Steer Me Wrong
Acrylic Paint on Canvas
60.96cm x 91.44cm
EXHIBITION TEXT: The inspiration for this piece was In the Car by Roy Lichtenstein. In Lichtenstein's painting, a man and a woman are the subject of the painting. Heavily influenced by politics in the U.S., I decided to represent Donald Trump's presidency through this iconic painting. When an individual is at steering wheel, it signifies control. Donald Trump at the wheel signifies that he controls the U.S. and that HE decides the final destination and outcomes for the U.S. Overall, I wanted to paint something that would get the audience to think more about what it really means to have Trump as president.
PLANNING
Artistic Inspiration
Lichtenstein, Roy. In The Car. 1963.
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK |
In the Car is a pop art painting by Roy Lichtenstein. In his typical “found art” style that took direct inspiration from the comic books of the era, the image is nearly identical to a panel in a 1961 edition of Girls' Romances. The painting itself features a man and a woman in a red car, with speed lines indicating their motion in the typical comic book fashion. The man has bluish hair and is wearing a suit and tie, looking somewhat sternly at the woman beside him. The woman is blond with pearl earrings and a leopard-print coat. She has an irritated look on her face and stares straight ahead as the car speeds forward. Besides the two people, only part of the windshield, part of the steering wheel, and part of the outside of the car are visible. Little else is visible in the painting. The background is rather indistinct. This image is typical of Lichtenstein's work, and demonstrates his fascination with women in the midst of love affairs with men who were treating them unfairly. The original comic book panel where this work took its inspiration depicts a woman angry at herself for eschewing her prior commitments in order to ride in a car with an apparently irresistible man. Many of his other paintings deal with the similar melodramatic subject of a woman fawning over a man, or else suffering tragedy from her romance.
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Planning Sketches
The first image is a reference sheet to what Donald Trump looks like. I practiced drawing some of his facial features in the pop art style to get comfortable drawing him. In the second image, I drew out a few quick sketches of popular Latina woman. I was unsure if I wanted paint the Statue of Liberty or paint another well-known lady. In the end, I chose the Statue of Liberty because it was more well-known and represents the U.S. After all, the meaning of my painting was that Donald Trump was "driving" the U.S. in the wrong direction. The third image is a more detailed study on the facial features of the Statue of Liberty. I also added a few more practice sketches on pop art lips.
Experimentation
For my experimentation, I had to practice mixing different colors to get the ones I needed. For example, Trump's skin tone was not necessarily orange, nor was it brown, but a mixture of both. However, the hue also had to be light. In the lower left-hand corner, my experimentations with these colors are shown. I also experimented with glitter in my piece. I know Lichtenstein never used glitter in his pieces but I wanted to add an extra flair to my piece, so what better way to make my art POP out more, than with glitter? Using glitter was definitely a risk, but I made it work. I used enough glitter to make my piece stand out and not having the glitter throw off my composition's overall balance of color.
PROCESS
First, I set up my canvas and applied two coats of gesso. After the gesso dried, I sketched my desired image in pencil very lightly. There were times where I feared that I would ruin the canvas because I was constantly erasing my lines. Once I was satisfied with my final sketch, I went over it with black paint. I did this instead of coloring everything in first because my pencil sketch was rubbing off. Once the re-did my sketch with black paint, I painted in Trump's suit and tie. Using masking tape as a ruler, I painted the bottom strip of the canvas red and painted a thick black line over it. I then painted steering wheel. Notice that at this point, the sketch of the woman was still incomplete because I still hadn't decided who I was going to paint. I experimented with colors to achieve Trump's skin tone. It was really hard because trump was neither pale nor colored. He appeared to have orangish skin that was hard to replicate in paint.I researched Trump's hair color and found out that it was died horribly in multiple shades of blonde and brown. I had to go with my observations and pick out 3 of the colors that stood out to me the most in Trump's hair and add them to my painting. I painted the rest of Trump's facial features and had to research Trump's eye color. Apart from that, I ended up looking more pop art eye references because I wasn't really sure how to paint the irises. I then researched how the statue of liberty was designed and sketched out her profile. Once I was satisfied with the sketch, I painted the outline with black paint. I then colored in her outline using various shades of blues and greens. The last part had me paint over the outlines once more to clean out my rough edges. It was really late at night when I did this, so my mind was everywhere. It occurred to me then that my painting was too bland and that glitter was the solution to all of my problems. In the end, I ended up adding glitter to the statue of Liberty to spice things up.
