Creative Writing

MY BEGINNING OF DISCOVERING MYSELF AS A WRITER

The Beginning

To start a new world, you have to let go of a new one. But I’m not ready to let go yet. Change has never been my friend, if anything it’s been my enemy. I don’t see change so much as a negative, but adapting to it has always been a struggle for me. I’m a big fan of structure, of schedules, of routines. Now I feel like they’re all gone. My structure, my schedules, my routines that I’ve been living for the past thirteen years are out the window, “on to bigger and better things.” Is this better for me? I don’t feel ready for the next chapter of my life. I spent so much time following the motions of my typical life, dreaming of this next big step, but now that I’m here, about to live it, I no longer want it. All I know now is it’s been a long time coming, and it’s going to be a longer time getting used to.

 

Change

Change is hard to handle. You spend so much time always doing the same thing, comfortably falling into the same routine every day, always seeing the same people, then one day you lose it all. You find yourself surrounded by new scenery, unfamiliar faces, and suddenly you feel very small and unprepared. You lose the people that made you feel important as they leave that life for the new one they have also found themselves lost in. I’ve been falling into this change for so long, but I still haven’t found my ground. I still find myself struggling to stand on my own two feet. It is hard to cope with change until it is no longer change, but again becomes the same thing, my comfortable daily routine, with the same people, as my last fades into the forgotten past.

 

Accidents

I’m buried, deep. So deep that from the inside, everything is dark, though I see little bits of warm sunlight peeking through the cold crystals surrounding me. I start to dig my way out, but all I have is a small brush. As I brush away the crystals, they fall on top of me, finding their way into my boots, into my coat, down my shirt, chilling me to the bone. My hands, uncovered, turn bright red and numb as the crystals fall onto them, turning to ice cold water as they melt against the warmth of my skin that I can no longer feel. I have dug enough to make my way out, so I crawl back inside. I move forward, to the left, and slightly right to straighten myself down. I continue moving forward, but then I’m stopped again, buried. So I start digging again, but this time it doesn’t take as long to clear the way. I climb back in again, and instead of going forward, I go backward to gain momentum. I move forward as fast as I can, but all I do is slide an inch or so. I try again. Again. Again. Again, and finally, I turn right. I straighten myself out and slide forward a bit before I find myself in control again. I go straight, and very slowly, until I reach my turn. I make it, flawlessly, and I’m going straight again. I see the stop in front of me, and as it becomes closer, bigger, I start to stop. But I am not stopping, I’m still moving forward, slowly, but inevitably moving forward. The stop ahead gets bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and bigger. I call out a warning, and then I crash. I jolt forward, slightly, my heart races. Then, I feel another impact to my right side, and I look back into the eyes of the woman I have just trapped. I move forward to give her a way out and when she does, the man in front of me does, also. We all come together and apologize, and exchange our insurance information.  

 

Coffee

I’ve become completely dependent on coffee. I wake up, I have a cup. I go to school, I buy a cup, preferably Starbucks, to get me through my classes. I leave school, sometimes I buy another for the drive home. I sip some before work, sometimes it will last me through my night at the studio, though eventually it becomes very cold, which is fine because I’ll drink it at any temperature. Sometimes I’ll grab a late night cup on my way home to get me through my homework. By the time that’s finished, I only have to lie awake for about an hour, maybe two, before the caffeine rush wears off and I can get some sleep before I have to wake up and do it all again. But even with all of that caffeine, I still find myself exhausted. Even though I always hold a beverage, I always find myself thirsty. Even with the rush, I still find myself so busy with everything that constantly needs to be done. Coffee does not fill any of my voids, but it keeps me warm.

 

Cold

As I lay here in my bed, waiting for the NyQuil to kick in so I can actually sleep tonight, I can’t help but feel defeated as I listen to the howling winds and the sleet hitting my window from outside. I close my eyes and dream of warmer nights, and I think of the one we had just twenty-four hours ago. The sadness kicks in when I realize that tomorrow we’ll be out of the forties and back into the single digits. The devastation kicks in when I realize that I’ll have to walk from my car to my class tomorrow in the freezing temperatures, and I can only hope that I can make it to my art history class and be able to feel my hands as I write down the title, year of completion, country of origin, and artist’s name of twenty-one different works of art for my midterm that I still feel so unprepared for even after spending the entire day studying for it. I’m dreading tomorrow, but tonight I will cuddle under my warm blankets and sleep soundly and worry-less.

