Artwork: Mixed Media
Title: Silver and Gold
Size: 30cm x 30cm Medium: Copper wire sculptor and embroidery on canvas Completion: December, 2018 Exhibition Text Best-friends are like silver and gold. This piece Silver and Gold is created based on my two best-friends, Bawi Len and Grady. They are people that I value, respect, love, and are genuinely important and special to me. It presents my definition of a best friend. It was inspired by The Son of Man by Rene Magritte, Josephine Baker (III) by Alexander Calder, and Friends to keep you warm by Izziyana Suhaimi. Canvas, wire sculpture and hand embroidery were used to produce this piece. |
Meaning
Best-friends are like silver and gold. I have two best-friends, Grady and Bawi Len. Bawi Len and I are best-friends for about eight years already. There are many things we have in common. For examples, we both like to dance, sing, talk, shop, spend time together, and love food. We tell each other everything such as our personal struggles or problems, family issues, school, life in general, crushes, our likes and dislikes, and so on. She is my secreats box, and it goes the same for her. She is a person who I look at and thank God for giving me a friend like her. I am so blessed to have her in my life.
Grady and I are friends for about eight years too, but we became closed at the beginning of freshman year. She is literally my second mom. She takes care of me physically, mentally, and emotionally. She is a person who keeps her promises and takes actions rather than talk. We understand each other very well. She knows what kind of person I am such as my personalities, my likes and dislikes, my strengths and weaknesses, and so on, and it goes the same for me. I am super blessed to have a friend like her in my life.
Bawi Len and Grady are my definition of best friend. They are a person who help me grow mentally, physically, and emotionally. They are people who encourage and support me to be a better person. They both are honest, loyal and trustworthy. She let me know if I did something wrong rather than just keep it to themselves or let it slid. We always tell each other if we hurt one another and talk about what we could do and learn from it. These two people keep me warm, give me comfort, help me grow in a positive way, and want me to be successful in life. Grady and Bawi Len are very special to me and they are beautiful inside and out. They are like silver and gold, I value them.
Arrows : they goes up meaning to grow
Green and blue: pour water and me to help me grow and be healthy and alive
Orange, red, and yellow: warmth, safety, and comfort
White: pure and no negative intentions
Sunflower: making me happy, and sunshine
Hearts: kind, love, nice and beautiful inside and out
Gold wire and silver wire: Gold, sliver, priceless, strong, steady and values
Open arms: comfort, understanding and forgiveness
Grady and I are friends for about eight years too, but we became closed at the beginning of freshman year. She is literally my second mom. She takes care of me physically, mentally, and emotionally. She is a person who keeps her promises and takes actions rather than talk. We understand each other very well. She knows what kind of person I am such as my personalities, my likes and dislikes, my strengths and weaknesses, and so on, and it goes the same for me. I am super blessed to have a friend like her in my life.
Bawi Len and Grady are my definition of best friend. They are a person who help me grow mentally, physically, and emotionally. They are people who encourage and support me to be a better person. They both are honest, loyal and trustworthy. She let me know if I did something wrong rather than just keep it to themselves or let it slid. We always tell each other if we hurt one another and talk about what we could do and learn from it. These two people keep me warm, give me comfort, help me grow in a positive way, and want me to be successful in life. Grady and Bawi Len are very special to me and they are beautiful inside and out. They are like silver and gold, I value them.
Arrows : they goes up meaning to grow
Green and blue: pour water and me to help me grow and be healthy and alive
Orange, red, and yellow: warmth, safety, and comfort
White: pure and no negative intentions
Sunflower: making me happy, and sunshine
Hearts: kind, love, nice and beautiful inside and out
Gold wire and silver wire: Gold, sliver, priceless, strong, steady and values
Open arms: comfort, understanding and forgiveness
Planning
Inspirations
Magritte, Rene. The Son of Man. Oil on canvas. Totally History. Totally History, 17 Jul. 2013. Web. 2 Dec. 2018
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My first inspiration was The Son of Man by Rene Magritte. I love how he used everyday objects to make his viewers question their perspective or make them think in general. For example, the man’s face is covered by a green apple which makes the audience think or question what that apple could mean. So, I wanted my piece to be symbolic and have meaning. I wanted to fill the faces with sunflowers instead of physical features. This could automatically let the audience wonder what could sunflowers mean or represent.
