Illustration
Title: Ni de aqui, ni de alla
Size: Medium: Acrylic paint and a canvas panel Completion: September 2023 Exhibition Text"Ni de qui, ni de alla" shows the struggles that Mexican-Americans often face with fitting into a space with others in Americans, which is often decided by other Americans, judging their "Mexican-ness" and "American-ness". This was influenced by carnival posters as a metaphor to show how entertaining it is for people to judge Mexican-Americans as carnivals were.
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Inspiration
Artifacts in Focus: Carnival Posters
Carnival posters are something that I wanted to explore for a while now and I wanted to create something based on or mimicking one. This poster in particular grabbed my attention, as I knew I wanted to make a poster that dealt with being Mexican-American and how fitting in with Americans can be difficult, I already began to envision how the poster would look like.
Carnival posters were meant to promote carnivals, a form of entertainment that is supposed to bring people together, letting go of identity under the guise of costumes and makeup. |
Carnivals were full of clowns for entertainment, and the use of clown makeup is something that makes people feel good about themselves, Simultaneously, the makeup is something that hides someone's identity, similar to the way that some Mexican-Americans felt about themselves, unsure and unidentified with an identity, except for the people around them that look the same.
The way the origins of carnival posters, or rather the purpose of carnivals themselves, will be used in my work will be ironic. The piece will be centered around identity, contradicting the reason that carnivals were made. Since people shared that they experienced a lot of discrimination and microaggressions from people, it makes sense to compare the struggles of having the identity of a Mexican-American can have with a carnival, since both are seen as entertainment for certain audiences.
The piece uses the irony in this metaphor to emphasize the topic of identity. When I was researching who made the designs for Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Shows poster, there wasn't any acknowledgement of the artist(s)' name(s). Same thing goes for the Downie Brothers poster. I found that trying to find an artist name for creators of carnival poster designs is fairly difficult which is unfortunately why I can't say who I was directly inspired by, therefore why I'm calling these pieces artifacts.
The way the origins of carnival posters, or rather the purpose of carnivals themselves, will be used in my work will be ironic. The piece will be centered around identity, contradicting the reason that carnivals were made. Since people shared that they experienced a lot of discrimination and microaggressions from people, it makes sense to compare the struggles of having the identity of a Mexican-American can have with a carnival, since both are seen as entertainment for certain audiences.
The piece uses the irony in this metaphor to emphasize the topic of identity. When I was researching who made the designs for Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Shows poster, there wasn't any acknowledgement of the artist(s)' name(s). Same thing goes for the Downie Brothers poster. I found that trying to find an artist name for creators of carnival poster designs is fairly difficult which is unfortunately why I can't say who I was directly inspired by, therefore why I'm calling these pieces artifacts.
Planning
When I was planning for this project, I became very focused on creating a piece that was reflective of my friends' experiences that they endured when they were younger. When I talked to them about their Mexican-American identities and how they felt about it when they were younger, they told me their struggles. One of my friends told me that she'd get made fun of for her body hair, which is a feature that is typical among young Mexican girls, but they were made fun of by anyone else that wasn't Mexican and/or Latina, as even the Latino boys who were around people that looked like the girls still made fun of them, while their mother agreed with everyone else, too. She'd ask the girl to shave her arms and legs to keep her "youthful appearance". Another one of my friends told me that she didn't feel like she was "Mexican enough" at quinceaneras, which is a party that many Mexican girls have when they reach the age of 15 to celebrate the start of young womanhood. At these parties, people mostly come to dance, and my friend never learned how to dance so she would always stay seated during these parties. She'd feel very insecure about it because everyone else was dancing. She felt like she wasn't celebrating a very important rite of passage that most girls go through, a significant celebration that is meant to be remembered for the rest of her life. The common issue here is not feeling either American or Mexican. This is something that a lot of Mexican-Americans go through and is part of the reason that the Chicano movement started, to empower first-gen Mexican-Americans. This made me want to look into the Chicano movement as a whole, as they have a prominent art movement. This is the reason I wanted to make a carnival poster, due to the number of clowns you see in Chicano art, but also because clowns are meant to hide someone's identity but let's people come together, almost like the way that Chicanos and many first gens today feel living in a country that doesn't see you as "normal" but they can find comfort in that with one another.
When I started thinking about the metaphors I wanted to convey through the piece, I found that I wanted to have a balance, something used to "measure" the "Mexican-ness" and "American-ness" in my illustration. I wanted to implement the clown into the piece as well, as a lot of Mexican-Americans can relate to some of the reasons behind the origins of clowns, but also to address the issues that happen between Mexican-Americans that are more connected to their Mexican culture who also target other Mexican-Americans no aren't as connected to it. I also knew I wanted to have a connection back to the carnival posters with the letters, having a message that can be similar to the language used in the posters about the judging of Mexican-Americans being "entertaining". I also wanted to emphasize certain words in my illustration, so I started thinking about what this would look like in my illustration.
