Denise+M



Artist Statement Original Artist: Mark Eliot Lovett "Red Cap Girl" Oil on Canvas  Remake: Denise Matice "Red Cap Girl" Oil Pastel and Acrylics I choose “The Dance” because I really loved the emotion it held. I love the art of dancing, and the woman in the picture was beautiful. Unfortunately, when I began applying color, the oil pastels were not working for me at all. Every time I sat down to work on my painting, I became very frustrated and upset about how it looked. After a lot of contemplating and attempted problem solving, I decided it would be best to start over completely. So I did! When I restarted I choose to do “The Red Hat Girl” by Mark Lovett. I chose this piece because of the adorable little girl in it. I have always loved children and this one reminded me of when I was younger and played dress up. I decided to use a different form of oil pastels for this painting and they worked very well for me. When it came to the background although, I had some trouble getting the oil pastels to create a brushstroke feel and texture. After trying a few different things with this, I decided it would be best to use acrylics over a green oil pastel base. Once I was finished with this process I was very pleased with my final product! Overall, I would say that my figure portrait turned out a success. I really like the way the girl turned out. If I had to do this project again the only thing I would do differently is to choose a painting that has a background with a lot of action in it. I have realized that plain backgrounds with a lot of empty space cause problems for me. Other than that, I wouldn’t change a thing! 1.Artist Statement

In high schools everywhere in the United States there are teenagers suffering of a broken self-image. While most people are blind to this fact, I see it in the halls of Central Montcalm everyday. So many students look down on themselves and continuously talk about all the things that are wrong with them. But from my point of view all I see is a beautiful person with low self-esteem. Now I am sure these teens don’t want to have a low self esteem and constantly look negatively on themselves, but the ideas in there head had to have come from somewhere. So while the subject of my social issue is broken self-image, I want the viewers of my piece to really think about how they affect others’ self-image and how their words or actions might change they way someone views themselves. In my creative journey I encountered a few problems, these were mostly how to balance my window, what to put I the middle, and how to tie my figurine in with my main piece. This is what I had the most trouble with. When I made the figurine I made it blue to emphasize sadness and depression, but then when I completed my main piece (the window) I almost forgot about my figurine and had no way to connect the two comfortably. The colors I used on the window were mostly black red and grey. Once I realize I still had a blue figurine, I managed to incorporate blue and green into my main piece! The most difficult decision I had to make was deciding what to put on my center windowpanes. I ended up choosing a statistic, and painted it on at first, but then decided it was illegible and didn’t fit well. So when I redid this I printed the words, with different fonts, then tore them out and attached them to my window with a tan mod podge mixture. I believe my piece turned out successful, and I like the combination of the big picture and the statistic in the center. I also feel that the broken mirror gives good effect as well as dimension. I hope that all these elements together persuade the audience of my point and understand the subject a little better. The only thing I feel is not working for my piece is the white frame. I wanted to paint lyrics to a song on it, but had trouble searching for a song that would connect to my social issue well (that was school appropriate). So I decided to leave this blank and thought that since there were not lyrics on the frame, it would not take away from my main focus! If I had a chance to do this project differently, I would not use a window as my main piece, I would most likely use a canvas and paint a strong image and possibly use a quote.

2.Critique of a Social Issue painting:

The social issue being portrayed in this painting is censorship and how it goes against the United States Constitution. I believe the artist views censorship as a problem in this country and emphasizes this by the use of dark dull colors, with emphasis on the United States flag plastered over the mouth of an individual. The eyes in the painting are very intense, almost as if they have a longing to speak out; they are full of secrets and surprises. All of these elements put together make for a great work of art with a bold statement. Since I feel very strongly against censorship, this painting caught my eye right away.