ARTIST IN THE CITY
Joseph Vitrano
What I am
January
91.44cm X 91.44cm X 91.44cm
Acrylic on canvas
My inspiration for this piece was persistence of memory. I wanted to convey me melting into the city, as well as my blank face in a very colorful world. In persistence of memory by salvador Dali, Dali leaves the man’s face very plain, while the background is has a fair amount of color. I also left my face very plain which conveys the sad look I wanted.
What I am
January
91.44cm X 91.44cm X 91.44cm
Acrylic on canvas
My inspiration for this piece was persistence of memory. I wanted to convey me melting into the city, as well as my blank face in a very colorful world. In persistence of memory by salvador Dali, Dali leaves the man’s face very plain, while the background is has a fair amount of color. I also left my face very plain which conveys the sad look I wanted.
PLANNING
I made three total sketches, one for each of the canvases that I had. The most important sketch, is the canvas in the middle. the middle canvas represents me, or the "artist" part of artist in the city. First started by finding the movement that I wanted to base my painting after. After I picked the work that most appealed to me, which was The Persistence of Memory. This inspiration would really help convey my feelings toward myself, and the city. It also helps with connecting myself to the city, since it is like I am melting in. For the panel that would display me, I felt it necessary to have my face, so using my inspiration I created a sketch of my face melting, while also radiating. Next to connect my self to the city, My original idea was to have waves radiating into a city view, but I changed that from my original sketch, which is shown in the final product. Next I created that last panel drawing which was how the city was in me. To do this I continued with the radiating theme, and connected the beams into a eye. I felt this could convey how I have soaked up as much information, and inspiration from Milwaukee as possible.
PROCESS
First of all I wanted to start with a base coat, I chose a vibrant orange for the face, and more mellow yellow oranges for the city in artist, and artist in city. After finishing the base coats, I began to grid the canvases. I have had a lot of success with griding throughout the year so I continued with this method. I started painting the face panel. I only used white to begin with, I wanted to create the shapes and forms in my sketches. Next I started adding grays, and darker grays to the face, to enhance the forms. I saved the mouth and eyes till last, since they were mostly just filled with black paint. The face was going to be the first panel, so I wanted to have the "radiation" going to the right, towards the other panels. I used four bold colors, orange for wonder, green for wisdom, blue for community, and red for pain. These four concepts are both radiated from me into the city, and from the city to me. Then came the artist in the city. I wanted to demonstrate how I commonly feel like I am drowning in the city, to do this I printed out the sign for falling, cut it out, and traced it at the top of the canvas. I painted the figure yellow, like How I can still shine in the city, even when I feel like I am drowning. I filled in the space with a street, which I painted blue to continue with the drowning concept, as well as melting buildings. Finally the the city in the artist panel. For this panel, I took that radiation concept and finished it by concentrating it into an eye, or my eye to be exact. They eye is has veins clear to see on it, My idea was to make it look like I need to focus, in order to be successful in Milwaukee.
INSPIRATION
http://uploads5.wikiart.org/images/salvador-dali/the-persistence-of-memory-1931.jpg
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Persistence of Memory was my inspiration for the artist in the city project. Dali's melting clocks are possible the most known part of his painting. I emulated those iconic clocks in my design. My buildings were melting away, along with my face. The idea behind my piece was not connected to time, but to the idea of melting into the city. I feel That Dali was trying to convey how time has melted into society, and taken for granted, like his idea my theme was how society melts into the city taking it for granted. I noticed how the background In Dali's painting is very basic, while the objects are much more detailed, and closer symbolizing importance. Like this the background in my painting is less important as well.
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REFLECTION
WHAT I THOUGHT I DID WELLI liked my symbolism, and my connections to the inspiration. I felt I came with a good Idea to answer the questions created by the content.
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WHAT I COULD HAVE DONE BETTERI really think I started with a good idea for the project, my planing went very well, in fact better than most of the projects that I have completed this year. However my execution was one of the worst I have had. I am very unhappy with some of the details in this painting, there are many things that don't make sense, and things i wasn't trying to convey, but were because of poor painting. I was able to grid just fine, and use my sketches, where I feel that I went wrong was not have a clear enough sketch to base such an abstract painting on. I was so used to trying to make things at least somewhat realistic throughout the year, but this project was something thing new to me. A challenge is good, but I guess I wasn't up for the task. I Feel that I will be re-doing the project at some point in the hopes of creating a better painting to submit to IB.
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