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Calder, Alexander. Josephine Baker (III). Steel wire. 1927. Web. 29 Nov. 2018
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My second inspiration was Josephine Baker (III) by Alexander Calder. When I first saw his piece, I was amazed by the details and patterns that were used to create the figure. I thought I should use wire to my piece as well. My wire sculptor will not be as details as Calder, but would have thicker outlines. When I made up my mind that I would use wire to my piece, I had an idea of using silver and gold copper wire to represents how good friends are like silver and gold. I think this idea would create deep meaning with unique style of mixed media.
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Suhaimi, Izziyana. Friends to keep you warm. Mixed Media. Web. 29 Nov. 2018
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My third inspiration was Friends to keep you warm by Izziyana Suhaimi. She combined mixed media drawings and embroidery. She often draw figures in graphite, pen, or watercolor and then stitches with needle and threads. When I first saw her piece, I had an idea of using canvas as my base and included embroidery as well. Also, I learned different patterns of stitches when I was in sophomore year for my personal project so this might be an opportunity to used what I had learned. Another thing I liked what this piece was I could feel the texture of the stitches just by looking at it. I wanted my piece to look like two denominational with texture that people could see or feel just by looking at it.
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Planning Sketches
Experimentation and Techniques
Before I began my final piece, I practiced hand embroidery. I did different patterns of stitches. I found out that their should be a balance between tightness and looseness of fabric in order to stitch. It was easier to stitch on cloth fabric than on canvas.
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This copper wire experiment that I did before I began creating my final piece. I wanted to see if the wire could be bend, twist, and create variety of shapes. I ended up creating a flower using a black wire and a gold wire. I found out that I needed pliers to cut, and twist the wire because using my hands was not enough.
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Process
First, I connected the four stretcher bars to created the frame. I stapled the connected areas using a staple gun and hammered the staples to go deeper into the bars. Then, I cut the canvas fabric a little larger than what I need with a scissor.
Then, I created the the outline of the figure using very thin copper wire; copper wires are easy to bend. I created two figures using gold and silver copper wire.
Then, I placed the figures in the center of the canvas and began to stitched the outline with needle and a red thread. I made sure to pull the thread tightly to prevent them from loosing and hanging out.
After that, I began to stitched using needle and different colors of threads. I often used the same basic patterns to fill in those pieces. This was because the canvas was a little bit harder for embroidery. This prevented me from applying variety of patterns.
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Next, I folded the fabric on the back sides of the frame and stapled them tightly around the center of the bars. Then, I folded the edges around the corner tightly and stapled them again. After that, I applied canvas primer gesso and let it dry.
After that, I applied more copper wire to the figures repeatedly to make them thicker and well constructed. I also added the arms for each figures.
Next, I drew an outline of the pieces such as hearts, arrows, and sunflowers that I wanted to include before stitching. This helped me to organize where everything was placed and prevented me from making mistakes.
Last but not least, I erased pencil marks with eraser to make the piece nice and clean. Then, add variety of colors using watercolor. Also, I began to take photos for the final piece.
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Reflection
Critique
I am pleased with how my final artwork turned out and I am proud of myself. This was my first time creating a mixed media piece. I actually enjoyed creating my piece because I had ideas of what I wanted to create and how I should apply all these ideas together. My thoughts and materials that I used were very clear and organized. However there were some challenges throughout creating my piece. One example was I kept poking myself with the needle while creating the stitches on the canvas. So, I used my dad's gloves to prevent poking myself. Another challenge that I faced was shaping weir into the shapes that I wanted was very difficult just by using hands. So, I borrowed my dad's pliers to shaped, cut, and pulled the wire. Overall, I had fun creating this piece and happy about the outcome as well.
