Title: Foolish Emotions
Size: 61 cm x 61 cm
Medium: Acrylic Painting(s)
Completed June 2023
Size: 61 cm x 61 cm
Medium: Acrylic Painting(s)
Completed June 2023
- Exhibition Text -
Foolish Emotions is a series of acrylic paintings utilizing monochromatic tones with inspirations from Emil Nolde and Frida Kahlo. This series demonstrates the spectrum of emotion, and how at times those feelings can be perceived as 'foolish' or less than. Emotions are a core aspect of one's identity, however for some an overexpression of these emotions can be deemed as cumbersome.
- Inspiration -
Masks Still Life III by Nolde, 1911
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Main Artist Inspiration: Emil Nolde, Frida Kahlo
Nolde utilizes multiple subjects as a form of demonstrating his own spectrum of emotions, this can be seen as literal with the multiple expressions on the masks themselves. I wanted to emulate his usage of background, or lack of background to center the focus on my own subjects. Nolde utilizes a pallet of 'simplified' color as a way for tee audience to closely relate to the emotions he is resenting (ex. red for anger and yellow for happiness) Similarly in my own piece I would also sample his color pallet as I think it would be able to demonstrate a level of emphasis for each emotion, having a plain background with simple colors allows this. Nolde's own subjects appear to blend into one another, furthering his own messaging of how emotions are something chaotic in human nature. Conversely I want each piece in my triptych to stand out from one another.
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The Wounded Deer by Kahlo, 1946
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Kahlo's The Wounded Deer appears very warm with a heavy influence of surrealism. The piece depicts herself being pierced with multiple arrows, demonstrating her own pain and how she felt 'hunted' by painful moments in her life. Similar to Nolde Kahlo utilizes this piece as a way to highlight a spectrum of emotion, in her case a mixture of pain, grief, and sadness. Kahlo furthers thus messaging by having her subject look directly at the audience themselves. This helps the audience to better understand the desired emotion. Similarly I wanted to emulate this composition for each of the emotion I wished the Convery, as I thought it would achieve a similar outcome.
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-Planning-
Since I have viewed both of my inspirations extensively it wasn't difficult for me to begin establishing what I had wanted from my piece. I knew I had wanted to create multiple subjects to display different emotions, however the amount of emotions/which ones I focused on was something I had debated on. Initially I had wanted to make four emotions: sad, happy, anger, and disgust. However when thinking about the simplicity of emotions, as well as what baseline descriptors most people think of I had decided to only go with the prior three. I had also utilized paint samples as a way for me to better create a monochromatic pallet for each piece.
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First design draft
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Second design draft
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Similarly, when thinking about how I had wanted to display the emotions I knew I had wanted them to take on a 'comedic' role, similar to how sometimes people view basic expression as wrong. Framing these emotions as clowns helped with this as well as exaggerating their overall expressions. Due to my inspiration of Kahlo I had also made sure that each subject I was planning on creating was looking in the general direction of the audience. I had some difficulty when it came to the anger subject, due to how expressive that emotion commonly is. However once I had decided to make it similar to my sad subject, it became easier to visualize them together.
-Process-
After I sampled a similar green color from Nolde's piece I transferred my process sketches onto each canvas, each emotion followed a similar process as well. When making the base for each subject I made sure to utilize their overall form to further the desired emotion. Both happiness and sadness have smoother more circular shapes, whereas anger has a more pointed attire. When I thought about how I had wanted to present these works I had also considered the order of the emotions, I had decided to present happiness in the middle of the tryptic. This is because out of the core three emotions happiness is seen as the most positive/acceptable emotion.
Once I had the overall shape for each subject I began painting the beginning colors. Since I had wanted the clowns to look foolish/childlike keeping a monochromatic pallet through each emotion was a priority. Similar to how Nolde uses distinct colors for each mask within his piece, each of my clowns have their own assigned color with little to no overlap.
I had wanted to emphasize the simplicity within each subject, because of that each clown can be observed as having four core colors. Each of these colors was a variant of red, blue, and yellow. Once I got these base colors I had moved onto the overall detailing. Since I had wanted to somewhat emulate Kahlo's style I made the clowns feature realistic, while also not pushing into the surrealism that Kahlo is known for. Unlike both Kahlo and Nolde my piece utilizes line heavily throughout the detailing. |
After doing the base colors I began working on the detailing of the collar, as well as the subjects facial features. It was somewhat difficulty for me to approach the expression for anger due to my prior process sketches, however once I established a baseline it was easier for me.
