#unit one final

[danielacassetta]

Unit One Final Project Proposal-

I planned to experiment with the idea of dying things, so I tried to pick objects that can be easily dyed. I settled on q-tips and tissues. I plan on dying them in a range of different dues and levels of saturations between green and yellow with the use of watercolor and acrylics mixed with water. My next step would be to make them into something, and flowers seemed to be a good place to start. I plan on possibly using straws and stems and making various types of flowers out of the q-tips and tissues with the aid of wax and hot glue. They would them be assembled into a bouquet. The last phase would be to photograph it in some melancholy lighting, on a table, hoping to tell a story. Q-tips and tissues are typically used for cleaning, most people have a very clear idea of what purpose they hold. I hope to alter this concept and attempt to make them beautiful, and use the connection between a bouquet of flowers, melancholy, and tissues as a point to tell a story visually.

[danielacassetta]

Reflection- Unit One Final

This final project was frustrating, of course, but I did learn a lot from it. I tend to move super fast through projects because I just want to keep moving and practicing to better my own skill. I don’t often take the time to go through a “process,” I like diving in and just seeing where my work takes me. Because I am a painter, that’s normally what I do, I never really know what my painting will be until it is done- I love spontaneity. This is why I felt so stuck with the advice you had given me- I wanted to keep moving. However, slowing down has helped me appreciate my work more. Although, I do wish that I could have done the original painting for this project I am still glad that I went with the micron drawing. I was very successful with my value in my eyes, the stippling took forever and a day but it was worth it in the end. I would like to improve on my ability to see and make things more abstractly. I tend to stay in the realm of realism and I want to think beyond that. I think my original painting would have helped with that- but I have time to figure out the abstract in the rest of my years here as well. For the next unit I will focus on letting myself be more loose with my ideas and slow down my art making process so that I can appreciate it more.

[danielacassetta]

Artist Statement- Unit One Final

I created my piece around the idea of personifying the city as whole. I was surrounded by the question: what would the city look like if it were a person? When I think of Philadelphia I think of the people who inhabit it, specifically the people I see every day. The people I met when I first arrived have been the embodiment of the city to me. Originally my goal was to incorporate all of their faces within the cityscape, however, once I began I thought it may be more interesting to make the city a person, one that resembles myself. I used a photo of myself as reference and made it slightly different, altering the features ever so slightly, but still making it mostly resemble myself. Then made all the shadows on the face the places I have seen/ been with the friends I just described. I am slowly becoming the city through the experiences I have day in and day out while I’m here. My goal was to illustrate that in one cohesive image.  

I went through all the photos I’ve taken- all my own unique point of view of the city- since I moved in and picked the ones with the most character and relevance to me. As I drew them onto the face that I lined with micron pen, I tried to focus the most on line and shape as my formal elements. I took each photo and simplified it down to the basic lines and shapes that make them up, I placed these images in the shadows of the face, slowly blending back into the rest of the skin. I also focused on value and concentration very much. I layered pen on top of pen to get the most successful gradient I could from the image to the highlight in the skin using various types of cross hatching and stippling. After hours of work- and frustration- I finished a piece that I feel embodies the city and all the wonderful experiences I have had in it thus far.

[danielacassetta]

Draft!