Imagi(e)ine
Exhibition Text
Roots was created to show community and how the people within it shape and help grow it to reach new limits. I was inspired by the Cau Vang bridge in Vietnam, Portrait of a Passionate Woman by Dali, and a poster for ComFest in Columbus Ohio. It represents community as a whole and how the people are connected to it.
The Community- Bringing People Together
A community is defined as a unified body of individuals that share common interests. Although this is the straightforward definition of community, there are certain different things that make a good one.
People in communities all work together to strive towards a larger goal, and doing so are able to both come together and raise the community up to reach new heights. The people in the community are the roots of the entire city: without them, the community would not be able to grow or even function.
According to Chris Guillebeau, "A community built on hope is stronger than one built on fear", which I also wanted to portray in this piece. It takes more than one person to make a change and build a strong community, and when we can all come together, we can build something great.
People in communities all work together to strive towards a larger goal, and doing so are able to both come together and raise the community up to reach new heights. The people in the community are the roots of the entire city: without them, the community would not be able to grow or even function.
According to Chris Guillebeau, "A community built on hope is stronger than one built on fear", which I also wanted to portray in this piece. It takes more than one person to make a change and build a strong community, and when we can all come together, we can build something great.
Planning
Inspiration
Viet Anh, Vu. Cau Vang. 2018, Danang, Vietnam
|
I was inspired by the Cau Vang bridge because I really liked the idea of hands lifting up something. I liked the symbolism that went along with it as well, as it had a similar meaning to what my piece evoked. The principal designer of the architecture company who designed this, Vu Viet Anh, said that it meant to show the “giant hands of Gods, pulling a strip of gold out of the land” (Dedaj 2018).
|
Dali, Salvador. Portrait of a Passionate Woman . 1945, Private Collection.
|
Portrait of a Passionate Woman by Dali was used more as a minor inspiration for this piece, as I mainly referenced it for placement and design of the hands in both pieces. It also had the more simple background imagery and colors so that the main focus of the piece could be on what was happening in the foreground, which is another thing I liked about it.
|
Everett, Connie. “COMFEST 2016 - Something for Everyone.” The Columbus Freepress, 3 June 2016, columbusfreepress.com/article/comfest-2016-something-everyone.
|
This poster designed for a festival called ComFest in Columbus Ohio was probably one of my main inspiration for this piece. ComFest is short for Community Festival, which is held in Goodale park, and the whole thing is community ran. They designed this poster for the 2016 ComFest, and when I saw it, it sparked an idea for this project. I wanted to incorporate the skyline and the roots, but changing the skyline to be the one of Milwaukee’s. I sort of wanted the silhouettes of the buildings to be shaped like a tree so that it was clearer to understand the symbolism of the roots. I incorporated the idea of the skyline in the second design as well.
|
Sketches
These were my notes I took during the MIAD presentation, as well as my original ideas and comcepts
|
This was the sketch for my first piece. It shows a pair of hands holding up a city skyline with roots coming out of the bottom. The hands represent the people of the community lifting it up. They are white because white is the color of unity, as people in a community are united together. The red background symbolizes warmth, love, strength, and boldness. The roots coming out of the skyline are meant to show how the people are rooted in a community and how we allow it to grow.
|
These are my sketches for the stencils that will go over the background. I experimented a little with the positioning of the cupped hands and the skyline for the second piece.
|
This is my final sketches for both pieces. It includes the backgrounds that I wanted to create with the colors and stencils
|
Background
I chose this for the background because the blue fading into the red, and then the green represent the colors of the earth. The reason I included these earthy colors is because it goes with the theme of the roots, because trees need the earth to grow, as the community needs the citizens. The red in the middle of the gradient symbolizes love and togetherness. In the final product, the background was lightened because when it was printed, it would be hard for stencils to show up against the darkness.
|
Experimentation
At first, when I was thinking about how I wanted to do the screen printing, I thought I would have a plain red background, like the one I originally created in Paint. My thought was that I would have a plain red background and then screen print the hands, tree roots, and skyline onto the background. However, after the in process critique, Jason reminded me that while red can symbolize love and and boldness, it can also have the connotation of danger. Instead, I should include earthy colors to compliment the tree roots, and have the red in the middle, with a lower opacity.
|
One afternoon, my family and I took a drive downtown so I could get some pictures that I could put together to create the skylines for my pieces. I didn't necessarily need the entire Milwaukee skyline, because that would be harder to photograph, because I figured that if I could take pictures of individual buildings, I could take their silhouettes and put them all together even if it isn't 100% accurate.
