Atiyah Hack-Russell – Experimental Arts Project

Showing the Inner Me to the Outer You

Art, “is a diverse range of human activities involving the creation of visual, auditory or performing artifacts (artworks), which express the creator’s imagination, conceptual ideas, or technical skill, intended to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power” (Art). It is a complicated type of media that arises in various shapes and forms and incorporates a multitude of different things in the creation process such as one’s imagination, ideas, and techniques in order to get a finished piece. Yet aside from all that, the true essence of art is to capture and help express an artist’s inner thoughts and emotions in order to help represent who they are in physical form – that is the creative beauty of art. And that is what I aimed to do with my Information and Idea Processing and Transformation Project. The goal of this project is to “use and transform [my] materials from class [such as my notes, assignments, and any awe inspiring ideas] and present them as a media piece [as a way of showing to others my interpretation and understanding of the materials and overall subject of the class].” (Syllabus). At first coming up with an idea as to how I would go about creating my project was not an easy task, but that was until I decided to make my project personal where I would pick a few of the concepts/movements that we covered in class and connect it to me in a way that I could easily showcase it to others. I wanted to create a piece of art that would not only showcase my creativity but also captured my inner thoughts and emotions; and so that is what I did.

The first step in creating my project was selecting what concepts/movements I wanted to focus on because I knew from there I would be able to create something that not only related to those movements but it would represent me as well and after much contemplation I settled on the movements of Surrealism because that style can provide artists more freedom to convey their feelings and thoughts through the canvas for surreal art can be dream, gritty, optimistic or depressing; Abstract Expressionism because it is a form of art where “expression of reality is expressed in a non-representational statement with line, colour and size as well as the aggressive mingling of colours, shapes and forms that creates a painting of pure thought and emotion” (ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM – Characteristics) – simply meaning that it is a type of art that has no concrete rules, so one’s creativity can run free; and lastly Expressionism because it is a style of art in which allows its artists to be able to express their inner feelings or ideas. Collectively, these movements/style/concepts of art allowed me to have the creative freedom to create a piece of art that was not tied down my artistic rules and would allow me to easily put myself into my work so it may be able to easily represent me.

The next stage was coming up with an idea that incorporated the concepts of Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and Expressionism. Inspired by the agonizing current events of 2020 such as COVID-19, police brutality, Black Lives Matter, etcetera, I aimed to create a transitional piece of art where I would capture my inner thoughts and emotions based on what was/is still happening in the world thus far and my inner thoughts and emotions as to what I hope the future will be or encompass. I would use Surrealism to make a collage of images that represent 2020 and of a hopeful future and I would use Abstract and Expressionism to express my emotions and to represent my thoughts with colors. The idea I had was to have a sleeping woman look up and see another woman looking down (both would represent me) and they would be in different colors to represent an emotion. Both images would have collages in them to represent the words and pictures being a part of them, and they are both looking in different directions because one represents the current me and I am looking up to the future me as a way of motivation to overcome my daunting thoughts and emotions which are eating away at me. And the other me is looking down as a way of not only inspiration, but also as a form of reflection because in order for one to make a better future for themselves they must learn from their past mistakes or be doomed to repeat them. And so the woman looking back at me looking at my current state as a reminder of where I wish not to be again. And so after I came up with that idea, the final stage was building it.

When constructing my project I only used 4 key materials: a canvas, paint, painting tools, and printed pictures. Overall, my project is pretty simplistic in regards to the materials I used, regardless of that though, I enjoyed being able to challenge my creativity in putting it together. The only challenge I had truthfully when creating my project was replicating what I imagined in my head on my canvas, but unfortunately I was unsuccessful in doing so, because originally I was going to make my project into three layers to have it be more clearly viewed as a transitional piece. I was going to have the head with the collage of images as the brain, then in the next layer have a clash of emotions between my current and future self, and then in the last layer have my future self. But, that is not necessarily what I have and in all honesty I prefer my current one to the one in my head, but before I had the piece I have currently created I was a bit annoyed at myself for not being able to replicate my own idea, but thankfully I worked past it.

So, as you will see on my canvas I still have the two heads (one down and one up) facing each other, but in different colors. The current me is colored black to represent my “dark” energy in regards to what is happening currently in our world while the other head is colored white to represent my “optimistic” energy as to how I wish the future to be. The collages on both heads and bodies encompass words and images. For the bottom head, I made a collage of words and images of the injustices that are currently plaguing the world and for the upper head, I made a collage of words that I wish the world to associate with and be. I am making what has occurred and what I wish will occur to be a part of me for all these events that are happening now and my future thoughts and hopes are defining me. Then you have the colors I made them represent my emotions and look like hair for the effect. For the black head I used red, yellow, and orange to represent my anger, sadness, and frustration to our current world and the colors look dull because while I still have the fire burning inside me I unfortunately have become a bit numb to all this troubling news and so the dull colors help to represent that. While on the other hand for the white head I used the rainbow to represent my hopeful, optimistic and positive emotions – how I wish to feel in the future once we improve our current situations. To represent my clash of emotions I created two clouds on the opposite side of the faces; I used the same colors I used for the hair of the two women to make those clouds; and they look like they are going to collide with each other because it is to represent the battle of my emotions in a sense. And lastly the backdrop is dark blue with white stars to make it feel like an outer world experience where reality and imagination clash together to create a piece of artwork which you see.

Overall, I truly did enjoy creating my artwork for though it may not have been easy, it was truly a fun and challenging experience. What I gained from this project is that one can always take old concepts and make them one’s own, meaning the old can become new once again. For by adding ones own perspective into the mix a new door is open for a new perspective shows the world in a different light and that is what I appreciate about art. It is a tool which captures one’s views on the world which may be unlike anyone else – art is a tool that captures originality, creativity, thoughts, and emotions, but it is also a tool which represents them as well no matter the form because all art comes from the heart. And that is what I was trying to capture to share with you. I was capturing my inner self to share with the outer you and I hope you were able to enjoy it. Thank you.