Sustained Investigation #6

REFLECTION:

When looking at women’s history within Boston, I wanted to do something different for this piece. Previously, I feel as though I have focused more on wartime and intense political issues, however I wanted to look more at how women are involved in media and “everyday” society. This led me to discover the International Women’s Day (IWD) Project, which was a project where every IWD, women would volunteer and gather in the MIT wmbr radio basement and record a 24 hour show on women’s art, music, writing, and would also talk about socio-political issues concerning women. This project continued for 14 years annually and gave women a voice in the media where it wasn't incredibly common throughout the 80s. I ended up doing a lot of research in neo-expressionism, a very prevalent art style of the time defined by artists such as Basquiat & Andy Warhol. Women were often excluded from this art movement, and seeing as the goal of the IWD project was to give women a voice in the media, I wanted to put women’s voices back into neo-expressionism. One thing that was very common in the art I looked at was the use of mixed media and bright colors to create movement. In my piece, I wanted to show women spinning around on a record (reminiscent of radio and music of the time) but also show the movement through bright colors and line work. I used oil pastels to create those bright colors and smudged them to create that sense of movement and that the record was spinning. In the center of the record, I wrote information about the IWD Project, and with the women on the vinyl itself holding the women’s symbol, I wanted to create the sense that they were a part of the movement, literally and figuratively. Bringing in the mixed media aspects also as well as actual media, I wrote common phrases of the IWD Radio Project in newspaper clippings.  

This piece required  experimentation with media & how it worked together. I practiced a lot with how oil pastels worked with acrylic, & with colored pencils on top of acrylic paint. I got feedback from peers about my use of color to create movement & went back add more color to make sure my point was getting across. I originally had the center of the vinyl as a green color, as I had seen that the colors of the suffragette movement were green, purple, and white. I found out that those were the colors of the British suffragette movement and the American one used yellow, purple, and white.

Seeing as this piece was my last piece designed compositionally, it will not impact my “last” piece. However, this piece has taught me a lot about how I can mix my media to create a compelling piece and how I can use line work and color to convey my ideas. This was by far my most versatile piece media wise and style wise which really taught me that it is okay to experiment and push the boundaries of my work. Often, I am nervous to branch out from what I am comfortable with and know how to do in case it doesn’t turn out right, but being patient with this piece and allowing myself to become experimental with my color and designs was incredibly freeing. This piece also got me comfortable with painting smaller faces which will be very helpful for touch ups on my Mexican-Muralist style painting!