 

Keeping Busy

I feel like the easiest way to stay positive is to not make any time to be able to dwell on the negative. I don’t make time to be alone, or at least I keep myself too busy to realize when I actually am alone. I’ve submerged myself in my work, taking on more hours, focusing on upcoming competitions and perfecting all of my choreography. I’ve submerged myself in my paintings, not only aiming for A-grades but for noticeable quality, paying close attention to detail, taking hours, days, weeks to complete a piece. In the time I somehow find to myself, I clean my room, I sleep, I go to the gym and run until I only have enough time to get a shower in before I’m on to the next task. I’ve found keeping busy keeps me positive, though sometimes I keep myself so busy that important things fall victim to the unimportant things I’ve filled my schedule with. Finding balance is my next step to being completely content, but for now, this works.

 

 

when i grow up

If you ask a child what they want to be when they grow up, they’ll give you a million different answers. They’ll tell you they want to be a princess, a superhero, maybe even a pirate. Ask them when they’re a bit older and their answers become more practical. This time around, they want to be a doctor, a writer, maybe an actress. If you ever asked me, all I wanted to be was an artist. I had my mind completely set on it. I planned out my future, new where I wanted to go, where I was going to live, who I wanted to work for. I walked into my first day of my first college art class, the first day of the future I had always wanted, and had my first bit of doubt. I didn’t doubt myself because I wasn’t doing well, but because suddenly art became my job. It became my future, but I so badly wanted it to just be my passion, as it had always been. Everyone always said that it’s easier to work in a field that you love, that it doesn’t even feel like work. But even sitting in my class, it felt like work. I didn’t feel the freedom I had always felt when I drew. I didn’t feel any stress pour off my shoulders, but instead it piled on as I got the list of very close due dates for all of my very intricate projects. It was then I knew that I did not know what I actually wanted to be. It was then I knew that I did not know what my future would be like. It was then I realized how naive I was to have thought I knew it all. And now I feel like a child when people ask my what I want to be. I give them a million answers, a million possibilities, and surprisingly I feel better now than I did with my blueprint.

 

FINALS WEEK

The worst thing about finals week is how incredibly tired you become in such a short period of time. There have been nights before where I’ve said to myself “I don’t think I’ve ever been this exhausted,” as I drag myself to bed after a long day of doing nothing. But you don’t know the true meaning of “exhaustion” until you’ve experienced finals week, and your day has gone from doing practically nothing to trying to cram absolutely everything you have to finish before the end of the semester into a few, very long nights. And it only gets better when you finally realize all that you have to do. You think you have everything all figured out, then you remember about that essay you were assigned at the beginning of the semester that’s due tomorrow, then you remember about that science test you have to take before Monday that you haven’t even started studying for because you’re trying to finish this painting you need to turn in before you start your final which you still have to sketch out and turn in for approval but tonight you don’t have time to sketch out your final because you have to study for that other final you have to take in Art History because you can’t list off any of the paintings you need to know like the back of your hand. Breathe. But wait, you don’t have time to take a deep breath, so just gasp for air and get back to work. It feels like the longest week of your life, but the beauty of it is that it ends. It ends, and at the ending of this dark tunnel is a bright light, and the bright light is the sun, and the sun is summer, and the summer is warm air and freedom, and no more school, for a few months, at least. Keep on pushing through finals week, it’s almost over.

 

NEW BEGINNINGS

I feel like throughout the semester, I started to discover my own path in writing. I’m not one for stories and fairy tales; I love to read them, but can’t find it in me to develop my own. I found that I write best when I’m writing from experience, when I’m explaining something that happened to me, maybe to just get it off my chest or to try to persuade someone else not to, or to, do it. Maybe I’m a self-help kind of writer, or maybe I’m a columnist, or maybe I just like to gloat and complain. Reading what everyone else wrote this year was very enjoyable, I think everyone did great work and we should all be proud of what we accomplished. But it also made me appreciate the way I write as well. I’ve never been very confident in my writing, especially when it something like this class and not your basic essay. Everybody expresses themselves differently, and the beauty of expressing yourself through writing is that there’s no wrong way to do so.  You can write stories, or self-help novels, or columns, and someone out there will read it and appreciate it for what it is and for what you’re saying.

 

 

FINAL REVIEW

I enjoyed spending the semester developing these stories about myself and my own self-discovery. Writing about my own struggles and successes and hearing that everyone else is finding themselves in a similar place has made me feel much more content, and much more sane. I felt that most of my posts had fallen in the category of self-discovery and an analysis of my own day-to-day opinions, and when I decided to move forward down that path, I found it much easier to develop my posts. I tried working in some narratives, which was suggested to me early on and definitely brought a new light to my writings. I enjoyed sharing all of my moments with you all, especially all of my downfalls. I find it much more fulfilling to share the things that don’t go so well for me in hopes that everyone can take something from my own experiences and use that to better themselves.

