Triptych
Three Studies of a Community
Acrylic paint on Canvas 30.48cm x 60.96cm April 2018 Exhibition Text Three Studies of a Community is a triptych inspired by the figurative work of Francis Bacon that is meant to reflect on how I view myself as an artist, how the community affects me, and how I affect the community. |
Planning
Inspiration
The inspiration for this piece was difficult for me to find, it felt like I had hit a creative mental block. For the longest time, I was unable to decide on an artist for this piece. I had wanted to continue with my past theme of Self-Conflict, which coincides with my overarching theme of Conflict. I had found my inspiration while I was researching artists for my Digital Collage. One day, I simply looked up "mental health artists" and came across a CNN article. Within that article, I saw people such as Salvador Dali, Edvard Munch, some of the works of Francis Bacon. I had considered looking into Salvador Dali initially, but I then thought that I would need more time to effectively create something that could hold up to his work. I then considered using Edvard Munch again, I spent a bit more time looking at two of his paintings, "The Day After" and "Melancholy". During that time, I also looked into Francis Bacon a bit more, which led me to stray a bit further from Munch's work. There were two of his triptychs that really caught my eyes at first. Those two triptychs were the "Triptych inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus" and "Triptych August 1972". I felt like a combination of these two would be a good choice for me.
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Planning Sketches
IIn comparison to my usual first plan, I did not lay out all of my plans on a single page to organize my ideas. I realized that is was going to end up being very similar to me ideas in my Digital Collage. I quickly settled on my usual theme of past theme of Self-Conflict, which I branched off from my overarching theme of Conflict. I then thought about my general concepts and ideas. I still wanted to pay attention to ideas of mental health expressions or mental diseases, as I have been more recently. This first sketch on this page was more so inspired by "Triptych August 1972". This was made to reflect on myself as an artist. I chose to use this piece because I was interested in the pose that this character was in. I felt like I could manipulate it effectively to give me a sort of 'thinking' stance. I took the melting body element from the "Triptych inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus" and even chose to continue it through the other panels.
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This second planning page was made for the second panel of the triptych. It was used to reflect on how the community around me affects me. for this one, I took a bit more inspiration from the "Triptych inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus" in this one. I wanted to show how the community had opened new doors for me in my life. Instead of keeping the walls along the sides of the panel, I decided to turn it into buildings to relate back to the community.
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This was the final planning sketch that I created for this project. It was used to reflect on how I affect the community around me. This was much more inspired by the "Triptych inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus". I ended up using most of the elements that were in that panel, but changed a few things such as the the door area, the bottom of the panel, and the figure.
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Process
Experimentation
As with my Digital Collage, there was a limited amount of experimentation done for this piece. There were only there major things that I had experimented with. These included the general colors for each panel, the design of the figures, and the walls on the second panel. For the general colors, I saved swatches of the final product of the color for each area. If I had saved a swatch for each state of the final color, I would have probably saved three pages worth of swatches, which I felt would be unnecessary. For the design of the figures, I wanted to keep them somewhat similar to the ones in each of Bacon's paintings. I decided to go against this during the final sketching process (except for some of the first one). I was think of possibilities for the figure's postures. I then thought about the album art for one of my favorite bands, A Day to Remember. I recalled how in each album, the lead singer is painted in a different pose each time. So I decided to mimic the poses from Common Courtesy and Homesick. Finally, the walls in the second panels underwent some changes during the process. I had originally planned for the walls to be facades of different buildings, but I lacked creativity in the design and colors. In a spur of the moment decision, I planned to just turn them into normal green walls and changed the door background.
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Process
Canvas Stretching: First I cut and laid out my fabric and place your frame face up. I made sure that my frame was a perfectly square. I turned my stretcher frame face down onto the fabric in order to begin trimming canvas, leaving some space to fold over the back. Using a staple gun, I stapled the canvas once in the middle of each side of the frame. I pulled the excess fabric on the end of the stapled side to make it taught. Then I stapled the edge of the taught fabric. I then stapled excess and repeated until finished with all three of the canvases.
After finishing all of the canvases, I then went on to prime them each with a coat of gesso. After letting them dry, I got to work on sketching my plan onto each of the panels.
For the first panel, I had my father take a picture of me sitting in my ideal pose to use as a reference to sketch. I then got to work on sketch the background of the scene at first, and eventually got to sketching myself, all of which took around an hour to complete. After completing the sketch, I was able to begin painting. The first thing that I did was mix together a dark color to use for the 'abyss' at the bottom and the door. I then moved onto creating my first shade of green to use on the walls. I did not want to use the same green for each of the panels. Then came the dark reddish-purple for the flooring, which was something I did not want to repeat on each panel either. Next, I began to work on the black and gray for the chair, That was followed up by the blues of the shirt and jeans, which I also used for the other panels. Finally, I created the skin color for all of the panels and applied it to this one.
