Abstract Emotions

The background is an integral component of my image as it supports the focal point of the skull and depicts the transition to a pixelated future. My first thoughts about the background were to use watercolour to create blobs of colour which gradually become more square-like as they became digitalised. However, I have since discovered Abstract Expressionism and feel it could be used to represent the chaotic demise of print news.

Abstract Expressionism emerged in the 1940s as a departure from traditional painting conventions, techniques and realistic subject matter. Instead, abstract forms and colours were used to evoke emotion, with the artists favouring an improvised style of painting expressing emotion through energetic brush-strokes (The Art Story Foundation, 2012). 

Jackson Pollock, an Abstract Expressionist painter, used the technique of flicking paint at a large canvas to capture the emotion of his subject matter and to detach line and colour in order to depict and transcend physical spaces. In Lavender Mist (1950), he depicts a western American landscape through the use of earthy colours, to create a lavender tone. Black and white have been used to create a balanced image and point of emphasis, with the viewer drawn around the edges of the canvas and given the feeling of a sparse landscape. The abstract forms add variety to the image to again depict the images of branches and sticks of plants covered in mist. This, therefore, does not only allow the viewer to 'see' the landscape, but also feel its chaos as Pollock's style transcends the physicality of realistic painting (Pioch, 2002). 

I want to use Abstract Expressionism as my background; however, I first want to experiment with the technique of flicking paint. A few weeks ago, I created a plaster cast of my face and hand, which I was going to use as an art sculpture, however I decided to revisit this artwork and flick paint on it. I decided to use bright colours as I wanted the self-portrait to be happy and selected the primary colours of red, green and blue to depict the building blocks of myself. This also makes it symbolic of my own art journey, whereby I can now use the basics in new ways. 

A practice of flicking paint. 

Pioch, N. (2002). Pollock, Jackson. Retrieved December 3, 2012, from Web Museum, Paris: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/pollock/lavender-mist/

The Art Story Foundation. (2012). JACKSON POLLOCK. Retrieved December 2, 2012, from The Art Story: http://www.theartstory.org/artist-pollock-jackson.htm