EPHEMERA
Fade Away
Flower Portrait
October 25, 2016
Flower Portrait
October 25, 2016
Exhibition Text: I wanted my piece to demonstrate that one's youth and looks can never last forever. Life is too short and we must all face the inevitable death that awaits us. I wanted to also express the idea that beauty can be found within you, whether you see it or not. It's not up for society to decide who's beautiful and who's not. That is for you to decide. I wanted to visually demonstrate that beauty does not last forever and that everything has a beginning but also an end.
Planning
Artistic Inspiration
Roy Mallari is an artist from the Philippines. He enjoys creating art from natural objects especially with avocado leaves, flowers, twigs, and stones. He says that “I grew up in a place where most houses have their own mango, guava or other fruit-bearing trees in their backyards. We have a mango tree and an avocado tree that I planted myself, and the materials for my leaf art mainly come from this avocado tree.” I chose him as an inspiration because I love how he made an image of a person using only materials that could be found outside. Sara Cole's use of a specific type of leaf and colors was a concept I wanted to incorporate into my ephemera art. The two contrasting colors made her piece all the more attractive to the human eye and it definitely catches your attention.
Planning Sketches
In my first sketch, I drew a self portrait of a girl. This is the idea that I went with for my final ephemera piece. It's simple and very easy to make with the materials available to me. The meaning would be easier for me to apply using this sketch. In the second sketch, I was a bit more patriotic. I wanted to make a bold eagle spreading its wings across the U.S. flag. This idea came to me during the 2016 elections. So much was happening with our country that I wanted to express our nation's anguish and anxiety through art. In my third sketch, I drew the same girl as the first sketch but this time made it into a profile image and made her hair slowly begin to fade away. Like the petals that will soon wilt and die, I wanted this sketch to show that the girl will fade away with them. It would help emphasize my point that nothing will ever last forever. Or at least the physical things...
Experimentation
For my experimentation, I rearranged the flower petals and played with the colors. In the first picture shown above, the lips were made from a light tan colored leaf. I opted for using dark red flower petals instead to sort of show that the woman is wearing lipstick, as shown in the second picture. I also adjusted the eyebrows and added more rose petals in the woman's hair to give it a more voluminous look. The background in the first picture seemed dull and I hated that alot of white was showing so I solved that problem by adding more flower petals to the background to cover up the dull-looking spaces. I added green leaves to help outline the woman's shoulders more and to keep the colors of her dress from merging with the colors of the background. I decided to outlined the woman's eyes with a dark red rose petal cut into strips to make the eyes pop out more.
PROCESS
After getting all the necessary leaves, twigs, stems, and flower petals, I got sheets of white paper and put them close together. This would serve me as the background. I chose the color white so that the flowers' bright colors could stand out more and to clarify my final image. I began using leaf stems to outline the woman's face, neck, and ears. As you can see, I tried using lines to create shadow on the girl's neck to create a more 3-demensional look. I then outlined the girl's shoulders with yellow flower petals and filled them in with red, pink, and yellow flower petals. This color choice does not hold any special meaning. After filling in the girl's shoulders, I made a cute little rose choker by using a pink rose and it's cut up stem. After that, I made the eyes with leaf steams and made the iris and pupils with leaves that I had cut into circles. The eyebrows were made using dark violet flower petals. I then made a crown on the girl's head using flower petals and add two whole roses on each end. I applied a dark violet flower in the middle of the crown. I added green leaves to the girl's crown and made her hair out of rose petals. At this point, I was trying to fill in the spaces around the girl's head with flower petals. I made the nose with more leaf stems. I used leaves to make the girl's lips and added leaves in the background. I decided to organize the leaves by color for a more fun and eye-pleasing appearance. Again, I add more flowers and flower petals to the girl's crown. I filled the bottom part of the background with red flower petals and outlined the girl's shoulders with green leaves. I added more details to the girls face, such as adding eyeliner to her eyes using cut up flower petals. It was really tedious to carefully align each individual piece into place. It didn't help that I kept accidently moving the paper. |
REFLECTION
Meaning of Work
From new life to death, from purity to passion, flowers have had many meanings in myths and legends. Swelling from tender bud to full bloom, flowers are associated with youth, beauty, and pleasure. But as they wilt and die, flowers represent fragility and the swift passage from life into death. Flowers and other plants contain such meaning and that is why I choose it as my medium for my Ephemera piece. The girl in my piece mostly represents me but can also be applied to anyone else who feels the same way I do. I wanted my piece to demonstrate that one's youth and looks can never last forever. Life is too short and we must all face the inevitable death that awaits us. Most people can agree that flowers and nature is really beautiful. By making a girl made out of flowers, I wanted to also express the idea that beauty can be found within you, whether you see it or not. It's not up for society to decide who's beautiful and who's not. That is for you to decide.However, I firmly believe that each individual is beautiful and unique in their own special way. Overall, this project was pretty difficult. I've never made art that doesn't last long before. It was definitely a great experience for me to go beyond my comfort zone and try something new. The whole brainstorming ideas process was quite difficult and I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do.
