II Term Reflections

 Summing up the whole term 2, I am satisfied only with the fact that I have learned a lot of interesting and very useful things for the future. We explored how to create a structure for surfaces, how to create abstract works, what it means to work in a group with artists and how to use the experience and knowledge of other artists in your work. Unfortunately, I am disappointed with my attitude, which was a bit the result of a long-lasting two-month illness, which made me very difficult to catch up with. That's why I'm staying up late tonight to finish everything before the deadline. The truth is also that the life of an adult student who has to work and has no day off and who also has responsibilities at home is really very difficult. The only thing that keeps me in these studies is the belief in a better future after graduation and amazing opportunities to learn and do what I love. The project that I did at the last minute gave me a lot of satisfaction, although I already know what I will do differently in the next term to improve my regularity. Despite the difficulties and adversities that I encountered during this term, I certainly learned from them to try even harder and not to make the same mistakes in the future.

Final Outcomes of "My Dimensional Emotions"

"My Dimensional Emotions " Project

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I created "My Dimentional Emotions" because I wanted to show my personal vision of basic emotions immortalized through artistic expression. I visualized them using abstractions, colors and constructions on wooden board to also try to arouse the same emotions in the recipient. Each of the works presents a different selection of shapes, color compositions appropriately selected to reflect a different emotion.

 "There's a reason we don't see the world in black and white." - Celerie Kemble

HAPPINESS 

20x25

Wooden board, Aluminium foil,acrylic paint

SURPRISE 

20x25

Wooden board, acrylic paint, cardboard

FEAR 

20x25

Wooden board, paper, jute twine, plaster bandage, acrylic paint

ANGER 

20x25

Wooden board, paper roll, jute twine, hot gun glue acrylic paint

DISGUST 

20x25

Wooden board, aluminum foil, fabric, acrylic paint

SADNESS 

20x25

Wooden board, fabric, acrylic paint

Creating final outcomes for the major project

I finally started working on the final look of my work for the main project. I'll start with the happiest, which is HAPPINESS. The whole process from painting a wooden board to creating a flower and a butterfly on it from aluminum foil to painting everything in a colorful cheerful abstraction reflecting my happy emotions. The concept of a colorful flower and butterfly was created because I love nature and since I was a child I associated flowers and butterflies with happiness. As a little girl, I used to run away from the world to the garden, picking flowers and catching butterflies to admire their colorful wings. It was a time that made me happy whenever I needed solitude and rest from everyone.

Another work titled ANGER made of similar materials with the addition of a roll of paper as a candle or dynamite (depending on perception) and jute twine as a fuse or wick. This concept was meant to show that anger is often associated with the explosion of something like dynamite or with a blown candle flame. I also associate it with great anger and red and orange colors.

The third work in turn is entitled DISGUST. The additional material that was used were thin strips of cut fabric dipped in acrylic paint. For me, one of the two most disgusting things is vomiting. That's why they found themselves as a symbol of disgust. Added to this is a dark turquoise face with blue lips as a symbol of a disgusting disease.

The work titled FEAR was made using plaster bandages from which I made a reflection of a face that scares. He is gray in color, his eye and mouth are sewn with jute string from which you can see blood. From paper I also created something in the shape of a whirlpool that pulls you into the abyss of darkness. I have visions of fear and what scares me.

Unfortunately, with the last two works I was so focused on creating that I forgot to take pictures of the process. Usually, when I'm in this creative frenzy, it slips my mind completely. At this point, nothing else matters but implementing the idea and creating a new work.

First concepts for my project based on the works of other artists

The first thing I decided to check is to paint an abstract from my project based on the work of other artists. Checking how they achieved such effects and what materials they used. Mainly my selected artists and those recommended by my tutors created using acrylic paints on canvas or paper. I personally chose small canvas boards for this. Below are the effects of my work and experimentation and the works of artists that were my inspiration.

The first of the works presents anger - madness. As inspiration I chose the work "Camino Real (II)" by Cy Twombly. According to a study on color psychology, the Colors she used represent anger perfectly, and these are the exact colors I would like to use in my final work. The composition itself, in my opinion, shows a kind of feeling in the head that can be caused by anger and frustration. Personally, I would like to show more madness and I think I will have to add some color or shade to represent it more. The composition would also have to be crazier and more must happen on the canvas.

Camino Real

Another work is Sadness - depression. Her inspiration was Lee Krasner and her work "Night Creatures". In the case of this work, the colors are slightly inverted but still indicate sadness. Maybe even more than my job. I think blue is too dominant for me, although it is associated with sadness and nostalgia. However, I am less suited to depression and here I would have to work more on dark colors. In Lee's work, these night creatures are also more visible, but I'm not sure if I would see depression and sadness that way. I need to delve more into the composition and the depiction of these emotions properly.

Night Creatures

The next work presents Disgust - Awfulness. I chose 3 colors and an abstract depicting a vomiting woman. It was supposed to be disgusting and it is. Jenny Sevile who mainly paints very unusual people, actually their bodies because they are no longer alive. I'm not that good at drawing people so I did it in a typical abstract art. The colors obviously indicate disgust, strange shades of green. On her oracs we can see a much larger palette of colors and shades. Maybe when I finish my work, I'll try to get a little sloppy as well.

