Final Valedictory Pieces

The central idea of my valedictory project is the exploration of the psychological disorder schizophrenia.  Schizophrenia is a disorder that causes someone to have multiple personalities that they cannot control.  It also includes delusions, hallucinations, unorganized thinking, and abnormal social behavior.  Symptoms usually begin to show during young adulthood, but only about 0.3-0.7% of people are affected by it.

 

 I studied this disorder in my psychology class and I was very intrigued by it.  Psychology is my favorite class, and I want to major in psych in college.  In particular, my favorite part of psychology to learn about is abnormal psych.  For my valedictory project I wanted to showcase artistically what goes through the minds of people with schizophrenia.  People with this disorder uncontrollably change their personalities within an instant.  There are so many different sides of them.  They could be perfectly content one second, and then start to feel absolutely insane.

 

For this project, I used myself as a model for every picture.  I think that it is much easier to have yourself model than someone else, because this way you can get every shot and position to be exactly as you envision it.  I wanted there to be a lot of emotion in the photographs, and its hard to get someone else to express that if they don't know exactly what you want.  I wanted my pictures to have sort of a "creepy vibe" to them.  Having schizophrenia obviously isn't a very enjoyable thing, so I wanted my pictures to show that.  Also, my favorite types of pictures are ones with a dark tone to them.  To do this, I made them all black and white, and I made them all purposely grainy.  To create the first two shots, I used a self timer and a low shutter speed, and shook just my head (so that the body would be semi-clear).  To create the last to shots, I used a self timer and positioned myself in different places, then created chrono pictures with photoshop.  I really enjoy how my photos turned out and I am glad that they came out how I wanted them to look.

Contact Sheet for Valedictory Shots

Valedictory Project Write-up

For my valedictory project, I chose to do self-portraits representing schizophrenia.  I really wanted to do this because psychology is my favorite class and I was fascinated when we learned all of the types of mental disorders.  I thought schizophrenia in general would be interesting to portray, because I can take photos that represent having a split personality.  Also, I love creating dark pieces, so this project is definitely something I am interested in doing.  I think I will use a variety of different styles of photos, such as blurred motion and chrono.  I'm really excited to see how my project will turn out.

Surrealism Final

color

This photo represents who I am on the outside because it shows that I am usually a shy and reserved person.  To show this, it was taken at a higher angle to make me look smaller, and I am looking away.  The photo shows who I am on the inside because I have a love for darker/creepy things.  I deal with depression, so the dark tone to this piece and the cracked stone in the background do a good job of expressing that side of me.

black & white

For this piece, I wanted to do something different by only using a small portion of my face.  Once again, I posed this way because I wanted to show that I am shy on the outside.  I really liked the secondary picture that I used with the bird.  That picture sets an "Edgar Allen Poe vibe" which I absolutely love.  I think that the bird can be used as a symbol to represent who I am on the inside, because I tend to isolate myself/prefer to be alone.

color

This picture of Lucy represents her on the outside, because to people that don't know her she can come across as uninviting.  People usually assume that she doesn't like them because she is very reserved and closed off.  The map represents who Lucy is on the outside because she loves to travel.  She just recently went to France, and she also has a room covered in maps.

black & white

This pose represents who Lucy is on the outside because she is shy around people who don't know her, and she hides her emotions.  On the inside, Lucy has a bubbly personality and is genuinely happy.  I chose a secondary photo of trees and nature because everything is in bloom and it gives off a happy vibe.  Also, Lucy loves to go hiking and camping with her family.

 

Overall, I really liked the concept of this project.  It's interesting to find out things about my classmates that you wouldn't know by just looking at them on the outside.  The project itself was stressful because it took me a while to find images that went with the portraits.  In the end, I liked how all of my pieces turned out. 

Abstract Inward Personality Shots

 

 

Rene Magritte & Surrealism Reading/Questions

1. Surrealism is art that uses two or more images that juxtapose each other.  The images combine to create a piece that looks both real and unreal.

2. The motif that Magritte uses in most of his works is a bowler hat.  The hat covering the face is significant because it symbolizes that he doesn't want people to know his full story, he likes to remain unclear.  Magritte has stated that the man with the bowler hat is him.

3. In Golconda, it is important that Magritte varied his work because he shows that he can add dimension to his paintings and that there are other sides to him.  In this painting the faces are not covered by anything and the painting is actually done with great detail.  This adds depth to his work because it proves that he can do more than one style and can change up what he normally does.

4.  Surreal artists tend to create strange worlds in their art because they like to play around with the idea of the subconscious mind taking over.  The subconscious is a term associated with psychology and psychologist Sigmund Freud.  It deals with what your mind is fixated on, but you are unaware of.  Surreal artists like to use worlds that would occur in dreams, which are controlled by the subconscious.

5. Juxtaposition helps Magritte create surrealistic pieces because he likes to put objects together that would not normally be associated with each other.  This makes the pieces more unusual and creative.  Magritte uses altered scale in his paintings to disorient the observer and leave his work open to interpretation.  Also, he uses language in his pieces to make you feel like a part of his work.

6. One theory as to  why Magritte might cover up the faces in his works could be because of the traumatic incident he witnessed when he was 12 of his mother drowning herself.  It is said that there was a piece of cloth covering her face.  However, others say that Magritte was not actually there to witness this, and that has nothing to do with what inspired his unique take on surrealism.

7. Magritte strived for realism and precision in his paintings because he says that realism allows the observer to focus on the subject of the work, not on the techniques used to paint.  He uses a vast amount of detail in his paintings to ensure that they look somewhat realistic.

8. Other work:

The Victory

Perpetual Motion

Some techniques used to enhance these works are realism, juxtaposition, altered scale, and mystery.

Examples of Surrealism from Artists that Inspire me

Tommy Ingberg

Noell S. Oszvald

Chiara Fersini

Brandon Kidwell