For my final project, I incorporated three different themes: Earth Art, Feminism, and NYC 1980s.
In relation to the Earth Art theme, I used dandelions as brushes to craft a gradient background. I dripped paint onto my canvas and mixed colors together using the dandelions. As a result of the pressure, the dandelions would crumple, break, and essentially lose their initial integrity. Because of this structural weakness, I had to pick several dandelions to curate the background. The destruction of something beautiful is symbolic of the Feminism theme I supplemented to my piece.
For Feminism, I used an advertisement for “Your Best Winter Skin”, a guide in my magazine that underscored the societal expectation for a woman’s skin to be flawless. Surrounding and on the advertisement, I added empowering phrases, such as “I’m a fighter” and “The painful truth proves she’s one to watch”. I consider these collaged words to be empowering and challenge the status quo regarding the role of women.
At the bottom of my piece, I added my third and final theme, NYC 1980s with a focus on Keith Haring style drawings. From left to right, the figurines grow in size, with thought bubbles that coincidentally increase in confidence. Across the chest of each of these figures is the word “HER”, which is representative of all women and female-identifying individuals. This symbolizes a young girl growing up and gradually finding her voice to challenge the societal standards she is subjected to, observable through the blue lines that fade in strength and closeness to her. The same blue lines can be found outlining the collage.