Work in Progress: fall 09

The subject of my intended work this semester is portraiture. I plan to depict images of people that I have close ties with as I want to be able to incorporate and bring to light elements of an individual’s mentality and/or physicality. My intention is to pay homage to my subjects and also expose something mental, physical, and emotional that may not be consciously or deliberately on display. Portraiture for me has become a means of story telling. There are so many people in my life that I find absolutely fascinating and feel that each one deserves to have a part of their self illuminated.

The first piece I intend to paint is an image of my grandfather and my brother together. I only knew my grandfather for the first twelve years of my life, but I do have some fond memories with him. This first piece will deal with the psychological aspect of memory as well as attachment and loss. It is significant to me that my brother is in the piece because much of the way I viewed my grandfather was based on how I saw him interact with my brother. I plan to work from photographs as well as specific mixed media elements.

A second piece I have in mind is that of a very close friend of mine. We spend a great deal of time together so I am able to closely observe and attend to her mental and physical attributes. Although I am able to make my own opinions of this specific individual, it is how she views herself, namely her physical appearance, that I am interested in basing my piece off of. I want to use this piece as an exploration of technique, but also want to attempt to show emotion in the face of my subject as if she is studying herself, rather than a bland statement about cosmetics.

Formally, I will be working initially from photographs and intend to incorporate a large variety of materials to avoid direct photorealism as an outcome. I am interested in continuing to work with mixed media elements, which I feel adds greater emphasis and intrigue to my work.

My biggest challenge with materials is going to be tackling the largest scale piece I have ever worked on for the piece of my grandfather and brother. Also, I want to avoid overloading my pieces with too much alternative material and knowing when an element is adding or subtracting from the image.