 

Series Writings

Pablo Picasso’s Girl Before a Mirror

The background of the piece is painted in four different colors; red, two shades of yellow, and green. The top left corner of the piece is painted red with a green diamond pattern painted over it. Inside each of the diamonds is a small green dot with a point painted in the center. The red corner stops about midway through the width of the painting, and the brighter-yellow section of the background begins, engulfing the top and bottom right corners and about three-quarters of the painting to the left. Over this brighter-yellow background, the green diamond pattern continues, same as the pattern covering the red corner. There is a very small discrepancy in the bright-yellow section of the background, just above the painting of the mirror, where it is instead painted white with a red diamond pattern. Moving all the way to the left side and starting about a quarter of the way down from the top of the piece, the mustardy, darker-yellow section begins. Over the top of the dark-yellow color is a continuation of the consistant diamond patter, but in red.

Moving forward in the image, the figures are laid over the background. They are painted over a white background, whether or not it is the white of the canvas or a layer of white over the colored background is unclear. The figures are both women; the woman on the right of the image is the mirror reflection of the woman painted on the left. Both of the figures are distorted representations of the female body. Beginning with the image on the left, Picasso painted very thick black lines to develop the figure. Her hair is painted in an organic, swooping shape with thick black lines to further define her blonde strands. In the thick black lines, you can see where Picasso dragged the paint and did not reload his brush. The left side of her face is painted a pinkish skin-tone color with a quick brush of a deeper pink to show a flushed cheek. Her eye and eyebrow are painted in thick black lines, and Picasso pulled the eyelash line over the hair to create depth and layering. The right side of her face is painted in a much more abstract manner. Instead of using the same pink skin-tone as he did on the left, Picasso instead painted the right side of the face a vibrant yellow and highlighted her flushed cheek with a brush of bright red. He also emphasized her lips with the same bright red color he used to flush her cheek. Just underneath the circular face of the figure is a large green plane, which defines the woman’s profile and creates a separation between her chin, neck, and her arm resting on the mirror. Her neck is painted as two triangles, one black and one white. The white triangle leads to the backside of the woman, which is a large white shape. Her back is defined by a very thick black line, followed by twenty-four thinner black lines, separated to look like the pattern of a ladder. About halfway down her back, there is a circle, shortening the lines, maybe symbolizing her stomach, and just beneath her stomach, the shape breaks again to show the beginning of her leg. The black triangle making up her neck begins the front side of her body. A black shape with red curved lines, interrupted about a quarter of the way down her body by her reaching right arm, leads to her breasts, painted the same pinkish skin-tone color as the left side of her face. Just under her breasts is a white and green curved line, followed by another red curved line, which is then followed by a sequence of deep red curved lines until the viewer reaches the woman’s stomach. Painted as a tear-drop shape, the woman’s stomach pertrudes out and is the same pink-flesh-tone as her face and breasts. The circle that interupted the sequence of lines on the left side is finished on the right side, and a black line just underneath the circle also shows the start of the top of her thigh.

The woman on the left is reaching her arms out toward a mirror, resting her hands on the sides of it. The mirror is outlined in a thick black line, then outlined again in a bright orange color, and again in a deep blue. The figure in the mirror, which is assumed to be the reflection of the woman on the left, is painted in a very abstract manner. The color scheme of the reflected figure is very different than the woman gazing at her reflection. Instead of being blonde, the figure in the mirror’s hair is depicted as a thick green line. Her face, which is similar in features to the figure on the left, is painted in green, a bright red, a deep wine red, and a light violet. There is an orange crescent shape just under the eye on the right. The neck of the reflection is a solid purple triangle, outlined with a thick black line. The rest of the upper part of her torso is interrupted by the figure on the left’s reaching arm, and just underneath her arm are two deep red draping shapes with vertical bright red lines painted on top of them. Underneath these shapes is the reflected image of the woman’s breasts, which are two separated white circles with mint-green colored lines on the left breast and a mint-green circle inside the right breast. Her stomach is also shown as a white shape with mint-green, slightly curved lines as acsents. In the background of the reflected image, large, organic shapes filled with bright red, green, blue and purple colors surround the figure, almost blending the reflection of the woman into the mirror, contrasting with the woman on the left, who clearly stands out from the background surrounding her.

