Self Portrait
Title: Where Do I Go From Here?
Size: 3ft by 3ft
Medium:
Completion:
Size: 3ft by 3ft
Medium:
Completion:
Exhibition Text
Inspiration
Artist in Focus: Chatchai Puipia
Chatchai Puipia is a contemporary Thai artist who is known for painting himself in colorful portraits with expressive faces. When I was exploring different artists in Google's art and culture website, I came across this portrait of his titled "Dok Peep, Where Does One Go after Death?" from 1997 (to the right). This portrait drew my attention due to the use of color and expression that this piece had. Apparently Puipia drew inspiration from the look that his father gave him as he was dying. The colors of purple and red contrast with each other while also complimenting one another. I found this to be interesting and drew inspiration from this using other colors (,,,,). I like Puipia's approach to making this portrait by incorporating elements from nature, where he chose the white flowers, which are typical for Thai funerals. I would be contrasting this idea and use the flowers of my choice (,,,,) in order to represent growth within myself.
Another aspect that I like from Puipia's work is that there's an aspect of impressionistic strokes in his use of line, especially in "...." (below). This aspect reminded me of the way that Van Gogh made his self portraits which is why he's the other artist I took inspiration from. Another aspect I like about this painting is that it plays with angles, and while many great artworks do have straight on front facing figures, I liked the idea of having the front facing figure, in this case myself, either looking up or down. |
In "The sweetness of life/Courtesy of Krit Krasemsent" by Puipia, there is lots of nature in the background of this piece without it being too distracting from the main figure, Puipia's head. I took inspiration from that and I knew that I wanted to incorporate floral elements since I've grown up around plants and flowers being everywhere in my house along with my family outside of my own. I thought that incorporating such a prevalent thing in my life that could also be symbolic of my growth as a person would kill two birds with one stone in regards to how personal this portrait would be.
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Planning
To start planning what I wanted to do for this painting, I created a mind map so that I could have a visual of my thought process as I was thinking what I wanted to do. I knew that I was going to have to take inspiration from both Puipia and Van Gogh, so I kept that in the back of my thoughts while I was doing this process. First, I was thinking of the flowers and natural aspect of the piece that I was going to face both on my face and in the background. I searched up a couple of flowers that represent growth. I ended up choosing orchids and gladioli for the background and gladioli again for my face. Since these flowers are on stalks, I would have to paint them without those elements so to prepare for this I did a couple of studies of both flowers, getting references off of the internet since those flowers weren't accessible to me at the time.
Next was planning out the composition and what aspects I wanted to take from Van Goh and Puipia. I really liked the impressionism aspect of both artists so I wanted to incorporate some of that into both the face and the background. I also took some photos of myself so that I could make studies of those too in order to make it easier for myself when transferring the picture onto the canvas. |
Process
To start my painting I had to make my canvas first. I made my canvas by taking four 3ft stretchers and assembling them and then getting a roll of canvas and roughly measuring how much canvas I'd need for my project. I estimated that there'd be around 5 extra centimeters of overhang when I'd later staple the canvas onto the stretchers.
Then I cut the canvas, leaving the overhang for later. Then I took a stapling gun and stapled the canvas onto the stretchers, making sure I adjusted the canvas to get rid of any dimples in it. I stapled the sides first since that would require less handling and then I folded the corners to make them invisible to the viewer before I stapled them. I had the overhang left and cut that off. Then I was ready to gesso the canvas. With a brittle brush, I applied the gesso, and since this was a square canvas, I didn't have to make sure that I was applying the gesso to the canvas in longer strokes on the smaller side of the canvas. |
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Experimentation
Critique
Reflection
Connection to ACT
1. Clearly explain how you can identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your work.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
4. What is the central theme around your inspirational research?
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
4. What is the central theme around your inspirational research?
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
MLA Citations
Artist : Chatchai Puipia. www.rama9art.org/artisan/6decade/work/workdec6_09.html.
Puipia, Chatchai. “The Sweetness of Life / Courtesy of Krit Kasemsant - Chatchai Puipia.” Google Arts & Culture, artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-sweetness-of-life-courtesy-of-krit-kasemsant-chatchai-puipia/-wEI8ekdzjvqew.
Puipia, Chatchai. “The Sweetness of Life / Courtesy of Krit Kasemsant - Chatchai Puipia.” Google Arts & Culture, artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-sweetness-of-life-courtesy-of-krit-kasemsant-chatchai-puipia/-wEI8ekdzjvqew.