Triptych
FatedAcrylic on canvas
Three 30cmx61cm canvases November-December 2019 Exhibition TextFated is a self-portrait triptych painting that illustrates the path to self acceptance and love, and how your insecurities act as an obstacle to that goal. The red string of fate connects both my past self and my present self, and shows a manifestation of insecurities as "devils", pulling the string taught; I took inspiration from Frida Kahlo's Las Dos Fridas for this. The bright colors in my piece are inspired by the Fauvist art movement.
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Planning
Inspiration My inspiration comes from two sources: Frida Kahlo's The Two Fridas, and the Fauvist movement. The Two Fridas was a piece made in 1939, after Kahlo divorced her husband, Diego Rivera. It is meant to showcase two different parts of her personality, one that is heartbroken from her divorce and wearing a traditional dress, and one who is an independent woman, wearing modern clothing. You can also see a difference in the way the "traditional" and "modern" Fridas are sitting: the one on the left is sitting with her legs spread, which was a more masculine thing to do. I want to use Frida's way of illustrating two parts of herself in my triptych painting, and make sure to use certain ways of dress and composition to compare different aspects of my life. I also want to make the two figures represent both the past version of me and the present one, who I am now. I think this will highlight the changes I have made in my life that enable me to love myself.
My other inspiration for this piece is the Fauvist art movement. It started in 1899 and ended in 1908, consisting of the Fauves (meaning "wild beasts"). The Fauves were a group of French painters who shared the idea that color should be at the forefront of a piece, in the way it adds another layer of symbolism. They used intense and contrasting colors, separating an object from the literal representation its colors had, to describe light and space, as well as convey emotions you would otherwise not understand in the piece. The example to the right is a piece Matisse painted in 1905, called The Open Window. I want to express the emotions I have felt on my path to self acceptance, and I think that a fauvist painting style, where colors are bright and exaggerated, would help illustrate the intensity of those insecurities and how I have overcome them. My third inspiration is the red string of fate. It is based off of a Japanese legend that people are fated to meet their soulmate, and those who are destined to be together are connected by a red string tied onto their pinky. The idea of the string stretching between the pinkies of two people builds off of the vein in people's bodies that starts in the heart and ends in the little finger. While it is associated greatly with couples, it isn't limited to a type of romantic love. For my piece, I am using the red string of fate to symbolize my path to self love, and how my insecurities have made it difficult in the past for me to reach the point I am at now. |
Planning SketchesFor my first sketch, I practiced drawing myself and looked at different photos of me from recently, as well as from a year or two ago. By the time I started sketching, I already had a good idea of what I wanted to accomplish in my triptych, so the top part of my sketch already has a rough setup of what would be in each canvas. The middle canvas of the triptych is what I was still unsure of. I wanted something to be disrupting the peaceful flow of the rest of the piece, representing self consciousness or anxieties that have prevented me from loving myself. To visually represent that, I wanted to have the figure(s) pulling the string of fate tightly/having it rip. This second sketch was just another drawing of how I wanted the figures to look throughout the piece. I also wanted to put more emphasis on the string of fate that connected the different figures in the drawing. The looseness of the string on the far left and right panels is the natural stretch of the string over time, how one person is fated to meet another throughout their lifetime, and the panel in the middle has a figure pulling the string taught. I wanted there to be a way for you to see how your own obstacles can truly get in the way of your happiness. This final sketch for my painting was more detailed on the facial expressions and the way I wanted the figure in the middle to look. This wasn't too detailed in the background, and I kept it this way because I wanted my painting style to focus on the building of the bright colors of paint, rather than making a really detailed setting. The purpose of the painting is to show how your insecurities can prevent you from loving yourself, and I didn't want to take away from that message. |
Process
Experimentation
The experimentation in my piece largely focuses on the layering of bright colors of paint on each canvas. I looked closely at the work of Henri Matisse to understand how the bright colors should heighten the experience a viewer has of a painting, without taking away from the subject material. In the beginning, I tried to keep my strokes very straight and clean, but I soon realized that I would be more successful if I used a bit more paint on my brush and was less nervous about layering the colors over each other.
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Process
The first step in this process was to make my canvasses. In order to do this, I made a wooden frame from premade pieces, and then stretched canvas over the sides. I would then staple the canvas into place and fold over pieces in the corners to make it look neat. Once this was done, each frame needed to be primed with white gesso. This priming of the canvas made the canvas tighter around the frame, and allowed the paint to hold better on the piece. The second step in my process was to sketch out the figures onto each canvas, and make sure that they all aligned well with each other. It was important that I had a good sketch on my canvas because it would make it easier for me when I applied the paint. During this first step I also mixed my paints for the piece. When I first started to paint, I would just block in pieces of paint onto my canvas and layer the paint on top of each other. After a while though, I realized it was more effective to put down a wash of paint before doing this technique, so the second and third canvasses had a wash underneath the layers of color blocked paint. As I continued to paint my piece, I noticed that it was a bit more difficult to fill in the piece with only big blocks of color, so I used a variety of brushes to fill in different areas of the painting. The smaller brushes worked very well for the face and hands of the piece, and the large brush I mostly used for the background. The emotions that I wanted to convey in the piece were another thing I took away from Kahlo's piece, because I wanted to emmulate the disconnection she felt after her divorce and have that same feeling in how your insecurities prevent yourself from loving yourself. |
Compare and Contrast
Compare:
- both my piece and Frida's piece are self portraits that represent different versions of ourselves and have our connections based on a vein that extends from one figure to the other. In order to visualize this connection between different versions of ourselves, we both use a red cord to connect one figure to the other. "The red string of fate" is a Japanese legend that says you are connected to who you are destined to be with
Contrast:
- My piece focuses on the insecurities you have inside and how they prevent you from accepting yourself, while Frida's piece was inspired from the events that took place after she and Diego Rivera divorced.
