Digital Collage
Exhibition Text
Sun after Rain is how I view my situation and what happened in my past. Taking depressing feelings and turning them into something positive is a challenge I face everyday, but it makes me happy to think that I can overcome my pain by remembering my Mother in a happy way and honoring her everyday. I made this piece with digital manipulation in photoshop. It is inspired by the manipulation of shadow and light found in Caravaggio's Saint Jerome Writing and Rembrandt's Self Portrait, as well as the Baroque Style hues.
Meaning
A normal family does not exist since everyone is very different, but if it had to be described, it would include the kids, the dad, and the mom. Some people do not realize what a blessing it may be to have both parents, I did not know this until one of them was gone.
It all happened in the beginning of fifth grade, I remember clearly it was the end of the school day, it was either science or social studies. I got called to the office, they said my mom was there to pick me up, but when I got there I saw my aunt and knew something weird was going on since she lived in Chicago, not Milwaukee. We got to my house and I was told we had to go to the hospital so the doctor could meet with my mom. I did not understand much during the meeting at the time, but it ended with my mom having to be admitted into the hospital’s Neurological Intensive Care Unit, NICU. My dad was not with us since he was on a business trip, but came rushing back when he heard what happened. By the time he got back, we knew my Mom would need surgery, she had a brain tumor located in her pituitary gland. We thought everything would be perfectly fine after the surgery, but it wasn't.
Her recovery was slow, and she never went back to normal like we thought she would. My mom was now dependent on us, as we were on her for so many years. Things would seem to improve, but the next day would be the same again. This was really hard on me, especially only being 11 at the time. The only person I could express my feelings to was my Dad. I felt as if I had lost my Mom, even though she was there in body, I felt like I didn't actually have her. Even though she was there with me, I would constantly miss her. My Grandma and one of my aunts would visit from Colombia to help us take care of her. In 2015 we decided that my Mom would go down to Colombia with my Grandma to see if that would help her memory and speed up the recovery process. She would come back in April of 2016, but she never could because due to health complications she passed away.
There is not a day when I don't think of her, I know she is always by my side and guiding me through my life, helping me with each step. I am still so proud of what she was able to fight through, and I know she would be proud of me, and what I have become based on this experience.
It all happened in the beginning of fifth grade, I remember clearly it was the end of the school day, it was either science or social studies. I got called to the office, they said my mom was there to pick me up, but when I got there I saw my aunt and knew something weird was going on since she lived in Chicago, not Milwaukee. We got to my house and I was told we had to go to the hospital so the doctor could meet with my mom. I did not understand much during the meeting at the time, but it ended with my mom having to be admitted into the hospital’s Neurological Intensive Care Unit, NICU. My dad was not with us since he was on a business trip, but came rushing back when he heard what happened. By the time he got back, we knew my Mom would need surgery, she had a brain tumor located in her pituitary gland. We thought everything would be perfectly fine after the surgery, but it wasn't.
Her recovery was slow, and she never went back to normal like we thought she would. My mom was now dependent on us, as we were on her for so many years. Things would seem to improve, but the next day would be the same again. This was really hard on me, especially only being 11 at the time. The only person I could express my feelings to was my Dad. I felt as if I had lost my Mom, even though she was there in body, I felt like I didn't actually have her. Even though she was there with me, I would constantly miss her. My Grandma and one of my aunts would visit from Colombia to help us take care of her. In 2015 we decided that my Mom would go down to Colombia with my Grandma to see if that would help her memory and speed up the recovery process. She would come back in April of 2016, but she never could because due to health complications she passed away.
There is not a day when I don't think of her, I know she is always by my side and guiding me through my life, helping me with each step. I am still so proud of what she was able to fight through, and I know she would be proud of me, and what I have become based on this experience.
INspiration
Caravaggio. Saint Jerome Writing. 1605-1606, Galleria Borghese Rembrandt. Self Portrait. 1629.
The intention of the Baroque Style movement was to use exaggerated movements and detail in order to show much drama and tension within the art piece. The Baroque movement was considered absurd because it did not live up to the standards of the preceding Renaissance art. Caravaggio used light in dramatic ways to produce this drama in a realistic, human scene. Rembrandt pieces consisted mostly of self-portraits, featuring colors like reds and browns in his later works.
The way these artists manipulate light and shadow really give a certain depth to the piece. I will replicate this in my piece, but it will be focused more the the light aspect rather than the shadows. My motion will not be as exaggerated but will seem rather stiff, similar to how I interpret Saint Jerome holding his quill. The browns and reddish purple tone in Rembrandt's piece is what I want to portray in my piece, the color is not too exaggerated but still conveys a sense of drama.
PLanning Sketches
Immediately the first thing I thought of was a crying girl, because whenever I think of my Mom sadness just comes over me since she is not with me anymore. I wanted to further go into the sadness theme by adding rain in the background as if it is always surrounding me. I added sunflowers to symbolize my Mom since she loved plants and her favorite color was yellow. Also, there would be a section around the girl where the rain would not touch, this was to add a sense of peace, but it did not seem to portray the right feeling.
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I still wanted to incorporate sunflowers into my design, but this time I only added one as if that single flower was representing my Mom. The girl is still looking at the flower feeling very sad, but there are no tears this time. This sketch shows a window this time, I wanted it to represent myself looking back on my past. Rain is still present in this sketch and puddles have formed on the ground.
