Title: Perseverance
Size: 30 cm x 23 cm Medium: Ink on paper Completion date: September 2021 Exhibition Text: The overall objective for this piece was to practice line work and detail when carving the stamp for the block print. The artwork reflects feelings of perseverance and endurance as waterfall represents the exhaustion of repetition. Pablo Neruda's Walking Around, Impressionism and Vincent Van Gogh all inspired certain aspects of this piece. |
- Inspiration-
It just so happened that the duration of my block print unit in art overlapped with a poetry until I had in literature class. In literature, we read a poem by an honorable poet, Pablo Neruda. One of his poems that we read was called Walking Around and was made in 1935. The poem verbalized the lull of living through repetitive days. This feeling of begrudgingly accepting to continue moving spoke to me and therefore, I tried to capture Neruda's emotions into my block print. The slow moving water represents the slow moving energy of day to day life for Neruda and I'm sure for many others.
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Walking Around
Pablo Neruda 1935 It so happens I am sick of being a man. And it happens that I walk into tailorshops and movie houses dried up, waterproof, like a swan made of felt steering my way in a water of wombs and ashes. The smell of barbershops makes me break into hoarse sobs. The only thing I want is to lie still like stones or wool. The only thing I want is to see no more stores, no gardens, no more goods, no spectacles, no elevators." (Neruda 1-8) |
Another artist that I took inspiration from for this piece was Vincent Van Gogh. Van Gogh was an influential Dutch painter who mostly worked mostly in the post-impressionist art movement. Throughout his decade of his career, he created over two thousand paintings which are now displayed in museums worldwide. Van Gogh is a huge inspiration to painter's around the globe due to the way he taught himself to draw and paint. His use of color and his signature brushwork influenced movements such as expressionism and fauvism. |
I was influenced by the way Vincent Van Gogh painted the sky in Starry Night (see right) and wanted to incorporate his style into my block print. As you can see in the pictures to the right, I carved similar patterns as the sky in Starry Night in order to attempt to replicate the whimsical pattern in the background of the piece. I also spent a generous amount of time just studying Starry Night and the brushwork technique that creates the mood of the painting. |
Above:
Original Block Print Cropped Below: Starry Night Vincent Van Gogh (1889). |
Olive Orchard Vincent Can Gogh (1889) Original Block Print Cropped
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In addition to Starry Night, Van Gogh's Olive Orchard of 1889 influenced my technique for my personal piece. His quick, short brush stroke help to create movement and mood in the painting. I created the same effect with carving short strokes on the trees of my print.
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Movement Inspiration
Originally, I couldn't decide between realism and post-impressionism for my movement inspiration on this particular piece. Van Gogh, whom I already had decided was going to be my artist inspiration worked mostly in post-impressionism so for that reason it made sense to go that route, however there were aspects of my practice sketches that I felt would be really interesting in a realism style. In the end, after writing out the specific characteristics of realism and post impressionism, i decided on post-impressionism because I thought it would fit my block print better. |
- Experimentation and Process -
Bolded are the ideas I ended up incorporating into my final piece in some way or another. Once I had a general idea of the key things I wanted to include in my print (waterfall, trees, rocks) I created two practice sketches to give me a greater idea for how I wanted my final print to look. After deciding on "waterfall 2" I started sketching practice trees in order to have a few references to look back on later.
Before beginning to carve, I took a picture of my rough sketch and digitally traced out where i was to cut and what parts of the block I should leave alone. In this example red represented where I wanted to carve and the blue represented the space I wanted to keep raised. By making this reference picture, it helped me to visualize what my final piece would end up looking like instead of just blindly carving at the block.
Then, it was time to finally get to carving! I worked in sections, starting with the sky before moving onto the waterfall itself. During the carving of the sky, I often referenced Starry Night In order to attempt to capture some of the Van Gogh's technique for my own piece. When working on the waterfall, I tried to capture movement through line direction and length. This is specifically evident in the areas around the rocks where the direction of the water changes.
Finally, I printed my block print. I applied a thin layer of ink onto a tray using a spatula. Then, I rolled it out using a brayer until I got a thin even layer of ink on the tray. Using that same brayer, I rolled the ink onto the block in a smooth, thin layer making sure to cover every milometer of the block. I then placed a piece of paper over the inked block and applied pressure using a barren. After thoroughly applying pressure, I pealed of the paper to reveal my final print.
- Reflection -
I'm very proud of the final print of my piece. The work has a good mix of realistic depictions represented with kind of abstract patterns, specifically in the sky. I'm content with line work in this piece and my carving skill set. In the future, I would play around with more negative space being that right now, the sun is the only solid white part of the print.
- Critique -
Ideally, having Van Gogh as my inspiration, i'd see aspects of him in my block print but also have a significant amount of originality and personal style incorporated within the piece. Below are some similarities and differences between Van Gogh's Starry Night and my original block print.
Similarities:
Similarities:
- The art movement (post impressionism)
- The whimsical aspect found in the sky
- Use of line
- The horizon lines
- The medium
- Different foreground to background ratios
ACT Questions
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
Due to the fact that Vincent Van Gogh was one of my main inspiration artists for this piece, I often referenced his work when carving my own block print. Because of this, pieces of Van Gogh-style line work can be seen throughout the print, for example in the sky and some of the foliage.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Van Gogh was an enthusiast for all things nature related so he would have appreciated the landscape of my print though he never worked with block printing himself.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Through the duration of the completion of my block print, I've learned a great amount about Van Gogh, post-impressionism and myself. I was able to learn a lot more about Van Gogh's technique through simply staring at his work for so long. I sharpened my understanding for the post-impressionism and realism movement in the research phase and finally, learned a lot about my own art skills and time management skills.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
When I initially did research for art movements and artists to connect my block print to, I knew I wanted to find inspiration centered in landscapes and natures. These are both things that bring me a lot of peace to artistically manifest and I wanted to be able to work on conveying natural line work in my piece.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
While examining my inspirations and block printing as a whole, I learned a lot about techniques I had never seen before for example, how to create texture in a block print.
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
Due to the fact that Vincent Van Gogh was one of my main inspiration artists for this piece, I often referenced his work when carving my own block print. Because of this, pieces of Van Gogh-style line work can be seen throughout the print, for example in the sky and some of the foliage.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Van Gogh was an enthusiast for all things nature related so he would have appreciated the landscape of my print though he never worked with block printing himself.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Through the duration of the completion of my block print, I've learned a great amount about Van Gogh, post-impressionism and myself. I was able to learn a lot more about Van Gogh's technique through simply staring at his work for so long. I sharpened my understanding for the post-impressionism and realism movement in the research phase and finally, learned a lot about my own art skills and time management skills.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
When I initially did research for art movements and artists to connect my block print to, I knew I wanted to find inspiration centered in landscapes and natures. These are both things that bring me a lot of peace to artistically manifest and I wanted to be able to work on conveying natural line work in my piece.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
While examining my inspirations and block printing as a whole, I learned a lot about techniques I had never seen before for example, how to create texture in a block print.
Bibliography:
- Van Gogh, Vincent . The Starry Night. 1889, oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art, New York
- Van Gogh, Vincent. The Olive Trees 1889, Museum of Modern Art, Postcard
- Academy of American Poets. (n.d.). Walking around by Pablo Neruda - poems | academy of American poets. Poets.org. Retrieved September 29, 2021, from https://poets.org/poem/walking-around.