For the second panel, I got to work on sketch the background of the scene at first, and eventually got to sketching the figure, which I took the idea from Common Courtesy. The first thing that I did was mix together a dark color to use for the 'abyss' at the bottom and a slightly lighter version of it for the triangle section above it. I then moved onto the colors for the pavement an the brown throughout the picture. I then got the work on the walls of buildings, which I then change to a simple green (as I discussed above). I then reused some colors from before on the little scene behind the door. I then finished up the panel with the blues of the shirt and jeans, which I also used for the other panels and the skin color for all of the panels and applied it to this one.
For the final panel, I got to work on sketch the background of the scene at first, and eventually got to sketching the figure, which I took the idea from Homesick. The first thing that I did was reuse the dark color that I mixed together to use for the 'abyss' at the bottom. I went on the create the green for the walls and the gray flooring. I then adapted that gray into the color for the sky of the door scene. Next, I used the same brown for most of the picture from before. Finally, I then finished up the panel with the blues of the shirt and jeans, which I also used for the other panels and the skin color for all of the panels and applied it to this one.
After finishing all of the canvases, I then went on to prime them each with a coat of gesso. After letting them dry, I got to work on sketching my plan onto each of the panels.
For the first panel, I had my father take a picture of me sitting in my ideal pose to use as a reference to sketch. I then got to work on sketch the background of the scene at first, and eventually got to sketching myself, all of which took around an hour to complete. After completing the sketch, I was able to begin painting. The first thing that I did was mix together a dark color to use for the 'abyss' at the bottom and the door. I then moved onto creating my first shade of green to use on the walls. I did not want to use the same green for each of the panels. Then came the dark reddish-purple for the flooring, which was something I did not want to repeat on each panel either. Next, I began to work on the black and gray for the chair, That was followed up by the blues of the shirt and jeans, which I also used for the other panels. Finally, I created the skin color for all of the panels and applied it to this one.
For the second panel, I got to work on sketch the background of the scene at first, and eventually got to sketching the figure, which I took the idea from Common Courtesy. The first thing that I did was mix together a dark color to use for the 'abyss' at the bottom and a slightly lighter version of it for the triangle section above it. I then moved onto the colors for the pavement an the brown throughout the picture. I then got the work on the walls of buildings, which I then change to a simple green (as I discussed above). I then reused some colors from before on the little scene behind the door. I then finished up the panel with the blues of the shirt and jeans, which I also used for the other panels and the skin color for all of the panels and applied it to this one.
For the final panel, I got to work on sketch the background of the scene at first, and eventually got to sketching the figure, which I took the idea from Homesick. The first thing that I did was reuse the dark color that I mixed together to use for the 'abyss' at the bottom. I went on the create the green for the walls and the gray flooring. I then adapted that gray into the color for the sky of the door scene. Next, I used the same brown for most of the picture from before. Finally, I then finished up the panel with the blues of the shirt and jeans, which I also used for the other panels and the skin color for all of the panels and applied it to this one.
Reflection
Overall, I was not happy with the final product of this project. I had hoped for it to turn out a lot better than it did. The most disappointing part of this, to me, was the figures. In total, I had spent probably around an hour and a half working on the sketches for them. I was very proud with how they had been sketched, but rather unpleased with the final product. Over this summer, I plan to completely redo these paintings and have them turn out a lot better.
ACT Responses
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
I was very concerned with keeping true to Bacon's distorted style within my art
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
I think that Francis Bacon would have approved of this sort of work, as it is known that he dealt with a lot of personal issues himself.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Through my research, I discovered that there are a lot more artists that discuss this topic than I had originally thought
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
Overall, I have been trying to keep true to my overarching theme of Conflict
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
In the end, I inferred that it doesn't matter who it is, it could be just some random passerby on the street; they could be struggling with diseases like depression and it needs to be taken more seriously.
I was very concerned with keeping true to Bacon's distorted style within my art
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
I think that Francis Bacon would have approved of this sort of work, as it is known that he dealt with a lot of personal issues himself.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Through my research, I discovered that there are a lot more artists that discuss this topic than I had originally thought
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
Overall, I have been trying to keep true to my overarching theme of Conflict
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
In the end, I inferred that it doesn't matter who it is, it could be just some random passerby on the street; they could be struggling with diseases like depression and it needs to be taken more seriously.