Title: The mourner
Size: 30.5 cm x 22.9 cm Medium: Ink on paper Completion date: August, 2023 Exhibition Text: I made this piece to showcase how one may turn to unhealthy habits such as alcohol when in a state of mourning. When experiencing loss or some kind of strong emotion, people tend to reject the people who come to support them, and turn to something that won't tell them the hard truths. It's a comfortable support system for them, even if it's hurting them and they don't know it. Usually, it ends up being the bigger the situation, the harder it is to get out of the hole dug, harder to reach out to the people who's help has been rejected, and harder to let go of the thing used to get through the hard time in the first place. As someone who cares deeply about this subject, I wanted to show this through my art, and use an artist as inspiration who truly knows the feeling of loss I'm trying to express, Kathe Kollwitz. Kollwitz especially understands this loss with the loss of her son at war. |
Inspiration
The Volunteers (Die Freiwilligen) from War (Krieg) by Käthe Kollwitz
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The reason I chose Kathe Kollwitz as my inspiration is because I love the drama in her art. They tell such tragic tales, yet they don’t have to be about anything specific at the same time. The shapes manage to be sharp and round at the same time and are always dramatic, even if it’s a pose that would normally convey no drama whatsoever. I was hoping to capture this drama and emotion and show it through my own art. |
The main artwork I’m inspired by is “The Parents After War”. This artwork was likely one that was extremely emotional for Kollwitz to create, as it is about the loss of family. During the First World War, Kathe Kollwitz lost her son as a casualty of the war. This loss is depicted in the block print created to portray the pain that is felt by a family when someone they love is gone. Without the loss of her son, Kollwitz may be able to create a work about said loss, but it would never hold as much meaning as it does now, with the pain she had to go through from the war.
In these prints, one can feel the intense mourning that took place by Kollwitz, as well as other families throughout the world as a result of World War 1. This war took many lives and completely changed even more, many learned how to mourn, and others learned how to grow stronger from it. There are some who even found how to use it to help others to understand how it affected them and to learn how to cope and take in that loss. As a result, it has had a strong impact on several artists' works, including that of Kathe Kollwitz. |
The Parents (Die Eltern) from War (Krieg) by Käthe Kollwitz
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Planning & Experimentation
When starting this project, the only thing I k new I wanted with it was my inspiration. I knew this was going to be for my comparative study, so I was aware that I needed to use similar techniques and styles, but it was from this, that I was able to get a point to go off of. There are only two pieces by Kollwitz that I was going to use as inspiration for my comparative study, so all I had to do was choose between the two on which I wanted to focus on for today. Since the time frame I had to work on this project was somewhat small, I was initially planning to go with the piece that has the lease amount of carving, which was the volunteers, but after sketching out the first face, I ended up deciding that the piece was too detailed for the time I was setting aside to work on the project and moved on to The Parents from War.
After deciding that I was going to use The Parent from War, I started sketching out the basic shape I was looking for, which was a triangle shape to pull the eyes around the entire piece, similar to how Kollwitz's piece does. Once I got my first sketch or two down, I realized that a much more efficient manner of sketching this piece would be having it inverted. There are a lot of bold lines and scratches in the original piece that are difficult to capture with the way I was sketching the design out. This led to a much speedier planning process.
Once I decided to sketch inverted, I started to create more in depth planning sketches on some of the smaller details. This included things like the hands, the face, and the bottle. With the hands, I know they tend to be extremely detailed in Kollwitz's works, so I zoomed into them when sketching to focus on how she differentiated the fingers and the knuckles. In the original work that I'm taking the most inspiration from there aren't any faces visible, since both of the figures present were mourning, but in my work, only one of the figures is in serious mourning, so I'm choosing to have the second face visible. I wanted to stay as true to Kollwitz's style as possible, so I went to her work, The Volunteers (Die Freiwilligen) from War (Krieg) to get a better understanding of how she carves our the faces. While looking into faces, I also noticed that she keeps hair pulled back for women in her work, so I included that as well. The final part that I wanted to make sure I had an understanding of was the bottle. I wanted it to be obvious that it was for alcohol and not any other beverage, to I did a quick sketch or two of how I wanted it to be shaped.
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I knew for this work it was going to take a lot of time. there were going to be many steps, including planning with sketches, sketching a final draft, transferring the sketch, carving, and finally, printing. I started this project two weeks before it was due, and ended up working on it almost every day until it was due. Thankfully, I was able to plan out when I would work on this, and when I wanted to be done.
Process
The process for this piece was long and frustrating. I started out with getting my planning and experimenting out of the way, luckily, it didn't take too long since I already knew what I wanted as my inspiration and processes. This is all because I was going to use this piece for my comparative study, meaning I had to use a similar technique, This meant that I was able to keep that all in mind when sketching out my plan and creating a design. I knew I wanted it to be a little bulky, and that I needed to think about how I would have to carve delicate features. |
After I had my idea set in stone, I did a final draft for what I wanted the print to look like, then I covered the other side of the paper with graphite and traced my sketch onto the linoleum sheet. This took quite a bit of time, seeing as how I was determined to include every little detail that I sketched. When I removed the paper, I found that the sketch transferred, but the lines came out quite thick. In the end, I decided I was fine with it, but it did bother me initially that it didn't look exactly how I had imagined it.