 

Historic Context of Girl Before a Mirror

Girl Before a Mirror is an image of vanity painted by Pablo Picasso in March of 1932. Pablo Picasso was a Spanish artist, born in Malaga, but during the time he painted Girl Before a Mirror, he was living in France. France in the 1930s was parallel to the United States in the 1930s, suffering from an intense economic depression (“Pablo Picasso”). An account from the same year Picasso painted the piece states, “"The winter I spent on the streets - the winter of '32-33 - was no milder nor harder than any other winter; the winter cold is like labour pains - whether it lasts for a longer or shorter period of time there is always the same amount of pain. That particular winter, it snowed and it froze; thousands of young men, forced out of their jobs by the crisis, struggled on to their last penny, to the end of their tether then, in despair, abandoned the fight...On street benches and at métro entrances, groups of exhausted and starving young men would be trying not to die. I don't know how many never came round. I can only say what I saw. In the rue Madame one day I saw a child drop a sweet which someone trod on, then the man behind bent down and picked it up, wiped it and ate it." (“Great Depression in France”). Paris, which had once been a place awed by travelers, was empty and suffering. However, the influence of Parisian art still managed to flourish.

The style of Art Deco began in Paris in 1925 and influenced art worldwide through the rest of the 20^th century (Harmon). Art Deco is defined as, “An art movement involving a mix of modern decorative art styles, largely of the 1920s and 1930s, whose main characteristics were derived from various avant-garde painting styles of the early twentieth century.” (“Fine Arts Terms Glossary”)  In Girl Before a Mirror, the influence of Art Deco is apparent. In Art Deco pieces, the artist uses simplified shapes and very decorative patterns. Picasso oversimplifies the shapes in the woman and her reflection, then fills the shapes with decorative patterns. Though Girl Before a Mirror does show characteristics of Art Deco, it is more influenced by the movement than classified as an Art Deco piece. Picasso’s paintings during this time period are be categorized as Cubism, an art style that Picasso himself helped to create. Cubism is artwork in which “the subject matter is broken up, analyzed, and reassembled in an abstracted form, influenced by African art and the works of painters Paul Cézanne and Georges Seurat, and by the Fauves.” (“Fine Arts Terms Glossary”). The Cubism collaboration between Picasso and friend, Georges Braque, ended at the outbreak of the first World War.

Girl Before a Mirror shows influence by not only the Art Deco period in France, but also reflects France’s very “relaxed social ambience.” (Harmon) Picasso’s painting has a very sensual nature. Picasso paints the woman, who is modeled after his lover at the time, nude in front of the mirror, especially emphasizing her curves. Picasso not only painted a nude figure in Girl Before a Mirror, but in several other of his paintings throughout his career. An exhibition of 350 of Picasso’s rarely shown erotic paintings were shown in Picasso Erotique at the Montreal Museum in 2001.  Picasso stated, “when asked about his views on art and sexuality, ‘They're the same thing.’” Though some of the images shown in the exhibition were from his earlier years in Barcelona, the development of his erotic sketches and paintings flourished during his time in France, “The exhibition [shows the] increasingly sophisticated forms that Picasso's erotic oeuvre took during the decades leading up to World War II.” In fact, a large sum of the works of erotic art in the exhibition were from the same time period he painted Girl Before a Mirror;

"A number of erotic works dating from the late 1920s and early 1930s reflect his interest in Surrealism, which advocated the reconstruction of nature according to one's imaginative fantasies. For Picasso, these fantasies were often of a sexual nature - "Why not the sex organs in place of the eyes, and the eyes between the legs?" he once wondered - and the result is a series of hybrid and often playfully erotic creatures. In Figures by the Seashore (1931), for example, some protuberances and orifices are anatomically recognizable, some are not; but collectively the entwining forms are an eloquent expression of sexual union. In addition to drawings and paintings, the exhibition also includes a number of sculptures dating from the artist's Surrealist phase, including The Couple (1930), Head of a Woman (1931) and Bather (1931).” (“Erotique”)

Picasso continued to produce very sensual pieces, whether blatantly erotic or subtly sexual like Girl Before a Mirror throughout the remainder of his life, which continued to spend in France.

Works Cited

"Erotique." Picasso Show at Picasso.com. Picasso.com, n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.

"Fine Art Terms Glossary." Art Dictionary - Fine Art Terms Glossary. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar.

2014. <http://www.stars21.com/arts/art_dictionary.html>.

"Great Depression in France." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Mar. 2014. Web. 26 Mar.

2014.

Harmon, Alison. "Paris in the 1930s: Art and History." Page Not Found. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar.

2014.

"Pablo Picasso." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.

Subjective Interpretation of “Girl Before a Mirror”

            Pablo Picasso’s Girl Before a Mirror shows a woman gazing at her reflection in a mirror she’s holding before her. Her reflection, however, is painted noticeably different from the girl herself. Not only the color scheme, but the form itself is not the same in the mirror image of the girl. Some suggest that the mirror image depicts the girl’s alter-ego, and some suggest an even deeper meaning that has to do with Picasso’s own identity.

