Our group’s plan for this sculpture was to create a person that looks like they are reaching towards something but being held back by a pile of books and work. The meaning behind this artwork was to show how students are being kept from doing the things they like by pressure created from the work they have to do. Initially, when we came together as a group, each person had quite different ideas, but we all figured a way to incorporate a bit from everyone’s sketches for this sculpture.

For the style of this artwork, I knew I wanted my artwork not to be too challenging, because haven’t really done many paintings before in previous years. So, when I came across Keith Haring’s art, I immediately liked how although the painting style was simple, they conveyed an important message. For example, in one of his artworks Silence=Death shows people covering their eyes, ears, and mouths. Each part of this artwork has a specific meaning (like how the people covering their faces symbolize people with AIDS who feel like they are silenced, even the color and shape of the canvas had a purpose).

First Sketch

As for the color and idea of this artwork, I was inspired by an artwork name Untitled (People) also by Keith Haring, it shows a bunch colorful people piled on top of each other. I like how he didn’t keep each person a specific color, but instead outlining the people on top of blobs of color. I kind of based the way I did the background and the people climbing on top of each other on this artwork. The art elements I think are the most dominant in this artwork are texture and color. I chose to show texture in the brush strokes and the areas with collage. For the color, here isn’t much reasoning behind the why I chose the specific colors, but I wanted them to be a little paler but still kind of “pop out”, so that the colors were noticeable but also helped emphasize the people.

Untitled (People) artwork by Keith Haring

One of the changes I decided to make to my painting is using acrylics instead of watercolor. My initial idea was to use acrylics like Keith Haring did in his works, but I wanted to kind of make the colors slightly more transparent so that I could see my sketch underneath. When I went and used watercolor, I noticed the canvas couldn’t properly absorb the water, so I switch back to the idea of using acrylic. Using acrylic also created another problem, because the paint was so opaque, I couldn’t see any my sketch. I quickly resolved the problem by sketching back over the top of the dried paint. The next problem I faced were the outlines of the figures/characters. I was planning on using acrylics as well for them, but when I tried it out, the line seemed to be too thick and the paint was spotty, so I changed to using a sharpie to draw it out instead.

Initial Plan

Unlike Keith Haring, I decided to make the meaning behind my artwork more based around the environment than social issue. On right I painted many little people climbing over the top of each other and then another bigger person in the middle. The space in the middle figure’s head will be filled with cut-outs of magazines and maybe some newspaper to show how consumerism has affected us. I tried to make the smaller characters look like they were reaching up towards the person in the middle’s “mind”. This expresses how people are being influenced by ads into buying more and more things without having thought in mind about where everything goes when we are “done with it”. On the other half of this painting I will be painting an Earth with more cut-outs on the continents. I’m thinking about just using newspaper for this half to show how many people have already been informed about problems caused by waste humans created have caused for the environment, but still some people are ignoring the problems of the materials economy.

Being of Painting Process

I think that the meaning behind this painting is kind of related to pop art in a way, because some pop artworks are based on products in popular culture (especially Andy Warhol’s work). Some pop artists create idea by using things they find in magazines, comic books, and advertising. My plan for this painting was to focus on mostly the advertising of products and mass production of products, and I thought that by adding in cut out of magazines, ads, etc would add to the idea.

Finished Outlines

The process of brainstorming for this artwork in the beginning was a little difficult for me. I wasn’t really sure about what path I was going to take with this artwork, so I first started out with some sketches of products, because I really liked how Andy Warhol created the Campbell’s Soup Cans and the idea of it being kind of like consumerism. I didn’t really like my sketches and I wasn’t sure how they could show a clear message, so I decided to dig deeper into message and find another way to show it. Which is when I created the idea I have now.

This piece of art will have 2 sides to it, one half showing an Earth, and the other half with a lot of people with the emphasis on the big person in the middle of the painting. For this idea, I wanted to kind of show how consumerism is connected to environment by including cut-outs of magazines or packaging of products on both sides of the artwork. The packaging and cut-outs of brands show how people are now consumed by the idea of buying more and more, to get newer versions of things. This connects to the environment because the more people buy, the more waste it creates, and soon there will be no more places to put those things.

