Dry Point
Frayed.
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Meaning
Only until recently, I’ve only notice the elderly as cute and past their youthful days. Then, I’ve noticed that they don’t really have a voice. In other words, they are only seen as an infirmity or weak and unable to take care of themselves. This isn’t far from the truth but I’ve questioned whether or not all elderly are like this.
Recently, my grandparents have split which was all of a sudden for family. For a long time, my family has known that my tito, my grandpa, didn’t really love my tita, my grandma. It was more of a ‘I’ll provide money, you take care of the house’ kind of relationship. I questioned my mom about the situation and she explained that my tito was accusing my tita of random events that were nowhere near her fault. With the kind of personality my tita has, she didn’t say anything and took the accusations as if she had no voice. In my culture, men tend to have more power than the women and even though I don’t believe in this, my grandmother grew up this way. In an act of desperation, my tita left her house and walked all the way to my house in the middle of the night, twice. The first time, my mom didn’t hear her knocking and so she stayed outside for the entire night until she decided to walk back. The second night, she came earlier so we were able to open the door for her. Once the entire family found out about the situation, they argued on who gets to keep grandma, but they never really asked her who she wanted to stay with. The oldest, is a very materialistic and everyone knew that one of the main reasons she wanted to have my tita live with her is so that she could cook and take care of the children. I really love my family but sometimes things can’t be avoided.
I felt as if my tita’s voice was taken away several times throughout this process, and I wish that I could have said something, too. But, since I am also one who doesn’t really get to tell their opinion since I’m only a teenager, I could only watch and see what happens next.
Recently, my grandparents have split which was all of a sudden for family. For a long time, my family has known that my tito, my grandpa, didn’t really love my tita, my grandma. It was more of a ‘I’ll provide money, you take care of the house’ kind of relationship. I questioned my mom about the situation and she explained that my tito was accusing my tita of random events that were nowhere near her fault. With the kind of personality my tita has, she didn’t say anything and took the accusations as if she had no voice. In my culture, men tend to have more power than the women and even though I don’t believe in this, my grandmother grew up this way. In an act of desperation, my tita left her house and walked all the way to my house in the middle of the night, twice. The first time, my mom didn’t hear her knocking and so she stayed outside for the entire night until she decided to walk back. The second night, she came earlier so we were able to open the door for her. Once the entire family found out about the situation, they argued on who gets to keep grandma, but they never really asked her who she wanted to stay with. The oldest, is a very materialistic and everyone knew that one of the main reasons she wanted to have my tita live with her is so that she could cook and take care of the children. I really love my family but sometimes things can’t be avoided.
I felt as if my tita’s voice was taken away several times throughout this process, and I wish that I could have said something, too. But, since I am also one who doesn’t really get to tell their opinion since I’m only a teenager, I could only watch and see what happens next.
Artist and CultureMy first inspiration was Edvard Munch and his piece ‘The Scream’. Edvard Munch was a Norwegian Expressionist and Symbolism artist who used art as a release to express his troubles with subjects such as chronic illness, sexual liberation and religious aspirations. I wanted to incorporated the screaming face idea into this art piece because I think that screaming is a great way of releasing one's emotions in one burst but in society it isn’t really seen that way. It may be seen as weird or unusually and or a sign of danger. In my opinion screaming is also a sign of desperation or help or a need for emotional release because a person may be fed up or excited about a situation. Unlike anger, which usually is seen as violent or mourning which is seen as tragic. Using the movement expressionism, I wanted to incorporate the idea to not express an event but an emotion. My second inspiration was René Magritte's ‘The Future of Statues’. Magritte was a Belgian Surrealist artist known for his paintings such as ‘The Son of Man’ or ‘The False Mirror’. He inspired me to only incorporated the head portion of the human’s body to show expression since it’s the main part in which a person expresses their emotions clearly. This ties to the reason on why I decided to use an elderly person’s face instead of someone young. The reason being that many elderly people are looked down upon as weak or fragile. I felt that when I turn old and crippled I would want to scream at the world for calling me weak and fragile when in reality I’d probably have more wisdom than I do currently. I know that society restricts what people want to do by categorizing actions, styles, etc, which can cause emotional and psychological problems for many such as the artist I chose, Edvard Munch. Overall, the reason I made my my art piece 'Frayed' was to scream, not actually scream but express the scream I always wanted express.
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Munch, Edvard. The Scream. Digital image. The Art History. The Art History, 1893. Web. 26 Oct. 2016.
Magritte, Rene. The Future of Statues. Digital image. Tate. Tate, 1937. Web. 26 Oct. 2016.
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Planning |
Process |
I wanted to do something with expressionism since I haven't really worked with this movement specifically. So I decided to look for some expressionist artist and remember about 'The Scream'. I ended up using Munch's idea of a scream in an art piece and combined it with Magritte's 'The Future of Statues'. I came across his art piece when I was looking at references for a screaming person since I wanted to do a full scale person who was screaming. Then I decided to only do the head portion since I thought my anatomy skills were inadequate for this project since I only had a small surface to work with in order to add a lot of detail. I also used the crosshatching method that I was taught freshmen year to add shading even though it didn't turn out as defined as I wanted it to.
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1) After decided which sketch to use I scanned the image and enlarged it using Paint Tool Sai. I then I cropped the sketch I decided to use.