            Picasso’s favored models for his paintings paintings during the 30s was his mistress, Marie- Therese Walter. Several interpretations involve Picasso depicting how Marie-Therese might’ve seen herself. One source suggests, “One way of interpreting the painting is when the woman looks at herself in the mirror; she is seeing herself as an old woman. From the green discoloration on her forehead, darkening of her facial features to the lines that show that her young body has been distorted, and gravity has taken its rightful place. Another way of viewing the painting is that she is self-conscious, and she sees all the flaws in herself that the world doesn't see,” ("Girl Before A Mirror, 1932 by Pablo Picasso"). Though Marie-Therese was far from old, it is not uncommon to hear a woman, no matter her age, to complain about experiencing the affects of getting older. Maybe she voiced her concerns to Picasso, and he painted the piece to express her feelings. It’s also not uncommon to hear a woman talk about her flaws, which may be unseen to everyone else. If this was his intended meaning behind the portrait, it could explain why he painted Marie-Therese so beautifully on the left, and so differently and dark in the image of herself that she is seeing. Similar to these interpretations, some believe that Picasso painted the image to represent Marie-Therese Walter’s fate, “It is also a complex variant on the traditional Vanity—the image of a woman confronting her mortality in a mirror, which reflects her as a death's head. On the right, the mirror reflection suggests a supernatural x-ray of the girl's soul, her future, her fate. Her face is darkened, her eyes are round and hollow, and her intensely feminine body is twisted and contorted. She seems older and more anxious. The girl reaches out to the reflection, as if trying to unite her different "selves." The diamond-patterned wallpaper recalls the costume of the Harlequin, the comic character from the commedia dell'arte with whom Picasso often identified himself—here a silent witness to the girl's psychic and physical transformations,” ("Pablo Picasso. Girl before a Mirror (Boisgeloup, March 1932)”).

            Other assumptions advocate that the image could be a representation of Walter’s “day and night selves.” One source states, “Girl Before a Mirror shows Picasso's young mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter, one of his favorite subjects in the early 1930s. Her white-haloed profile, rendered in a smooth lavender pink, appears serene. But it merges with a more roughly painted, frontal view of her face—a crescent, like the moon, yet intensely yellow, like the sun, and "made up" with a gilding of rouge, lipstick, and green eye-shadow. Perhaps the painting suggests both Walter's day-self and her night-self, both her tranquillity and her vitality, but also the transition from an innocent girl to a worldly woman aware of her own sexuality,” ("Pablo Picasso. Girl before a Mirror (Boisgeloup, March 1932)”). In agreement, another source states, “When you look closely at the image, you can interpret many different symbols within different parts of the painting. The woman's face for one; is painted with a side profile and a full frontal image. One side shows the day time where she seems more like a woman, dolled up with her make up done. The other side with the rough charcoal texture portrays her at night. When she takes off the mask of makeup, and is more vulnerable as a young lady,” ("Girl Before A Mirror, 1932 by Pablo Picasso") Picasso may not have painted her alter-ego in the mirror, but instead may have painted a woman that he believed she wasn’t. 

            However, the most interesting interpretation of Girl Before a Mirror that I came across in my research was that the picture was actually a depiction of Picasso and essentially had nothing to do with his lover, aside from a few borrowed features. The source states, “He borrowed the features of his blonde mistress Marie-Thérèse and turned her, as Manet had done another woman, into an artist in front of a metaphoric easel. Her arm is stretched out in front of her like a painter’s. The long, floppy fingers even emulate the feel and look of a paintbrush, the hand a suitable symbol for the brush. Though a woman, she is still a self-representation of the male artist as Picasso goes on to remind us.  Picasso confirmed his self-identification with Marie-Thérèse by shaping the mirror that frames her ‘painted’ figure into the top half of a P for Picasso, minus its stem. Picasso so often used various forms of the letter P to indicate himself that its presence here is unmistakeable,” ("Picasso’s Girl Before a Mirror (1932)").

            This painting means something far more personal to me. My older sister had a poster of Picasso’s Girl Before a Mirror hanging in her room, placed so that it was the first thing you saw when you opened her door. It was a large poster, and the vibrant colors and patterns beautifully contrasted with the stark-white wall she hung it on. Every time I walked into her room, I would awe over the painting. I credit that poster of Girl Before a Mirror with being the first thing that sparked my artistic interest. I’m forever grateful for that poster, and foremost, the painting itself. Without the intriguing nature of the image, I don’t know if I would have ever truly found my passion for art and everything that goes into creating it.  

