MIXED MEDIA
Overview
Title: Roots
Size: 60.96 cm x 60.96 cm Medium: Mixed Media (Paint and Fabric Collage) Date: September 2023 Exhibition Text
"Roots" is a mixed media collage consisting of acrylic paint and fabric. This piece is meant to explore how our pasts are an integral part of our identity as well as having a double meaning about how my personal identity is rooted in nature. This collage focuses on the use of texture and the transition between different mediums throughout a piece. I drew inspiration from the work of Kim McCormack and Njideka Akunyili Crosby when creating my artwork. |
INSPIRATIONS
Since I knew that I wanted to create a mixed media piece, I next looked to artists who successfully blended mediums in order to learn their techniques. I came across the artwork of Njideka Akunyili Crosby, who I found to be an incredible mixed media artist who was able to combine paint with collage in order to create a seamless piece of art. She uses a unique technique in which she combines physical photos into her paintings in order to combine the two mediums. I was specifically drawn to her piece, "Mama, Mummy And Mamma" which displays a portrait of three generations of women in her family. I also really enjoyed her piece "Super Blue Omo" and how seamlessly the transition from paint to photo is. Overall from Njideka Akunyili Crosby's work, I wanted to take her ability to create seamless transitions between her chosen mediums which is something that I wanted to recreate in my own work.
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After enjoying the fabric collage that I had made last school year, I decided that I wanted to make another form of collage this year but in the form of a mixed media piece instead. I knew that I wanted to use textile as part of the piece which is when I started to research textile artists to find inspiration for my piece. Through this research I was able to find the work of Kim McCormack who is a textiles artist who finds inspiration for her pieces through the landscapes and countryside that she is surrounded by. I was really drawn to her use of natural elements in her work such as leaves, and other kinds of forest foliage. In her pieces she strives to create the same look as what one may find on the forest floor. McCormack's pieces are heavily centered around nature, which is and aspect that I wanted to bring into my own piece.
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PLANNING
When beginning to plan my piece, I wanted to write down my inspirations in order to get a concrete idea of what I would be taking from my inspirations when creating my own art. I knew that I wanted to create a mixed media piece of paint blending down into a fabric collage. I wanted to try and make this transition seamless like the work of Njideka Akunyili Crosby. I also knew that I wanted the main focal point of the piece to be the intricate roots going through the ground, since the theme of the piece has a double meaning of my past having and affect on my identity, and well as how my identity is very rooted in nature.
I made a few sketches in order to figure out what I wanted the formal qualities of my piece to consist of. I drew one version of my legs attached to the ground, one of my finger reaching to the ground, and one of me sitting on the ground. In each of the sketches I included roots coming out from wherever I was making content with the ground. I ultimately decided on the legs, choosing it because I felt that it would be the best choice if I wanted the main focal point of the piece to be the roots and underground. |
Once I had solidified which concept I wanted to create through my mixed media piece, I made two rough sketches of the concept in color. I slightly changed some things in the second one so I could decide what the final version would look like. After making these sketches, I determined that I liked almost everything about my first sketch but knew that I wanted to make the roots more defined and intricate in my final version of the piece.
Once I knew the color placement and all of the formal qualities of my piece, I made a final sketch using paint and some of the scraps of fabric that I wanted to use in the collage part of my piece. I did this so that when I make my actual piece, I could refer back to this page in my sketch book so that I knew how I wanted each individual part to look. I also wanted to make a final sketch so that I could mark things that I needed to pay close attention to, or change in my final piece. For example, I realized that I needed to be careful about what shade of blue I'm using when painting the jeans and sky because I didn't want them to blend together. |
PROCESS
After finishing the shoes and the jeans in my piece, I decided to block out the color of the sky, the grass, and the dirt. I started with a basic color for each of these parts and then went back in with different shades of that color in order to add shading, highlights, and dimension to each of these aspects. Once I was happy with how everything looked color wise, I then used a smaller brush to add very small details to aspects of the grass.
