Puzzle Portrait

“The human race is like a puzzle: Everyone fits in somewhere, it just takes a while to figure it out” - Jen Leaman. 

I thought it would be interesting to paint a portrait on a blank jigsaw puzzle. Initially, I wanted to remove the pieces after I had finished the painting, but instead I decided to do that using Photoshop. 

The Androgynous figure, is like an incomplete puzzle, the subject neither looks male or female. The psychology behind removing the pieces is to show that ''incompleteness''. It was quite challenging to draw and paint my self-portrait without getting confused from the many puzzle pieces. I tried to focus only on the image and ignore them. The colours also reminded me, for some reason, of the colours in Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. This could be perhaps that I have been studying him for my dissertation. It also reminds me of the Christian byzantine icons, with a more contemporary approach however.

Overall, I like the concept and may work more with it in the future. 

Male Torso

Inspired by the artist Jonathan Yeo, I created an oil painting combining collage. I used my own photograph as reference for the torso and found images from the internet and magazines for the collage. I tried to match up the colours and tones of the collage as closer to the painting as possible.
I want to show that whether we are male or female we are all made up of the same matter. We are a mass of cells, tissues and organs. We all have flesh, and we all bleed.
As the artist Loreen states, ''We are all people, you have flesh, I have flesh, you bleed, I bleed''.

Muscle Anatomy

I tried experimenting with the human anatomy using charcoal and watercolours on canvas. 

I left some parts unfinished on purpose so that the process can be seen. It also allows the eye to wonder. 

It is quite challenging to paint over charcoal with watercolours as it blends with the charcoal, darkening the colour. It requires a lot of layers in order for it to become vibrant. 

I am considering to do a series of body parts on different canvases to resemble a collage.  

Humans and Nature

This drawing is based on a photograph from this photoshoot: http://hebarena.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/light-and-shadow.html
I wanted to try working with charcoal on canvas again, as I had enjoyed it in the past.
I want to show that humans and nature should be closer to each other, hence the subject holding tightly onto the two trees. Nowadays, people have become so obsessed with technology and industrialization, that they have started to forget and ignore the beauty around them.

Unravel

While you are away

My heart comes undone

Slowly unravels

In a ball of yarn

The devil collects it

With a grin

Our love

In a ball of yarn

He'll never return it

So when you come back

We'll have to make new love

He'll never return it

When you come back

We'll have to make new love

While you are away

My heart comes undone

Slowly unravels

In a ball of yarn

The devil collects it

With a grin

Our love, our love, 

In a ball of yarn

He'll never return it

When you come back

We'll have to make new love

He'll never return it

When you come back

We'll have to make new love

He'll never return it

When you come back

We'll have to make new love

A few days ago, I went for dinner with my family at Wagamama Restaurant in St.Albans.

My mother had some jasmine tea and I thought, that it was quite interesting how the flower slowly started to unravel, so I decided to film it. It was so relaxing and pleasing to the eye and soul, I felt like I had found inner peace. I instantly thought of Bjork's song ''Unravel'', which is the music I used in the video. 

The meaning of the song is about the impatience of seeing your loved one again, when your loved one is away, you feel like you are not in love anymore, ''The devil collects it''. In reality, however, you still are. Your loved one will come back and the love will be even stronger than before. Hence the line, ''When you come back, we'll have to make new love''. Sometimes, love falls apart, and it slips away from how you expected it to be. If neither of the two give up and try again, the love can be stronger than ''a ball of yarn''. Unwilling to be broken or stolen from anyone or anything. 

I felt that the music connects to the video because a flower is fragile, just as love is. Love is fragile and can be broken or fixed very easily. 

Light and Shadow

This photoshoot turned out differently than I had initially expected. At first, I wanted to turn myself into a manga character but the make-up didn't turn out quite as I had wanted.
Therefore, I decided to try experimenting with light and shadow. I used the tree in my back garden to camouflage myself, trying different angles. I realised that every time I moved, light was emitted differently.

Experimental collages

British artist John Stezaker creates photographic collages using old Hollywood film stills, vintage photographs and travel postcards. His work has Surrealist and Dada qualities. He juxtaposes two images together to create a new image. Here is some of his work:

    
  
   

            

   

 This particular series of works is what interested me since there is a male and female in each      piece, thus relating to my work, Androgyny. 

 Inspired by the artist, I tried experimenting more with collage. I used images from magazines and    tried to match male and female photos together.

 

 

           

         

   



   





















 

Here, still using images from magazines, I cut up many parts of the body such as arms, legs, eyes, mouths and breasts, in square shapes to create a ''mosaic of flesh''. I tried to match up the colour scheme so I chose colours that are similar. Here are some close up shots of the collage:

Human Doll

This is an experimental stop motion film based on the previous photo shoot.

Plastic Flesh

''You were born an original, Don't die a copy''- John Mason.
Every day we are bombarded with images of the supposedly perfect face or body. We helplessly abide by society's idea of beauty, and this ends up becoming an unhealthy obsession, leading to pain and destruction. Every time you stare into the mirror and find one negative, find two positives - Georgina Field, 2013.
In this photo shoot I wanted to play along the themes of beauty, age, obsession, and real vs. unreal. I used my mother and my ball jointed doll as models. I applied make-up on her face to make her skin look as smooth and ''plastic'' as possible. The colour of the hair represents age, the doll has white hair yet has a young looking face. With this, I want to show that you are as young as you feel. Age should not prevent an individual from expressing themselves. Despite this, the subject is desperately trying to look young and is comparing herself to the doll in the mirror. In turn, she tries to act like it in an attempt to remain ''young'', but she is only hurting herself in return.

Portrait of Adam

I wanted to get back into painting so I decided to use a photo of my brother as reference. I had taken the photo in Ireland last year. I wanted to challenge myself by painting a landscape, which I haven't done in a long time. It was challenging to get the colours to look natural and it needed a lot of observation and focus. I tried to pay more attention to detail and get a step closer to realism while still keeping the soft, 'airbrushed' look. I particularly like the way the jumper turned out, it appears to be more three-dimensional than the clothing in my previous works. I want to keep improving and trying different painting methods, as well as experimenting with different media that I haven't used in the past.

Collage Experiments

I wanted to experiment with collage using various materials and images from the internet and magazines. My aim was to explore androgyny in relation to the human face and body.
In the first experiment, I found an image on the internet with ambiguous bodies juxtaposed onto each other. I carefully selected and cut out parts from it, removing any figure with genital organs. I did this in order to make the viewer unaware as to whether the bodies belonged to a male or a female. I then used a Japanese brush pen and drew incomplete figures. I did this in order to show that androgynous people are neither completely male or female. They are somewhere 'floating' in between. Androgyny is not only something physical, but mental. An individual should not only be judged according to their gender but their mental state also. The fourth experiment is based on more or less the same idea but is differently presented. The second and third experiment consist of the words ''What You See Is Not What It Is''. This refers to the confusion people face when they come across androgynous people. One may look female but is actually male, and vice versa. The fifth experiment consists of faces placed next to each other. I wrote certain statements, questioning androgyny and the topics that surround it. For sixth experiment I used my wall as a canvas and stuck various images from magazines. I wanted to compare and observe similarities of characteristics from both men and women.