Overcoming The Wave

In unit 2 of If These Could Talk we looked at murals from 1910-until the present. We focused the Mexican Mural Movement and how art was used a weapon. We also looked at graffiti and how it became popular, and the importance of art being illegal, especially when it is meant to start a revolution. We went to Pilsen, a neighborhood in Chicago, on a FE, and how each mural has a message. For the action project we got in groups of 5 people and we took the images we created for the first Action Project to create a sketch that incorporates each of our ideas. I enjoyed experimenting with different types of paints and seeing which would work best in conveying the message of the group sketch. It was challenging having to make change our original design to make it even more simple, but carry the same message. Please enjoy LL, BKJ, AG, MF’s and my artwork!

                                                                                                                          

NVA, AG, MF, BKJ, LL
Overcoming the Wave
December, 2015
11” x 4” and 11” x 4.5”
Acrylic Painting/ Spray Paint

NVA, BKJ, AG, LL, MF "Overcoming the wave sketch" (2015) GCE Lab School 

The sketch that we created shows a wave coming up and a boat caught in the middle of the wave. The wave is symbolizing the traditional school system and its approach at education, and how they are all the same with using standardized testing and the way they break down learning. The boat that is going toward the wave symbolizes our school and how we are changing what is seen as the “norm” for our educational system. This concept of our sketch is considered revolt art. Our school is really trying to break the norm of our system that we have created. This is also a tribute mural to our school, because we create this mural to recognize the changes we are trying to make. This sketch was inspired from murals we looked at in unit 1 and 2, from the concept of using our peers different styles and mixing them. Also we looked at acrylic murals in unit 2 a lot and wanted to use that in our own piece. This is much different than our last sketch, we changed it because our teacher wanted us to have the same message but have less in it, to make it more simplistic.

NVA "Acrylic Paint Swatches" (2015) GCE Lab School 

In our group, we divided the sketch into five sections and each person chose two sections to use in creating a material swatch. I chose acrylic paint, because my group wanted to use many different acrylic mediums, and wanted to see how it would look without external mediums changing the style. I chose to use the paint as is, skipping the addition of acrylic media to show my group what the paint would look like on its own. I like the challenge of turning little into more and greater. It was also very simple to use,because I had nothing to add to the paint, making it very easy to handle and manipulate. I thought the resulting image was cool, because it has this simple and old artistic style to it. I think the way I used the colors and moved them up and around, made the wave look very powerful, and in a very simple way. When talking about colors, my group looked at many different wave painting and in one we saw that they stuck to using different shades of blue to keep that ocean feel, and that is what we wanted to do. I used the white when the wave is building and then building again, because water when moving and splashing within itself, it makes a white-ish blue color. We do plan to use this in final painting. my group liked the blue sky, and its color, because we didn’t want the sky to stand out, but more settle in, so it won’t look bad.

The resulting image of my swatches came out very detailed, colorful, and really how I wanted them to come out. Also the depth of it was very nice, because it had this feel to it, of the wave really coming up and showing it is going to be real and powerful. This was something I really wanted to see, while painting. I thought the medium was very easy to work with, it was very easy to control. All I had to do was work with my color choices which was fun, and it was cool to see how nice they came out. Also how really simple of a process it took to get such a nice and clean looking image; that still has depth to it, being able to use the colors to create depth is very thing to learn.

In the end, we will use acrylic paint (without additional medium) to create the sky, and the coarse pumice gel to create the foam at the top of the wave. Then the water and inside of the wave we use soft gel, which is something that creates a glossy look for water to pop out. For the boat and people we used spray paint, because we wanted a really clean and crisp look to that part so it can stand out very nicely.

NVA, BKJ, AG, LL, MF "Overcomign the wave( swatches put together)" (2015) GCE Lab School 

Calling Lincoln Park

In unit 1 of If These Walls Could Talk, we looked at the history or murals, from Prehistory up until the Renaissance. We also looked at the visual styles of different murals, and how to classify murals based on its purpose. For the Action Project, we had picked a neighborhood in Chicago, and created a sketch for a mural that addresses a problem that neighborhood. To explain the image, we wrote an artist statement that clearly explains how the image addresses the problem we identified. The neighborhood I chose was Lincoln Park, and I believe that there is a lack of community in that neighborhood. The purpose of this was to learn about how murals are used and what they can do. Also since we are moving to a new space as a school, this is to help get an idea of how to make a mural for a new location. Please enjoy my art piece and artist statement!


NVA
“Calling Lincoln Park”
11-15-15
11’’ x 14’

Drawing

During the 1850s, Lincoln Park was home to many German truck farmers, helping Lincoln Park to earn the name “Cabbage Patch”. It was also home to many industrial workers, who worked in the neighborhood. The Germans started creating the community, but after the Great Chicago Fire, many Germans left and other ethnic groups began to move into the neighborhood, Italians, Hungarians, Romanians, Slovaks, Puerto Ricans, and African Americans; moved into Lincoln Park for the cheap housing built after the fire. But how did a lack of community become a problem if the neighborhood was called home by so many different cultures? Well, the Great Depression the people of Old Town (Southeastern part of Lincoln Park) were worried it was becoming a slum. From housing stock deteriorating as the owners subsided and neglected their properties. So they formed The Old Town Triangle Association in 1948, which inspired the north side of Lincoln Park to form the Lincoln Park Conservation Association in 1954. Then in 1956, the neighborhood was designated as a conservation area. Then, because of the General Renewal Plan that was enforced in Lincoln Park, groups of people, like the Puerto Rican and African - Americans were bought out and forced to move. Then the property value increased drastically, forcing out the poor to make room for the wealthy. Making it, by the early 2000s, one of the neighborhoods with the highest status. 

Today, after a long history of culture and economic changes, Lincoln Park has lost its sense of community despite efforts to help its residents connect with each other. I would say it it isn’t working just because of technology as well, because it adds to the disconnection people build by themselves. I hope to draw attention to this problem through the mural I am proposing. 

In the sketch I drew a-over-the-shoulder view of a man looking at his phone, and on the screen it says, “Take off the headphones”. The headphones symbolize the reason there is a lack of community.Spending time in Lincoln Park and observing the people in the neighborhood, I saw many people with their headphones on and no one looked nor talked to each other. I was inspired by the use of realism, developed during the Renaissance. I chose to use realism as a visual technique because the scene I created is a real one; people in real life are always on their phones. I used a muted and dull color palette to show how boring the community has gotten because of the lack of community. I’ve created this image as a revolt to address the need to put your headphones in and ignore everything around you. 

This is a mural that I’d want to be put in the park or by the lake, these areas are where the most people hang out, and where the most wealthiest people live. From my mural, I want it to wake people up and have them take out their headphones and try to talk to other people around them. From that a community will be born, and there will be no need for one, because it will already be there.

References:

"Lincoln Park." Lincoln Park. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.