Final Paper

Works Cited

Bakker, Bakker, Nienke, Jansen, Leo, and Luijten, Hans. Vincent Van Gogh: A Life in Letters / Edited by Nienke Bakker, Leo Jansen and Hans Luijten. 2020. Print.

Irvine, David, and Beth. “Featured Artist: The Up-Cycled Work of David Irvine.” Inside Redbubble, REDBUBBLE, 14 Aug. 2014, https://blog.redbubble.com/2014/08/featured-artist-david-irvine-interview/. Accessed 20 Nov. 2023.

McGreevy, Nora. “How Did This Grasshopper End Up Trapped in a Vincent van Gogh Painting?” Smart News, 15 Mar. 2021, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-did-grasshopper-end-trapped-van-gogh-painting-180977227/. Accessed 18 Nov. 2023.

Naifeh, Steven, and Smith, Gregory White. Van Gogh: The Life / Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith. First U.S. ed. New York: Random House, 2011. Print.

Deep Sleep

This photograph was taken at an aquarium while I was traveling in 2021. At the time, I couldn’t have told you what was drawing me to the scene. I decided to explore the reasons in this paper, with this piece that convinced me to pursue my art again. While obviously a digital piece, I chose this program with the intention of developing my skills in mixed mediums. I plan to print this photo on a canvas and use a technique called over-painting; where paint is used over an existing work to enhance or change the subjects. Using acrylic paint, I’ll make the background more uniform in darker blues, and add texture and depth to the brighter octopus with a technique called impasto. This method uses thick applications of paint that allow for visible brush strokes and added dimension. Bold, contrasting colors and unique flow of lines have always been influences in my work, and even as digital pieces, imitate my more classical muse quite well.

Vincent van Gogh was an impressionist of the late 1800’s, most known for his use of symbolic colors and bold contrast. His scenes are well framed, using symmetry and leading lines to create focus and balance. Van Gogh is the artist who inspired my use of the impasto technique: his unique brushwork adds to the movement of the painting, adding depth and detail while leaving the subject less defined. This style has aways made art something I wanted to feel, rather than view. An early teacher of his, Constant Cornelis Huijsmans, held that artists should “reject technique in favor of capturing the impressions of things, particularly nature or common objects"(Naifeh and Smith 48). Gogh was unhappy at the school and ultimately left, but I feel the lesson continued to influence his work. Even while disillusioned in his religion, he believed nature to be a manifestation of spirituality and beauty. In some of his letters to his brother he wrote “I don't know anything with certainty, but seeing the stars makes me dream” and “so I go outside at night to paint the stars.” I think it’s fascinating to study the chronology and self-critiques of his work, to understand the emotions he was trying to capture and convey.

Van Gogh’s most well-known piece, The Starry Night, was my introduction to his art. It depicts the view from his window at Saint-Remy-de-Provence- replicated a total of twenty-one times in various weather conditions and times of day. The features changed with each iteration: exaggerating the size or adding more cypress trees, including a town that was on another side of the asylum, depicting the ‘morning star’. Only the diagonal lines of the Alpilles mountains persist throughout the series. Longer parallel lines draw the viewer’s eye across the night sky, leading to ‘the moon’. Short, numerous strokes with thick paint create the illusion of movement and texture and add depth to the horizon lines. Using cool colors for the lower half of the painting creates uniformity, while the contrast of the white and yellow creates focus and adds to the rolling movement of the sky. The final piece was clearly a work of fiction, even though it was based on the view from that window, to manifest the feeling of a late summer night.

Van Gogh often re-used canvases when he couldn’t afford new materials. This is a form of overpainting, though done out of necessity rather than with meaning. David Irvine, another muse of mine, uses overpainting to upcycle others’ more traditional paintings. His intention was simply to limit waste, but most of this series is an excellent study in meta-media. His additions are humorous or nonsensical, and painted in a style different from the original. The titles, while short, often tell a story that connects the subjects and changes the narrative of the original piece. Many of Irvine’s works are reminiscent of kitsch modern art. My favorite painting is ‘When Explorers Collide’, for many of the reasons I admire van Gogh’s work. His additions follow the symmetry and lines of the original piece, while adding bold colors and unique brushwork that create an off-putting or otherworldly scene. The series started with happenstance- a cheap canvas from the thrift store and a funny caricature made of surplus materials- but ended in a new modern art movement.

My own work has always been heavily influenced by impressionist and liminal styles. When I began studying my photograph Deep Sleep, I first recognized the familiar reliance on framing and symmetry. I prefer to photograph subjects in a liminal space, using neutral colors and forced perspective to limit details of the background. Depth and direction in the scene come from the subjects: the bright contrasting colors of the octopus, the leading lines of his body and tentacle, and the mirroring of the various circles. I’ll be using the impasto technique to brighten the octopus and make the rough texture of his skin almost realistic. While the work is not as bizarre as my muses, I hope my overpainting causes that same feeling of otherness, and adds a physical sense to the art.

I’ve found the most important aspect of art to be the feeling of immersion. Even pieces that are not meant to be interacted with can be designed to express an emotion or details so intensely the viewer thinks they could feel it. I want my pieces to help people see the things around us in such a beautiful state they seem other-worldly. Not quite unreal- but startling enough that the viewer thinks you could feel a difference- if you just used the right senses. I’d like to continue practicing my painting and specifically the impasto technique. To expand my digital art skills, I’ll also continue making meta-media out of my prior works and recycling the art into my game projects. It’s been a struggle to create my own art style rather than mimicking the pieces I’ve found interesting, but I’m finding confidence in readings and interviews from my muses. So many of them doubted their work or inspired a new style because they thought, “why not?”. Making mistakes has always been my favorite way to learn! I recently learned about a painting of Van Gogh’s, made with the impasto technique, that has a grasshopper embedded into the paint. In his letters he discussed the difficulties of painting outside, but he was determined to create while immersed in the scene he was trying to capture. This renowned artist, a founder of modern art, suddenly seems much closer to myself and my desire to share an intangible feeling.

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