Surrealism Class: Image on an Object

This is the result of a homework assignment where we were supposed to find an image and paint it on an object in order to make a statement. The object one chooses to paint on can add to the meaning of one's piece. So he wanted us to pic an object that would, once again, be juxtaposed to the image. Our intent and meaning should spark a conversation where the viewer could see both the positive and negative.

I chose to paint the Gerber baby on a TV. Any guesses as to why I did this.? I really enjoy looking at this piece. I think it is because it is so small and it was such a pain to do (painting on glass is no joke).....so I am proud of how it turned out.


My Intent:
I decided to juxtapose a picture of the Gerber baby on a television. I chose a television because I am addicted to TV. Up until a couple of months ago I had to watch it all the time and had to watch it when I ate and whenever I painted. I don't watch it as much anymore but that is only because it is more convenient for me to watch movies on my computer. I wanted to show how television can be and is both a negative and positive thing in our American society. I thought a good way to do this would be by painting the Gerber baby on the screen. This trademark is a universal symbol in America and around the world. It is a household name and picture even for people without children. Most of us were probably fed Gerber foods at some point the same way we might have been fed TV growing up. So the question is, "Is this a good thing or not?" I think TV is a positive thing to a certain point, but there is a fine line. [I have more thoughts and examples but no need to list them all...the above is pretty much the gist of it.]

Surrealism Juxtaposition Final: Cupcakes and Women

These are the final two paintings of my Juxtaposition assignment (don't have a final picture of cupcakes cause the finished version was swiped :( in my surrealism class.
We were supposed to paint two images that aren't our own and juxtapose them in order to make a specific statement that can be argued to be both positive and negative....no propaganda. He wants us to spark discussions with our work.

So what do you think? What am I trying to say by choosing these two images? What statement am I trying to make by the way I painted the images and how I painted them? What do you think my intent might be. You wouldn't need to get the exact meanings and reasons that I have but hopefully I did my job well enough so that you can be in the same ballpark.



I wanted to juxtapose beauty and women in our society and how beauty is sometimes seen as something that should be placed on a pedestal and as something that can be consumed and as something that everyone wants to be or to have. So I decided to do this with a painting of picture perfect cookie cutter cupcakes and a black and white painting of very beautiful women painted very flat. I think that this piece shows both the positive and negative of this concept.

Surrealism Juxtaposition Part 1: Cupcakes

So it has been a long time since I last blogged and I am not quite sure why. I think life just happened and I also don't think I had very many things to show or that I wanted to show. I have been working on a few big pieces and I finally have photos to post of the progress.

These are various stages of a juxtaposition painting that I am doing for my Surrealism class. My instructor has asked us to take two images that aren't our own and juxtapose them in order to make a specific statement that can be argued to be both positive and negative....no propaganda. He wants us to spark discussions with our work. More on this later. This is my first of the two paintings to be juxtaposed. The above is where I am with the painting now.

Cupcakes....I LOVE cupcakes!!!!

I still have some final touches to make.

UPDATE:

Final cupcakes.....one of my favorite paintings EVER! Was stolen (or something else) from the building. OYE! It pains me so. I just hope that they are hanging on someone's wall versus under a layer of someone else's painting. I really loved them and got such great feedback on them AND it took me FOREVER!!! Oh well I shall do another set at some point!

Painting with anything we learned so far in Surrealsim class.

Here are the two paintings I did today in Surrealism class. Kevin was doing individual critiques of our homework (which I like) while we painted our final live model. He told us to use any of the things we learned in class so far. I decided to do my version of Cubism.

That is, if cubism is about time, we can only truly focus on one thing and one part of a persons body at a time. So even though I am only seeing the front of the model, I can still only truly see certain body parts at a time in this front view. So I decided to show this. Ultimately, I guess it ends up being a collage to create a sense of time (like Kevin shared with us) in paint. But I would like to think it is different from what David Hockney (Kevin introduced me to this artist) has done in a way because there are "separated" squares of the bits and pieces of the model verses one big picture or scene created from parts of a model or situation.

Mine is less cohesive I guess but still a version of how time is not stagnant. To me it shows how time is necessary to truly take in the whole person. I have NO IDEA if this is making any sense, but it makes sense in my head.

BUT now that I think about it, this might lean into the realm of little vignettes which he told us is not the same. I will have to ask him. Oops.


This last one I did in terms of some of the first things we did in the class where we just pushed the figure more towards non objective abstraction. Mine is obviously still a figure, but I pushed it and I LIKE IT! Anyone else ;)

Rave Reviews for my painting of Mike!!!!

Today in Surrealism class we had our homework critiques. Can I first begin by saying that the work that the other students created was AWESOME! I love seeing from week to week what people do in this class. So original and very talented.

