Compare and Contrast two paintings

The two paintings that I have decided to compare and contrast are:

The painting on the left is an untitled piece by Teesha Moore and the painting on the right is by Frida Kahlo, named the Two Fridas. The untitled piece of work uses quite bright and colourful colours, there is not too much shading which creates a slight flat affect. As well as, it seems blue is a repetition of colour within both pieces. However, the Two Fridas uses a lot darker colours and more shading, especially within the background creating depth. The left piece of art uses mixed mediums such as paint and collage, whilst the right painting only uses oil on canvas. The head of the deer (Teesha Moores piece) has specific and detailed brush strokes, creating a texture of fur. Frida Kahlo uses brush strokes as well to create texture within the dresses and background. The work of Teesha Moore uses quite rounded shapes, also she creates a very inspirational mood through the use of the quote "I believe the universe speaks to us all. The problem is most people don't know when to listen." Whilst, the Two Fridas creates a very sad and depressed mood, since she created the painting expressing her despair after the divorce. Personally, I do prefer the untitled work to Frida Kahlos because it is a lot more bright and less depressing and makes me almost think about life and question everything, it really makes me think.  

Artist Analysis Teesha Moore

Teesha Moore is an artist who mainly uses collage work within her pieces of art. She is 51 years old, married, has two daughters as well as two dogs. She has owned multiple businesses, taught at various places, published numerous times and planned many art retreats. Her main inspiration has come from music and graphic design. She considers her work "creativity" as mixed media doesn't even begin to describe her amazing artwork. 

The art piece above no specific given name or details. However it is is depicted in black and white emphasizing the woman in the middle/right. The words read "I am not afraid. I was born to do". I believe that this is suggesting that she is trying to express herself and love for art as she "is born to do", what she is born to do would be art. The use of black and white really puts your focus onto the slight dark blue shading on the hat and side of the body. The direction of the eyes is moving towards the left side of the picture, creating an implied line that way. The main focus is the woman, as she is bigger than all other aspects within this piece of art.

Composition and Transferring

For my final composition/piece I created multiple different examples of compositions. The first one includes my self portrait within the middle, emphasizing it and multiple symbols surrounding it. It uses mainly cold colours with different intensities, representing value within this piece. I would transfer this using a plastic sheet. The second one is very different. It's two self-portraits looking directly at each other creating an implied line towards the middle of the paper, this is inspired by the Two Fridas through using two similar self-portraits. The third example is one that is slightly more detailed, as it has two proper drawn symbols. The self-portrait is located on the left of the paper, which would be transferred using carbon paper. And the last example has the self-portrait located on the right, the eyes create an implied line moving towards the bottom left corner of the piece.

I created 4 transfers, 2 using carbon paper and the other 2 are transferred using a self made carbon paper, by using oil pastels on the back of the printed photo.

10 Symbols that represent me

1. Aquarius: this is my zodiac sign.
2. Airplane: I love to travel to new places and discover new things.
3. Yin and Yang: this just shows the way that i see the world, as there will always be the good and the bad, and the bad in the good and the good in the bad.
4. Sankofa: I'm not sure of where this symbol derives from, but it represents learning from the past which is what I intend to do.
5. Camera: I love photography and I find going to galleries which include photography very interesting.
6. Dice: this symbolizes luck, again referring to the way I see the world, as sometimes you need a bit of luck.
7. Spring: this is my favourite season as it is the time of year nature blooms and colour is everywhere.
8. Pride: I think this is an essential part of life.
9. Peace: it is something I think is very relevant to the way the world should be, as without any sort of piece present, there wouldn't be anything left.
10. Loyalty: I think loyalty is a very crucial trait any person should possess. 

Colour Study the Two Fridas

Reflection:

I created a colour study of one of Frida Kahlo's well-known pieces: the Two Fridas. I found this very difficult and stumbled across a lot of obstacles. Her piece is quite realistic, and I am not very good or comfortable at drawing realistically. Also, the painting includes two replicas of herself, which was hard to draw as they both were meant to be the same. I have a lot of trouble with drawing faces as well. The heads of both Fridas are not in proportion to their bodies, so if I could re-do this then i would take time to measure out the pages which would make sure that the heads are in proportion to their bodies. Overall I found that this was definitely not one of my best art pieces and so far the most troublesome. I could have taken more time and care into, if i had the amount of time required, I would have most likely ended up with something better.

Artist Analysis Frida Kahlo

For our first artist analysis we did Frida Kahlo, a Mexican painter who was best known for her incredible self portraits.

The two fridas

Artist: Frida Kahlo (famous mexican artist).

Medium used: oil painting on canvas.

Year created: 1939.

Dimensions of painting: 172.7cm by 172.7 cm, it is a square shaped painting.

Location of painting: Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City.

Context

This painting is depicting two various versions of the artist, Frida Kahlo, herself. It is a double self portrait of herself, as there are two self portraits of herself instead of just a regualr one. The Frida on the left is wearing an old European dress, which could be showing her German heritage, as her father was German. This Frida has also been painted with a broken heart. The heart has been torn apart using surgical scissors/pliers. There are also large blood stains on the dress. The Frida on the right is wearing a traditional tehuana dress, which a dress originating from Mexico, which is showing the heritage from her mother’s side. However, this Frida does not have a broken heart. In fact the broken heart, located on the left, is attached by the main artery to the heart on the right, which is showing aversion of human anatomy. It almost looks like the broken heart is  fixing the whole heart, which is why the left heart is broken. It may be showing she has no close relation with her father or her European heritage, but does have a close relation with her mother and Mexican heritage. 

