This represents how we the flower attach ourselves to society, the boat. Once we are attached there is no going back, and slowly instead of staying perfect a part of us dies. It's a promise that can't be kept, because the deeper you are in and the longer you stay makes yourself look worse on the inside and the outside. I took a picture of the boat every day for almost two weeks. I wrote something on the boat so as the flowers die away it reveals what is hiding beneath.
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Our ideas of perfection comes from social media a lot of the time. Scrolling through Instagram posts seeing peoples pictures of themselves creates this desire to become someone they are not. Striving to be what they believe is perfect. All social media has that effect on people. It fills their head to where they can only think about social media and how other people act and look. It's a mess honestly. Because none of it is true, each and everyone is their own kind of perfection.
This is my favorite piece because it turned out so pretty with the colors and the meaning so deep. I had access to a fake skeleton, I spray painted it golden, then used fake flower tops gluing them inside the skull. That after all this trying to be perfect and pretty you turn out to be dead almost, that the only way to reach society's standards is to be bones. I painted the background to represent grass, it's final placing. It's pretty looking to show how society covers these things up.
For this piece I really wanted to touch base on the obsession of taking a selfie and then waiting for the approval of how many likes or comments the picture. I decided to go a little big for this piece by making a giant iPhone, it's probably four feet plus. The process that I had to go through was insane to be honest. It first started with figuring out how to make the phone in the first place on top of the fact I needed a large enough photo to fit such a large space. So, it started with printing the picture out in sections. Once I had all the sections printed out I glued them down on a piece of cardboard. I had a friend, Emily Broad Photography take the picture of her sister and edit it to where only her sisters eyes had color. I really wanted to make it look dramatic. After that headache of a mess (it took forever to figure out) I had to construct the iPhone. I had to take a bunch of measurements so nothing would look funny. My teacher had connections and was able to supple me with a big piece of drywall. that would be the base of the piece. I had to draw out what I needed to cut. Then I painted it geso, after that dried I painted it with black pant since I was using an iPhone five as the model. Then I had a cutout of the apple logo and table it to the back of the iPhone. I took a clear gloss and painted several layers so once it dried it will be a shiny apple logo like on the phone. I then did the shiny strips on the top and bottom of the phone. After, all of that I had to do the front of the iPhone. I used E6000 glue to press it down on the dry wall. Then I took the piece of glass and put that on top, I used the E6000 to glue the outside and really stick it down. Once that was dried I took a hammer to it and smashed it all over. I then went back and glued down the bigger pieces in place. Then I took a piece of plexi glass and glued that on top to keep the broken glass in. Then I had to get the outline of the phone so I used two pieces of cardboard cutting out a boarder. I painted it black than used the same glue to really press it down. I didn't forget the button, (I used the clear gloss to make it shiny underneath). I then went back and added the finer details like the buttons on the side and top and the camera. For the sign I made it all out of cardboard, I painted it to match the models eyes. This piece was the most challenging piece I have ever done but I proud of it. The meaning behind it is society saying that this picture isn't good enough, even though it's perfect it is just not good enough. It's broken, like the phone, it needs to be sent back, it's been recalled. For this piece I wanted to express how everyone looks and sometimes acts the same. They desire to have a certain look and they continue to strive after it until they look like everyone else. I used Barbies since Barbies are unrealistically desirable when it comes to the image of the body. I didn't want this to be a glamorous piece, I wanted it to look more on the creepy side because I feel like striving for perfection shouldn't be a good thing. I painted them, well most of them all pink since pink is a common Barbie color. I made their clothes out of food wrappers since they look like they haven't eaten a good meal, also it's ironic since there waists are so tiny and chips aren't the ideal health food. For the middle girl I really wanted to use her to show her transforming into the others. That's why she doesn't look finished as well her hair is turning brown. The chip clothes isn't finished, because it is in the process of connecting to her. The boats circling her as well on her is the symbol of society, they are what is changing her into the others, into a clone. In the end, the choices you choose to fit in, you are just another clone. For this piece I went on the direction of an empty plate meaning skipping a meal based on eat disorders. Feeling to fat or not confident with how you look in a mirror. I decided for this piece that I will use empty plates as the tiles for the mosaic. For each color plate I had to smash it into different sizes. The white plates had to be little pieces, the blue plates could be larger pieces. I then proceeded to hot glue the pieces down, once I had the blues and whites down I thought that it could use another color for the middle of the piece. I ended up going with a yellow, thinking it really flowed with the blues. For the very, very middle someone gave me the idea of using a mirror. I went with that idea thinking it would be cool to see yourself reflected back showing this could be you.
