Title: Harmony
Medium: Ink on Paper Size:21.59 x 27.94 cm Date: November 2016 The piece was constructed by free hand drawing on a sheet of paper using thick and thin Sharpies. The intentions are to create a harmony between unrrelated designs and patterns. It utilizes a combination of geometric and organic shapes, along with positive and negative space to create a flowing piece. The eyes of the viewer are meant to flow through the piece regardless of the intial starting position. |
Artistic Inspiration
Artist: Bridget Riley
Bridget Riley is an abstract English painter well known for her Op Art creations even before the Op Art movement in the 1960s. Some of her most famous works are black and white paintings filled with optical illusions. Riley's work seems to flicker, pulsate, and flow to create a sense of movement through her pieces as the viewer is guided across the piece. Eventually, she incorporated color into her pieces but maintained the sense of movement that stimulates the viewer's senses. I was inspired by Riley's piece "Descending" (seen on the left). Within this piece, numerous black and white, straight lines can be seen positioned at various angles and varying in size. This use of positioning and size creates the illusion of movement as the viewer's eyes move from left to right through the painting. The lines seem to almost descend and move as one scans the painting, while in reality there is no "literal" movement in the piece. It's this creation of flow through the piece and sense of movement that I wanted to incorporate into my own works. I wanted to imitate Bridget's use of neutral colors and be able to create depth and movement such that the viewer becomes engaged in my work. Research Citation: "Bridget Riley." OpArtcouk. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 November. 2016. <http://www.op-art.co.uk/bridget-riley/> |
Planning
Next I attempted to create movement. I wanted to see how organic shapes could be used in unison with geometric ones to possibly from movement. I found that curves guide the viewer's eye from one point to another while geometric shapes seem to stop the viewer at a certain point and stop the viewer's gaze from moving.
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Process
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At first I attempted to create designs without an outline, however It was difficult to build up from it. Therefore, I discarded it and began with a simple outline. Once I had divided the paper into various sections, I further broke down each individual section and began creating designs based on my planning sketches. I worked from left to right attempting to make sure my patterns were varied and flowed together. I also strived to maintain a divers area of shapes, geometric and organic. I attempted to create a balance between positive and negative space. At times this was challenging due to it being difficult to constantly vary in patterns. Additionally, since I used a Sharpie, I could not erase any mistakes made. This made me fix my mistakes build from them rather than start over.
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Reflection
I am content with my piece and believe that I accomplished my goal of creating movement within my piece. The sections flow from one to the other. Although I did make certain mistakes at some points that at times made me want to startover. I would have liked to been able to incorporate a greater diversity of shapes as well. Nonetheless, I believe my incorporation of Bridget Riley was successful as the piece contains the movement I desired as well as a similar color scheme.
ACT Questions
ACT Questions:
1) Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
-Emulated the sense of movement within my work similarly to artistic inspiration as well as used a neutral color scheme.
2) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
-Simple shapes and lines can have tremendous effects on the viewer. The better engaged the viewer is in the artwork, the better they perceive it.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
-People have a tendency to want to find patterns such that at times this causes optical illusion due to not being able to perceive the fact that there are none.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
-Simplicity can create complex works of movement and beauty.
5) What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
-Humans are pattern seeking creatures and when none are given, they attempt to find some resulting in optical illusions.
1) Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
-Emulated the sense of movement within my work similarly to artistic inspiration as well as used a neutral color scheme.
2) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
-Simple shapes and lines can have tremendous effects on the viewer. The better engaged the viewer is in the artwork, the better they perceive it.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
-People have a tendency to want to find patterns such that at times this causes optical illusion due to not being able to perceive the fact that there are none.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
-Simplicity can create complex works of movement and beauty.
5) What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
-Humans are pattern seeking creatures and when none are given, they attempt to find some resulting in optical illusions.