My concept was to take elements of architecture and sculpture and merge them together. Something I had learned a while back in one of my art history classes was this association with femininity being tied with nature and masculinity being tied with architecture and science. I wanted to make something that juxtaposed those concepts by merging them together. I also wanted to tie in a notion of western religion and its preaching of freedom in structure and the contradiction that lies within that.
This composition is of Mother Teresa as the focal point, surrounded by clouds and overseeing a cityscape. Surrounding Mother Teresa’s head is what appears to be a crown made up of skyscrapers and female statues. Outside of the crown is a circular image of Roman style architecture with crown molding and ceiling lights. The background is a pure blue sky so it does not distract from the foreground.
ReplyDeleteI think your concept is well thought out and detailed which reflects greatly in your art piece. I think having the statue coming out of the city buildings is a great way to push the idea that gender roles are meaningless and the association between what is feminine and what is masculine is easily questionable. You tied the idea between nature and architecture very well. I think the most successful way you demonstrated that is the contrast between the soft clouds and the hard edged buildings. By adding this ring of light around Mother Teresa’s head you are giving her this luminescence and statue of power.
The execution of this blend is done quite nicely. You did a great job of having an overall warm tone so it feels less like a collage of photos. Your clouds are awesome. I am blown away with how great they look. I am not quite sure how you did that but good job. There are a couple places in the city that could use a bit more refinement as far as masking goes. I do wish that the two statues in the crown were a little more warm toned to blend in with the rest of the composition a bit better. The lighting on the bottom of Mother Teresa was a very nice addition to the picture. I do wish that the bottom half was a little darker so it would make more sense as to why the light source on Mother Teresa is so bright. There are also some highlights that feel a little overexposed and could use some level adjusting because it does complicate where the light source overall seems to be coming from. The crackle across the ring around her head is nicely done. Overall you did a pretty good job of using photoshop to manipulate the images and arrange them to make sense in the space.
This piece definitely fits in our larger culture. I think our generation has started to really question gender stereotypes which you did a lot of in this work. It also goes to show the role of religion in our culture and how contradicting its message is to what most religious people practice in their daily lives. You designed something that is currently very important in our culture and is very relevant to how different groups of people view these topics whether it be in agreement by each viewer or not.