Hatred Through Dance: A Junior Conceptual Project by Celine Do (2015)

My concept statement is exploring the feelings of hatred through the experience of dancing. I knew this could be a very literal piece but I wanted it to mean more, so I attempted to go for a more figurative approach. My piece is of an open hand with a black velvet glove. The hand is catching a pair of beat up ballet shoes. There are snowflakes falling around the ballet shoes. The background of the image is my art medium. I used watercolors to paint a blue background. I made the bottom of the paper a light and watery splotch texture and on the top of the image I used a lot more water and held the paper at an angle so the paint would drip down. The dripping paint gives the image a dark and eerie connotation because it is more or less a very happy image. My main struggle with this piece was finding symbolism in a hand and snowflakes. I also had trouble using the quick selection tool to erase the background of the ballet shoes.

My concept statement was exploring the feeling of hatred through the experience of dancing. So my image portrays dance very obviously with the ballet slippers. But also, the snowflakes show dance because snowflakes dance in the wind as they fall to the ground. The snowflakes also convey the feeling of hatred because much like that emotion, it’s cold like snowflakes. The snowflakes are icy and unwavering, as is hatred. Furthermore, I chose a velvet gloved hand to also convey the feeling of hatred. The hand is catching everything in the photo because hatred can overwhelm and swallow everything in its path. I made the background blue and drippy because I wanted to show how hatred can fall on other people and the blue makes it seem happy when it is not. The snowflakes and dripping as the background conveys that hatred can fall onto anyone. No one is immune.