I decided to do this artwork similar to the style of Keith Haring’s works. Keith Haring was a social activist, I like that his style is although simple, conveys a lot of very important messages through it. I also kind of generated this idea based off of a video about consumerism we used to watch every year called the “The Story of Stuff”, the video talks about how humans need to be more sustainable, the materials economy, and the thing that really stuck out to me was the “Work, watch, spend treadmill”. I based my artwork on both this and the materials economy.

Formal analysis:

What art elements and design principles are in the artwork (most dominant)?     

    I think that some art elements that are most dominant in the work are the elements of color, line, and texture or value. Color, as you can see, is represented around the entire piece. There is color in the hair, her skin, the pops of pink in the eyeshadow, the beauty mark, her lips and teeth. The yellow in her hair is very vibrant in the piece, it stands out a lot. I think the texture comes in in the lines in the hair, it makes the little strands and sections of curled hair clear. There are also some textural areas in the lips, I think it kind of has a highlight, I think that the eyes and the eyebrows are representations of line or texture too. Andy Warhol also adds a few dark spots on her face maybe as shadows, I think this area could be value.

           Some design principles dominant in this artwork could be contrast, unity, and maybe emphasis. The contrast could be represented by the contrast in colors of the pink background to the yellow hair, or the dark lines to the vibrant colors. Unity could be represented by how well each layer the artwork comes together as one. It is clearly shown that this piece was created from many different layers like the solid colors, the lines, the shadow, the emphasis on the pink areas on the eyes, lips and the mark.

Content analysis:

Any appropriations of work by other artists? Does the artwork communicate an action, a narrative or a story?

           The artwork was originally based on a picture taken of Marilyn from the movie Niagara by Gene Korman released to the world in 1953. At the time when Andy Warhol appropriated the work of Gene Korman, the laws of copyright weren’t as strict as they are now, so there wasn’t a very big concern. 

           The story behind Marilyn Monroe, 1967 is also very much the same as the story behind his other pictures of famous women. These artworks were each created at a time in their life where they had been through a struggle. Andy Warhol started to create pictures of Marilyn Monroe shortly after she committed suicide. Both of the images of Jackie Kennedy that he created was around the time of her husband’s death. He also created an image of Liz Taylor when she was sick. All of these times were significant to the women’s lives, his art of these women kind of symbolized how under their seemingly perfect lives, they had problems like any normal person. 

Context analysis:

When, where and why was this piece created? Has it been influenced by trends, fashions or ideologies? 

           This piece of art was created in 1967, New York, which was five years after Marilyn Monroe passed away. This picture is part of the original piece Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn) 1967, the entire composition consists of 10 different screen prints of Marilyn Monroe, each section has a different color combination. In 1962, sometime after Marilyn’s death, Andy Warhol created the Marilyn Diptych. It was another silkscreened picture, but this one had 50 pictures of her. Marilyn Monroe, 1967 was said to be the extension of this piece.

           The inspiration for this piece was from British pop. British pop is thought of as “American mass culture and materialism…music, ads or dance became the primary subject of British pop” (Public Delivery). Before and after this piece was made, he made other pieces with Marilyn Monroe as the center piece (as mentioned before there was the Marilyn Diptych but also many more), without changing the style of the artwork and the picture he based his art off of. We also know that he did create a few pieces of other women a few years back similar to the style of art used to create Marilyn Monroe. For example, Jackie Blue and Red Jackie both of Jackie Kennedy. 

           Andy Warhol was influenced by the idea of mass culture, which is why he created Campbell’s Soup Cans and Brillo Box. Both of these pieces are based on brands and consumerism. The women he showed in his art was based on “consumer society, fashion, fame, sensationalism and death.” (Public Delivery) 

What are the benefits of blind contour, negative space, and value drawings?

I think that the benefits of a blind contour drawing is that it can help you focus more on the object you are drawing rather than your artwork. Even though things may not be in the correct places, by looking at the object more can help you find details you may have missed. Negative space drawings focus more on the shapes of the objects, outlining the outside and then coloring in the the “holes”. Value I think are more about looking at shadows and how the light hits the object and showing the lighter and darker areas.

How might you incorporate these drawing practices in future art

 projects?

I think blind contour drawings are pretty fun to do. It reminds me a lot about the lines that wires can create, I could do a one-line blind contour drawing and try to recreate it in wire. I could also do a blind contour drawing and add random colors in different spots. Negative space drawings maybe good for drawing objects with interesting shapes. While value drawing could be used to draw things with small details like portraits.