Art History Inspired Project

Artist Statement: 

For this project, I was inspired by Wangechi Mutu's use of collage and Shirin Neshat's calligraphy.  I chose the song Vienna by Billy Joel because I thought it fit the sentimental, vintage feeling I was going for. 

My materials were watercolor, acrylic paint, sharpie, tissue paper, mod podge, and magazine clippings on canvas. 

To make this artwork I started by using watercolor to paint a bird's eye view of the beach. Then, I used white acrylic paint to make the sea spray so that it would pop. Then I made the beach umbrellas. I started by cutting out circles of magazines and drawing patterns on those circles but I didn't like how it looked and decided to use more magazine clippings to make the patterns on them. I was going for a vintage, colorful look and I think it turned out pretty well. Finally, I knew I wanted to do song lyrics for the writing on this art I just wasn't sure what song. At the time I was listening to music and Vienna by Billy Joel came on while I was cutting out the umbrellas. I thought it fit the vibe I was going for perfectly and decided to use it. I ended up writing out the song on the art a little over once so that it fit in the space better.  After that, I decided to lay tissue paper over the lyrics with Mod Podge to avoid plagiarism issues.  And after thatI was done!