Title: A New Daisy
Size: 112" x 69" Medium: Latex outdoor paint on Wood Completion date: August 2023 Exhibition Text: This piece was made to show new beginnings after loss through its symbolism with poppies and a daisy. The poppies all represent loss and war, but the daisy, which stands taller than any of the other flowers painted. I want to showcase growth from loss, and how one can overcome it, even if it doesn't seem like it. As someone who has experienced loss, as well as seen what it's done to people, I find that it's important to emphasize that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. That was my goal with this work. |
Inspiration
This was one of the few pieces that I found meaning in the work after choosing and artist. I had known that I was going to end up painting a mural on my fence, and that I wanted it to be black and white with a little red, so that's what I looked for, artists that work with those colors. I didn't want to stray too far away from the original artist's style this time, unlike my previous work. When I was looking, I found Joanna Szmedt.
Szmedt is a Polish artist who often works with water colors to create minimalistic and calming pieces. I took particular interest in her works that contain poppies, as those were the works I found first, it is also from those works that I drew most of my inspiration. I loved how simple they looked, as well as the meaning behind them. That's why I chose to use Szmedt as my inspiration from this piece. After learning what poppies represented, I felt that I needed another flower or plant included to make the piece more positive and to show growth. From there, I started researching daisies, which can represent new beginnings. This was another flower that fit the theme and would look great in Szmedt's style, so I decided to go for it and draw inspiration from the calming artist.
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Red Poppy Fine Art by Joanna Szmedt
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Experimentation & Planning
There was not much experimentation or planning with this project. Right from the start, I had already known that I wanted to do a mural on my fence, and I knew I wanted to do something black, white and red. I even know that I wanted the meaning behind the work to be growth. The only real thing that needed planning was the layout, and even then, that wasn't set in stone.
This was a project that was suggested to me by my mom, so she was the one to make a lot of the suggestions for what the project should look like. We agreed that something simple would be good, something that's mostly black and white, adding a little red here and there, and that she would approve of it. There were times where she would show me pictures as possible inspiration, and I would say whether or not I liked them, but in the end, we didn't go with any of the inspiration suggestions.
The entirety of this project was to just go with the flow, I knew that if I made a mistake, all I had to do was paint over it. Initially, I was worried about whether or not my parents would like it, I was constantly checking to make sure they thought the idea was good, making sure they liked the colors and the meaning, but I eventually even gave that up.
The only thing I truly ended up planning was the flowers I wanted to use, and that came almost immediately after I found Joanna Szmedt. All I needed to do when planning was a quick sketch of the flowers to make sure I knew how I wanted them to look in the final product. After figuring out how the flowers would look, it was time to do a little overall sketch to plan out the general idea of how the final product would look. Honestly, I didn't even really need to do this part because of how simple and straightforward my plan was. The only reason I chose to do a final sketch like that was so I could propose the idea to my parents.
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Process
This project went by significantly faster than the previous project. I went to work almost immediately after I got back home from a one week trip. The first thing I did for this project was research who I wanted as inspiration and make a few small sketches. I knew ahead of time that I wanted something a little simpler and natural, so that put me in a mindset that whatever happens, happens, and that I would be able to make whatever I do work. I decided that I didn't need to plan the project a whole lot, it had just come to me immediately while I was researching. This meant that I made very few sketches, and that the sketches were really just a general concept. I had no intentions of following the plan exactly to a tee, I just knew that I would finish the mural when I was happy with it. |
After getting the planning done, it was time to go out and buy paint. I wasn't actually there when my parents were buying the paint, so we ended up getting quite a lot, but I was happy with all of the colors, so it wasn't too much of a problem. Once the paint was secured, it was finally time to get the fence ready. I had already painted the area I wanted the mural to be all white before making a plan, so the area was ready for me the moment the sketches were done.
I have always put down a sketch on the canvas or board of whatever I'm painting or designing, but for this project I decided not to. I did start a sketch at first, but after a few minutes, I decided that I was using up too much lead on something I would probably end up changing anyways. This means that I went straight in with the paint. I didn't really know where I was putting everything, but I decided that I would figure it all out as I go. This turned out to be true, as I started out with the poppies and worked on the one by one. I would put the red paint down, then use the black and white to make it look more like watercolor.