I used concrete instead of grout, only because I didn't have access to grout at the time. It was a long and messy process but i got the hang of it. After the concrete set I realized the color of it clashed poorly with the piece. So, I went back with paint and dyed the concrete. Also the words in the middle didn't stand out like they should have so I thought it would help pronounce the piece even further. Making a wire tree looks hard but it is actually not that hard at all. When I first made a wire tree it looked horrible, (You can see in one of my earlier posts), so making another tree I was a little nervous it wouldn't turn out as well as I wanted it too. Luckily for me it turned out beautifully. It is possibly one of my favorite pieces I have made so far. I went with using a rose gold, silver, and gold wire to give it a very calming, inviting look to it. I made sure to make the branches stretch out very far. That I used as little sliver as I could, in the end it was perfect. For the base of the tree I attached it to a piano wire, the same piano wire that I had used in an earlier project as well, (Rustic Piano). To carry on with the boat theme I put tiny boats on a few of the branches, it's kinda like a family tree. This piece isn't exactly finished, I am making a gross apple core out of clay, then I will attach wire to it then the other end will attach to the trunk of the tree. Going off the saying, "the apple doesn't fall to far from the tree" I am not sure how it will look, if it looks bad then I will take it off, if it looks good I will keep it. The apple isn't finished yet so the pictures below are what the piece is at the moment. The apple would represent you, how most people feel when they fall away from society, the after effects. I wanted to give off the message of how society leaves there scars on your body. You become transparent almost, because you are not yourself. I proceeded to show this by making a torso out of clear tape, to show there is nothing left inside of you accept the markings of society that is. Paper boats is the symbol that I used to represent on how they are always there messing things up. There is a huge paper boat inside of this piece. The slashes on the body show the impact of what words can do to someone. I wrote harsh words around the slits to show how it got there and how it feels like. I also added a little embroidery to add more to it, this piece is more than something little which is how people are, they are so much more. This is a picture of the back side of the piece
For this piece it turned out way better than I had originally expected. The idea at the time seemed bigger than what I could handle. With some help and lots of patience I was able to make it happen. The meaning behind the piece shows the transition from childhood to older youth. What we held in our hearts were such pleasant things that were very careless. Whereas now, the top of the heart shows how we hold the desire to look a certain way. It's more of a harsher half of the heart and or part of our life. I made this piece by using paper mache, squishy tubing, wood, and paint. The first half of the heart I made first, I used a wire base then proceeded to cover that in many layers of newspaper covered in glue or another solution flour and water. I then found small pieces of wood and inserted it in to use as shelves for the finished product. With the paint colors I wanted to do a blend since a heart isn't exactly one color, it has mixtures. I added blues, bronze and a little black through out the heart. For the second half of the heart I did the same thing as I did with the first half. I then connected the two boards using wood glue to keep it together. To have it stand on it's own I used wooden poles and then screwed them into the boards. After that was standing on it's own I used a geso which is like white paint to paint the wood the same color. Inside the heart I placed items to really represent child to youth. With the pieces inside I gave them a rough look by using white geso on the items. The overall finished piece I am very happy with how it had turned out. For this project I created a paper boat mobile, written on these boats are letters. The white boats are letters from you, the grey ones in the middle are letters responding back to you from Society. It talks about body image, and how you have to withhold a certain look, a certain ranking and so forth. As the letters descend down they get messier, smudged, as if they are getting ruined. This represents the destruction that evolves over time from trying so hard to become something that doesn't even exist. I have it set up as a mobile because it's representing the beginning of a child's life, that society is always around.
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AuthorArt done by Shelby Johnson, Blog by same art maker. Archives
February 2017
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