This painting was painted after the divorce from her ex-husband, Diego. So, this painting could also be showing or symbolizing the heartbreak and loneliness and depressions she has been going through after she and Diego had gotten divorced.

Mood

The mood within the painting is quite sad and depressing. There is a mixture of cold and warm colours used, however the back ground of the sky is only using cold colours, which is why it is giving off a very tragic feeling.  There aren’t really many warm colours used especially compared to the large amount of cold and tragic olours being used within this piece.

The hearts are being quite emphasized, as they are outside of the bodies, which is very unnatural. As the hearts are emphasized, the broken one stands out a bit more, as it has been ripped apart, which again is giving off a quite depressing mood. The blood accents the piece as it is symbolizing her emotional and physical pain she had suffered from.

The expression on the faces of the two Fridas is quite emotionless and monotone. There is no real expression shown. So it isn’t giving much away. 

I think that the dark sky is symbolizing how the painting is showing the despair the painter, Frida Kahlo, was feeling, as she painted this to represent her feelings after the divorce with Diego took place.

It may also in a way being showing a sign of hope, as she is

showing that her broken heart is mending the other heart through

the large artery.

     Form and Process

The form of the two Fridas is an oil painting, which has been done on a canvas. The canvas dimensions of this painting is 172.7cm by 172.7 cm. the shape of the painting is square.

There is not much negative space within the painting, since most is positive, the only real negative space is the flooring and sky. The oil painting has a few layers as she has her background of the sky, chair and flooring and then her foreground of the double self portrait.

It has been painted as a two dimensional painting, meaning it is flat. The sky looks as if it painted with texture, however it does not seem that it actually has three dimensional textures, so if you were to touch this double self portrait it would feel flat without any real texture.

The process behind this painting is quite simple. She has just gone through her divorce and was completing her painting and she had decided to showcase her deep hurt through this amazing piece of art.  The work has most likely been developed in her mind as she was going through both emotional and physical suffering throughout the tragic event of her divorce.

Citation

wikipedia. (unknown). The Two Fridas. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two_Fridas. Last accessed 4th oct 2015.

Doris Maria-Reina Bravo. (unknown). Kahlo (the two fridas). Available: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/art-between-wars/latin-american-modernism1/a/kahlo-the-two-fridas-las-dos-fridas. Last accessed 4th oct 2015.

google. (unknown). Kahlo,the two fridas . Available: http://www.google.ae/imgres?imgurl=https://ka-perseus-images.s3.amazonaws.com/74427da205ceccb64a4e285915d93823678118a2.jpg&imgrefurl=https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/art-between-wars/la. Last accessed 5th oct 2015.

Mind Map

For our first unit title page, we had to complete a mind map that would help us create our title page. I didn't want to create just a regular mind map, so I decided that I would look for some sort of shape which would represent myself and at the same time make it look original.

I firstly started to think towards a tree. Where the stem of the tree would be the base and title, as well as all the branches would represent all the different parts of my mind map. However, I didn't really like the way it looked like in the end, so I scratched that idea. Then I stayed on the track of nature, but moved towards leaves and flowers. I went through dozens of different shapes, and ended up with a rose. So, the rose represents me in a way, as it shows that I am still growing and blooming. The various petals contain all the different parts of my mind map, starting with my personality traits moving along to my likes and dislikes. The rose is colored as a rainbow, to distinguish which petals go with which petals. As we need interesting backgrounds and I had access to watercolours, i decided to create a watercolour wash for the background using green, purple and blue. I went with colder colours to symbolize my home, Holland, as it tends to be quite cold, rainy and gloomy. Also, the green represents nature, as I love nature. Lastly, I thought that it was missing something and i enjoy drawing numerous tribal inspired patterns so I went on a long google search and ended up with the pattern in the shape of an L, for my name, on the bottom left corner of the page. As well as a compass, to show that I am still in need of guidance, linking back to the rose.

Title Page

MYP Unit: Perception of Self

Key concept: Identities and Relationships

Related concept: Communities

Global context: Personal and Cultural expression

Statement of inquiry: The process of artistic creation can lead to self discovery

Inquiry question: What conventions or elements can be identified as specific to the genre


Reflection:

For my title page I wanted to draw something that is quite unique. I decided to draw a girl, which is me, in an anime style. One eye is covered by the hoodie representing that I can be quiet and shy. However, the mouth is slightly open symbolizing I do speak up when I want to. The whole point of this unit is to discover yourself and find your style of art. I have tried to showcase that I am still in the process of finding myself as a real artist by drawing only half of myself and finishing the bottom with puzzle pieces. I drew three puzzle pieces, two of which belong and one doesn't, this is trying to showcase that I have to make decisions and not all can be the right ones. Mistakes are bound to happen. I left the rest of the page blank with all the writing required. The piece is two dimensional and has no textures. I used a mix of mediums (coloring pencils, markers, pens, ink) to add depth.

Introduction

My name is Lorita Hartog and this is my MYP Arts Process Journal. On this blog you will find documented evidence of my learning in Visual Arts. I chose this specialism because I enjoy visual arts and love to draw in my spare time. During the MYP course i hope to gain a better understanding of how to skillfully draw and paint.