Material Based Portrait

Artist's Statement:

The idea for this project was to make a portrait of someone important to us, out of materials that connected to the subject. I chose to make a portrait of my mother, out of natural materials such as leaves and birch bark. I chose this my mother has always been very connected to nature. I remember going on walks with and picking up interesting leaves, so I chose this material. This material really connects to who my mother is, because when I asked what I should do for her portrait she said natural materials.

My materials were many different colored leaves, but I wasn't able to find quite the right shade for my mom's skin. So instead of using leaves for this, I chose to use birch bark, which was the right shade. I also had some trouble finding a leaf dark enough for my mother's hair. However, I was able to find one of those maples that has really dark red purple leaves that look black. I chose to cut the leaves and bark for the face and hair really small and piece them together, but didn't do this for the cloths and the ground.

At first I thought of using rice and beans to represent my mother, but I am glad that I decided to use natural materials. My process was collecting shades that I thought I might. I ended up not using a lot of it, especially the red. I also ended up switching out the colors of the scarf and sweater, along with the entire background. I also ended cropping the size a lot, so that I wouldn't have to work on as much surface.