Title: Healing the Soul
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Inspiration:
Käthe Kollwitz:
Kollwitz is a German Expressionist who created art to express her own thoughts and ideas about World War I and II. Creating in prints from wood press, with many of her works expressing moods of sorrow, grief, and how the community was affected by the huge tragedies that had risen from World War 1. With this losing her own son, which lead her to create her own grief as a mother, which is shown throughout her pieces at that time of deep sorrow. With this, Kollwitz uses texture and shapes to convey the moods of sorrow and expressions of the faces to impact and shock the audience to see the pain Kollwitz has gone through. Not only this, but Kollwitz implements symbolism into her piece by having a child in some of her pieces that shown her own grief from losing him. Kollwitz uses smoother lines to create highlights and no shading on the positive space to create contrast from the highly textured faces, to the flat, smoother body figures and background. Implementing Kollwitz's use of line and shape, as well as texture to symbolize the strength and power that a rich culture can hold, and how it can bring joy to see people, survive through tragedies and still continue to know who they are. |
In addition, in other areas, Kollwitz uses texture to contrast and define a symbol in the piece. Moreover uses lines to define and create an expression of sorrow from the elongated, and rougher lines. Lastly, uses lines as shading as mid tones to give definition to the piece. Adding these concepts into my art of wanting varied textures and having the contrast from the shades and highlights, as well as the positive and negative space.
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Hmong culture and clothing artifacts:
for the background and the main figures, I wanted to include my own culture within the piece to explain the changes of how rich culture can bring healing to one, and how that culture never dies out, only changes. With the event I wanted to replicate is important for . I also wanted to included Hmong clothing into the piece, with the main figure a shaman to symbolize the connection of the past and present, with clothing worn typically a veil, and Hmong traditional clothes, and the figures behind the shaman, ancestors that are wearing Hmong clothes. With the details I wanted to included w as the texture, of the clothing into the figure, and patterns. Lastly, I wanted to add the batik patterns in the background, and embroidery across on the top to represent the connection between the past and present, by this art form has been done in the past to this day in the Hmong culture. With the designs I included was the snail embroidery designs from the meaning being longevity and prosperity, which I wanted to have the meaning of it show the cultural longevity and how it is able to continue throughout any challenges. Also, the seed panels and mountain designs to show where the Hmong came from, which is a community of nomadic people and where they lived back in the homeland of Laos. |
Planning Sketches:
During the planning, I decided to sketch out 3 main figures, the main shaman figure, and two ancestors wearing traditional Hmong clothes to symbolize the deep culture hidden in this ceremony of soul calling. I also wanted to implement Hmong Batik patterns and embroidery to show who are the Hmong people, and how they were able to continue this rich history and art form, even though talked down upon showing who they are. From my inspiration I wanted a few main textures in the piece, smooth, large sharp streaky lines, and small lines to help define the shading better. From this texture, I can be able to create depth in the piece, and all as build textures to bring out the main figures. Moreover, sketched out how I was going to plan where the textures are going to be and how to create the textures of the type of pressure that is needed, and strokes of the cutter to get the texture.
Process:
Firstly, I sketched what I wanted on the piece, shading the areas where I'm not going to remove, and leaving the parts I am removing blank. This made it easier to trace around, and worked backwards to make sure that I was cutting out the highlights, and leaving the parts blank as the shades. I later will apply the lino cutter with a smaller tip, and lightly applied pressure. Then I evened out the surface to create even shading, then I went in with a larger tip, and removed places where I wanted Larger textures, and where I wanted huge highlights to contrast.
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Furthermore, I cleaned up the edges after, making sure that areas I wanted highly textured, was rough, and areas I wanted smoother had an even, flat surface so that when the ink is applied, the highlights wouldn't be affected. Then I went in the last layer to be the lightest and the highlights, so when the ink is applied, it won't be able to touch the ink and affect the outcome of being darker shade I wanted. Lastly, adding any other small details into the faces, background, and outfits to make sure it was crisp and sharp.
