Place: "Look What I Found!"

(I Need to do some more work on this project)

When I think of place my mind wonders into people. Trying to represent a person, as a place, was a little difficult for me to grasp so I went deeper. I started to think about all these places and people. Why are they important to me? Perspective was a word that kept surfacing during this question. I see these places and people different then another person. Then I took into consideration the how these places and people constantly change over time. In all of these thoughts unraveling I came up with and idea. I wanted to show as a kid we see things different compared to when we get older. As a kid I used to climb any branch I could reach, pick up any creature I could catch, and play anywhere could access. As I get older I no longer plop a seat on the ground without looking where I am sitting. I no longer climb trees in fear of falling, and I no longer pick up frogs snakes and salamanders for the joy of it.
How do I show a time? I simply took a picture of myself when I was at my carefree age and made myself holding a frog near my face in a gesture that says “Mom, look what I found!” I spent a long time trying to perfect the perspective of this drawing. I wanted the viewer to be looking down at the little girl who was in a window well. I am not trained enough in anatomy to create the form of the girl without looking at a picture and I could not find one. Instead I zoomed in on the girls face so that it is just neck and up with the frog by her face. I enjoy how the perspective turned out because it creates a sense of home video or photo taken by a parent who’s daughter just came to the door showing them what she just found.
Also, I find the facial expression, showing the girls joy, important for portraying my idea.
Materials were another personal debate for me. I thought of doing all paint but knowing that is not my strong media I wanted to mix in other materials. I did use a square canvas to get that viewfinder perspective I was looking for. In the past I have worked with newspaper and magazines to create an image, which intrigued me for this project. I laid down newspaper and magazine pieces as a foundation and help create the forms. I then added paint to the surface. Not completely pleased with how it turned out and being frustrated with he paint I turned to my safety net, colored charcoal. Another thing you will notice is the hair. I fringed magazine paper into small slits and used them as the bangs. I thought the hair was too flat and this would give it more texture. I am still not 100% clear if I like it or not.
I feel this piece is comparable to Sally Mann’s work. In Sally Mann’s earlier work she photographed her children. Though my subject has a different emotion represented then her children, both portray a sense of youth and innocence. Our perspectives in that sense may have been the only similarities. I use color a different emotion then Sally Mann. However, though I draw and she photographs, I feel as though my drawing reads as a moment captured in time randomly. Also like Mann, as it reads as a random moment we both premeditated what was going to be the product.
I think over all my approach on this project is fairly different then the artist we went over in class, other then what I mentioned above with Sally Mann and capturing a time. Majority of my influence for this project is combining styles I have used in the past and the web map we made in class. A lot of my process was digging deeper then the cliché surface ideas.
Over all I am please with my project. I do not think it is my best work however. I am continuing to explore different mediums and wish I could keep taking one project and reproaching it all semester. I think this piece could use some perspective adjustments in relation to the figure. As I mentioned before I am not a master at anatomy, and I should have spent more time addressing this. Also, when I first added the paint I did not want it to cover the paper I laid down before, but once the paint was down I could not get it off. I think a better way for that would have been to water down the acrylic paints before putting it onto the surface, so I could blend the two mediums together.