My project is a self portrait inspired by Amy Sherald. She was the first artist I thought of when I received this project. From the first time she was introduced to us in class, I was intrigued by her and her art style. I love how the backgrounds of her paintings embrace the melanin of her inspirations. She really embraces the fact that Black is Beautiful. I particularly love how simple yet detailed her pictures are. The more you look at them the more things you notice about it.
In the painting I chose to recreate, it looks like a regular orange background with a black woman on it but as you keep looking you notice the red in the background, the kinks in her afro, the definition in her arms and the details in her dress. I absolutely loved this piece. When I was deciding how to recreate it I thought about what picture of mine resembled the piece the most. After scrolling through my Instagram I found this picture I took about 2 weeks ago and it was perfect.
What I used to create my project was oil pastels on canvas. I initially wanted to use acrylic paint but the ones I purchased ended up being too light. This was the first time I worked with oil pastels and it was honestly so fun. The creaminess of the pastels made it very easy to blend and work with. For the background I used three different colors and for the dress I used two. I chose to make the background blue because I wanted the color of my dress and skin to pop.I wanted it to convey the message of through all the darkness I will shine bright and be as colorful as I could be.
In my first self portrait I utilized my body, physical objects and black and white. In my final project I wanted to do a more cartoon feel with vibrant colors. I also wanted to challenge myself to use a tool that I never used before. I also challenged myself to blend. It was a technique that I always found very difficult but I wanted to explore it since it was my final project. I have also always found it hard to do faces and facial expressions but Amy Sherald made me want to try. My absolute favorite part of my interpretation is my dress. I feel like the dress is so well blended and it represents my dress well.
Quotes:
Carrie Mae Weems “Kitchen Table Series”
“But it was also a seminal moment for Black representation in art, influencing an entire generation of artists who rarely saw their own selves reflected back on museum walls”
Mickalene Thomas -Photographed, Collaged and Painted Muses
“By selecting women of color, I am quite literally raising their visibility and inserting their presence into the conversation,
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