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Experimentation:
At first, I didn't know how much pressure to apply, due to this some lines were more streaky than others, With this I soon realized that the tip should be curved more upwards to gain more control and put the linoleum block on a flat surface from digging into the block deeper from the lino cutter. With this, I tried different hardness and pressures with the cutter, seeing that the more pressure and less control of the cutter one had, the more streakier the lines become, and with more precise and less pressure, the lines become more even and surface looks cleaner. Moreover, trying a smaller tip also helped by getting into smaller creases that couldn't be done with a larger tip, switching between both to create more textures and variance in the piece. Lastly, all helping me defining the face more, and features to contrast from the background.
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Reflection:
Overall, The project was difficult although somewhat enjoyable. At first, I didn't know where to start off, but after watching videos on how to create linoleum block prints and the technique put into it, I became more confident to continue the piece. I would try to redo this piece due to the lines I wish I didn't applied too much pressure because I wasn't sure how much I needed to press, and if the ink will reach it or not. This lead to me carving more than I needed which affected the outcome which I wasn't happy about. Moreover, I would start off with a tinier tipped, because I was limited to 1 tip, being more aware of how deep the textures will be cut to show the varied textures within the piece while printing. Something that I enjoyed was the outcome, with the batik and embroidery designs I put in, showed, and I was able to create circular designs with a limited tool. Lastly, know when to stop adding textures because I was scared that the textures weren't going to show up, going deeper than I should of, however, this left a texture that I enjoyed by the lines being more rough to give definition of the piece.
Compare & Contrast:
Differences:
- In The People by Käthe Kollwitz, she uses symbolism and emotion to convey a somber, and sad mood. Contrasting from Healing the Soul, uses texture, and symbolism to convey happiness and a joyful mood. - In Healing the Soul uses more textured lines to give contrast from the positive space, while in The People uses different textures and other shapes or figures to give depth and contrast from the positive and negative space. - Healing the Soul has a theme of bring together people, and unity from deep culture, and how it affects one. Contrasting from The People with the theme of sorrow and grief over loss, and how it affects a community and Kollwitz during World War I. |
Similarities:
- In Healing the Soul and in The people uses texture and positive space to gain the attention towards the main focus of the subjects. - Both uses emotions and symbolism to convey a theme and main idea. - In The people and Healing the Soul uses texture and shapes to give depth into the work from the positive space to convey moods. - Both uses varied textures and lines to convey emotions in the piece, as well as the theme. |
ACT Questions:
1) Clearly explain and describe how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
The cause effect relationship between my inspiration and it's effect on my artwork is the placing and use of textures to add meaning and shapes. Resulting in the mood and structure in the piece.
2) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
My overall approach regarding the author and topic of my inspiration is how texture and carving from positive space and can add negative space to create depth and variety in a piece.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Generalizations I've made was the use of art of Kollwitz's use of texture, symbolism, and expressions to create mood and meaning to a piece.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea of my inspirational research was use of symbolism, intent, and the texture involve inspired my research to showcase meaning behind an expressive piece.
5) What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
Conclusions made while reading my research was the amount of grief and sorrow Kollwitz had felt due to losing numerous people around her and from the War traumatized her into her arts showing this grief from the emotions and period the piece was made.
The cause effect relationship between my inspiration and it's effect on my artwork is the placing and use of textures to add meaning and shapes. Resulting in the mood and structure in the piece.
2) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
My overall approach regarding the author and topic of my inspiration is how texture and carving from positive space and can add negative space to create depth and variety in a piece.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Generalizations I've made was the use of art of Kollwitz's use of texture, symbolism, and expressions to create mood and meaning to a piece.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea of my inspirational research was use of symbolism, intent, and the texture involve inspired my research to showcase meaning behind an expressive piece.
5) What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
Conclusions made while reading my research was the amount of grief and sorrow Kollwitz had felt due to losing numerous people around her and from the War traumatized her into her arts showing this grief from the emotions and period the piece was made.
Bibliography:
“Käthe Kollwitz. the People (Das Volk) (PLATE 7) from War (KRIEG). (1922, PUBLISHED 1923).” MoMA.org, www.moma.org/s/ge/collection_ge/artist/artist_id-3201_role-1_sov_page-22.html.
Tate. “'The People', KÄTHE Kollwitz, 1922.” Tate, 1 Jan. 1970, www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kollwitz-the-people-p82465.
Tate. “'The People', KÄTHE Kollwitz, 1922.” Tate, 1 Jan. 1970, www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kollwitz-the-people-p82465.