I am so freakin excited! I can't even tell you how excited I am. I have been walking around with knots in my stomach for the last few days because I have been so happy with my painting of Mike and yet I have received some interesting feedback from some of my peers and friends. I kept getting what seemed to be the same response when people would look at the piece while I was working on it and when it was finished. Not the response I wanted....

Here is the typical scene:

--I say "Here it is," with a huge smile on my face.
--They look and then stare IN SILENCE and then say "ohhhhh, wow he has a green face" or "that's interesting."
--(See my smile fade.)

But now that I think about it my smile shouldn't fade because I want them to be somewhat wow'd (but I want it in a positive way) because Mike makes me go WOW (in a positive way :) Cheesy but true.

No worries though....I am here to learn, experiment, improve and become the artist that I need and want to be and create art that I LOVE and hope that someone out there (IS IT YOU!!!! :) loves it too....not to mention this was an assignment and not exactly how I want to paint.

I told myself that I was just going to see what my instructor had to say. I worked my butt off and put so much thought and care into doing the assignment correctly. I was happy with it (very happy) so now I just needed to see if in his eyes I accomplished the goal. I DID! Kevin said he really liked it and that I did a great job using the paint application, brushwork, color and design to show the story behind Mike. He said that it all made sense and that I handled it well, especially with showing the layers of Mike through the physical peeking through of his black and white layer.

He only had one criticism (of which I was aware....one of my instructors said we should be able to give ourselves the same critique as our teacher.) The issue was that my background was TOO saturated and competing with Mike who was supposed to be the thing popping out. And he also mentioned that there were some minor issues that I could have fixed like making the shape of the eye better, but that this was minor especially in light of the assignment. But I think I will go back and make these changes, especially since I agree with the suggestions.

Check out Kevin's book. You can get it at Blurb.com It is called ARTITUDE (Kevin Moore.) It will give you a taste of all of his great insights and what I am learning in his class. I highly recommend it.

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/167290

Oh and yes, I would have recommended his book despite being very happy about the critique I received.....come on, who do you think I am ;)

UPDATE:

Here is the most recent version of this painting.......

VERSUS

First Stage of my Surrealism Homework

So here are two pictures of my Surrealism homework so far. The assignment is to do an over sized portrait of someone we know and are close to, so of course I am doing Mike :) The portrait is not supposed to be academic in fact he wouldn't mind us pushing towards abstraction and potentially not making it looking like the model. The painting is supposed to be about the paint application, brushwork, color and design. He wants us to be able to show the story behind the sitter through the paint and not through the expression on the model.

My plan so far is to show the two layers of Mike. The serious (black and white), sensitive, calm (smooth and thin), stubborn, in his head layer compared to the vibrant, wild, crazy, humorous, outgoing side. In this first stage, I am showing the former layer and now (today) I plan on showing the latter layer via thick, colorful, vibrant, expressive stokes. BUTTTTTTT I plan on (somehow) having parts of the black and white version showing through to represent how if you are close enough to him and are able to get through the thick outgoing layer that you will also have the pleasure of seeing his other deeper layer.

We'll see how it goes. This is TRULY an experiment.
Wish me luck!!!

Still Experimenting in Surrealism Class

Kevin told us to once again push our paintings today towards abstraction. He said he didn't even want it to look like our model in the end. I did 3 paintings of the model.













Sold

I am pretty happy with all of them. I don't usually paint this way, but I have to say I really like it. Oh and the two criteria Kevin gave us was PORTRAITS only and we HAD TO USE A PALATE KNIFE in some shape or form. I never use a palate knife to paint with so I dove right in and decided to challenge myself to use it for most of the painting. I love it!

Blown away even "Moore" by Cubism

In class my Surrealism instructor Kevin Moore (awesome artist, teacher and person...check him out at hespe.com) broke down cubism in a way that just blew my mind. I have ALWAYS loved Picasso and I loved his work even more after I saw the gamut of his ability and mediums at El Museu Picasso de Barcelona. And yet, after our lecture this week I learned so much more about how he created his cubist work.

Kevin told us that "cubism is a collage to create a broader sense of time." It is about being four deminsional. Why paint from one angle? It is not how we see things. "Cubism is NOT a style, it is a way of thinking."

He gave us guidelines and we did some exercises to help wrap our minds around this way of thinking. So we created a painting as cubists. This painting makes me happy! :)

"In The Spirit of Thiebaud"...

Today we were asked to do a painting "in the spirit of Thiebaud. That is he wanted us to exaggerate color, brushwork, composition, design, shadows, and color accents.
I wanted to do an extreme crop, but it is not that extreme. Looking at it now it could be SO much better. It is lacking life for me right now. Very dull but I am happy with what I was able to do with it. I might go back after it dries and glaze in some more vibrant colors. Or heck I just might redo it. It is all about learning, right?