Process
To start this project, I began painting the canvas board with yellow ochre. Then, I made lines that went down and across the canvas to emulate the inspiration's use of line. Then, taking the thumbnail I had, I put it onto the canvas panel I got. I did this freehand and with graphite to allow myself to make any changes I wanted without worrying about creating a new sketch to project or having to worry about erasing grid lines.
Then I began to make the color for my background. To do that, I used a large part of titanium white and a small bit of primary yellow in acrylic paint to create a pastel yellow. The reason I decided to make the background yellow was because it's the color I think of when I think of something vintage. Especially when it comes to things that were popular in the 1930's. Then once I applied the first layer of the pale yellow, I allowed it to dry. Once it was dry, I went over it again and began working on the clown. I started with the face makeup. I used pure titanium white for this part of the clown's makeup which needed a steady hand to make sure I didn't paint over the lines I created to help me understand where everything was. In addition to that, I used pure black for the shapes around the eyes and the eyebrows. For the balance, I used pure black and a small quantity of primary red to create a sort of burgundy for its color. Then, I got to work on the mouth. For the lips, I took the titanium white and red to create the pinkish color it had, similar to the inspiration pieces I chose. After this, I got to work on the small figure, I drew it and then painted her using a skin tone I made by mixing burnt umber, yellow, white, and red. I then gave her a black dress and painted her flag, the Mexican flag, while the American flag would be painted later on.
At this point, the background was dry and I started to make another mixture of the pale yellow and added another layer of it to all of the background. When I was doing this, I realized that there were some parts of the canvas that wouldn't dry and created little pockets of space where there would be layers of paint around it. When I took notice of this, I added another layer of paint to just the pockets but made them thicker. In addition to that, I also began experimenting with how big I wanted the text to be that I had in mind. I placed the words I wanted into the bottom of the box that I'd made with the burgundy lines I made earlier and painted the box a red.
After this, I painted the rest of the mouth, including the teeth, roof of the mouth, and tongue. I also painted the eyes of the clown a light blue that I made using ultramarine blue and titanium white. I also filled in the black of the nose, the girl getting judged, and the flags of the balance. Eventually, I also started lining the clown itself with a black.
Finally, I added the words to the painting with stencils, after having trouble figuring out how I'd get the words to look uniform and clean. I made it so that the words were reminiscent of a carnival poster and were expressive, even though they were uniform. One layer of paint wasn't enough though, so I went over the black words with more of the yellow and painted over the spots that I tried to correct from my mistakes while lining the clown. Then, I painted the black on the words again because I wanted to make sure that there weren't any spots that were left with yellow peeking through. I was finally done with the "poster" since I was satisfied with how it turned out after that.
Then I began to make the color for my background. To do that, I used a large part of titanium white and a small bit of primary yellow in acrylic paint to create a pastel yellow. The reason I decided to make the background yellow was because it's the color I think of when I think of something vintage. Especially when it comes to things that were popular in the 1930's. Then once I applied the first layer of the pale yellow, I allowed it to dry. Once it was dry, I went over it again and began working on the clown. I started with the face makeup. I used pure titanium white for this part of the clown's makeup which needed a steady hand to make sure I didn't paint over the lines I created to help me understand where everything was. In addition to that, I used pure black for the shapes around the eyes and the eyebrows. For the balance, I used pure black and a small quantity of primary red to create a sort of burgundy for its color. Then, I got to work on the mouth. For the lips, I took the titanium white and red to create the pinkish color it had, similar to the inspiration pieces I chose. After this, I got to work on the small figure, I drew it and then painted her using a skin tone I made by mixing burnt umber, yellow, white, and red. I then gave her a black dress and painted her flag, the Mexican flag, while the American flag would be painted later on.
At this point, the background was dry and I started to make another mixture of the pale yellow and added another layer of it to all of the background. When I was doing this, I realized that there were some parts of the canvas that wouldn't dry and created little pockets of space where there would be layers of paint around it. When I took notice of this, I added another layer of paint to just the pockets but made them thicker. In addition to that, I also began experimenting with how big I wanted the text to be that I had in mind. I placed the words I wanted into the bottom of the box that I'd made with the burgundy lines I made earlier and painted the box a red.
After this, I painted the rest of the mouth, including the teeth, roof of the mouth, and tongue. I also painted the eyes of the clown a light blue that I made using ultramarine blue and titanium white. I also filled in the black of the nose, the girl getting judged, and the flags of the balance. Eventually, I also started lining the clown itself with a black.
Finally, I added the words to the painting with stencils, after having trouble figuring out how I'd get the words to look uniform and clean. I made it so that the words were reminiscent of a carnival poster and were expressive, even though they were uniform. One layer of paint wasn't enough though, so I went over the black words with more of the yellow and painted over the spots that I tried to correct from my mistakes while lining the clown. Then, I painted the black on the words again because I wanted to make sure that there weren't any spots that were left with yellow peeking through. I was finally done with the "poster" since I was satisfied with how it turned out after that.