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Next, it was time for me to start my favorite part of making block prints, the carving. I always enjoy the carving portion of the block prints since they relax me. I had the planning and sketching done, so at this point, all I was doing was tracing. At this time, there were other students who were supposed to be making block prints as well, which meant that I wasn't able to use the slightly higher quality or easier tools for carving, I used wooden carving tools instead. I didn't really mind doing this, the only set back was how uncomfortable it was in my hands, I did end up getting a blister or two. |
The final step was to do all of the printing, which has always been my least favorite part. I started by getting the materials, white paper to print on, paper to put below to prevent a mess, ink, a brayer, a tray for the brayer grab the ink, a baren, and paper towel. I would take the ink and spread it on the tray, and roll it around with the brayer to get an even layer ready to roll, then I would roll the ink onto the linoleum sheet that I carved. After that, I would lay the linoleum sheet down and place the paper on top, trying to keep it as straight as possible. The final step was to press the ink into the page with the baren, after which, I would peel the paper off and leave it to dry. With each print, I would look at where there was artifact that I didn't want, and would carve the excess out. this led to my final print that I decided I was happy with after looking at a few prints I made after it.
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That was it! That is everything I had to do to create this block print.
Critique
Original Work
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There are several similarities and differences between my work and Kollwitz's, but overall, I think I was able to capture her style well, as well as the emotion behind her works. For Kathe Kollwitz, she printed using wood, which is much more difficult to carve and keep clean, whereas I chose to use a linoleum sheet that is significantly easier to carve, and much more forgiving. Despite this, they were both still carved, and I feel I was able to capture the shapes and style very well. It's very likely that Kollwitz used higher quality ink, but overall, the ink looks very similar, especially when photographed. Kollwitz's piece is extremely emotional, showing two mourning parent, similar to this, I also chose to show an individual in mourning to, but in contrast to hers, my piece is about how one may cope when in mourning. When looking at the work, though, there is a clear similarity in the shape, where both pieces have a triangle shape to pull the eyes around the work. I was also able to create similar shapes to depict the fabric with blocky and bold shapes that look like folds. I believe I was able to successfully capture Kathe Kollwitz's style and emotions in my work.
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The Parents (Die Eltern) from War (Krieg) by Käthe Kollwitz
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Reflection
I am really happy with this piece. While working on it, I was reminded how much I didn't like the printing process, but I learned to persevere, which is preparing me for my next project, which is another block print. I know I'll have to persevere in future projects as well, since there will always be a phase where you have to trust the process, so I think it helped me to better myself as an artist. I really struggled to convince myself to keep printing when I saw a piece that was somewhat okay, but luckily, I surrounded myself with people who pushed me to do better. I wouldn't have been able to do this project nearly as well if it weren't for having to do a different block print in the past. At the end of the day, the piece turned out really well, I was really happy with myself, and I hope others can see the theme that I was trying to depict. I want people to see that when someone is mourning, they may push the people they love away and turn to bad habits instead. It's important that people aren't hurt for being left behind and are able to recognize when someone starts to spiral.
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Original Work
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ACT Questions
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
- By choosing Kathe Kollwitz as my inspiration, it was almost automatic that I was going to create a block print, it's the medium that I, and many others, feel work best with her style. This meant that my work was going to turn out having clearly defined shapes that are a bit more abstract. Having Kollwitz as inspiration also meant that I was more likely to choose a heavier topic for my theme, as the theme for the artwork I chose as my strongest inspiration has such a heavy topic as well.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
- Kollwitz has made many works regarding loss and others' reactions to it, this is something she resonates closely with, especially due to the loss of her son.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
- I found that many people have this idealized version of war playing in their heads, which is in complete contrast to what Kollwitz shows, which is how gruesome and horrible war can be.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
- I wanted to look into something related to war when choosing my artists for my comparative study, as I wanted to translate physical battle into mental battle in my works. So the central theme in my research for this projects was loss from war.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
- I had to infer whether or not the works I was looking at were really created as a result of the loss of Kathe Kollwitz's son. Most of the works I was looking at showed emotions such as anger and mourning, so it seemed pretty clear that they were, but I never ofund anything that set that information into stone.
- By choosing Kathe Kollwitz as my inspiration, it was almost automatic that I was going to create a block print, it's the medium that I, and many others, feel work best with her style. This meant that my work was going to turn out having clearly defined shapes that are a bit more abstract. Having Kollwitz as inspiration also meant that I was more likely to choose a heavier topic for my theme, as the theme for the artwork I chose as my strongest inspiration has such a heavy topic as well.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
- Kollwitz has made many works regarding loss and others' reactions to it, this is something she resonates closely with, especially due to the loss of her son.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
- I found that many people have this idealized version of war playing in their heads, which is in complete contrast to what Kollwitz shows, which is how gruesome and horrible war can be.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
- I wanted to look into something related to war when choosing my artists for my comparative study, as I wanted to translate physical battle into mental battle in my works. So the central theme in my research for this projects was loss from war.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
- I had to infer whether or not the works I was looking at were really created as a result of the loss of Kathe Kollwitz's son. Most of the works I was looking at showed emotions such as anger and mourning, so it seemed pretty clear that they were, but I never ofund anything that set that information into stone.
Citations
- Meyer, Isabella. “German Expressionism - One of the Greatest German Art Movements.” Artincontext.Org, 28 July 2023, artincontext.org/german-expressionism/.
- “‘The Volunteers’, Käthe Kollwitz, 1921–2.” Tate, 2019, www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kollwitz-the-volunteers-p82460.
- “‘The Volunteers’, Käthe Kollwitz, 1921–2.” Tate, 2019, www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kollwitz-the-volunteers-p82460.