My sustained investigation is about the positive and negative symbolism of different colors and how they are perceived by society. Some of the pieces are influenced by my own experiences.
|
|
I have really enjoyed working on this sustained investigation and it has been a lot of fun seeing how it has progressed since my first idea at the start of the semester. Originally, I just wanted to focus on human emotions and the color that correlates to that emotion. But then, while I was on a trip, my rabbit Cullen passed away. I wanted to create a piece to remember him by and because I made that piece it changed my entire sustained investigation. That piece is titled "Purple stands for Mourning". The pieces that I present here are not in order of when they were created, but in order of the colors of the rainbow.
|
Red is the symbol of danger, anger and love. This piece depicts a rattle snake and a dove. Rattle snakes themselves symbolize danger with their warning rattle and violence. Whilst a dove is the primary symbol of love. This piece is about how love can be overtaken by other emotions and almost strangled out of us. We focus so much on the negative parts of our life that we fall short of seeing the love and joyful parts of our life.
Medium: Gouache Size: 9x12in |
Orange is a color that is associated with deceitfulness. The fox and poison berries that spew from its mouth are symbols of deceitfulness. Foxes are seen as a deceitful animal because of how cunning and elusive they can be. And the berries are deceitful because of how innocent they may appear on the outside but carry a deadly toxin. Unfortunately, not everyone we meet has our best interest at heart, while we may not know it in the moment, they may be a poison berry in the bushel. I have had some past friends who were those poison berries and I hadn't realized it at the time. But we grow and we change, and they come and go.
Medium: Gouache Size: 9x12in |
Yellow is the color of cowardice. Depicted in this piece is a spotted hyena and a white feather, dangling from its jaws. Hyenas are the symbol of cowardice because they are scavengers, and their signature laugh is uncanny. The white feather is much like the white flag, a symbol of surrender. A lack of bravery.
Medium: Gouache Size: 9x12in |
Green is the symbol of jealousy and toxicity. Depicted here are seven vultures. Vultures are a symbol of picking away, in this case they symbolize a group of friends I had who attempted to blackmail me and pick apart my life. The seven is also symbolic, seven is seen as a jealous number but it also symbolizes how many people were in the group at the time. There are times I miss them, but I have grown as a person since that point.
Medium: Gouache Size: 9x12in |
Blue is the color of loneliness. Depicted in this piece are two owls and two smiley face balloons in the tree, deflated. During the time of this painting I was going through a rough spot, and so was a close friend of mine. While we weren't going through the same situation, we had each other. Though we may feel deflated and empty, we aren't alone in our struggles.
Medium: Gouache Size 9x12in |
Purple is the color of mourning. The symbols present in this piece are skulls, candles, and clocks. The skull depicted is that of a rabbit which in this piece represents death itself. Candles are lit to remember those we have lost and are used as memorials. The clocks hold a double meaning, one is that time is running out and the other represents the time zones. My rabbit Cullen passed away while I was on a trip, three hours ahead, two time zones away. I miss him every day and this piece is a memorial for him and everything he did for me.
Medium: Gouache Size: 9x12in |
Black is the color of death. The symbols I used for this piece are the bat and pomegranates. Pomegranates, I learned while doing research, were often buried with bodies in Greek mythology as a parting gift to the underworld and to assure safe passage. While as bats are a symbol for death itself, pictured here is a fruit bat among the fruit of the dead. Unfortunately, this year at least for me, has had a lot of unexpected death.
Medium: Gouache Size 9x12in |
Brown is the color of isolation. Unfortunately I have dealt with a lot of isolation this year, while not on purpose it happens frequently in certain friend circles. Depicted here is someone picking up the skunk which is a symbol of isolation. I did this because we always need someone to help us get back on our feet, especially after we've been hurt. This piece has been my least favorite of the pieces so far, and I hope to redo this one to improve.
Medium: Gouache Size: 9x12in |
Pink is the color of femininity. I made this piece to help connect to my femininity which I struggle with sometimes. This piece depicts Aphrodite and her symbols of love, the doves and roses as well as herself. This piece is about self-love and embracing myself for who I am. This one is one of my favorites of this series, because of the color choice and the composition. While there are things I need to improve on if I ever redo this piece, I am satisfied with it currently.
Medium: Gouache Size: 9x12in |
Lilac is the color of innocence and love. Depicted here is a pair of doves, doves are the symbols of love. I wanted to push that first love we have as children, and the innocence of that relationship. But as we grow old, sometimes we lose that innocence, and we lose that first innocent love that we experienced.
Medium: Gouache Size: 9x12in |
Blue is the color of forgiveness. During the two weeks I was making this piece I was going through a rough spot with raising rabbits. Unfortunately, not everything that you raise is going to live forever. We had a cold spell at the time and of course that's when new kits were born. We lost two whole litters in the following cold day. I know that I did everything that I could to help the litters survive but I can't beat nature herself. This piece is about my conflicting thoughts represented by the two heads, one that's forgiving, and one that's not.
Medium: Gouache Size: 7x7in |
Gray symbolizes exhaustion. Recently I have been having extremely bad fatigue spells. It's hard to do things when you can't stay awake. Though I do think I will be getting checked out about that soon. The responsibilities I needed to do loom over, even when I can't keep up and end up falling asleep, and they will be there when I wake.
Medium: Gouache Size: 9x12in |
Green is the color of cowardice. This piece is about cheating specifically, which cougars are the symbols of. I wanted to make this piece to feel as if you’re being watched, that feeling of cheating and lying though you may have gotten your way for now, you may not get your way along the road.
Medium: Gouache Size: 16x12in |