Project #2- Screen Printing
"Flower Boy"
Size: 15.24 cm x 7.62 cm
Medium: Acrylic Paint on Print Paper
Date: September, 2018
Size: 15.24 cm x 7.62 cm
Medium: Acrylic Paint on Print Paper
Date: September, 2018
Exhibition Text
My theme for all of my pieces connects to the context of culture and my experiences with the many different kinds of culture. For this project I focused on culture in the modern society and how it affects how men are perceived as far as their gender. There has always been main ideas of what a woman or man is reflected as. Everything down to voice and actions are bound to the way history set itself. So, I wanted to take the norm of a man and show my audience that man can be feminine and it does not whatsoever mean that they are no longer a man. I was inspired by Russell Young for his unique style of prints and Steve Kaufman´s use of black and white in his Frank Sinatra piece.
Artistic Inspiration
Russell Young
Marilyn Suicide (French Rose + black), 2013
Canvas 62 × 48 in; 157.5 × 121.9 cm |
Young is a British-American that is most known for his large silk-screen paintings of American celebrity´s . Young believed that the glamour of the American dream needed to be revealed in a more realistic way. As the stars he chose were in correlation to either crime, addiction or death. His ideology has been important to how my piece is reflecting the way men don´t have to be in a landfill of a box to meet requirements of a man. And men can have feminism. Although I had felt that the way Young uses color for it´s solitary and black for shadows. As well as, his printing style, applying saturated color over screen printed images in which subjects appear blown up and grainy, as though printed on newsprint. I had found out as I was printing that in order to get the screen printing affect that i had to use multiple panty hose for different parts of the piece that will show color or technique for style.
|
Steve Kaufman
"Frank Sinatra - Mug Shot (Grey)"
Mixed Media on Canvas 36" in x 25" in; 91.44 cm x 63.5 cm |
Kaufman was a American pop artist who explored different mediums. Who´s man influence was Andy Warhol because he was his his assistant in his teens. Kaufman was well known for his contemporary portraits. He was interested in taking images of icons and turning them into a creative piece with the use of color and technique. Each of his prints had it´s own unique design even if it was the same image such as his portraits of Frank Sinatra´s mugshot. The color scheme of Kaufman is very saturated and bold. Which where I had took into consideration to the way I wanted to show color in my piece.
|
Meaning
In society the way genders are perceived as has been set for us from the beginning and as a teen in a more accepting generation. I feel that it is important for me to justify that what values people used to believe in is excluding to the generations that are growing currently. My piece reveals that men don´t have to justify if they are a man based upon what generations has composed them of. A man is a gender, but does not mean that you have to conceal your feelings or being able to fix things. All humans are consisted of the same basic science and there are no rules to what is a man and what is a woman. However, men who are feminine are far overlooked and need to be put on a pedestal to be acknowledge.
Process
Brainstorming
Sketch #2
|
From the beginning I knew I wanted to show that men can be feminine. I felt that flowers although they are general are more associated with women. So, I wanted my print to be a muscular man´s body with a flower as a head. To show how opposite each part is from one another, but same context.
|
Sketch #3
|
After configuring how and why I want my print to be. I went a little more simple just because I felt as if the print would be to hard to change just in case the paint would show all of the details. So, I was inspired with line drawings and went more minimal, but still showing what I wanted to convey.
|
Step-by-step Process
For this project I wanted to be more open to new ideas. I was researching some different ways to make prints. Since, I have already made a dry point print and block print. So, i found a way to screen print at home without too much items to buy.
Step #1- Once I had all of my supplies I created the screen with an embroidery hoop and panty hose. Taking apart the embroidery hoop so that the smaller hoop was not tightened to the bigger one. I stretched the panty hose over the smaller one. And put the bigger one on top and tightened the bigger hoop. Step #2- I then took my sketched and put it underneath the screen and with a sharpie traced everything in my sketch. Step #3- After I sketched everything I used a paintbrush to glue everything that was not black. I did three coats of glue to ensure that the paint wouldn't come through. Unless it was from texture. Although I had noticed that even still the plaint would come through in some spots. So, I had to rinse the screen and re-do the glue process. Step #4- After the glue was dry I put print paper underneath the screen so that it touched. I then put black paint on the screen and with a plastic card spread the paint over the screen where I wanted the paint. Step #5- I slowly lifted the screen and my print revealed. After making multiple prints I felt that I needed to go back into some areas that needed more glue, Although I had let the screen dry to long which had crusted and when trying to print once more and the paint didn't come through. |
Compare and Contrast
In this project I had been inspired by both Russell Young and Steve Kaufman for their use of style and technique. However I was more inspired with Young's use of contrast in colors. Young uses high saturated colors and to contrast it uses black for things such as shadow and line. I took that into consideration when I was creating my piece and in the end made different screen to layer my colors within my piece. Although instead of using one solid color I used multiple in order to convey what was in my piece. Like the brain in the beginning of making prints didn't show much detail, so I layered more glue and did the print again. Then it started to look more like what I wanted and with a layer of pink over made it look like a brain. My inspiration with Steve Kaufman's "Frank Sinatra," piece was more upon the use of shape and space. In Kaufman's artwork it's Frank Sinatra's mugshot so he takes up most of the space within the shot. For my print I was thinking more logically for how my sketch would fit in the embroidery. So, I sized it for that and I wanted to be able to make the print on any kind of medium. If I feel like the print would be able to be on clothing I would go as far as that. Although I wasn't too sure about the paint because it wasn't meant for clothing.
