Masked PhonySize: 8in x 6in (20cm x 15cm)
Medium: Drypoint October 2019 "Masked Phony" is a self portrait created to portray inner emotion during a tough part of my life. Everyone deals with things differently, and I just choose to keep to myself. I feel the need to put on a mask for others and sometimes I just want to pull it off and show people how I really feel, but I can't. "Masked Phony" was inspired by the German Expressionism art movement, the comedy/tragedy theater masks and by Vincent Van Gogh. The title refers to the person I feel I am and presents my personality. |
Planning
Inspiration
My primary inspiration was Vincent Van Gogh's "Bedroom in Arles". Van Gogh painted a room in France in a place known as "The Yellow House". Its simplistic and somewhat minimalist, but the detail is worth mentioning. The lines on the walls, the angles and perspective of everything; It seems that there was a difficult thought process when trying to gain the perspective that was shown through in the painting. Van Gogh was a part of the post-impressionism, neo-impressionism, and pointialism art movements. As most creations, Van-Gogh's arts are made to portray emotion, to tell a story, to show rhythm. I gained inspiration from the German Expressionism art movement in the early 1900's as well. German Expressionistic art was very good at expressing feelings in their pieces. One artist in particular that I found did this really well, is Max Beckmann. He made a portfolio from 1914-1923 that consisted of some dry point etches as well as some lithograph prints and a few other mediums. I found two in particular that really showed the distress and lonesomeness that I wanted to capture in my dry point. The last major thing that I was influenced by were the comedy/tragedy (also known as sock and buskin) masks used in ancient Greek theater. They were used to better show the intended emotion to the crowd.
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Symbolism/Meaning
I wanted to show my recent emotions in this project. I'm having a rough time in my personal life right now, and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to express myself in this piece. I put on a mask for others in trying to give the impression that everything is okay and everything will be fine, and I'm really good at it. However, sometimes it's a cover up. On many occasions, I end up spending too much of my time contemplating, and overthinking the future, overwhelming myself. It's not something I'm proud of, but something I've gotten used to. I want to be seen as someone who is normal, who is tough and thick-skinned, which is something I think I've gained. But what is normal? For me, normal I think is the younger me. And I miss the old me. I've lost too many people, too many things that I can't get back. I haven't been able to catch a break. So behind closed doors, I take off the mask. I show my soft side, I let it all out. And in a way, I think we all have a mask we put on behind closed doors as well.
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Planning/EXPERIMENTATION
Etching/Printing Process
Etching
I first began my making sure that my planning sketch was complete and the lines were darkened. This was to make sure that I would be able to see the lines when I was carving them. I then peeled the protective layer off of one side of the piece of plastic. I cut my drawing to the size of the plastic, and used blue painters-tape to hold it on. I made sure that the side of the plastic that I pulled the protective layer off was the side facing upward, with the drawing on the bottom side. I began etching over the lines that I could see through the plastic, essentially tracing my drawing into the plastic. It was pretty difficult to control when etching because the plastic was hard to get through. The hardest parts were the lines that needed to be shaded in like the faces on both masks, because with such a fine point it takes more time to fill a space. |
Printing
Once I had finished carving, I went on to printing. The first step is to soak a piece or 2 of watercolor paper in water for exactly 8 minutes. During these 8 minutes, we prepare the Drypoint. To do this, 2 pieces of newsprint are used, one that will get dirty from the ink and a fresh one to minimize mess on the final print. I began by putting a small amount of ink on the plastic across the top in a line. Then, used the scraping tool to drag the ink across the lines in all directions, ensuring that it was evenly spread into all the carved lines. The newsprint was to try and wipe all the excess ink off the top to create the negative space, and taking as much off as possible, not applying a lot of pressure to try and keep the ink in the parts where it was wanted. Then, the plastic is transferred to the clean newsprint upside-down, and clean the back. The etching was placed on the rolling table, covered with the fabric sheets and roller over with the rolling wheel. Then, the paper was peeled off and allowed to dry. |
I experimented with trying to make 2 prints out of one ink application; basically rolling it through the press in both directions, switching the paper after one roll through. The second print was pretty bad though. It barely held ink, and the paper was way off center. I also did some experimenting with color. I wanted to make it closer to Van Gogh's piece, so I painted with watercolor vibrant colors all over the room. I personally like it better colorless, but it was a good test.