Process
1. After I had my planning sketches and final ideas all thought out, I began by making the background in Photoshop. I knew I wanted a gradient going down that included blue and green, representing earthy colors that trees need to grow, and red in the middle representing love. So first, I set up the three color gradient.
|
This was the final color background settings
4. I used a very thin line to begin with so I could get an idea of where I would be drawing 5. Then, I chose a thicker line to outline certain parts of the roots closer to the "trunk" 6. Then, since I thought the original lines were a little too thin and looked awkward, I added a little thicker lines on the original ones to blend it together (My final background is above) |
These are all of the final stencils
10. When we got there, we picked out our colors to use. My original plan was to use only black and white stencils, but for some reason, they didn't have a lot of solid white or solid black, so I had to change my ideas a little bit. I was able to find a solid black, but I had to use a skin colored ink to do the large hands, even though I wanted them in white to symbolize unity
|
11. Then, they showed us how to screen print. First, we placed out stencils on the screens (right). Then, on a piece of newsprint, we had to do a "test run" of the print. We had to put a glob of paint on the top of the screen, then use a squeegee (left) to scrape down, towards us, using a lot of pressure.
12. Then, we had to do a flood coat on the screen, which means we had to put all of the extra ink on top of the stencil so that it wouldn't get dried out while we positioned the screen on our backgrounds. |
Reflection
Critique
I am happy with the final product, however, it definitely didn't turn out how I wanted it to. There were actually a lot of things that were changed from my original ideas and sketches. First of all, my original background had darker colors that looked more earthy, but in the end they got lightened so that my stencils would show up. Although this change affected the look of the product, I don't think it takes away from anything, and I like the lighter colors as well. The other thing that was changed was the color of the hands. Originally, I wanted them to be white to symbolize unity, but when we were at MIAD, they didn't have enough for me to do both stencils, so I settled for a skin colored ink. I think the color was fine, but the piece lost some of its symbolism, and because the ink was more sheer than the white, you could see the black stencil showing through, which I don't like. You could also see the corners of the city skyline outside of the hands, which I was trying to cover up, but I didn't space the stencils right when I was printing, which is disappointing, because it looks kind of weird like that. Even though a lot of things didn't go to plan, I still liked how the piece turned out. If I had a chance to do this again, I would definitely make sure that I printed the hands with a white ink because I really think it could have made all the difference in this piece.
Compare and Contrast
Viet Anh, Vu. Cau Vang. 2018, Danang, Vietnam
|
Similarities
|
Roots by Lexie Snyder
|
Dali, Salvador. Portrait of a Passionate Woman . 1945, Private Collection.
Everett, Connie. “COMFEST 2016 - Something for Everyone.” The Columbus Freepress, 3 June 2016, columbusfreepress.com/article/comfest-2016-something-everyone.
|
Differences
|
ACT Responses
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
The Cau Vang bridge in Vietnam as well as Dali's Portrait of a Passionate Woman inspired the positioning of the hands holding up the city skyline. The roots coming out of the skyline was influenced by a poster made for ComFest in 2016.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author in this article talks about what makes a good community. He says that it is about being unified and together so that we have the ability to make a change
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I learned that people become stronger with the support and love from others
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The theme of this piece is community and how the people in the community are able to give it life and help it function and grow
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I could infer that in order for a community to flourish, it needs the support of the people in it
The Cau Vang bridge in Vietnam as well as Dali's Portrait of a Passionate Woman inspired the positioning of the hands holding up the city skyline. The roots coming out of the skyline was influenced by a poster made for ComFest in 2016.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author in this article talks about what makes a good community. He says that it is about being unified and together so that we have the ability to make a change
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I learned that people become stronger with the support and love from others
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The theme of this piece is community and how the people in the community are able to give it life and help it function and grow
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I could infer that in order for a community to flourish, it needs the support of the people in it
Bibliography
Dali, Salvador. Portrait of a Passionate Woman . 1945, Private Collection.
Everett, Connie. “COMFEST 2016 - Something for Everyone.” The Columbus Freepress, 3 June 2016,
columbusfreepress.com/article/comfest-2016-something-everyone.
Guillebeau, Chris. “What Makes a Community.” Chris Gillebeau, ByteGrow, chrisguillebeau.com/what-makes-a-community/.
Viet Anh, Vu. Cau Vang. 2018, Danang, Vietnam
Everett, Connie. “COMFEST 2016 - Something for Everyone.” The Columbus Freepress, 3 June 2016,
columbusfreepress.com/article/comfest-2016-something-everyone.
Guillebeau, Chris. “What Makes a Community.” Chris Gillebeau, ByteGrow, chrisguillebeau.com/what-makes-a-community/.
Viet Anh, Vu. Cau Vang. 2018, Danang, Vietnam