-"The red string of fate" is a Japanese legend that says you are connected to who you are destined to be with
- both my piece and Frida's piece are self portraits that represent different versions of ourselves and have our connections based on a vein that extends from one figure to the other. In order to visualize this connection between different versions of ourselves, we both use a red cord to connect one figure to the other. "The red string of fate" is a Japanese legend that says you are connected to who you are destined to be with
Contrast:
- My piece focuses on the insecurities you have inside and how they prevent you from accepting yourself, while Frida's piece was inspired from the events that took place after she and Diego Rivera divorced.
-"The red string of fate" is a Japanese legend that says you are connected to who you are destined to be with
Reflection
This project was one where I needed to practice a lot of time management. While I am pretty satisfied with this project, I think there are always going to be ways that I could have improved on my technique and on the way I portrayed my ideas. It was really interesting using Frida Kahlo as an inspiration and learning a bit more about the story behind Las Dos Fridas, especially how she expressed herself so differently between the two figures. One thing that I really struggled with was how I implemented the fauvist style within my piece. `In order to help myself get a better idea of how I could create a fauvist style piece, I watched speed painting videos by different fauvist style artists on YouTube. Color was a huge element in my piece, and I used the contrast of warm and cooI colors to showcase the emotions of the piece and the intensity of them. think that I did a good job at creating solid colors across each canvas, only improving my technical skill as I completed each canvas. The differences in my first and second/third canvasses are a bit more apparent than I would like them to be, but I am overall satisfied with the outcome.
ACT Responses
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork:
Both my piece and Las Dos Fridas by Frida Khalo feature two versions of myself, and illustrate an inner struggle based on certain changes or insecurites within our individual lives.
2. What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Frida Kahlo used herself as a subject in many of her pieces because she wanted to show her reality of living as a woman, which many women of the time could relate to as well.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I learned more about the Fauvist art movement and that its main purpose was to focus more on personal expression and having color be a separate element of a painting, rather than only being the actual color of the objects within the piece.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea I focused on in my research was self portraits that portrayed different aspects of one's personality.
5.What kinds of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I mostly focused on how Frida Kahlo used her pieces as an outlet to describe what she was going through in different parts of her life; for Las Dos Fridas, it was her divorce from Diego Rivera.
Both my piece and Las Dos Fridas by Frida Khalo feature two versions of myself, and illustrate an inner struggle based on certain changes or insecurites within our individual lives.
2. What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Frida Kahlo used herself as a subject in many of her pieces because she wanted to show her reality of living as a woman, which many women of the time could relate to as well.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I learned more about the Fauvist art movement and that its main purpose was to focus more on personal expression and having color be a separate element of a painting, rather than only being the actual color of the objects within the piece.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea I focused on in my research was self portraits that portrayed different aspects of one's personality.
5.What kinds of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I mostly focused on how Frida Kahlo used her pieces as an outlet to describe what she was going through in different parts of her life; for Las Dos Fridas, it was her divorce from Diego Rivera.
Bibliography
- “Fauvism Movement Overview.” Fauvism , The Art Story Foundation, https://www.theartstory.org/movement/fauvism/.
-“Intimate and Delicate Love Moments.” Fubiz, Fubiz Media, http://www.fubiz.net/en/2016/06/15/intimate-and-delicate-love-moments/?ref=weheartit.
-“Matisse and the Fauves.” The Albertina Museum Vienna, The Albertina, https://www.albertina.at/en/exhibitions/matisse-and-the-fauves/.
- “The Two Fridas, 1939 by Frida Kahlo.” The Two Fridas, 1939 by Frida Kahlo, Fridakahlo.org, https://www.fridakahlo.org/the-two-fridas.jsp.
-“Intimate and Delicate Love Moments.” Fubiz, Fubiz Media, http://www.fubiz.net/en/2016/06/15/intimate-and-delicate-love-moments/?ref=weheartit.
-“Matisse and the Fauves.” The Albertina Museum Vienna, The Albertina, https://www.albertina.at/en/exhibitions/matisse-and-the-fauves/.
- “The Two Fridas, 1939 by Frida Kahlo.” The Two Fridas, 1939 by Frida Kahlo, Fridakahlo.org, https://www.fridakahlo.org/the-two-fridas.jsp.