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After painting each of the poppies, I painted a little black blob, meant to look like a paint splatter in the middle, with a stem coming out at the bottom. This was going to be the daisy, but I decided that I needed to wait to paint that until the black paint below it was dry. While waiting for it to dry, I painted the falling flower petals, then the grass. When painting the grass, I didn't want to make a mess or have messy lines, so I took a piece of cardboard and pushed it to the ground to paint to the bottom of the fence. Finally, it was time to paint the daisy, but I was tired and decided to put everything away for the night. The was when I accidentally poured more than half of the red paint on our new concrete and gave myself a panic attack with the mess I made. After 2 hours, the mess was finally clean, and you can no longer see the red.
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One night turned into two, and I kept pushing off work on the mural again. Finally, I decided to finish the painting by adding in the daisy. However, it turns out that I was putting it off for absolutely no reason because it took no time whatsoever to finish the daisy and I cleaned up my mess.
A few days go by, and I realized that I forgot that there been some paint that had gotten places I didn't want it, and I have tried to clean it up, but I couldn't because the paint was still wet at the time. This meant that I had to go back outside and paint over it, so I took everything back out for about a minute and a half of painting. But finally, it was done! I could go back inside and avoid the heat that gave me horrible sunburn while working on this project.
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Reflection
I am really happy with how this mural turned out. I had a lot of fun working on it, my time management was good, and made it look similar to my inspiration, while still adjusting it to something that better suited what I was looking for. I don't really have anything negative to save here. I was able to make myself set aside a few days to get the work done, I was able to finish it on time. I do find it a little funny, though, that I really like the mural, and my mom, the one who asked for it, doesn't like it. That may be the one thing that I can reflect on this mural, though, I wasn't able to fully consider what she wanted, and ended up with a result that didn't fully meat her criteria for success.
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Critique
Original Work
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For this work, there isn't a whole lot to critique. I feel that I was able to represent Joanna Szmedt and her art style well. I was able to make the work similar to water colors, I used similar colors and shapes, and the flowers look delicate like hers. There are only a few difference which were all intentional. I added a bit of a background with blurry poppies, grass, and petals, and I also made the stems thicker. I wanted more of the space to feel filled out, without making it feel crowded with flowers. I think I was able to successfully make those changes, while still not straying too far away from the original inspiration.
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Red Poppy Fine Art by Joanna Szmedt
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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?
My inspiration for this project was very calming and natural, this led to me being more carefree and optimistic with the work. I ended up planning less and adding more than I though I would.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The artist that I chose is very reserved, so I don't know much of her personal life and losses, but I do know that she values calmness and simplicity, this is always shown at the start of something new.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I found that people often brush off loss after a while instead of trying to build up from it. There are many people who claim that loss is okay and goes away after a while, when it doesn't. It's still there, it just hurts a little less to think about over time.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea and theme around my piece and the research done for it was new beginnings after loss. I wanted to show this through different meanings behind the flowers I chose.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Because I knew so little about the artist that I chose, I had to make inferences on her values as well as what was really her art and what was being stolen. It was difficult to tell, since many watercolor works can look similar.
My inspiration for this project was very calming and natural, this led to me being more carefree and optimistic with the work. I ended up planning less and adding more than I though I would.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The artist that I chose is very reserved, so I don't know much of her personal life and losses, but I do know that she values calmness and simplicity, this is always shown at the start of something new.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I found that people often brush off loss after a while instead of trying to build up from it. There are many people who claim that loss is okay and goes away after a while, when it doesn't. It's still there, it just hurts a little less to think about over time.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea and theme around my piece and the research done for it was new beginnings after loss. I wanted to show this through different meanings behind the flowers I chose.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Because I knew so little about the artist that I chose, I had to make inferences on her values as well as what was really her art and what was being stolen. It was difficult to tell, since many watercolor works can look similar.
Citations
- Szmerdt, Joanna. “Red Poppy Fine Art Print by Joanna Szmerdt.” Fine Art America, October 31, 2015. https://fineartamerica.com/featured/red-poppy-fine-art-print-joanna-szmerdt.html.
- “Modern Minimalist Watercolor Cat Portraits by Joanna Szmerdt.” hauspanther, September 3, 2015. https://www.hauspanther.com/2015/09/02/modern-minimalist-watercolor-cat-portraits-by-joanna-szmerdt/#:~:text=Polish%20designer%20Joanna%20Szmerdt%20has,her%20lovely%20watercolor%20cat%20portraits.
- “Modern Minimalist Watercolor Cat Portraits by Joanna Szmerdt.” hauspanther, September 3, 2015. https://www.hauspanther.com/2015/09/02/modern-minimalist-watercolor-cat-portraits-by-joanna-szmerdt/#:~:text=Polish%20designer%20Joanna%20Szmerdt%20has,her%20lovely%20watercolor%20cat%20portraits.