Inside Look into an anxious mind By WIlfredo Menendez
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Exhibition Text: This piece is inspired by my aspiration to go into the field of psychology. It shows the effects of cognitive influences like stress and anxiety on creativity and passion in art.
Medium: Clay Measurements: 4in x 4in x 6in (10.16cm x10.16 cm x 15.24cm) Completed: April 2016 |
Meaning: This piece is meant to show the effects of anxiety and stress on creativity. Inside the skull their is a "brain" made of crayons to represent creativity. However, even though the creativity and color is there what flows out of the skull is not those colors but rather dark and dull colors. This is meant to show that even though the creativity and passion might be there the stress mixes with it and corrupts it. This is something that I really struggle with and that many other people struggle with too. The main reason why I decided to take art this year was because of how much it helped me deal with stress last year and with this piece I really wanted to pay tribute to that.
Process & Reflection: For this piece I really struggled with ideas. I was also short on time since the clay needed to have sufficient time to dry so it could be placed in the kiln. So, I decided to just make something that is a simple sacred vessel and then go from there. After the skull came out of the kiln I was thinking of what to do with it and decided to make it about my experience with anxiety and how art helps me handle it.
At first I wanted to have a sort of rainbow of melted crayon pouring out of the skull. So I started melting some crayons in a metal can surround by hot water. However, I miscalculated and the colors started blending and ended up making a dark purple/blue almost black color. So I poured that in the skull and started the process over but with light colors which made the light brown color. This frustration reminded me of what anxiety does to imagination and creativity and thought these colors could perfectly represent this. Then since the dark colors were made by mixed light colors I what was left of the crayons I melted in the skull representing creativity and what happens when it comes out mixed with anxiety. |
I am really proud of the concept of this piece, however if I were to redo this piece I would keep the concept the same but just redo the clay skull. I would like to make the skull more realistic. Currently my skills with clay are not the best but they are decent. For next year I plan to work to improve my clay making and forming skills since two of my pieces blew up in the kiln this year. Hopefully since next year I will have a more free structured schedule and will be able to work more with clay. Also, over the summer I might do some clay pieces just for practice and depending how they turn out I might have them fired in the kiln.
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Inspiration:
The reason that I used Marcel Duchamp's fountain as one of my inspirations is not because of how it looks, but rather of how Duchamp used it. Duchamp used this urinal as a piece of art, which is something unusual, and I used a skull as a fountain of sorts which is unusual. At first glance, my piece, similar to Duchamp's might be seem dumb and hard to understand. But once you dig deeper into the piece you see that this strange set up gives the piece significance and depth. One thing that artist like Duchamp have taught me is that art is not simply about aesthetics. Which is one reason that I like Dada, abstract and symbolism style art. Dada consist of thinking outside the box, and that box is what society thinks of art, and I really like that rebellious aspect. This comes into my piece because, skulls in art are usually seen as grim and people tend to stay away from them. Abstract art and symbolism have aspects of rebellion like Dada, but they show this rebellion through beautiful color pallets and mesmerizing uses of shape and line. A wonderful example of this is Henri Rousseau's "Tiger in a Tropical Storm" when I was thinking of how to cover up the foam surrounding the piece without covering the melted crayons. I thought of this painting and decided to use synthetic moss not only does it do what I intended it to do but it has an interesting aesthetic effect on the piece. |
Word Count ( Not Including the Exhibition Text ): 726
Research:
Rousseau, Henri. Tiger In A Tropical Storm. 1891. National Galley London.National Gallery. Web. Apr.-May 2016.
Duchamp, Marcel. Fountain. 1917. Fountain (Duchamp). Web. Apr.-May 2016.
Research:
Rousseau, Henri. Tiger In A Tropical Storm. 1891. National Galley London.National Gallery. Web. Apr.-May 2016.
Duchamp, Marcel. Fountain. 1917. Fountain (Duchamp). Web. Apr.-May 2016.