Once the subjects were completed I had also added embellishments (glitter and gemstones) to make the characters seem more playful as well. To make each subject cohesive I also utilized line around each of them. |
-Critique-
Similarities:
-My piece shares similar messaging with Nolde's still life, both pieces conveying a spectrum of emotion. My piece does it in a clear and concise way, whereas Nolde's is more chaotic. Both works demonstrate the variety of emotion and how different each can be. This can be influenced by the level of emotion conveyed or even who is expressing the emotion.
-Kahlo decides to face her audience head on, staring directly at them while containing movement within her work that guides the audiences eye to them. While my piece has very little movement, the audience having no choice but to look at my subjects head on, I utilized a similar framing from Kahlo. Each clown is staring directly at the audience, with the exclusion of happiness (however the overall subject is still directly facing the audience).
-Kahlo decides to face her audience head on, staring directly at them while containing movement within her work that guides the audiences eye to them. While my piece has very little movement, the audience having no choice but to look at my subjects head on, I utilized a similar framing from Kahlo. Each clown is staring directly at the audience, with the exclusion of happiness (however the overall subject is still directly facing the audience).
Differences:
-Kahlo utilizes a high amount of detail within her work, having a highly detailed background that contributed to her overall work. Unlike Kahlo both my subjects and background have very little detail, and the detail that they do have is very simplified/rounded. This is due to the fact that I had wanted an oversimplified version of each emotion for my piece, unlike Kahlo who's desired outcome was one based in realism and symbolism (in order to realistically reflect her own pain).
-My piece heavily utilizes line within each subject, making them pop out more against the stagnant background. I surrounded each subject in a somewhat thick line in order emphasize them. Conversely Nolde's subjects blend into one another, making them see like one blended thing (even blending into the background itself). Kahlo also does not utilize line within her piece, due to the overarching realistic feel.
-Unlike both of my inspirations my piece and its color are very bright and saturated. I did this to play into the childish messaging of my piece, unlike Kahlo and Nolde. Kahlo utilizes warm tones through her whole piece, with varying shades of brown as well. This gives Kahlo's work a very nature-like feel to it, similarly Nolde's darker and muddier coloring gives his work a more barbaric emotion.
-My piece heavily utilizes line within each subject, making them pop out more against the stagnant background. I surrounded each subject in a somewhat thick line in order emphasize them. Conversely Nolde's subjects blend into one another, making them see like one blended thing (even blending into the background itself). Kahlo also does not utilize line within her piece, due to the overarching realistic feel.
-Unlike both of my inspirations my piece and its color are very bright and saturated. I did this to play into the childish messaging of my piece, unlike Kahlo and Nolde. Kahlo utilizes warm tones through her whole piece, with varying shades of brown as well. This gives Kahlo's work a very nature-like feel to it, similarly Nolde's darker and muddier coloring gives his work a more barbaric emotion.
-Reflection-
I enjoyed this overall process because it was much less restrictive than my other pieces. While I had to connect each painting of the tryptic to my inspirations, it was easier to do because of both styles easily meshing within my own style. Being able to be more expressive with my work is something I will always enjoy. I had also enjoyed being able to experiment with monochromatic tones as well as emotion. I feel like the movement within my paintings also contributes to how much I enjoy it, the audiences attention going from left to right. If I were to do these paintings again I may try to use more realism, similar to Kahlo herself as well as make a more muddled background (instead of the singular color background) in order to show my inspiration somewhat more apparent.
-Connections to the ACT-
1) Clearly explain how you were able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your art?
The inspiration of both Kahlo and Nolde effected the way I had approached my subjects as well as my pieces color. Because of the way Kahlo approached giving the audience a way to empathize with her pain, I wanted to emulate that (giving my subjects a more direct approach). Similarly Nolde impacted the amount of subjects as well as background and color.
2) What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
There are similarities between overall position of Kahlo's work, as well as somewhat obvious symbolism. This is heavily influenced by Kahlo herself.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I was able to closely sympathize with Kahlo while understanding her overall process, similarly I was able to understand Nolde's choices when it comes to his chaotic work.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
I had wanted to see how something baseline, like emotion can be interpreted. While some emotions can be passed off as simple (like sadness happiness, etc.) they are actually a complex spectrum. This is something that I had wanted to be reflected within my inspiration.
5) What kinds of inferences did you make while reading your research?
After inspecting both of my inspirations extensively, I had realized that identity influences the way one interprets their own or others emotions. Kahlo uses her identity to reflect her pain, a negative thing; Nolde displays emotions as something carnal.
-Citations-
artincontext. ““The Wounded Deer” by Frida Kahlo - a Comprehensive Guide.” Art in Context, 15 Apr. 2023, artincontext.org/the-wounded-deer-by-frida-kahlo/.
“Masks.” Art.nelson-Atkins.org, art.nelson-atkins.org/objects/2223/masks.
“Masks.” Art.nelson-Atkins.org, art.nelson-atkins.org/objects/2223/masks.