the safety of home and staying put), and a student in the middle of it all. These themes were honestly much more present in my mind than what I officially settled on for the reason, so I see this as a much more honest interpretation of what was on my mind (college applications, thoughts of home, doubts about moving forward) at the time that I made the painting.