Skills and Technique
As producing this piece I had learned to see where I made mistakes such as, when i was making prints I was able to see where the glue needed to covered. As well as how I needed to spread the paint with the card. In my first print I could see that I needed to do more layers of glue in the details and spread the paint more gently because the card was pulling the fabric to hard which caused the paint to smudged and blow out. I also learned that screen printing from the way I did it was not the easiest way and took a lot of time to let the glue and paint dry to continue to do more prints.
Experimentation
For my experimentation I kept doing more prints until I felt satisfied and it took about after 5 times to get the print that I liked. Because I had to layer more glue and fix parts that weren't coming through the screen and made the work look blown out and sort of distorted. I then made more screens and made a mix of water and paint to get the color and amount of paint on the print to look complete. I went with the green for the man's face and neck because in my original sketch I was leaning towards more of a man who had the head of a flower and had a green body to look like a flower. In order for my piece to be a flower boy I put flowers on the brain to show how a feminine man is a mentality that people tend to over look. I choose colors from the tube to mix because I wanted the flowers to highly saturated like Young's pieces.
Reflection
After completing this piece I feel that screen printing is not something I would enjoy doing again. Or just doing it from how I have done it. Although I did like how the work came out and was shocked on how it looked because it did take a while for it to come out clean. I have learned not to clean the screen when I wanted to fix the layers of glue and paint because I let it dry on newspaper, which ended up sticking and did not come off of the screen. Over all I feel that this piece of art was definitely a learning experience and contribute on how I will further my knowledge on different styles and mediums of art. Yet, was still enjoyable to do and work with however is not exactly the medium I would prefer.
Connecting to the ACT
Clearly explain how you are able to identify cause and effect relationships between your inspiration and your artwork.
Because of the inspiration I had chosen the cause to how my style had represented had shown throughout my work. In my piece I was working towards the Pop art movement and focused on the piece in an accurate fashion through out the work.
What is the overall approach ( point of view) the author has regard to the topic of your inspiration?
The approach the author made regarding the topic of my inspiration is to inform me on why they developed their form of style and their biography as a whole. To gain knowledge on their pieces and the artist.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc, while you researched your inspiration?
The kind of conclusions I had made when I had discovered the two people I had researched is that they both have the same theory upon developing a style of representing stars in a upholding manner. Although they were from different backgrounds they had the idea of putting celebrity's onto the spot away from things that come along with fame.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme around my inspirational research is trying to develop a new idea of culture within a modern society that is overlooked by others that I want to show towards my audience.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
The inferences I had made while reading my research had been showing how to connect both of my artists as they worked within different periods, yet still had the same ideology about celebrity's being shown into the spot light.
Because of the inspiration I had chosen the cause to how my style had represented had shown throughout my work. In my piece I was working towards the Pop art movement and focused on the piece in an accurate fashion through out the work.
What is the overall approach ( point of view) the author has regard to the topic of your inspiration?
The approach the author made regarding the topic of my inspiration is to inform me on why they developed their form of style and their biography as a whole. To gain knowledge on their pieces and the artist.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc, while you researched your inspiration?
The kind of conclusions I had made when I had discovered the two people I had researched is that they both have the same theory upon developing a style of representing stars in a upholding manner. Although they were from different backgrounds they had the idea of putting celebrity's onto the spot away from things that come along with fame.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme around my inspirational research is trying to develop a new idea of culture within a modern society that is overlooked by others that I want to show towards my audience.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
The inferences I had made while reading my research had been showing how to connect both of my artists as they worked within different periods, yet still had the same ideology about celebrity's being shown into the spot light.
Bibliography
Steve Kaufman Pop Artist, Steve Kaufman SAK Official Site Frank Sinatra, www.stevekaufmanart.com/celebrityicons/franksinatra.html.
“Russell Young.” Taglialatella Galleries, www.taglialatellagalleries.com/artists/russell-young.
“Russell Young - 206 Artworks, Bio & Shows on Artsy.” 11 Artworks, Bio & Shows on Artsy, Artsy, www.artsy.net/artist/russell-young.
“Steve Kaufman.” Artspace, www.artspace.com/artist/steve-kaufman.
“Russell Young.” Taglialatella Galleries, www.taglialatellagalleries.com/artists/russell-young.
“Russell Young - 206 Artworks, Bio & Shows on Artsy.” 11 Artworks, Bio & Shows on Artsy, Artsy, www.artsy.net/artist/russell-young.
“Steve Kaufman.” Artspace, www.artspace.com/artist/steve-kaufman.