Compare & Contrast
SIMILARITIES:
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SIMILARITIES:
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ACT RESPONSES
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork:
My artwork feature a woman just like Mallari’s ephemera piece and we both used twigs and leaves to form the outlines and features on the woman's face. However, Mallari's works is only in green hues. My work includes a lot of warm and cool colors. It is not dedicated to just one color. I also think my work is much more detailed. I made the woman's shoulders, clothes, and added a simple background. Mallari only made a simple face. Compared to Cole’s ephemera piece, you can tell we both used contrasting colors and kept them well-organized. The colors are not applied at random. Cole's ephemera art features a bird but mine features a girl. Our color usage is also different. Cole uses two colors, whereas I decided to use multiple colors. Cole also only used leaves in her art but I used anything that could be found in a backyard. (Twigs, stems, leaves, flowers, etc.)
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The information was presented in a professional way but does not go into deep analysis of the artwork being presented.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I generalized that usage of colors in art can heavily influence the certain moods an artist wants its viewers to feel. I came to realize the flowers have many meanings to different cultures. I learned about all their different meanings and about the cultures in which this belief originated from. I also concluded that beauty can only be decided by an individual or society. We all have different views as to what’s beautiful and what’s not. There is no correct definition for beauty.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme around my inspirational research was appearance and youth. I wanted to visually demonstrate that beauty does not last forever and that everything has a beginning but also an end. Flowers bloom and flowers wilt. That’s just the way it is. I also researched about the meanings behind flowers and how they were symbolic to death and life.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred through my research that beauty has no correct definition and that we can not change the fact that one day, we will all cease to be.
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork:
My artwork feature a woman just like Mallari’s ephemera piece and we both used twigs and leaves to form the outlines and features on the woman's face. However, Mallari's works is only in green hues. My work includes a lot of warm and cool colors. It is not dedicated to just one color. I also think my work is much more detailed. I made the woman's shoulders, clothes, and added a simple background. Mallari only made a simple face. Compared to Cole’s ephemera piece, you can tell we both used contrasting colors and kept them well-organized. The colors are not applied at random. Cole's ephemera art features a bird but mine features a girl. Our color usage is also different. Cole uses two colors, whereas I decided to use multiple colors. Cole also only used leaves in her art but I used anything that could be found in a backyard. (Twigs, stems, leaves, flowers, etc.)
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The information was presented in a professional way but does not go into deep analysis of the artwork being presented.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I generalized that usage of colors in art can heavily influence the certain moods an artist wants its viewers to feel. I came to realize the flowers have many meanings to different cultures. I learned about all their different meanings and about the cultures in which this belief originated from. I also concluded that beauty can only be decided by an individual or society. We all have different views as to what’s beautiful and what’s not. There is no correct definition for beauty.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme around my inspirational research was appearance and youth. I wanted to visually demonstrate that beauty does not last forever and that everything has a beginning but also an end. Flowers bloom and flowers wilt. That’s just the way it is. I also researched about the meanings behind flowers and how they were symbolic to death and life.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred through my research that beauty has no correct definition and that we can not change the fact that one day, we will all cease to be.
Bibliography:
"Roy Mallari Creates Pieces of Art from Leaves of Trees." The Design Inspiration. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.
http://thedesigninspiration.com/articles/roy-mallari-creates-pieces-of-art-from-leaves-of-trees/
Cole, Sara V. Sara V Cole. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.
http://www.saravcoleart.com/
http://thedesigninspiration.com/articles/roy-mallari-creates-pieces-of-art-from-leaves-of-trees/
Cole, Sara V. Sara V Cole. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.
http://www.saravcoleart.com/