 

Works Cited

"Girl Before A Mirror, 1932 by Pablo Picasso." Pablo Picasso. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 May 2014.

"Pablo Picasso. Girl before a Mirror (Boisgeloup, March 1932)." MoMA.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 May 2014.

"Picasso’s Girl Before a Mirror (1932)." EPPH. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 May 2014.

 

 

 

Analysis/Reviews

Possessions Painting Analysis

I chose to paint three objects relative to dance for this piece, since I figured combining two of my favorite things, dance and art, would be interesting. I chose an older pair of pointe shoes and, originally, a small wooden sculpture of a dancer, which I replaced later on in the painting with an Ace bandage. I was nervous to start this still-life because it was in color, so I set aside a lot of time to be sure that I mixed everything to match as closely as I could get it. The point shoes, which I wanted to be the focal point of the painting, are a soft, yellow-ish pink color. To achieve the base color of the shoes, I mixed burnt sienna and white at about a six-level, then added a little cooling violet, raw sienna, and hansa yellow. For the darker values in the shoes, I mixed my ballet-slipper-pink color with yellow ochre and raw umber. I remembered a mistake that I had made in my previous painting before I started painting the highlights of the shoes; for the highlights in the cloth we painted, I used white directly out of the tube, creating a “pasty” and unnatural light. Instead of making the same mistake twice, I mixed my ballet-slipper-pink with white at about an eight-level, then added a little more hansa yellow.  The inside of the shoe was very shadowed, making it appear much darker than the pink on the outside of the shoes. For the bits of the inside of the shoe that were visible, I mixed ultramarine blue and burnt sienna to make a black color, then added a little napthol scarlet to give it a little bit of a purple tint.

            When it came time to start painting the sculpture of the dancer, I couldn’t get it to work out for me. I found it difficult to match the colors, but more so I found it difficult to paint the figure itself. The proportions weren’t making sense, and after about two hours of wiping-off and re-painting, I decided to replace it for the sake of the success of the painting, and for the sake of my sanity. I chose the Ace bandage because I liked how the cream-color complimented the pink ballet shoes without over-powering them. I pulled out a little bit of the roll to create a triangle shape to match the triangle shape created by the placement of the ballet shoes and their laces, and also to create more folds. I used similar mixtures for the shadows and highlights in the Ace bandage as I did in the pointe shoes, but for the base color I used hansa yellow, yellow ochre, and white.

            I placed a white pillowcase over the crate I set the objects up on, and for that I did not use white directly from the tube either. I mixed white, raw umber, and a little ultramarine blue to create the shades in the fabric, and used white and a little hansa yellow to build lighter values as I worked through the planes in the folds.  I let a little bit of the crate peak through in the upper left corner of the setup. To match the colors in the crate, I used yellow ochre, white, and a little raw sienna. I pulled some of the background color in for the dark spots on the wood. The background is a mix of Rembrant brown and sap green, creating a dark, olive-green color. I chose this as the background shade because I prefer darker backgrounds and felt that it would best compliment the pink color, which is a derivative of red, and the cream color in the Ace bandage.

            I feel like my greatest success in this painting is the ballet shoes. I wanted the shoes to be the focal point of the painting, so I made sure the detail in them was greater than the detail in the other aspects of the painting, which is a Chardin used that I liked. I also liked that he very subtly “outlined” the parts of the painting he wanted his viewer to focus on, so I did the same with the pointe shoes. I tried to vary my brush strokes in this painting as well, since in my last in-class fabric study my brush strokes were very short and there weren’t many smooth drags. I made a few rookie mistakes while I was painting. I didn’t think of the picture as a whole, but instead worked on individual sections. I also didn’t lay my background down first, so the objects don’t really look soft as I would like them to against it. In my next painting, I’ll try to be more aware of the painting as a whole and move around it instead of fixing myself on one spot at a time. I’ll also try to work more back-to-front and lay down a background color before I start getting too into the foreground of the painting. 

 

 

                    Transcending Descriptive Realism Final Painting Process and Self-Evaluation

Developing this painting was especially hard for me, but also very enjoyable. All semester long, I’ve been trying to get as close to realism as possible. I’ve focused on paying close attention to detail, tried to mix perfectly matched colors, made sure my sketches were as accurate as I could get them. But, for this painting, I had to let go of that and branch out a little bit. 

