Sustained Investigation #2

Artist Statement

The main idea that guided this artwork was answering my inquiry question for my sustained investigation which is: how can I portray emotions/feelings through my favorite songs? For this work, the feeling I was trying to portray was the need to be a people pleaser. I was inspired by the Taylor swift song Mirrorball. This song is about trying to impress everyone by being perfect and shiny all the time even when nobody is watching. In the song, there is a verse that goes "And they called off the circus burned the disco down when they sent home the horses and the rodeo clowns I'm still on that tightrope I'm still trying everything to get you laughing at me I'm still a believer but I don't know why I've never been a natural all I do is try, try, try I'm still on that trapeze I'm still trying everything to keep you looking at me." This work was inspired by this verse and I was trying to show a tightrope walker who is still performing and trying to impress an empty crowd.

This work was made with oil pastels on black acrylic paper. I used oil pastels because I liked the almost messy look of them but mainly to show contrast. The song this work is inspired by is all about a person who feels like a mirrorball (disco ball) because they are shiny and reflect versions of themselves to different people. I used oil pastels because I felt they have this sense of shininess and smoothness to them that other materials don't. They can also be very dark and smudgy which I used for the stadium to show that the tightrope walker in the drawing is still trying to be shiny and perfect even when nobody is around to see it. This is inspired by the lyric, "When no one is around, my dear You'll find me on my tallest tiptoe Spinning in my highest heels, love Shining just for you."

The process for creating this work started with listening to the song a lot of times. Whenever I listen to this it paints such a strong visual in my head and I had to decide which parts of it I wanted to try and put down on paper. I knew I wanted to use the lyric about the circus and the tightrope walker so then I looked at a lot of inspiration images. I then created a collage of different images to layer how I wanted things to look and to help me with proportion. I chose to use black paper instead of white because I thought it would help show the emptiness of the stadium and add a depressing feel to the drawing. I also chose to put bright lights shining on the tightrope walker to emphasize how she feels like she always has to be perfect and perform even wehn nobody is around.