Extended Blind Contour

Artist Statement

In this piece, there is a pile of oysters sitting atop seaweed. It all started as three blind contours, but once I added more color and shape, (and a 4th blind contour) it started to appear more as the oysters it was meant to be. For me, this piece is important because it represents a bit of the ocean in it. I find the ocean in the tangled mess of seaweed that frames the oysters, as well as the slight ripples the calmly move away from each contour. The blind contours are done of, my hand, Mrs. Medsker, my friend Lin, and my Mom.

I used almost every material I can think of (almost). I started by doing the blind contours in sharpie, and then I added some different colors of sharpie to it. From there I used a pen and made the ripples out from each blind contour. I added Oil Pastel, colored pencil, and charcoal for the “seaweed” surrounding it. For the “pearl” in the middle, I used acrylic paint. There is also some paint , and some watercolor marker intermixed with the seaweed. The seaweed itself had paint, Oil Pastel, colored pencil and thick blue Sharpie in it. Additionally, there is a tiny amount of graphite pencil used.

The experimental process took a lot of time for this project. I started with the attitude, “it’ll work out,” and somehow, it did! I began with my three blind contours, and when I got home, I added another one, of my mom, to the piece. I saw many things, including a dreamscape, a face, and a flower, before I finally made it into oysters sitting in seaweed. Because of all the things I had started to make it into, the oysters are definitely a little odd in places. After I had added the ripples I added color to the oysters. Then, I hurriedly added the seaweed surrounding them. I was pressed for time so the seaweed turned out a little rushed. I am happy with the texture that the seaweed added. Finally, I added the pearl in the center, but because of an existing black line, it didn’t come out exactly as I may have wanted. My next steps could be working more with the pearl in the center, and also making the seaweed maybe a little more worked with. Finally, I would like to give it a black sheet of paper as a background, (hung behind it, so there would be about a 1-2 inch border).