Once I was satisfied with how the painting part of my piece looked, I began to place some of my fabric onto the brown part of my canvas. I started off with using some larger parts of brown fabric to make a base for my collage. After creating a base I was happy with, I began to go in with some smaller pieces of other colored fabric in order to create texture and layering within the piece. In order to create texture within my piece I also tried to make the fabric have rough edges rather than the edges being clean cut. When thinking about the dirt, and under the ground I think of rough material and texture, so I wanted to try and produce that rough result with the way I made the fabric. |
When beginning my process, I decided to start with the painting part of the mixed media piece. I started with the painting because I figured it would be easier for me to create a base of paint, and to cover all of the white space of the canvas before I went in with the fabric and created a collage within the dirt. I first started with painting the jeans, deciding that this would probably be the part that took me the most time because I wanted them to have a lot of detail. I started with blocking out the colors of the different parts of the jeans, and then going back in to blend the colors together and add the lines of the jeans. Once the jeans were complete, I blocked out the color of the shoes and then went back in with a darker shade to add the detailing to the shoes.
I continued to layer the fabrics on top of each other, trying to create a lot of texture and layering. However I was also trying to make sure there wasn't too much of a contrast between the painting part of my piece and the fabric because I was trying to replicate the seamless transitions of Njideka Akunyili Crosby's work. I wanted the transition between the painted ground and the fabric to be as seamless as possible, showing how the ground gets more textured and detailed as you go further into the ground. Once I was happy with how the texture in the ground looked, I had to finish off my piece by adding the most important aspect of the piece, the roots. Originally I wasn't sure how I wanted to put the roots into the piece. I had a few ideas, but I wasn't sure which one would produce the best result for my piece. Originally I had the idea to just paint the roots directly onto the fabric, but I wasn't sure if that would make that big of a visual impact. I also had the idea to sew the roots into white fabric similar to Kim McCormack's method, or cut pieces of brown yarn as well. Ultimately I decided that the best method for my piece would be to use yarn, and then emphasize the shapes of the roots using darker paint. To finish off my piece I added some sports of paint on top of the canvas in order to help blend together the different mediums of my mixed media piece. |
EXPERIMENTATION
The other experimentation that I participated in while creating my piece was how I blended together my two very different mediums that I wanted to include in this piece. When I first started the piece, I had only planned to include two different sections and hoped that they would end up looking naturally blended when the piece was done. However, once I had laid out all of the fabric and saw how it looked against the paint, I realized that there was a very distinct difference between the two sections. To solve this I decided to add paint onto the fabric in order to better connect them. By doing this, the piece looked like it flowed well, and there wasn't as large of a disconnection between the different mediums. I added brown paint onto some of the larger pieces of brown fabric, and I was actually very happy with how this addition improved my overall piece.
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The major experimentation that I participated in while creating this piece was the different types of fabrics I used and the way that I chose to layer them. I specifically chose to use a wide variety of fabrics in order to create a rough texture for the dirt of the piece. I wanted to include a variety of shades of brown, yellow, green, and orange in order to have the piece include earthy tones. I also had to experiment with the placement of the fabric. I not only needed to be sure I was covering the entire area that I had designated for the fabric, but I also wanted to create texture and include a variety of different types of fabric stacked on top of each other. I also discovered that contrary to what I had previously believed, it was actually better to work with the fabric while the glue holding it down was too wet because this allowed me to better manipulate the forms of the fabric once I was adding other variables to it.
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CRITIQUE
There are a lot of similarities between my piece and my inspirations. One similarity between my piece and Kim McCormack's piece work is the way that we used a variety of different fabrics to create texture within our pieces. McCormack's goal was to make her pieces look like the forest floor, which she did by using natural colors and shapes that looked like objects in nature such as leaves and dirt. My goal was to make the fabric part of my piece look like dirt, which I did by using a variety of different sizes, shapes, and colors of fabric. In addition, we both used a variety of different types of textile. Rather than just using solely fabric to create texture in our pieces, we used a lot of different types of textiles. We used yarn, string, and fabric in order to create texture and movement. There are also similarities between my work and the work of Njideka Akunyili Crosby, specifically her piece "Mama, Mummy And Mamma". The most obvious similarity is the fact that we both chose to create a mixed media piece. We also both attempted to create a seamless transition between the different mediums that we included in our pieces.
