FINAL PROJECT
watercolor, ink, gouache on paper and board
Detail 1
Detail 2
Detail 3
Detail 4
Detail 5
Detail 6
Lucìa Flores
Artist Statement
My brother convinced me to start painting one year. He said it doesn’t matter if you do not
know what you are doing, just start putting paint on the paper and see what happens. I did, and without
knowing which paints to buy I painted blobs of color. It was my new fun hobby, which was short lived.
Just a few weeks after I started painting I experienced a loss I would struggle to cope with for
several years. My curiosity for painting went from “just for fun” to necessary. Fortunately my husband
realized that I needed to paint to cope with my loss, and he motivated me painting. Painting was the
only way I kept from crying when I was alone. It became my meditation, my way of blocking out the
emotional pain. I lost myself with every brush stroke, with every color, and with my swaying hand. I
belonged in another dimension, safe from disappointment.
Mother Nature. She was the one my doctor blamed my miscarriage on. I started painting trees
because that is how I imagine Mother Nature. I painted Mother Nature over and over. It was the only
way I could face her. I started painting on small sheets of paper. But that wasn’t big enough. I painted
a woman with tree branches for hair on a 6x9 foot sheet of plywood. It was as if painting bigger
allowed me to show just how much I hurt.
I painted and drew Mother Nature for a year. Then I realized it was time to move forward with
my art. I wanted to share my experience with the world, because there are many women and men out
there that have experienced miscarriage. I wanted to paint figures, and scenes, but I needed to learn
how. I entered the Art Studio program so I could learn technique and how to verbally explain my art.
For this project, I painted what started off as a statement on the ideal image of a woman or man
and ended up with a figure study. I wanted to challenge myself by making as many drawings and
paintings of our models and mannequins until I could create a painted figure with depth. I am far from
mastering my challenge, but I gained a new level of patience for painting and drawing that will hopefully
allow me to progress, so that one day I can create the exhibit I set out to have three years ago. My
introduction to art was through painting. My curiosity for painting was encouraged by my brother. My
need for painting was through my loss. I continue to paint and sculpt because it is all I can see myself
doing.
I can't beleive that you did six different paintings, that's impressive. My favorite one is the one with purple flowers. The colors and texture really caught my eye.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your story I'm not going to pretend I know what it's like, but for similar yet very different reasons, art is my therapy as well. So, to a degree I can relate to your artist statement. I appreciate your story. I admire that you told your story and use it to drive you. I always feel that artist statements are useless because there are many that are just BS; however yours isn't. After reading your statment, I saw your project in a completely different light.
I really admire how you're able to share your back story with us and display your art in such a way as therapy. Your work is quite beautiful. I really do see these images as being a diary of your own. It almost gives me the narrative as if how society sees women and men and how it has evolved. My two favorite pieces are a tie between the yellow figure and the two figures set in dark colors. The value shifts give it a beautiful dimension/depth. It's evident as with the choice of color and stroke you can see the different emotions you're given throughout each piece.
ReplyDeleteI think that your paintings radiate this certain abstract minimalism. The mannequins within this day and age definitely show what the corrupt side of this game is thinking. I like the exploitation. Something that could make these stronger would be if you made them look as if they were torn out of a journal or magazine because when viewing them on the wall they seemed to be somewhat within this construct but not fully.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy all the various figures but there is something really nice about the way you put them on these interesting and nice backgrounds that makes it feel more complete for me. As Cornelia mentioned in class, it totally feels like a sketch book and these are your pages or diary. Which I feel relates to challenging yourself to create as many paintings as possible, you are always energetic and expressive with your art which is great! What surprises me is that each one feels complete and works with the other paintings in the series. My favorite is the woman laying on the purple flowers. I think this is a successful experiment of nature with figure study.
ReplyDeleteThe different styles and textures you used are a lot of fun. I like how you played with the backgrounds as much as the figures to create different senses with each figure. Some with faces, some without.
ReplyDeleteI do wonder what they would look like lined up instead of packed in together, but I do like it this way. It feels like family portraits arranged on a wall.
I have really enjoyed seeing your progress from the beginning of the semester and how much you have pushed yourself. your art has come a long way, and you have come a long way as an artist. Your figures are getting better and better. the proportions are looking more believable and the figures are well grounded. As james said, I think playing around with the arrangement of the pieces could be fun to do. You are incredibly brave for doing what you are doing.
ReplyDeleteI think this was a very ambitious project for you with so many different elements. I appreciate that you took so many creative risks in combining color and patterns. My favorite piece in this project is chest with the black and white stripes. That piece is so fashionable and unexpected because it's delicately drawn but has a bold background. You've definitely improved this semester and I imagine you will continue to make great works of art.
ReplyDeleteI am so impressed that you did six pieces for your final project. I really appreciate that you chose to use geometric lines with the semi-organic bodies of mannequins and the organic bodies of the models. The color palates you chose are very soft and look almost like pastel work. I like this piece the most out of the ones previously from you, as I can see how much you have grown in this class. I hope you continue to make art!
ReplyDeleteLucia, I am glad you adopted a different idea for what eventually came out as your final. And like many students your ability to render figure has improved. A few of your paintings have some kind of weak backgrounds, but overall your series' backgrounds show more thought and are more effective for it than your figure work. Something else that needs to be said is great job on the amount of work you were able to produce for the final.
ReplyDeleteYou had such ambition in creating all these n pieces of art. At first they seemed to be so different and yet when placed together they had a harmony that I really enjoyed. I was in love with your nm idea and I like how you showed these figures witj such identity and life, which is the opposite of what you would traditionally think for a manaquin. I think you found a good ground to go off of and it made the figures more interestibg for me knowng the ideas that fueled this project. I think you do well at accomplishing what you need to with out biting off more than you can chew and I like the balance you have.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised by the style of each of these all were kind of unpredictable. really cool contrast and my only complaint is to take more time in rendering aspects so they don't come across and rushed. overall nice work
ReplyDeleteall of the images gave me a lot to look at and i like that! some images could have been worked on a bit more but at the same time there are so many i hardly care very interesting concept. the figure with the flowers has a very old-school illustrative style that i like a lot!
ReplyDelete