Malleability of Self
A Pretentious-Sounding Excuse for a Fun Project
A Pretentious-Sounding Excuse for a Fun Project
For my Advanced Painting class in this—my last—semester, we had to produce sixteen canvases, 16 by 20 inches, and allowing 15-20 minutes on average for each. Given the context, I thought it best to work on my weaknesses, in this case: expression, brushwork, modeling of form, and the ability to depict varying species. As these are uploaded in chronological order, one can easily see the progress I made.
These are all, by the way, self-portraits. Hence the title of this project: "Malleability of Self." In presenting the final collection of pieces, we were asked to discuss the work and our intent. I therefore described the project thusly:
"What is the self, and how much can it be changed? In this series I strove to depict varying aspects of myself, by changing my very essence: my species. I also altered expression and, by pairing each portrait with some glyph, texture, or graphic, attempted to create a sense of meaning beyond mere characterization. Composition and rendering of form were also key issues that I tackled, all while attempting to retain a sense of myself in each portrait, despite the alteration."
I may do more of these, as they were quite a lot of fun to create—not to mention an excellent way to improve my painting techniques!
These are all, by the way, self-portraits. Hence the title of this project: "Malleability of Self." In presenting the final collection of pieces, we were asked to discuss the work and our intent. I therefore described the project thusly:
"What is the self, and how much can it be changed? In this series I strove to depict varying aspects of myself, by changing my very essence: my species. I also altered expression and, by pairing each portrait with some glyph, texture, or graphic, attempted to create a sense of meaning beyond mere characterization. Composition and rendering of form were also key issues that I tackled, all while attempting to retain a sense of myself in each portrait, despite the alteration."
I may do more of these, as they were quite a lot of fun to create—not to mention an excellent way to improve my painting techniques!