Charcoal Choice Piece
Love is a MaskCharcoal on paper
21 cm x 27 cm September 2020 Exhibition TextLove is a Mask is inspired by Kathe Kollwitz's style of German expressionism, with the monochromatic dark and light shading technique. It emphasizes highlights and dark spots and creates a hefty emotional struggle within the piece. The mask idea came from a game I love and adore called Majora's Mask, and the Song of Healing from it. It represents struggles in love and understanding, and how humans put of facades to appease others or themselves.
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Planning/Inspirations
The inspiration for the piece, is from mostly Kathe Kollwitz, her German Expressionism pieces are sublime, and are emotionally pulling, and have such a beautiful weight to them. They depict the ugliness within emotional trauma and pain. Each piece I look from her collection of expressionism is dark and dreary utilizing only white and black to convey texture and depth along with emotion. Its astounding the amount of effort and thought must go into the depth of the work of Kathe. I wanted to mimic the art style of Kathe as I feel it can express emotions better than any art movement in history. I wanted to show emotional struggle and pain, but not just from the art piece, I wanted it to radiate throughout the viewer too, to maybe not feel the same pain as I am trying express, but a similar pain, such as loss, forgiveness, or loneliness. Any of these if covered by the piece is my goal, and is attached to the inspiration. The next inspiration that I have is from a video game that truly moved me because of its emotional weight it carried within its soundtrack and the main antagonist. The mask holds a horrible power within it, giving the wearer limitless power, but no way of controlling it, using it in twisted ways, that the user may not want to use it in. The song that is attached to the mask though, the song of healing is completely indicative of the actual idea I had behind the piece, to play it is to heal ones soul, their essence is cleared after the song is heard, and can heal any emotional wounds. Lastly my own trauma of love factors into my reasoning and history/inspiration of this piece, being broken multiple times by many different people doesn't feel great and weighs down on my conscious A lot, and pushing it all into my art really helps to release it.
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Planning Sketches
I wanted to convey a deep pain, that isn't just visible its something that can be felt by the viewer, something relatable. whether thats actual love pains, or if its loss, or something of the same emotional distress as my piece is trying to convey. I wanted to mimic Kathe in her style and way of making expressionist art, but with a more sloppy and charcoal fuzziness to make it look like you're looking at it through a broken lenses or maybe a tinted glass
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Process
experimentation
I started with drawing a rough concept of the entire piece, to get a general idea of how I want to shape my piece without losing the idea of it. I experimented with just coloring it in and filling it in with just charcoal, but i instead used my finger to smudge the charcoal across the piece to make it darker in some areas that needed to be deep and lack hue, while I wanted the other areas to be darker so I added more charcoal to those spots. I tried it on different papers to see how well the charcoal is held within the paper to give the best results I figured out that my BP Graphics BIENFANG sketch book held it the best and had a very good space and size to fit the piece and give it the scale I wanted to give it.
Process
I started my process transcribing my final sketch onto a larger paper more suitable for charcoal, I figured that a larger paper could allow me more space and emphasis on the art I was creating. From this I measured out the piece to look correct and while not symmetrical I wanted both sides to hold weight in the piece differently with one side being white, the other being black. I start filling in the right side of the drawing (where I leave open space to be colored in, and leave it very rough as shown in the third picture, I then start to smudge the charcoal around, giving it a smoky and shadowy style to it, to give a dark blackened almost burnt effect to the drawing, which I really like about charcoal, it can bring such good depth to a piece. From this point, I proceed to finish smudging the charcoal to my liking around the paper till ti fits all of the shaded areas I wanted to be dark. I then tightened the dark parts to make them more clear and more defined to fits the style of Kollwitz, while making sure that I kept the original style. I used a charcoal eraser, and a block of charcoal to create and refine my piece, this was a rather simple process, but It was definitely a fun one.
Compare/Contrast
Similarities
Differences
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Reflection
This was a very simple but meaningful piece, I am very happy with how it turned out, my only small gripe with my piece was that the face was a little off center which was annoying as it made it look a little weird, but I still think it holds up well. I am not very new to the whole charcoal art making, but I found many ways to apply my knowledge to my piece and create a work of art that I am proud of, I think it captures my goals and ideas for this piece very well and represents how I feel about my past love experiences, and how I feel I have dealt with and have been treated in the past. I feel that I was able to emulate the German Expressionism that Kathe used within her work to create beautiful dark and dreary art that really touches the soul and makes you feel a tingle down your chilled spine, I wanted to represent sadness at its finest idea, and I think I have achieved this, which is what I wanted in this piece.
ACT Responses
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork:
My inspiration directly affected the mood and the look of my piece, making it, as The dark and dreary look of my piece was because of Kathe's use of mono chromatic color.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
My approach I wanted to use the term symbolism without actually taking inspiration from most symbolism artists, I wanted to convey a hidden yet broad message within my piece.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
the entirety of Kathe's works seem to be dark, monotone, and dreary, which is an aesthetic I love! its such a good motif for the art and really makes the viewer think about not only the piece, but themselves.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My basis for my inspiration was pain. I wanted to convey empotional struggle and pain within my piece, specifically about love and how love can harm, but also help.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
The meanings behind Kathe Kollwitz's works as there aren't and defined ideas or meanings to them.
My inspiration directly affected the mood and the look of my piece, making it, as The dark and dreary look of my piece was because of Kathe's use of mono chromatic color.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
My approach I wanted to use the term symbolism without actually taking inspiration from most symbolism artists, I wanted to convey a hidden yet broad message within my piece.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
the entirety of Kathe's works seem to be dark, monotone, and dreary, which is an aesthetic I love! its such a good motif for the art and really makes the viewer think about not only the piece, but themselves.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My basis for my inspiration was pain. I wanted to convey empotional struggle and pain within my piece, specifically about love and how love can harm, but also help.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
The meanings behind Kathe Kollwitz's works as there aren't and defined ideas or meanings to them.
Bibliography
Käthe Kollwitz: MoMA. (n.d.). Retrieved September 17, 2020, from https://www.moma.org/artists/3201
Käthe Kollwitz | artnet. (2020). Artnet. http://www.artnet.com/artists/k%C3%A4the-kollwitz/
Zelda Wiki. (2020, September 11). Majora’s Mask (Item). https://zelda.gamepedia.com/Majora%27s_Mask_(Item)
Käthe Kollwitz | artnet. (2020). Artnet. http://www.artnet.com/artists/k%C3%A4the-kollwitz/
Zelda Wiki. (2020, September 11). Majora’s Mask (Item). https://zelda.gamepedia.com/Majora%27s_Mask_(Item)