Personal Direction #1

Project Proposal

Project Description:
    I plan to continue my current investigation of polarities inherent in human nature. I will focus on the awkwardness produced by the struggle to find balance between these polarities, and create a large-scale acrylic painting illuminating it.
   This direction has stemmed from an interest in the Freudian personality and the concept of the “id” and “superego,” although more based on the emotional uneasiness born from it rather than any psychological or theoretical interest.
   As part of my process, I research the meanings and individual implications of specific images in order to create symbols for the “id” and “ego.” I collect imagery that best personifies my intentions and combine them to express new ideas.

Project Intention:
   My intention is to create awkward paintings that emphasize the anxiety derived from contradictory desires. I will create a system of symbols by manipulating the universal associations behind classical architecture and high-school teenagers. Teenagers, who are thought of as young, disreputable, emotional, and immersed in baseless rebellion, become signifiers for the self-satisfying “id.” Classical architecture, a symbol of respect and of the pinnacle of human capability, becomes the visual equivalent of the perfectionist “superego.”
   The final piece will be a single four by five foot acrylic painting that utilizes these symbols.

Timeline:
Week 1:

• collect imagery

• experiment with composition thumbnails

• build stretcher and prime surface

Week 2:

• finalize imagery & composition
• begin painting

Week 3:

• complete painting

Final Painting:

 

 

Critique Notes:

- successfully communicated the idea of contradiction

- successfully conveyed an awkwardness through color & perspective, but could alter it still to seem more purposeful

- consider using different techniques of paint handling to push the contradiction/ emphasize that the figures do not "belong" in the space