Compare/ContrastSimilarities
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Reflection
,I'm very satisfied with the final product. I got a lot of great practice for future projects in etching and carving as well as printing and using a printing roller. I did have some trouble trying to get all the excess ink off of my plate, hence the upward streaks. I do in fact like it like this though, I think it adds emphasis to the room and it acts as almost a type of shading. This ink was not water soluble, it was oil based so it was much harder to remove from everything. The easiest way to get it off the tables and tools and such was by using mineral spirits, however I could not use mineral spirits on my piece to take off the excess. I made 2 prints; one of which was not as good as the other. I think if I did this again, I would want to make more prints and find a new way to dry them. Because we had to dry them on metal racks, and the paper was damp, it warped as it dried and never fully flattened out.
ACT Responses
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork...
Max Beckmann used negative space to show the feeling of being alone or to show the person was the focus of the piece and in my dry point, you get the feeling of lonesomeness from the negative space.
What is the overall Point of view the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The authors of my research gave a good overview of Vincent Van Gogh's artistic intention, and an in depth reference to meaning/method of his artworks.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
The German Expressionism movement was a large art movement that was greatly remembered as the WW1 war movement because it began in Germany during WW1 and expressed the isolation of war that many felt.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My central idea was to make something that showed my current feelings of isolation and distance.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
After researching Van Gogh, I could see how popular and well know to the world Van Gogh was, arguably the most renowned artist to have lived.
Max Beckmann used negative space to show the feeling of being alone or to show the person was the focus of the piece and in my dry point, you get the feeling of lonesomeness from the negative space.
What is the overall Point of view the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The authors of my research gave a good overview of Vincent Van Gogh's artistic intention, and an in depth reference to meaning/method of his artworks.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
The German Expressionism movement was a large art movement that was greatly remembered as the WW1 war movement because it began in Germany during WW1 and expressed the isolation of war that many felt.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My central idea was to make something that showed my current feelings of isolation and distance.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
After researching Van Gogh, I could see how popular and well know to the world Van Gogh was, arguably the most renowned artist to have lived.
SOURCES
Images
Happy/Sad Theatre Masks. www.google.com/search?q=happy+sad+theater+faces&rlz=1CAZGSZ_enUS868&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjvmY-1mObqAhVMWs0KHe-kDqUQ_AUoAXoECA0QAw&biw=1366&bih=609&safe=active&ssui=on#imgrc=a7LrZSvu5CxOFM.
Bedroom in Arles. 2020, www.google.com/search?q=bedroom+in+arles&rlz=1CAZGSZ_enUS868&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwie9v3zmObqAhWWKM0KHZ6lBs0Q_AUoAXoECCMQAw&biw=1366&bih=609&safe=active&ssui=on#imgrc=NyKeIiXiZjDr0M
Faces. (n.d.). Retrieved 2019, from https://www.moma.org/s/ge/collection_ge/objbyppib/objbyppib_ppib-12_sov_page-12.html
Orpheus Before Pluto and Proserpina. (n.d.). Retrieved 2019, from https://www.moma.org/collection/works/9075
Websites
Vincent van Gogh Paintings, Bio, Ideas. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.theartstory.org/artist/van-gogh-vincent/.
“German Expressionism.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Sept. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Expressionism.
Happy/Sad Theatre Masks. www.google.com/search?q=happy+sad+theater+faces&rlz=1CAZGSZ_enUS868&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjvmY-1mObqAhVMWs0KHe-kDqUQ_AUoAXoECA0QAw&biw=1366&bih=609&safe=active&ssui=on#imgrc=a7LrZSvu5CxOFM.
Bedroom in Arles. 2020, www.google.com/search?q=bedroom+in+arles&rlz=1CAZGSZ_enUS868&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwie9v3zmObqAhWWKM0KHZ6lBs0Q_AUoAXoECCMQAw&biw=1366&bih=609&safe=active&ssui=on#imgrc=NyKeIiXiZjDr0M
Faces. (n.d.). Retrieved 2019, from https://www.moma.org/s/ge/collection_ge/objbyppib/objbyppib_ppib-12_sov_page-12.html
Orpheus Before Pluto and Proserpina. (n.d.). Retrieved 2019, from https://www.moma.org/collection/works/9075
Websites
Vincent van Gogh Paintings, Bio, Ideas. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.theartstory.org/artist/van-gogh-vincent/.
“German Expressionism.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Sept. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Expressionism.