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My third and final sketch now shows the girl enlarged as being the focus of the piece rather than the sunflower. The sunflower in the previouses pieces seemed too sad, and I did not want to portray only sadness, but overcoming that sadness and honoring my Mom. Rain in this piece is heavier on the darker side, then it starts to clear up once you get to the lighter side of the gradient. The light side is meant to represent sunlight shining down on the girl, as if she has found peace and calmness after the dark storm. The raindrops would seem as if they were on a window.
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Experimentation
I had my friends take multiple pictures of me in order to capture the perfect angle which included how I was positioned, where my eyes were looking, and how the light hit my face. For the light, I used a regular phone flashlight, but i was able to enhance it in Photoshop with different filters.
Since rain was an essential part of my piece, I needed to figure out a way to create it in photoshop. I watched multiple videos and read different articles, but it did not look realistic enough. I was playing around with the settings of adding shadows and highlights, and "liquifying" the circles. This way I would have had to place each individual raindrop, so it may have looked too artificial or "staged," so I went with a different method that resulted in more realistic raindrops.
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In these photos I am attempting to add a shadow to my hair in order to make it darker so it fits in better with the shadow in the background. I added a rectangle and changed it to the same color as the background, then I adjusted the opacity. However, the end result did not blend seamlessly into the background. Even by making it more translucent, the rectangle was still very obvious, so I ended up getting rid of it.
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Process
Reflection
Compare & Contrast
Self Portrait, 1629
Rembrandt |
Similarities
Differences
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Saint Jerome Writing, 1605-1606
Caravaggio |
Critique
After a lot of editing I love how the piece looks and how closely it matches my concept sketch. Beginning this project I was worried I would not be able to use photoshop well or get confused with all the tools. Even though having the whole program available is a bit overwhelming, it is an amazing opportunity since there was so many tools I could use to bring my sketch to life.
The hardest part to figure out was creating the raindrops. I did not want to take a picture of regular water drops because it seemed too basic and I really wanted to learn how to manipulate the tools in photoshop. I tried multiple ways to create them, but in the end I went with creating my own brush and adding filters while editing different aspects of them. I learned how to do this by watching a video online, it was easy to follow and I ended up with a great result.
I would love to make a digital collage again and learn more aspects of photoshop. I also want to create more things that involve water because exploring and manipulating the "liquify" tool was really fun, but I did not use it to create my final raindrops, so I would definitely use it for a future project.
Overall, I think my piece conveys my theme of overcoming my sadness and remembering my Mom in a happy way. I always look to the light whenever I feel sad and I think of how proud of me she would be.
The hardest part to figure out was creating the raindrops. I did not want to take a picture of regular water drops because it seemed too basic and I really wanted to learn how to manipulate the tools in photoshop. I tried multiple ways to create them, but in the end I went with creating my own brush and adding filters while editing different aspects of them. I learned how to do this by watching a video online, it was easy to follow and I ended up with a great result.
I would love to make a digital collage again and learn more aspects of photoshop. I also want to create more things that involve water because exploring and manipulating the "liquify" tool was really fun, but I did not use it to create my final raindrops, so I would definitely use it for a future project.
Overall, I think my piece conveys my theme of overcoming my sadness and remembering my Mom in a happy way. I always look to the light whenever I feel sad and I think of how proud of me she would be.
Connecting to the ACT
1. My inspiration was focused on color and the manipulation of light and shadow. Both Caravaggio and Rembrandt have smooth gradient like background, the light focusing around the subject, which is what I incorporated into my piece. I also used browns and reds in the piece, instead of having just a black to white gradient.
2. The author explains what the Baroque Movement meant and the stylistic aspect of it. They include the context such as why it occured and where, and the aspects that were a part of defining it such as religion. They also explain how each artist interpreted the movement and the way they incorporated these techniques into their designs.
3. During the Baroque Style Movement, people were heavily religious, so a lot of artists painted Biblical scenes. However, some of these painting were not adorned by people because the baroque style included tension and drama, people did not appreciate this included with something holy.
4. The central theme around my inspirational research was a movement that focused on shadow and light. The Baroque style movement fit perfectly with my idea since the artists manipulate shadow, light, and colors to convey a certain feeling that envelopes the scene.
5. An inference I made while reading my research was that these artists spent a lot of time when creating these pieces in order to achieve smooth blends of the colors. The baroque style art work shows smooth, almost perfect skin and the gradients in the backgrounds needed smooth transitions.
2. The author explains what the Baroque Movement meant and the stylistic aspect of it. They include the context such as why it occured and where, and the aspects that were a part of defining it such as religion. They also explain how each artist interpreted the movement and the way they incorporated these techniques into their designs.
3. During the Baroque Style Movement, people were heavily religious, so a lot of artists painted Biblical scenes. However, some of these painting were not adorned by people because the baroque style included tension and drama, people did not appreciate this included with something holy.
4. The central theme around my inspirational research was a movement that focused on shadow and light. The Baroque style movement fit perfectly with my idea since the artists manipulate shadow, light, and colors to convey a certain feeling that envelopes the scene.
5. An inference I made while reading my research was that these artists spent a lot of time when creating these pieces in order to achieve smooth blends of the colors. The baroque style art work shows smooth, almost perfect skin and the gradients in the backgrounds needed smooth transitions.