Block Print
Exhibition Text
Title: Insides Outsides
Size: 23cm x 15cm Medium: Block Print Date: October 7, 2016 Gabrielle Matiszik created a block print using inspiration from the German expressionism movement (1920's) and Van Gogh's Skull of Skeleton with Burning Cigarette. This piece was influenced by the idea of beauty standards, and how outward appearance is used to perceive who a person is. |
PLanning
Inspiration
My artist inspiration for this piece was Vincent van Gogh. In addition, however, to just the artist; I pulled inspiration from the German Expressionism movement during the 1920’s. Vincent van Gogh had a troubled life. Born on March 30, 1853, van Gogh lived the duration of his life with mental illness. Each of his paintings conveyed his emotional and spiritual state of being. Van Gogh only sold a single painting that he made in his short life-time. He was always viewed as an outcast wherever he went. This would cause him to look poorly upon himself, as well as his work. He viewed it as worthless; stacking it up without proper maintenance in the small, damp rooms of his house. Van Gogh would even offer his work at cafes in exchange for food, beer, or even a place to sit. He earned a reputation as a drunk and poor painter with no money or talent. At times, he was even associated with the the devil for his fiery red hair and disheveled appearance.
Despite this, van Gogh was also known for his multitude of self portraits. Many of which reflected not only his current style of painting, but the portraits gave an inside look into the mind of van Gogh himself. He often used images of nature; specifically trees, flowers, and the sky to help convey certain moods or themes. His self portraits relied heavily on the use of movement. Specifically, the emotions can be seen through the swirling, constant, thick paint strokes in the background. This is often symbolic of Van Gogh’s constant mental unrest. He used these paintings as a way to remember who he was as a person, in addition to reflecting his personal artistic achievements derived from differing influences. Besides movement, Van Gogh demonstrated emotions through his use of color. Dark blues or purples often resembled a dark state of mind. While the movement stayed consistent within many of his self-portraits, the colors could be used to decipher the feeling of the piece. "Dying is hard, but living is harder still." -Vincent van Gogh |
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Planning Sketches
Process
Process |
Experimentation
The biggest area of experimentation that I encountered was attempting to create a clean print. I tried to add different amounts of ink onto the carving, pressure while shooting paper onto the carving, and the amount of time that I spent rolling ink and smoothing out the paper. I even washed the carving to remove oils on the carving. After about twenty tries, I decided to simply chose my best print.
Reflection
This project was much more enjoyable for me to complete, as an artist. It was my first attempt at creating a linoleum carving, or a carving of any sort. The research was not extremely intensive, strictly speaking for the technique of the piece. An immense amount of time was spent, rather, on searching for different inspirations for my piece both in terms of artist and art movement. I was not sure how I was going to incorporate specific artist inspiration into the piece. Instead of creating a piece with initial artist inspiration, I decided to focus on the theme of the work. After throwing around a few different ideas, I settled on the theme of beauty and standards in society. This was a broad theme, but it allowed me to really play with whom I wanted to use as my artist inspiration. After some contemplation, I decided upon using Vincent van Gogh as my additional artist inspiration. Van Gogh was someone who had a very troubled mind; he also had issues with conforming to norms of society with things from hair to interactions with other people. He is also one of my personal favorite artists. I believe that his ideas and themes can be presented in other ways besides the standard oil on canvas with the constant use of motion. I knew it was going to be more difficult to use van Gogh as an inspiration for a work that was completely black and white, but I still thought that I could use van Gogh as an inspiration if I applied motion throughout the piece.
The most challenging aspect of this piece, for me, was being able to find a rhythm while carving. My initial cuts were very jagged, and sharp. I did not have a lot of control over the carving instruments, and this would be frustrating especially when dealing with the smaller areas such as the eyes. However, as I experimented more with the amounts of force and the depth which I used, I was able to gain more control over what I was carving. There were a few areas in which I became frighteningly close to actually creating a hole through the carving, because I had carved too deep in my attempts to ensure a clean white space. Another difficulty that I encountered was the printing process was that somehow an oil of sorts got onto my finalized carving. Due to this, whenever I attempted to make a print, the black areas would never be clear, but were almost texturized. I then proceeded to try and apply different amounts of pressure, ink, and time to help make a cleaner print: all to no prevail. I even washed my carving to try and get the oils off, but this still did not produce a perfect print. After fifteen separate tries, I decided that it was time to pick my best print and stick with that one. It was bothersome that my print could not come out as clear as I wanted it, but I was satisfied with my carving and print as a whole. I felt that my final work was able to express my initial theme as well as convey my artist inspiration, and that was my overall goal.
This project, overall, was much more of a success in terms of the quality of my work and just the amount of enjoyment than the prior project. I felt that I had a lot more freedom to express myself within this piece of work. I prefer to work with pieces that are physical, that I can actually create in front of me so to speak. Plus the liking of the creation process, I also thought that the artist connection was more personal. I felt that this piece did a much better job of expressing what my theme was. I thought that using a different artist and a different movement also helped my project’s theme. When I used the two different sources of inspiration, I was able to pick and choose which areas of each that I wanted to express. It gave me a broader area of inspiration, which is really helpful when wanting to also incorporate my own style into the piece.
The most challenging aspect of this piece, for me, was being able to find a rhythm while carving. My initial cuts were very jagged, and sharp. I did not have a lot of control over the carving instruments, and this would be frustrating especially when dealing with the smaller areas such as the eyes. However, as I experimented more with the amounts of force and the depth which I used, I was able to gain more control over what I was carving. There were a few areas in which I became frighteningly close to actually creating a hole through the carving, because I had carved too deep in my attempts to ensure a clean white space. Another difficulty that I encountered was the printing process was that somehow an oil of sorts got onto my finalized carving. Due to this, whenever I attempted to make a print, the black areas would never be clear, but were almost texturized. I then proceeded to try and apply different amounts of pressure, ink, and time to help make a cleaner print: all to no prevail. I even washed my carving to try and get the oils off, but this still did not produce a perfect print. After fifteen separate tries, I decided that it was time to pick my best print and stick with that one. It was bothersome that my print could not come out as clear as I wanted it, but I was satisfied with my carving and print as a whole. I felt that my final work was able to express my initial theme as well as convey my artist inspiration, and that was my overall goal.
This project, overall, was much more of a success in terms of the quality of my work and just the amount of enjoyment than the prior project. I felt that I had a lot more freedom to express myself within this piece of work. I prefer to work with pieces that are physical, that I can actually create in front of me so to speak. Plus the liking of the creation process, I also thought that the artist connection was more personal. I felt that this piece did a much better job of expressing what my theme was. I thought that using a different artist and a different movement also helped my project’s theme. When I used the two different sources of inspiration, I was able to pick and choose which areas of each that I wanted to express. It gave me a broader area of inspiration, which is really helpful when wanting to also incorporate my own style into the piece.
Connecting to the ACT
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
- I used the traditional German woodcut print style to create a portrait with inspiration from Vincent van Gogh's painting of a skull.
- The way that I interpret the inspiration (the skull) is that its a symbol of death, or even a portrait of death itself.
- The idea of self identity is something that individuals have struggled with for several hundred years. Van Gogh is an example of a troubled individual who used his art to help express some of his concerns on this issue, as well as others. Art is a way to help express deep and personal conflicts.
- My research was centered around Vincent van Gogh, and his meaning behind his works.
- I believe that Vincent van Gogh led a sad and lonely life. He was constantly under the impression that he never mattered, and in the end I think that is what pushed him to paint. He knew that he would not be able to communicate verbally with others, so he did so in a way that allowed him to distance himself from his own emotions.