Artwork: IMAG(E)INE
Title: My Chin Community #1
Size: 36in x 36in Medium: Mixed Media (Digital Manipulation/ Silk Screen Printing) Completion: October 26, 2018 Exhibition Text: My Chin Community #1 was created based on Chin community from my church in Milwaukee. This work defines my definition of community that I am currently living in. To me, community mean togetherness, involving in a group activities, help one another, work together, a sense of belonging and people sharing the same goal. It was inspired by Water Lilies painted by Claude Monet and Family II by Fernando Botero. Adobe Photoshop CS6 and silk screen printing were used to produce this piece. |
Meaning
There are many meanings and symbols to this art work. One example is me carrying my little sister symbolize Chin community. This community is a place where I feel like we are all a part of a big family. Just like how family members are always there for each others during high and low in life. Chin community is just like family, we care about each other, we help each other in a happy time or sad time, we work together to keep our traditions and cultures alive, we all are involves in any activities and set goals for the community as a whole. The green grass represent growth. Chin community is increasing in number of people, growth in educations, careers, better future for the younger generations, and growth in spiritual. Also, the snow, a leaf, a flower, and the sun represent the four seasons in Wisconsin. I applied this to this piece as a setting because we lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Lastly, I used bright colors such as light blue and green to symbolize a peacefulness and liveliness of this Chin community.
Planning
Inspirations
Monet, Claude. Water Lilies. Oil on canvas.
1906. Web. 9 Nov. 2018. |
My first inspiration was Water Lilies painted by Claude Monet. I remembered my art history teacher talked about Monet and how huge his painting of Water Lilies. In this painting of Water Lilies, Monet focuses on the surface of the pond, with a groups of vegetation floating among the reflection of sky and trees in the water. After seeing this painting, I cam up with an idea of including different seasons, and plants that represent Wisconsin to represent this Chin community is at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I loved how Monet used cool colors in his piece emphasizing the peacefulness and the beauty of the nature. So, I wanted to include cool colors to represent peacefulness, growth, liveliness, and the beauty of my Chin community.
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Botero, Fernando. Family II. Oil on canvas.
Web. 9 Oct. 2018. |
The second inspiration was Family II created by Fernando Botero. I also remembered my art history talked about this artist in my sophomore year. His piece Family II clearly portrayed family. So, I thought I should apply me carrying my younger sister just like how the mother is carrying one of her child in Fernando's work. This could represent a community that is like a caring family. I also like how Fernando uses natures for the background of his paint such as huge, green trees, green grass, and the bright yellow fruits.
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Research
Background of Chin Community
The first Chin person who settled first in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was Bawi Kung. He met good new White friends who were helping him to start his own sushi store and a place to stay. Then later on, some other Chin people started to move here from different states and others came here as a refugee from either Malaysia or India through United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). As the number of people started to grow, they looked for a church because Chin people are a hundred percent Christian and it was also to support and help one other since many of the people were suffering from moving to a country where they does not know anyone, the language(English) , cultures, ways of living, etc. Church is where they get a sense of comfort, support, and know that they are not alone. Their first Church name was Milwaukee Chin Baptist Church (MCBC).
In 2011, my family and I settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and started to attend MCBC church. Of course, our lives was less difficult as many others who came here before us. This is because they already know and learned how things works by their own experiences. This church members took care of not just my family, but also other new families. Many of my friends were here about three or four years before me.
As the number of Chin people grow, MCBC was started to divided into three different churches; MCBC, CCBC, and ECBC. However, all of these three churches were combined to celebrate Chin National Day on every February. My family and I currently attend ECBC church. This ECBC church community is where I belong and called my home.
In 2011, my family and I settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and started to attend MCBC church. Of course, our lives was less difficult as many others who came here before us. This is because they already know and learned how things works by their own experiences. This church members took care of not just my family, but also other new families. Many of my friends were here about three or four years before me.
As the number of Chin people grow, MCBC was started to divided into three different churches; MCBC, CCBC, and ECBC. However, all of these three churches were combined to celebrate Chin National Day on every February. My family and I currently attend ECBC church. This ECBC church community is where I belong and called my home.
Planning Sketches and Collecting Images
First, I brainstorm what I wanted to include for this piece after listening to the presentation for this project. I came up with different community: Chin community, Reagan community, etc. Then, I ended up choosing Chin community based on my church because I am most familiar with this. Then, I started to think about what makes community? What is community? What are the values, culture, people, and tradition that make up this Chin community? After that I came up with my own definition n of what I think is community.
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After knowing what I wanted to do, I searched for my inspirations. Before I began my sketches, I took a couple of photos of me carrying my little sister. I took the pictures first because I thought this would help me to start my sketches in a precious actions. Also, this is the best picture that I took since I had to put a timer. I could have took a better high quality pictures.
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After taking the pictures, I started sketching. I came up with this image for my piece. I originally wanted to use this as my main background, however I ended up just using me carrying my little sister for my final background, the picture on the right.
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This sketch is the final piece that I decided where everything will be placed. I combined all my sketches and placed them where I think they belong best. I also annotated or described what each piece or color symbolize or represent.
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Experimentation/ Techniques
I did some experiments using Adobe Photoshop CS6 to create different background colors. So, I used "Gradient Tool" and clicked on "Spectrum" from "Gradient Editor." This allowed me to make a rainbow for the background.