There are also a lot of differences between my piece and my chosen inspirations. First of all Kim McCormack never included people in her pieces, whereas I chose to include my legs in my piece. In addition, McCormack made her entire pieces out of textiles and fabrics, whereas I only made a section of my piece out of textile. The difference between my piece and Njideka Akunyili Crosby's work is that I used textile and fabric in my piece and she used photos to create a mixed media piece. We used different mediums to create our mixed media pieces.
There are also a lot of differences between my piece and my chosen inspirations. First of all Kim McCormack never included people in her pieces, whereas I chose to include my legs in my piece. In addition, McCormack made her entire pieces out of textiles and fabrics, whereas I only made a section of my piece out of textile. The difference between my piece and Njideka Akunyili Crosby's work is that I used textile and fabric in my piece and she used photos to create a mixed media piece. We used different mediums to create our mixed media pieces.
REFLECTION
Overall I'm very happy with the outcome of my piece. I enjoyed the process of mixing together different textiles and colors of fabric in order to create one cohesive piece. This piece took a lot of time because of how many small pieces of fabric I had to combine together in order to create the texture that I wanted for the dirt of the piece. I also had the opportunity to experiment with the way I placed the fabric such as the type of glue I used and how much of it I was using. In addition, I had never created a mixed media piece before so this project was a new medium for me to experiment with and learn how to refine my skills in this medium. I was able to learn how to create transitions from one medium to another, without creating too much of a disconnect between these mediums. My least favorite part of this process was waiting for all of the different pieces to dry before moving on to the next part. Since I used white fabric glue rather than something like a hot glue gun, it took a much longer time for the fabric to dry which made the overall process take a longer time. My favorite part of this process was choosing which textiles and fabrics I was going to include in the dirt of my piece. I hope that people are able to look at my piece "Roots" and consider what parts of their past they feel rooted to, and how their past has affected their current identity.
ACT QUESTIONS
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
You are able to visually see the connection between my piece and my inspirations through our use of textile layering and that my piece is a mixed media piece of paint and textile.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The ways to create a certain aesthetic for a piece through the colors chosen and the fabrics used to create form and texture.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have discovered that the goal of some mixed media artists is to create a clear separation before their chosen mediums, whereas other artists have the goal of creating a seamless transition between the different parts.
4. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
How to create smooth transitions between mediums in a mixed media piece.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred that Njideka Akunyili Crosby's goal for her work was to blend together her two chosen mediums into one piece in order to make one cohesive piece.
You are able to visually see the connection between my piece and my inspirations through our use of textile layering and that my piece is a mixed media piece of paint and textile.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The ways to create a certain aesthetic for a piece through the colors chosen and the fabrics used to create form and texture.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have discovered that the goal of some mixed media artists is to create a clear separation before their chosen mediums, whereas other artists have the goal of creating a seamless transition between the different parts.
4. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
How to create smooth transitions between mediums in a mixed media piece.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred that Njideka Akunyili Crosby's goal for her work was to blend together her two chosen mediums into one piece in order to make one cohesive piece.
CITATIONS (MLA)
“Understanding Njideka Akunyili Crosby in 10 Works of Art.” TheCollector, 10 July 2021, www.thecollector.com/njideka-akunyili-crosby-10-works-of-art/.
“Embroideries.” Kim McCormack Textiles Artist, 5 July 2023, kimberleymactextiles.co.uk/embroideries/.
“Embroideries.” Kim McCormack Textiles Artist, 5 July 2023, kimberleymactextiles.co.uk/embroideries/.