Sustained Investigation #2

Artist's Statement:

Jillian Wight

Medsker

AP Art and Design 

25 October 2022

With this piece, I wanted to reinterpret a sketch from earlier this summer.  I was inspired by something I heard quite a bit as a child, that if you eat the seeds of a fruit, a tree will grow inside you!  As a kid, this was both a funny and a frightening thought.  I wanted to emphasize the exaggerated perspective of a child in my art, and show how one’s viewpoint changes as they grow older.

I used oil pastels because they are a material I remember using quite a bit when I was younger.  I think the bright colors and lack of sharp detail gives a youthful, almost nostalgic sense to the piece, like the work is a twisted version of a page from a children’s book.

Perspective was an important element of what I wanted the piece to convey, so I had to make sure I got it just right.  I experimented a lot with the perspective of the figure in the piece and my composition, and I’m happy with the result.  The viewer seems to loom above the face in the piece as they would loom above a child, and therefore the viewer is a little removed from the work, just as an adult cannot totally comprehend what’s going on in a child’s head.  I originally found that the work lacked defining details, so I added a table with a plate (which had a few small seeds on it), an overturned chair, and a fork falling out of the frame.  I think my color choices here made this setting not too overwhelming, the figure still stands out.  I’m definitely really proud of this piece, I stepped out of my comfort zone as someone who is very detail-oriented, and it was freeing!

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