the party motif

 hi again!

I graduated art school a full semester ago which means I miss talking about my art and im going to make a huge blog post about it.

I wanna talk about my Party art. I don't really know what else to call it.

when I was a senior in high school I did this installation project that I still really love.

the idea was to create a celebration for my anxiety about graduating/going to college/being an adult/not being in high school anymore/etc.

not only was this super fun to set up and photograph, but it also felt like the first thing I had done that looked like what I wanted my art to look like. which is so silly because I don't do installations or photography really at all anymore. but I still think it reflects my current style.

I wanted to do something like ^ that project again my first year of college, but Different

so I did this installation that was supposed to celebrate hyper-femininity:

I used some of these photos as references for drawings and paintings but nothing really came out of it.

shortly after this installation I made this pastel painting of one of the original photos

after that, though, I kinda forgot about the Party Motif for a couple years. it wasn't until my last semester of classes that I revisited it.

I set up a new installation, the same kind of idea (cake, balloons, candles, party hats, etc), and took more photos.

the first assignment I used these photos with was a series of water paintings (involving acrylic, water, eyedroppers, and printed photos)

some of them turned out cool!

this one looked like this crying anime girl meme to me:

the water painting assignment later turned into the massive painting project where I made a painting the size of a queen size mattress:

this project was the bane of my existence and I have since gotten rid of the painting lol

me for scale 

here's a detail. I used some metal leaf bits at the end, which was the only part I liked.

there was also an assignment to do a delayed recognition painting, which basically means put together a bunch of fragments of photos in a grid and abstract them a little, pulling out elements of realism in some spots. 

this was my grid!

and this was the painting: 

I Like it but I don't love it. it's been over a year since I finished it but I want to edit it. I don't know what I'd do to it, though. I was thinking about maybe adding oil pastels? or refining some parts in paint to make it less flat. 

please let me know if you have ideas :) 

thank you for reading this post, I know it is much longer than my usual posts! 

have a great day :)