Experimentation
To experiment within this project, I was trying to figure out how to have words like that made the poster come together and look like a poster. While I was trying to come up with ways to make the letters look like a poster, I realized that I was going to have to use stencils if I wanted everything to look clean and uniform. While I thought this through, I was wondering what I wanted the letters to resemble, so I went to look at examples of carnival posters again. After I came up with the general idea of what I wanted them to look like, I went to the store to find something that looked similar to that. The stencils I found were a good size and a good font, similar to what I wanted. When I was thinking about how to position the letters, I knew that I wanted to make something attention grabbing, not something that goes straight across the board. This is the reason I started playing around with what the letters could look like and what made the most sense for the style I was going with for that. I made different compositions for the words and what I wanted to emphasize through the change in size and fonts. I wanted to create emphasis on the words “questions“ and “or a”. I wanted to change the font of the word “question“ in order to emphasize the way that Americans spend a lot of time questioning the identity of Mexican-Americans. I changed the font of the words “or a” in order to emphasize the way that people want Mexican-Americans to conform to a single identity, and not be both.
When I was putting the words together, I realized that not all the words I had intended to put on the canvas would fit, which was part of the reason I had to change the font for some of the words. This made me have to sacrifice the uniformity that I wanted on the canvas but made me pay attention to intention and the power of fonts, something that happens in the art of design. Eventually, this ended up working to my benefit as it allowed me to think differently about how words are presented. I wanted to make the words clean as well, which I made sure was done through using the stencils and painting the words over twice in black.
When I was putting the words together, I realized that not all the words I had intended to put on the canvas would fit, which was part of the reason I had to change the font for some of the words. This made me have to sacrifice the uniformity that I wanted on the canvas but made me pay attention to intention and the power of fonts, something that happens in the art of design. Eventually, this ended up working to my benefit as it allowed me to think differently about how words are presented. I wanted to make the words clean as well, which I made sure was done through using the stencils and painting the words over twice in black.
Critique
Compare
To compare, I used a similar presentation style for the words in my illustration as the posters have. The way that the words are formed are dynamic. The border around the graphic itself is similar to the ones in both the posters. The way that the clown head is positioned in the right most poster is similar to the way I positioned my clown head. The expression on the face in my illustration is also similar to the one that the clown has on the right.
Contrast
To contrast, my composition is much more simple and less crowded than the inspirations. My illustration consists of simplified figures while the ones in the inspiration were detailed and showed the artists’ use of techniques with blending. While I didn’t show technical skills with blending, I developed skills in design and text. This kind of technique is different from the ones in the posters. I also used a different kind of format in presentation with my organic flowing text. Mine bends more than the ones in the inspiration, but are still similar in nature. I also decided to change the font of words that were part of one phrase to create emphasis on the topic I was trying to convey.
Reflection
Throughout the process of this piece, I developed as an artist with design, accepting making sacrifices in my work, and problem solving my way through difficulties I encountered. I developed my understanding of the way that graphic designers think, which is something I’ve been interested in as well. The way that fonts can overpower sizes of text is something that I learned with the making of this piece as well. Having some sort of intention with the way that text is presented is something that is crucial to the way that some art is presented. I found that although the illustration is important to show a visual explanation of the text, the text is just as, if not more important than the illustration. The amount of detail in a poster isn’t as crucial as what is meant to be conveyed is something I learned as well. Although I’ve made detailed paintings in the past, being able to make a simplified poster was different from what I usually do and was fun to experiment with. The process of getting to that point was a little difficult though. Being able to simplify an idea down to the main idea of what you want to convey can be limiting, but I feel like it worked with this illustration. Getting the point across was accomplished and the exhibition text helps clear up any confusion. This project allowed me to grow as an artist and develop my skills in design.
Connection to the ACT
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
-The way that I presented something that is entertaining to a certain audience is similar to the way that the chosen artifacts I chose decided to do as well.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
- The authors wanted to advertise something that was entertaining to their target audience in an enticing way.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
- I wondered about the use of clowns in Mexican-American art and why they come up so much. After finding out that clowns .... I chose to include them in my own art.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
- The theme around my research is carnival posters and body language.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
-I thought that finding the artists‘ names for a carnival poster would be easier and more accessible than it was.
-The way that I presented something that is entertaining to a certain audience is similar to the way that the chosen artifacts I chose decided to do as well.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
- The authors wanted to advertise something that was entertaining to their target audience in an enticing way.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
- I wondered about the use of clowns in Mexican-American art and why they come up so much. After finding out that clowns .... I chose to include them in my own art.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
- The theme around my research is carnival posters and body language.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
-I thought that finding the artists‘ names for a carnival poster would be easier and more accessible than it was.
MLA Citations
- “Carnival Costumes.” Smithsonian Folklife Festival, festival.si.edu/2011/colombia/carnival-costumes/smithsonian#:~:text=Carnival%20is%20a%20time%20for,rich%2C%20and%20everyone%20celebrates%20together.
- Blue & White II Mexican Talavera Tile Collection. (n.d.). Mexican Tile Designs. https://www.mexicantiledesigns.com/products/blue-white-ii-talavera-tile-collection?variant=3801413252