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Another thing that I experimented with was the hardness or the smoothness of the edges. I used the tool "Posterize" to change the edges of the lines. I could either make lines smooth or harsh by using this tool.
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Process
First, I created a 36inx36in background canvas with 200 resolution using Adobe Photoshop. Then to create my back ground color, I clicked on "Gradient Tool" and chose this them. Also, I changed the colors using "Color Balance" from "Properties."
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Next, I used "Quick Selection tool" to select the image that I wanted and clicked "Refine edge" to fix the edges and to make sure that I completely selected all the parts that I need.
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Then, I wanted to apply grass by my feet. So, I used "Custom Shape Tool" to choose the grass shape that they already provided. I spread the grass around and clicked on "Fill" to change the color to darker green.
After printing my background, I started to draw the stencils using stencil papers. Then, I cut them all out. Then we went to MIAD to work on this piece.
After that, I started to apply the color that I want on the top part of the screen frame. Then, I used "squeegee" to spread the paint back and forth and placed the screen frame on top of my background. I used the same "Squeegee" to spread the paint back and forth to let the paint soak into the paper. After that, I just repeated the same process for the other stencils. Finally, I let the final piece dry by placing it on the floor. |
After that, I used "Rectangle Tool" to draw a rectangular shape at the bottom part of the image. Then, clicked on "Fill" to switch the color to light blue. I also used the tool "Posterize" to make the edges of the rectangle to bland with other colors that already exited. Finally, this is the final piece for the background.
To apply this stencil to the piece, first, I taped all the edges of a stencil on top of the "screen frame" and then, flipped it to the back side.
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Reflection
Critique
The background turned out to be grate since I am familiar with the tools that I was using. I used Photoshop for my digital college and did a lot of experiments with the tools which helped me to have a better understand of the tools. Since, this is my first piece that I created using silk screen printing, I kinda messed up in the process of my first stencil. Two main challenges that I faced during the process of using screen printing were lack of colors and spreading color in the wrong place. I did not know that I was supposed to just spread the color on the area where the paper covered. So, I made a mistake the first stencil that I did. However, I learned from that mistake and did better as I move on to do other stencils. I was proud of my work because this is my first time doing screen printing, so I did not put too much pressure on myself for not achieving everything that I planned. The most important thing is to learn from your mistake and do not make the same mistake in the future.
Compare and Contrast
"Water Lilies"
Claude Monet, 1906 |
Similarities
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Differences
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"My Chin Community #1" Jacinta Tial, 2018
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"Family II"
Fernando Botero |
Similarities
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Differences
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"My Chin Community #1" Jacinta Tial, 2018
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ACT Responses
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
Claude Monet's piece was based on his garden. He used cool colors to make his piece seems peaceful and calm. Just like Monet, I wanted to use cool colors to show my work to give a sense of peacefulness and give a positive vibes. Also, Fernando Botero applied the concept of family in his work. This concept had a great impact on my work because I wanted to present Chin community as a sense of family.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author of my research talks about where Claude Monet gets his inspiration from, which is his garden. I usually paint a large pieces of things that are in his garden such as the pond, water lilies, the bridge, etc. Also, the authors talks about the biography of Fernando Botero. He is a Colombian figurative artist and sculptor.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
While researching my inspiration, I discovered that Claude Monet is one of an impressionism artist. An impressionism movement is a French 19th century art movement. Impressionist art is a style of paining that captures the image of an object as someone would see it if they just caught a glimpse.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea or theme around my inspirational research are the beauty of nature, and family.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
While reading my research. I inferred impressionists captures image of an object as someone would see it if they just caught a glimpse, and I was right. Another thing that I inferred about impressionists was most of their works takes place outside.
Claude Monet's piece was based on his garden. He used cool colors to make his piece seems peaceful and calm. Just like Monet, I wanted to use cool colors to show my work to give a sense of peacefulness and give a positive vibes. Also, Fernando Botero applied the concept of family in his work. This concept had a great impact on my work because I wanted to present Chin community as a sense of family.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author of my research talks about where Claude Monet gets his inspiration from, which is his garden. I usually paint a large pieces of things that are in his garden such as the pond, water lilies, the bridge, etc. Also, the authors talks about the biography of Fernando Botero. He is a Colombian figurative artist and sculptor.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
While researching my inspiration, I discovered that Claude Monet is one of an impressionism artist. An impressionism movement is a French 19th century art movement. Impressionist art is a style of paining that captures the image of an object as someone would see it if they just caught a glimpse.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea or theme around my inspirational research are the beauty of nature, and family.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
While reading my research. I inferred impressionists captures image of an object as someone would see it if they just caught a glimpse, and I was right. Another thing that I inferred about impressionists was most of their works takes place outside.
Citation
Drake, D. (2017, December 07). Fernando Botero: The Million Dollar Painter. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-drake/fernando-botero-the-milli_b_8792234.html
Monet, C. (1970, January 01). Water Lilies. Retrieved November 9, 2018, from https://www.artic.edu/artworks/16568/water-lilies
State Symbols USA. (n.d.). Wood Violet. Retrieved November 9, 2018, from https://statesymbolsusa.org/wisconsin/flower/wood-violet
Monet, C. (1970, January 01). Water Lilies. Retrieved November 9, 2018, from https://www.artic.edu/artworks/16568/water-lilies
State Symbols USA. (n.d.). Wood Violet. Retrieved November 9, 2018, from https://statesymbolsusa.org/wisconsin/flower/wood-violet