2) After printing the image, I started crosshatching the areas I wanted to be darker and lighter, in other words the gradation of the image. I used pictures that I took of my sister as reference. 3) After I finished crosshatching, I then taped the plastic plate over the image and started carving starting with the outline. 4)I finished the outline, I started crosshatching again in the plastic using the sketch as reference. 5)Once the carving process was finished I started the inking process by placing the plate onto a large piece of paper to avoid mess and placed ink, spreading it out to cover the image completely. 6)One of the hardest yet most important parts is removing the ink using pieces of paper so that only the engraving would show as black. During this process I placed water color paper onto a bucket of water to soften the fibers. 7)Once all the excess ink is removed, I removed the paper from the water and placed it on a dry towel. 8) Placing a paper under the etching press, I placed the plate and the wet water color paper over it ... |
Experimentation
Throughout this process there were many steps that I had to figure out how to do. For instance figuring out how much ink to wipe off in order for the image to appear was determined by the press. Through trial and error, I figured out that the right amount of pressure to apply in order to finish quickly yet leave enough ink for the image to show up on the paper. Another element that I kept in mind was how fast I had the image go through the press and realized the slower I went the better the image appeared.
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Reflection
Throughout this project I faced an issue that I will keep in mind if I decide to use dry point in the future. Since this was the first time I was working with a plate rather than a piece or paper, mistakes were bond to happen. One of these mistakes was how close I would make the lines for detail. In the 4th print I realized that I made my lines a bit to close to the point that the areas would blur into a solid black rather than a crosshatch pattern. Also, since I know the entire printing process, I learned the best way to keep a print clean. Which was an issue in the beginning since I underestimated how easy it is to get ink everywhere. In the future, I will probably be a bit more patient when it comes to creating the details in the carving rather than quickly going through it thinking it was a simple procedure.
Edvard Munch, one of my inspirations, used anxiety of man as a message in his art piece 'The Scream' I decide to use a topic along the lines of angst and remorse and ended up making a piece on desperation which was one of the differences between the pieces. Another difference is the type of mediums which is obvious but an element that helps emphasize the pieces in different ways. 'The Scream' can be seen as more ominous because of the orange hues and it's background. One the other hand, my art piece was more direct because of it being monotone and the clear expression used. As for my second inspiration, Magritte created the piece as sort of a memorial for Napoleon as well as a representations of memories and dreams. The main reason on why this was one of my inspirations was because I like the idea of using one section of the human body rather than the entire thing. Overall, I combined both the visuals to create a piece that represents the message I was trying to create.
Edvard Munch, one of my inspirations, used anxiety of man as a message in his art piece 'The Scream' I decide to use a topic along the lines of angst and remorse and ended up making a piece on desperation which was one of the differences between the pieces. Another difference is the type of mediums which is obvious but an element that helps emphasize the pieces in different ways. 'The Scream' can be seen as more ominous because of the orange hues and it's background. One the other hand, my art piece was more direct because of it being monotone and the clear expression used. As for my second inspiration, Magritte created the piece as sort of a memorial for Napoleon as well as a representations of memories and dreams. The main reason on why this was one of my inspirations was because I like the idea of using one section of the human body rather than the entire thing. Overall, I combined both the visuals to create a piece that represents the message I was trying to create.
ACT Questions
1) How are you able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork?
'The Scream' was meant to show anxiety and gives the viewer curiosity of why the person was screaming. In my piece, I wanted to portray something similar and chose to have a feeling of despair.
2) What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Munch's background reminded me of how desperate a person can get in a certain situation for instance myself. This made me want to express those emotions on dry point.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Through this process I didn't really make any conclusions other than the idea that in a way the older you get the less of a voice you have because you are viewed at as weak.
4) What was the central idea for theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea for my inspiration was, I would say, angst for Edvard Munch. For Rene, the idea would revolve around memories and death.
5) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
An inference I made while reading the research was that maybe Munch wasn't able to express what his thoughts were in certain situations so he did it though art.
'The Scream' was meant to show anxiety and gives the viewer curiosity of why the person was screaming. In my piece, I wanted to portray something similar and chose to have a feeling of despair.
2) What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Munch's background reminded me of how desperate a person can get in a certain situation for instance myself. This made me want to express those emotions on dry point.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Through this process I didn't really make any conclusions other than the idea that in a way the older you get the less of a voice you have because you are viewed at as weak.
4) What was the central idea for theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea for my inspiration was, I would say, angst for Edvard Munch. For Rene, the idea would revolve around memories and death.
5) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
An inference I made while reading the research was that maybe Munch wasn't able to express what his thoughts were in certain situations so he did it though art.
Bibliography
-"René Magritte, 'The Future of Statues' 1937." Tate. Tate, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2016.
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/magritte-the-future-of-statues-t03258
- "René Magritte, 'Man with a Newspaper' 1928." Tate. Tate, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2016.
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/rene-magritte-1553
- By Submitting the above You Agree to The Art Story Privacy Policy. "Expressionism Movement, Artists and Major Works." The Art Story. The Art Story, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2016.
http://www.theartstory.org/movement-expressionism.htm
-Wolf, Justin. "Edvard Munch." The Art Story. The Art Story, n.d. Web. 2 Nov. 2016.
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-munch-edvard-artworks.htm#pnt_3
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/magritte-the-future-of-statues-t03258
- "René Magritte, 'Man with a Newspaper' 1928." Tate. Tate, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2016.
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/rene-magritte-1553
- By Submitting the above You Agree to The Art Story Privacy Policy. "Expressionism Movement, Artists and Major Works." The Art Story. The Art Story, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2016.
http://www.theartstory.org/movement-expressionism.htm
-Wolf, Justin. "Edvard Munch." The Art Story. The Art Story, n.d. Web. 2 Nov. 2016.
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-munch-edvard-artworks.htm#pnt_3