Little did I know that my History of Western Art class would coincide so nicely with my painting class this semester. When we were given the assignment to further study Kandinsky for our final painting, we reviewed his works in my art history class the very next day. What I found most interesting about Kandinsky was that he developed into an expressive abstract artist. His paintings had the qualities of your classic abstract paintings; forms broken down into their most basic shapes and colors. However, Kandinsky started breaking down the forms so much that they began to be barely recognizable, and then his paintings started meshing together, eventually just becoming groups of colors. Kandinsky used to turn on music and just paint, his end result had nothing behind it, and that allowed whoever was viewing it to interpret it as they saw fit. I knew expressive abstract wasn’t the direction I could take the entire painting in, since we had to clearly show specific objects, so I tried to incorporate the style inside of the objects. The way they’re filled in is relatively random, with the only real conscious decision being color placement. I didn’t get as colorful as Kandinsky may have, but I wanted to keep a little bit of my own uniformity in the painting as well, so my own style still came through. I tried to make a clear Kandinsky reference in the eye closest to the light on the portrait in the painting. Kandinsky is very famous for his Circles, and I figured the eye in a portrait would be a great place to pull in some inspiration from that piece.

Another artist that inspired my final piece is one of my favorites, Pablo Picasso. Picasso, like Kandinsky, was an abstract artist, eventually labeled as a Cubist, which is an artistic classification that he developed himself. One of my favorite pieces by Picasso is Girl Before a Mirror, which he painted in the 1930s. The painting is of his then-mistress Marie-Therese Walter gazing at her reflection in a mirror she’s holding in front of her. Her face is divided in half to show two different points of view; the side of her face and the front, and both sides are painted in different colors. I tried to incorporate this in the portrait in my own painting. I chose cool colors for the left side of the face, and warm colors on the right side, closer to the light. Picasso also uses thick black lines to “outline” the forms in Girl Before a Mirror, so I did the same in my painting. I was hesitant to do this because in class we were always told not to create an outline around a form, and that there were no such thing as “edges,” just the end of a form. I decided to break a few rules and use the black outline, and I was happy with the way it turned out.

Even though stepping out of my comfort zone was hard, this painting was still very enjoyable. It was fun to be able to use a lot of vibrant colors and to be very lose with my brush strokes. However, the reason I liked this assignment the most is because an abstract painting originally sparked my interest in art. My older sister had a poster of Picasso’s Girl Before a Mirror hanging in her room, placed so that it was the first thing you saw when you opened her door. It was a large poster, and the vibrant colors and patterns beautifully contrasted with the stark-white wall she hung it on. Every time I walked into her room, I would awe over the painting. I credit that poster of Girl Before a Mirror with being the first thing that sparked my artistic interest. I’m forever grateful for that poster, and foremost, the painting itself. Without the intriguing nature of the image, I don’t know if I would have ever truly found my passion for art and everything that goes into creating it, and actually trying to create a piece along the lines of what Picasso did made me appreciate it even more. For this being the first abstract painting I’ve ever intentionally done, I don’t think I did a bad job. I’d like to try to clean up my paint application a bit more in the next one, I feel like it looks a bit muddy. I might try layering colors on top of dry layers so that the paint doesn’t blend as much next time. I think educating myself a bit more on the process of abstract painters would be beneficial to my own exploration of abstract art.

 

The Lovers

            This piece is a Rene Magritte oil painting, currently residing in the MoMA, titled The Lovers. Magritte is most respected for his strides in the age of Surrealism. I am a huge Magritte fan, I love the wit behind his pieces, especially in This is Not a Pipe, but The Lovers is without-a-doubt my favorite Magritte, and quite possibly my favorite painting in general. The piece depicts what the viewer can assume to be a man and a woman kissing in what appears to be the corner of a room, while wearing some kind of fabric over their faces to hide their identity. The painting can easily be recognized as a great example of 2D design because of all the elements and principles it incorporates, such as line, texture and proportion. However, what stands out to me the most in the piece is Magritte’s use of color. The entire color scheme of the painting is very dulled and deep, giving the painting a kind of melancholy, dark, quieted mood, plus, if you compare the colors used in the clothing of who we can assume to be “the lovers” with the colors used on the walls surrounding them, you realize that they match, almost like they’re camouflaged. Not only do they match, but Magritte balanced the colors so that the color on the wall matched the color of the clothing piece directly across from it. Magritte also emphasizes the color red, which some parallel with love and lust, but also with the likes of the devil, which goes hand-in-hand with sin. Magritte’s use of color as well as elements and principles all combine to tell the story of the piece, which I tell as two individuals in an adulterous relationship. The scandal and secretiveness depicted in the piece make it one of my favorites, maybe because one of my favorite shows is Cheaters. However, I’ve heard some look at this painting and see it as a depiction of something along the lines of Romeo and Juliet, forbidden lovers whose relationship would be so unaccepted that they need to hide it. Regardless, this is one of Magritte’s most notable paintings and one that has certainly won my undying love and appreciation.

