Mixed Media CollageTitle: Paper Lady Size: cm. x cm. Medium: Mixed media Completion date: May 2022 Exhibition Text: The objective for this piece was to explore how a medium decently foreign to me could create something I would otherwise often paint or draw. The base of the piece is a purchased canvas and the photographs, letters and other paper materials were found objects. |
Inspiration
Rosalind Freeborn, a British artist, created an uncommon kind of collage in which she utilizes shards of shredded wallpaper, magazine pages, tissue, and newspaper to create portraits of famous people.
Freeborn coined the term "paper faces" to describe her portraits, which she developed after experimenting with collage and oil painting in art school. She uses her own method of paper recycling to immortalize a number of well-known faces from television. |
As these close ups show, Freeborn ripped up different papers to create the rough appearance that paints the faces of these famous people.
I was inspired by how Freeborn created faces out of differing colored papers that ended up in a cohesive face. I liked the connection she made to the environment and recycling because especially when it comes to art, I often do find myself excusing my lack of sustainability. |
Experimentation and ProcessI recently found on the side of the road, a box of old photographs, love letters and drawings that seemed to have been very old. The papers were various shaded ranging from white to beige with various hand writings and pen colors. The pictures also varied in color from warm browns to deep blacks. I liked the meaning behind my medium as each piece of paper had some sort of hand written note or personal photograph.
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I began with a small white canvas that created a sturdy base for the copious amounts of glue I was to put on the canvas. Next, I covered the canvas with a pretty neutral shade of paper. I next drew out a grid on the canvas and also drew a grid digitally over my drawing. Using these two corresponding grids, I traced my inspiration image onto my canvas to transfer the face to my canvas.
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Next, I turned up the contrast on the image in order to identify the deep darks and the brightest portions of the face (see left) . Following this, I started cutting up pieces of paper to fill in to the face paying attention to putting light pieces of paper where the highlights of the woman's face were and dark colors where shadows were. Where my inspiration, Rosalind, used shards of shredded wallpaper, magazine pages, tissue, and newspaper to create her portraits, I used love letters, photographs and other memories. This causes our paintings to differ in color scheme.
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When it came time for the hair, I struggled with what hairstyle I wanted to give her and even considered leaving her bald for a little. I finally decided on just covering the background with dark colors that could be up to the viewers interpretation as being hair or just some fabric background.
This choice differed from my inspiration as Rosalind Freeborn often would made rather abstract backgrounds that were not apart of her subject. |
Reflection My inspiration for this project was Rosalind Freeborn and though I imitated some of her techniques, our final pieces also differ in many ways. Where Rosalind, used shards of shredded wallpaper, magazine pages, tissue, and newspaper to create her portraits, I used love letters, photographs and other memories. This causes our paintings to differ in color scheme. Rosalind's pieces have bold, bright colors that create the image where my work is centered heavily in browns, tans, and light creams. My technique was also different from the inspiration in that I cut the pieces of paper whereas Rosalind Freeborn tore her papers. This causes my piece to lack those white edges around the clippings that Rosalind Freeborn's piece features. The pieces themselves are also different sizes with Freeborn using smaller, uniform sizes and my work consisting of large, abstract shapes that were both geometric and natural. My clippings feature words and handwriting where Rosalind strays away from that, focusing more on color. When it came time for the hair, I decided on just covering the background with dark colors that could be up to the viewers interpretation as being hair or just some fabric background. This choice differed from my inspiration as Rosalind Freeborn often would made rather abstract backgrounds that were not apart of her subject.
Though we see many differences, in contrast, there are also many similarities between the works, some of which are very obvious. For starters, we both used paper clippings to create a face and focused on the light and dark, shadows and highlights of a face, making sure to use appropriate and corresponding colors accordingly. Furthermore, we can see similar sizing in my piece and Freeborn's pieces. Both pieces have up-close faces with a small amount of shoulders present and not much background space. That being said, both backgrounds are decently abstract and follow some sort of color scheme. |
ACT questions
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
The collages created by Freeborn inspired the way I created my pieces in using different colors to create a cohesive, realistic face.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Freeborn creates her piece to immortalize famous personas. She often does actors for whom she is fond of.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Through this process, I discovered that many artists do work with collages but through different styles.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My research developed the theme within the way I would cut up my paper to create the faces.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
During my research I inferred that depicting faces through recycled mediums created an interesting appearence.
The collages created by Freeborn inspired the way I created my pieces in using different colors to create a cohesive, realistic face.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Freeborn creates her piece to immortalize famous personas. She often does actors for whom she is fond of.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Through this process, I discovered that many artists do work with collages but through different styles.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My research developed the theme within the way I would cut up my paper to create the faces.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
During my research I inferred that depicting faces through recycled mediums created an interesting appearence.
Bibliography
Mattfromlondon. “London Artists: Rosalind Freeborn's Paper Portraits and Local Shopkeepers.” Londonist, May 31, 2011.
https://londonist.com/2011/05/london-artists-rosalind-freeborns-paper-portraits-and-local-shopkeepers.
https://londonist.com/2011/05/london-artists-rosalind-freeborns-paper-portraits-and-local-shopkeepers.