Junior Conceptual: A Junior Design Student Conceptual Project by Teagan Cimring (2016)

This piece of artwork titled, ''Main Course'' is based on a spoken word poem that talks about destruction through love. It explores a situation where someone has been broken down and emptied out by another person. Often times love is glorified as something beautiful but it can also be extremely destructive if in an unhealthy relationship. In the poem it is written, ''Someone had taken an axe and chipped away
Slowly,
very slowly, slow enough
That I felt each and every cut
Of your empty words''. These lines show that sometimes love isn’t wonderful and happy; it can be a much deeper pain. Love can be blinding and cause one to not see the truth. When it is written, ''But like a parasite invading its host,
Consuming all but the empty shell you left behind,'' it shows that sometimes in a relationship one can lose themselves without even realizing it. It can become dangerous and destructive when one gives up everything about themselves to completely be consumed by another.

In the photograph I wanted to show the fragility of a heart which is why I used an actual heart instead of a fake one. It is important to look at the rawness of love instead of plastic shapes of a heart. In the poem a girl is blinded by what she thinks is love and by including a real heart, I wanted to bring back reality. The stark contrast between the white and the red is supposed to make the viewer slightly uncomfortable. There are streaks of blood to show some sort of violence. The rose is included to show the vulnerability and purity of a person. In fancy restaurants often times a main course is decorated with a plant or a flower and drizzled over with a nice sauce.This shows how often we can lose ourselves by giving away our hearts to others. . One difficulty I faced while photographing was getting the right amount of light while still having the picture be in focus because I did not have a tripod available.