Renoir’s “Dance Sequence”

Referred to as the “Dance Sequence,” Renoir’s paintings Dance at Bougival, Dance in the City, and Dance in the Country especially caught my eye in Sophie Monneret’s book, Renoir. It is assumed that Durand-Ruel, a French art dealer, ordered the paintings from Renoir. In all three of the paintings, the man is Paul Lhote, an ex-naval officer and a loyal friend to Renoir. Lhote was passionate about painting, and apparently also passionate about the women he posed with. It was rumored that he always fell in love with his female counterparts, but he posed “patiently and elegantly.” The women in the sequence were not all painted from the same model. In Dance In the City, Renoir’s mistress Aline posed with “slightly rustic vitality” which was “perfect for the subject.” In Dance in the City and Dance at the Bougival, Renoir used Marie-Clementine, who had posed for Puvis de Chavannes and was recommended by him as a model for Renoir. Marie-Clementine, like Lhote, was passionate about painting and eventually established herself as a famous painter under the name of Suzanne Valadon. In the sequence, Renoir captures the difference between the worlds through the “clothes and attitudes of the models, and their way of dancing.” In the paintings, atmosphere is conveyed, but in a very simplistic manner. The dancers are not accompanied by a massive crowd, but rather are surrounded by “a few rapidly sketched figures” or “an impersonal background.”

            Personally, I connect with this sequence because I have a passion for dance. I performed for fourteen years, ten of which were in competitive dance. Because I am an official high-school graduate, I can no longer dance competitively with my studio, so I now teach classes throughout the week. Dance has always been a huge part of my life, so anything to do with the art always sparks my interest. I love how Renoir captured the different mannerisms of the contrasting worlds through something they all have in common. I love that the paintings themselves are so simple compared to some of his other pieces, like Luncheon of the Boating Party, yet they are still incredibly compelling. The color choices, detail in the fabric of the women’s dresses, the varying textures, and the way he captured movement are all aspects of the sequence that really draw me in.  Overall, Renoir’s “Dance Sequence” is a series of paintings that I am very happy to have come across and holds my upmost respect and admiration.

 

George Caleb Bingham and Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers Through the Cumberland Gap

 

For this assignment, I spent a lot of time looking through artists on the list whose names held no recognition for me. George Caleb Bingham was one of the first names I clicked on to read more about, and after reading his description, I immediately chose to write about him. His short biography really drew me in, mainly because I found there some similarities between Bingham and I. By similarities, I do not mean that we went to the same school, or even that we paint the same way, but that part of the path Bingham followed is what I’d like to see from myself. Bingham’s artistic talents grew rapidly; he studied for a few months at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, then traveled to Europe and around the United States. Throughout this period of time, Bingham’s talents dramatically improved to such a point that his work was almost unrecognizable. Unfortunately, Bingham later decided to study at Dusseldorf, a school a number of other American artists chose to study at, and lost his style after adopting a dry academic technique, then changed his direction completely and moved into the world of politics. What I would like to have in common with Bingham is his degree of improvement and his development of personal style. I am not interested in people looking at my work and finding someone else who does things just like I do. I do not want to be a carbon copy of the academic world. Rather, I would like to develop a definitive style.  

            From his paintings, I took most interest in Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers Through the Cumberland Gap. What I liked the most about this piece was the development of the focal point. I like how there is no guessing what the focal point of the image is; Bingham clearly wanted the group of people and animals traveling to be the first place the viewer’s eyes go to. He makes this apparent by placing the group slightly off-center and having the light source fall directly on them, brightening up their part of the image, while having their surroundings almost silhouetted in the dark. He also draws a lot of attention to the group through his use of detail; the detail in the focal point is very carefully done, while the areas surrounding the group are much less thorough.

 

                                                Second Position Banner Design Analysis

I kept all of the backgrounds in the Second Position banners white while using a black and white image or black text with a pop color to emphasize the central selling point of the banner. For example, in the banners with the images, the background remains white with a black and white image and the dancewear item is the only piece of the image that is in color. In the banners with the words, the selling point of the phrase is in color, like the word “affordable.” The banners are also all tied-together with the Second Position logo, either in the color of the item being emphasized, or in the original hot pink color. The banners also all have a black button that reads “SHOP” in white lettering, all the same font.

 I implemented emphasis by contrasting the black and white in the majority of the image with the pink color of the shoe. I included repetition by repeating the color of the shoes in the logo. I created balance by aligning the “SHOP” button and the logo on the right side, and keeping the image on the left. I intended that the image flow from the shoe and the logo to first emphasize what was being sold and the brand selling it, then up to the “SHOP” button so that the viewer could shop the brand.