Compare and Contrast
"The Son of Man" Rene Magritte, 1964
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Similarities
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Differences
The Son of Man
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"Silver and Gold" Jacinta Tial, 2018
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"Josephine Baker (III)" Alexander Calder, 1927
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Similarities
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Differences
Josephine Baker (III)
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"Silver and Gold" Jacinta Tial, 2018
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"Friends to keep you warm" Izziyana Suhaimi
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Similarities
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Differences
Friends to keep you warm
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"Silver and Gold" 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?
Rene Magritte applied an object to covered the face of the image, Alexander Calder used wire to created the figure, and Izziyana Suhaimi combined mixed media of embroidery and drawing. I applied the parts that I like from each of their pieces, and combined these pieces to create my artwork.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author of my research talks about Rene Magritte's life and how his works are thought provoking and disturbing the viewer. This portrayed an over view of who Rene was and how he challenged the people to view art in a different perspective. An author from my other research talks about how embroidery artists creatively pushing the boundaries of embroidery of its meaning and limits.
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 embroidery has existed as far back as 5th century BC. Also, I discovered that surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s and the two main branches are improvised art and hallucinatory scenes.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central themes around my inspirational research are the power of the imagination, creativity, love, warmth, and movement.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Inferences I made included the great amount of time it took for Alexander Calder to create his work. For examples, banding wire and creating perfect patterns of circles must have take a great amount of time and patience. Not only that, embroidery also take a lot of time to create each stitches, patterns, and changing different colors of threads.
Rene Magritte applied an object to covered the face of the image, Alexander Calder used wire to created the figure, and Izziyana Suhaimi combined mixed media of embroidery and drawing. I applied the parts that I like from each of their pieces, and combined these pieces to create my artwork.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author of my research talks about Rene Magritte's life and how his works are thought provoking and disturbing the viewer. This portrayed an over view of who Rene was and how he challenged the people to view art in a different perspective. An author from my other research talks about how embroidery artists creatively pushing the boundaries of embroidery of its meaning and limits.
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 embroidery has existed as far back as 5th century BC. Also, I discovered that surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s and the two main branches are improvised art and hallucinatory scenes.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central themes around my inspirational research are the power of the imagination, creativity, love, warmth, and movement.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Inferences I made included the great amount of time it took for Alexander Calder to create his work. For examples, banding wire and creating perfect patterns of circles must have take a great amount of time and patience. Not only that, embroidery also take a lot of time to create each stitches, patterns, and changing different colors of threads.
Citations
Izziyana Suhaimi. (n.d.). Retrieved November 28, 2018, from http://www.izziyanasuhaimi.com/#/friends-to-keep-you-warm/
Shovova. (2018, April 25). 19 Artists Creatively Pushing the Boundaries of Embroidery. Retrieved November 29, 2018, from https://mymodernmet.com/embroidery-artists/
Calder, A. (n.d.). Alexander Calder Josephine Baker (III) Paris, c. 1927. Retrieved November 28, 2018, from https://www.moma.org/collection/works/81896
The Son of Man by René Magritte – Facts & History about the Painting. (2013, July 17). Retrieved September 14, 2018, from http://totallyhistory.com/the-son-of-man/
Shovova. (2018, April 25). 19 Artists Creatively Pushing the Boundaries of Embroidery. Retrieved November 29, 2018, from https://mymodernmet.com/embroidery-artists/
Calder, A. (n.d.). Alexander Calder Josephine Baker (III) Paris, c. 1927. Retrieved November 28, 2018, from https://www.moma.org/collection/works/81896
The Son of Man by René Magritte – Facts & History about the Painting. (2013, July 17). Retrieved September 14, 2018, from http://totallyhistory.com/the-son-of-man/