REFLECTION
Meaning
When I first saw In The Car by Roy Lichtenstein, I was immediately captivated by the emotion Lichtenstein portrayed in his painting. The man in a suit and tie seems to represent wealth or authority. I say this because my common sense tells me that an individual who is poor would not be wearing a suit and tie everyday. The man is looking somewhat sternly at the woman beside him, and this is what interested me. Why would he be looking at her sternly? The woman next to him is blond with pearl earrings and a leopard-print coat. Her whole outfit screams wealth as well. However, unlike the man, she has an irritated look on her face and stares straight ahead as the car speeds forward. The woman not looking back the man implies that she's irritated with him and does not want to talk to him, let alone see his face. The overall meaning I interpreted from this particular piece was that the woman was mad at the man for something he did or suggested. In my research, I found out that Lichtenstein often demonstrated his fascination with women in the midst of love affairs with men who were treating them unfairly in his works. The original comic book panel where this work took its inspiration depicted an woman angry at herself, rather than the man for eschewing her prior commitments in order to ride in a car with the apparently irresistible man. The man closely reminded me of Donald Trump and his relationship with woman over the years. To this day, I cannot believe he was elected President of the United States. On the news, I'm constantly hearing about all the horrible things he's done, such as taking away DACA and building prototypes of the wall he wants to stop immigration. It angers me when Trump voters begin to complain about their regret in voting for Trump. They should have thought about their decision to vote for him much more thoroughly. Thinking about the regret in Trump's presidency, I realized that the relationship between the United States and Donald Trump was similar to the situation going on between the man and the women in Lichtenstein's painting. The United States population (for the most part) is angered in themselves for being unable to resist the words that came out of Trump's mouth. A lot of people really thought that Trump would regain the U.S.' place in the economic world and help them advance in the race we call life. THAT is what I wanted my painting to essentially represent. By having Donald Trump at the wheel, it represents that he's in charge of the final destination and that The United States no longer has a say in his decisions. I painted the Statue of Liberty to represent the United States and because it's a statue of a woman that represents liberty and freedom. By having Trump make all the decisions for her, it becomes ironic because she REPRESENTS the freedom to make your own decisions.
Compare & Contrast
SIMILARITIES
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DIFFERENCES
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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
The works of Roy Lichtenstein led me to come up with a painting that would visualize the relationship of the U.S. and Donald Trump. Lichtenstein's artworks were alterations of other artworks and media intended to shock his viewers with the garish impact of popular culture. His inspirations came from the culture at large and suggested little of the artist's individual feelings. This was something that intrigued me and inspired me to also take on that role in my art.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author solely informs the reader's on the Lichtenstein's style and provides an analysis of some of his best works. The author provided me with the meaning of In The Car by Roy Lichtenstein and allowed me to make my own connections to politics.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
A conclusion I discovered about Lichtenstein as I researched more about his works was that he demonstrates his fascination with women in the midst of love affairs with men who were treating them unfairly. Many of his other paintings deal with the similar melodramatic subject of a woman fawning over a man, or else suffering tragedy from her romance.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme around my inspirational research was war and conflict.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Lichtenstein's art styles marked a major shift away from Abstract Expressionism, whose often tragic themes were thought to well up from the souls of the artists. Lichtenstein's inspirations came from the culture at large and suggested little of the artist's individual feelings.His re-imagining of popular culture through the lens of traditional art history that has remained a considerable influence to later generations of artists, as Pop art went on to significantly inform Postmodernism.
The works of Roy Lichtenstein led me to come up with a painting that would visualize the relationship of the U.S. and Donald Trump. Lichtenstein's artworks were alterations of other artworks and media intended to shock his viewers with the garish impact of popular culture. His inspirations came from the culture at large and suggested little of the artist's individual feelings. This was something that intrigued me and inspired me to also take on that role in my art.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author solely informs the reader's on the Lichtenstein's style and provides an analysis of some of his best works. The author provided me with the meaning of In The Car by Roy Lichtenstein and allowed me to make my own connections to politics.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
A conclusion I discovered about Lichtenstein as I researched more about his works was that he demonstrates his fascination with women in the midst of love affairs with men who were treating them unfairly. Many of his other paintings deal with the similar melodramatic subject of a woman fawning over a man, or else suffering tragedy from her romance.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme around my inspirational research was war and conflict.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Lichtenstein's art styles marked a major shift away from Abstract Expressionism, whose often tragic themes were thought to well up from the souls of the artists. Lichtenstein's inspirations came from the culture at large and suggested little of the artist's individual feelings.His re-imagining of popular culture through the lens of traditional art history that has remained a considerable influence to later generations of artists, as Pop art went on to significantly inform Postmodernism.
SOURCES:
- “ In the Car.” In The Car | Roy Lichtenstein, Art Pieces Foundation, www.artpieces.net/in-the-car.html.
- “Roy Lichtenstein .” The Art Story, The Art Story Foundation, www.theartstory.org/artist-lichtenstein-roy.htm.