Conceptual art is a movement that prizes ideas over the formal or visual components of art works.

Design

Artist Statement

I am exploring the feeling of gratitude through the search for companionship.

I chose a teddy bear for the focus of my photo. I put the teddy bear on the ground. The bear is shown twice because he is reflected by a mirror that is standing on the left side. On the right to the teddy bear, there is a flower that is not getting reflected in the mirror.  

I chose to use a teddy bear as my main object to represent my artist statement through his feelings. A teddy bear is for most people a companion through their childhood and we feel gratitude for the friendship we build with them, what I am exploring is that not just a companion but also yourself and self-realization can make you feel gratitude. The mirror is representing the self-realization and self-acceptance by the bear seeing that he can be his own companion. The flower is representing happiness and warmth and cold. It is only showing in the reality part and not the reflection to represent that gratitude the bear is getting from the mirror into his reality. I chose a black and white background because it is supposed to represent the sadness the character (teddy bear) is feeling and then there is himself appreciating himself in the mirror and this gratitude gives him hope as you can see the flower that is the representation of the gratitude that puts color into his world.

To enhance my image I used Adobe Photoshop Raw Editing and made the world outside the mirror into a black and white world with a blue undertone to make it look cold. I enhanced the saturation and warmth in the inside of the mirror brighter. Using the pen tool in Adobe Photoshop I enhanced the colors of the flower to make it brighter. I made these changes to represent the upset and sadness that the teddy has in this world and how his self-realization brings light and happiness through the flower into his reality.

English

Inspiration

The piece entitled “Olympia (d’après Manet)” was painted in 2012 by Cristina Rodrigues.

The painting was created with oil on line and has the size of 31 x 36 cm. The painting was inspired by the “Olympia” by Edouard Manet. The painting has a rectangular shape and is colored with high pigmented oil colors. The painting has a bright color contrast with significant high saturated blacks, yellows, greens and reds. It is painted with a thick brush and harsh lines except the tree leaves. In the painting you can see a woman laying on a chair and another woman kneeling beside her with a flower. The women on the chair is the center of attention, and stands out by her  white body with light orange lines. She is laying on a entirely white chair what is signifying purity and reality. She seems to be an important person because she is wearing black jewelry and has a green-leaf crown on her head. Another significant point is that she is wearing red shoes that stand out between the black and white. She seems to be really relaxed while the other woman is kneeling beside her. The other woman seems to disappear in the shadows as she is black and just surrounded by a little yellow. She is holding a colorful red, green and white flower that draws attention away from women behind it. In the background, we can see a green and white tree next to a window. The window is filled with solid red and white colors. At the end of the chair you can see a black cat that is only visible due to a thick white line surrounding its shape.The tree is significant in the picture, although the women on the chair is still the most significant main attraction point in the painting. The leaves of the tree have a un-normal, abstract and colorful structure. There are round circles hanging from the branches. There is no specific pattern but all branches have the same color scheme.

This picture is portraying the importance of royalty and how some people are more rich or important than other. The tree, cat and worker portrayal the picture of being rich and having a lot of material things. This picture makes me feel important and useless at the same time because it is portraying what most people want being the most significant and important person. On the other hand it gives off some negativity because it shows that the workers are just in the background and are barely worth anything. Due to the harsh saturation of colors and  the contrast of light and dark colors, it doesn’t seem like there is a one interpretation to this. It is based on the viewer and his beliefs on whether the picture is good or bad.

If the artist was going for the same meaning as the painting he was inspired by, I don’t think it really got over that message. The nudity was not playing a major role in the way that the artist portrayed it. If it was just based off it but portraying the roles of rich and poor people it would be more powerful.

 

Ekphrastic Poem