Entry-humanness reduced to meat

The penultimate job is a surprise-confusion. Here my inspiration was Helen Frankenthaler and her work "Gray Fireworks". The main color in my work was supposed to be orange, which indicates surprise, but also a combination of other colors such as grays and greens quite well reflects the atmosphere. Helen's main colors are grays and greens, which is why I associated them with my title of work. For this painting, I first used water poured on the canvas and only then I painted with paints to get the effect of such blurry, wet paint, like Helen. I really like this kind of abstraction and visually it speaks to me the most after Sam Francis.

Grey Fireworks

Sam Francis

The last abstraction is Happiness - Joy abstraction. The yellow background represents Happiness, and all the other colors and shapes represent how I feel when I am Joyful. The inspiration for this work was a mess from Sam Francis' work, because that's how I imagine the emotions of happiness and joy when I feel them. Sam's work also seems to be made with happy emotions due to the choice of colors.

Sam Francis

Reference: 

1stDibs.com. 2023. Sam Francis - Untitled SF92-55 (Acrylic) For Sale at 1stDibs. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.1stdibs.com/en-gb/art/paintings/abstract-paintings/sam-francis-untitled-sf92-55-acrylic/id-a_10486652/?¤cy=gbp&allowUniversalLink=no&gclid=Cj0KCQiApKagBhC1ARIsAFc7Mc4e4yon1lJGLEgOoqtZFNc9OpE_II6_hb8OGpwfms52Z8q3RWBPYMgaAqIdEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds.  [Accessed 09 March 2023].

exhibit-e.com. 2023. Grey Fireworks - Artworks - Helen Frankenthaler Foundation. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.frankenthalerfoundation.org/artworks/grey-fireworks/details/all. [Accessed 12 March 2023].

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2023. Lee Krasner | Night Creatures | The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/486683. [Accessed 12 March 2023].

Martin Lawrence Galleries. 2023. Untitled, 1976 (SF76-1141A) by Sam Francis | Martin Lawrence Galleries. [ONLINE] Available at: https://martinlawrence.com/products/untitled-1976-sf76-1141a. [Accessed 12 March 2023].

the Guardian. 2023. Jenny Saville’s Entry: humanness reduced to meat | Jenny Saville | The Guardian. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/dec/15/jenny-saville-entry-humanness-reduced-meat-soutine-bacon-freud. [Accessed 12 March 2023].

Camino Real (II), 2010 by Cy Twombly (1928-2011, United States) | Artwork Replica Cy Twombly | ArtsDot.com. 2023. Camino Real (II), 2010 by Cy Twombly (1928-2011, United States) | Artwork Replica Cy Twombly | ArtsDot.com. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.artsdot.com/@@/8XXSF8-Cy-Twombly-Camino-Real-%28II%29. [Accessed 13 March 2023].

Further research: "Six basic emotions in colour theory" and first steps of the project "My Emotional Kaleidoscope"

When I was doing research for my project, I came across an interesting topic "six basic emotions in color theory". Our emotions have been organized into six basic groups, Anger, Happiness, Fear, Disgust, and Surprise. Since scientists have discovered that we humans often associate our emotions and feelings with colors, according to research, we have been able to assign the appropriate emotions to the colors with which they are associated. 

Red was most associated with anger, green with disgust, black with fear, yellow with happiness, blue with sadness, and bright (I chose orange) with surprise. Since my project involves showing my emotions with colors and evoking the same feelings in the recipient, I decided that this article will be very helpful. I decided to make backgrounds for my six works based on these six basic colors of emotions.

Going further, because each of these groups of emotions is divided into subgroups, I would like each of my works to represent a specific subgroup. So if I chose anger and my background is red, then I chose the subgroup angry - madness, happiness - joyful, sadness - depression, surprise - confusion and disgust - disappointment to create the abstraction. 

I read that almost every emotion from my subgroups is reflected in almost the same colors as the main emotions. Some will differ in shade, brightness or predominance of another color with which it will be mixed. It depends on me how I mix the colors and what tones and colors I can get. It is known from research that cold and dark colors are associated with bad emotions and warm and bright colors with good emotions. However, it seems to me that if I properly match the colors that I personally believe reflect my personal emotions, the recipient will also be of the same opinion when assessing my work.

The next step will be to match the appropriate colors to the subgroups, technique and type of abstraction.

Reference:

* SpringerLink. 2023. Color associations to emotion and emotion-laden words: A collection of norms for stimulus construction and selection | SpringerLink. [ONLINE] Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13428-015-0598-8#:~:text=Work%20by%20Gohar%20(2008)%20has,happiness%2C%20sadness%2C%20and%20surprise.. [Accessed 07 March 2023].

* https://www.thehealthyjournal.com. 2023. What color symbolizes anxiety?. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.thehealthyjournal.com/faq/what-color-symbolizes-anxiety. [Accessed 07 March 2023].

* Color Meanings. 2023. What Colors Make You Happy? 7 Colors That Boost Your Mood - Color Meanings. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.color-meanings.com/happy-colors-boost-mood/. [Accessed 07 March 2023].

* Symbolism & Metaphor. 2023. 3 Colors That Represent Confusion (Gray, Purple, Turquoise). [ONLINE] Available at: https://symbolismandmetaphor.com/colors-that-represent-confusion/. [Accessed 07 March 2023].