Subject: Self-Portrait
"I Am Ugly"
"I Am Beautiful"
Saturday, April 5, 2008
The Pieces Part Four--More Amanda
Subject: Amanda Meyers (Continued)
"I Am a Cleaning Monster"
"I Am Free"
The Pieces Part Three--Amanda
Subject: Amanda Meyers"I Am Broken"
"I Am Amanda"
"I Am a Cleaning Monster"
The Pieces Part Two--Phillip
Subject: Phillip Brown
"I Am a Firefighter"
"I Am Phillip"
"I Am a Builder"
Statement From the Artist
I Am.
I have always had a fascination with personality trails, understanding them, accepting them, rejoicing in the flaws and quirks that make an individual, so it was natural for me to be drawn to portraits. When I studied the self-portraits of Durer, Rembrandt and Van Gogh I saw how each portrait showed a new aspect of the artist, showing an evolution of the art and their identity. I wanted to take a new approach to what a portrait contains. I wanted to show what the person really is and not just physical representation.
The inspiration for this show, or at least the beginning idea, came from life. In high school I had issues with people judging me based on my appearance or just one aspect of my personality. In creating a show that literally breaks down a personality into single traits, I needed a way to convey that a person is more than just one characteristic, so the puzzle pieces became a huge part of my message.
Each piece is a unique part of the person, a way to convey who they are and not just what the world always sees. It is the small pieces of a person that creates a whole. With each new piece, a different aspect, a different piece of the puzzle needed to be captured. Due to the separation of the personality, a duality is created that exists within each person. With myself I used body image as a way to process my own duality with my looks. The two pieces, I Am Ugly and I Am Beautiful, serve to create a tension between being beautiful and ugly. And it is in the duality that people find a balance, a balance that makes them whole.
The casting process is used to give a life size representation to add dimension to each piece. The cast allows me to place a tangible representation of the person on each piece. The three dimensional element allows a mood and space to be created just as Edward Kienholz. The drawings that are on each piece serve to clarify aspects of the person, to add yet another element to the work. The life size drawing are the assembled whole, the person as they are seen from a physical level. As you take in the show, I invite you to take a look at yourself, to try and find what pieces make you a unique individual to the world.
Thanks,
Olivia Shumate
I have always had a fascination with personality trails, understanding them, accepting them, rejoicing in the flaws and quirks that make an individual, so it was natural for me to be drawn to portraits. When I studied the self-portraits of Durer, Rembrandt and Van Gogh I saw how each portrait showed a new aspect of the artist, showing an evolution of the art and their identity. I wanted to take a new approach to what a portrait contains. I wanted to show what the person really is and not just physical representation.
The inspiration for this show, or at least the beginning idea, came from life. In high school I had issues with people judging me based on my appearance or just one aspect of my personality. In creating a show that literally breaks down a personality into single traits, I needed a way to convey that a person is more than just one characteristic, so the puzzle pieces became a huge part of my message.
Each piece is a unique part of the person, a way to convey who they are and not just what the world always sees. It is the small pieces of a person that creates a whole. With each new piece, a different aspect, a different piece of the puzzle needed to be captured. Due to the separation of the personality, a duality is created that exists within each person. With myself I used body image as a way to process my own duality with my looks. The two pieces, I Am Ugly and I Am Beautiful, serve to create a tension between being beautiful and ugly. And it is in the duality that people find a balance, a balance that makes them whole.
The casting process is used to give a life size representation to add dimension to each piece. The cast allows me to place a tangible representation of the person on each piece. The three dimensional element allows a mood and space to be created just as Edward Kienholz. The drawings that are on each piece serve to clarify aspects of the person, to add yet another element to the work. The life size drawing are the assembled whole, the person as they are seen from a physical level. As you take in the show, I invite you to take a look at yourself, to try and find what pieces make you a unique individual to the world.
Thanks,
Olivia Shumate
Final Set Up
More Setting Up.....
Jug gets approval for the position of piece number two! The shadows that were created were very important!
Olivia's friend Kristin was a huge help.
They fortified themselves with Skittles throughout the day!!
Amanda came by and was quite the trooper considering she had a fever of 101!! She's the subject of wall number three. Another great friend Olivia made during her years at UNC-A.
Lots of consideration over the catty-cornered piece!
Olivia and Tynes evaluate "Phillip's" wall. This is Phillip Brown, great high school friend and son of Gary and Kathy Brown whom I went to high school with!
The Setting Up Process....
Olivia was so very prepared! She'd obviously worked very hard and very long (a year and a half) on her pieces but she'd also planned every detail of her show. Jug and I arrived Thursday (April 3rd) about noon and after having lunch, began setting up her show. She had all 16 pieces laid out on the floor of the gallery already. We began with "Aly's" (Aly Curley is a friend from high school and Aly attends UNC-A also) wall. Each and every piece was painstakingly hung! Measured and re-measured for height above the floor and space between pieces. She was also pain-staking about how each piece flowed to the next! Her professors/art directors had told her that if the subject of one piece made the eye flow say to the right, then there better not be a door or window in that direction. Olivia could explain this much better than me! But anyway, she took great care in how each piece was hung and where.
Deciding what went where....
Oh! I wish I could have had a camera ready when Livvie actually saw the first piece hung. She was so animated! So excited to see it actually hanging in the gallery on a plain white wall with the spotlights creating wonderful shadows. The shadows created by each piece was another element that was very important to her! Man, the detail of show--I had no idea!! It was educational for me. I'll never attend another opening and not be appreciative of the work the artist did not only in creating their art but in just displaying it!!
Jug and Livvie discuss the position of piece number one.
One of Olivia's prof's---Tynes. He was very helpful in giving suggestions.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)