Digital Collage
Screaming into Silence
Digital Manipulation 61x91 cm September, 2018 Exhibition TextScreaming into silence shows a personal disconnection with the world through lack of healthy communication. It was inspired Edvard Munch's, The Scream, and his use of distortion to portray an emotion. This piece was made using Adobe Photoshop to combine and manipulate photos.
InspirationThe expressionist movement focused on the feelings and meaning behind a piece over the actual composition. Edvard Munch’s piece The Scream was the main source of my inspiration along with the conceptual ideas of the expressionist movement. Expressionism was an artistic reaction to the beginnings of urbanization. Artists wanted to reconnect with themselves and the world around them. Munch’s painting was his depiction of what he described as a “scream that pierced through nature.”
"His work was meant to show the human disconnection from nature and society." In my piece I wanted to show a similar disconnection but on a personal level. The expressionist movement focused on the use of distortion, symbolic forms, and unnatural colors. Artist used these things to focus the art on the meaning. The art was meant to relay a feeling. I choose expressionism as my piece is meant to relay the disconnection I felt from my life and the people in it. |
Edvard Munch
“The Scream, 1893 by Edvard Munch.” The Scream, 1893 by Edvard Munch, www.edvardmunch.org/the-scream.jsp.
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"My sufferings are part of myself and my art. They are indistinguishable from me, and their destruction would destroy my art" -Edvard Munch
Planning
With this project the first idea that popped into my head was the last. The only plan I had was in my first sketch, but many details changed from my original idea. The sketch shows the stretching and exaggerated facial expression I wanted in my piece. The background was planned to be warped pictures of my journal. Originally I wanted the face distortion to be semi-realistic I didn't have any plans to filter the face. Another plan was for more baroque style lighting which would have shown through on a more realistic rendition of my face. Overall my planning for this project was limited and poor and turned into a lot of unexpected changes.
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Process
The first step to this project was collecting photos. After sketching out ideas photos need to be taken of my journal, face in a portrait style. Though scanning the journal would've produced better images, photographing them outside in direct light then cropping them in photoshop created a clear image. Starting with the background, each journal page was cropped, warped and positioned based on where they best fit. After they were all positioned correctly , all the layers were combined and warped one more time in a skew style. When the background was done a layer was added that created a radial light gradient. Then I cut out the only the picture of my face and put it in the middle of the project. Using puppet warp, I distorted my face to elongate the face and mouth. Finally I changed the blending to hard mix, added a high contrast filter and a background gradient.
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Picture Collection*Some photos have been blurred for privacy*
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Experimentation
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Most of my experimentation started late in the piece. I experimented with blurring the levels of blurring in the background to start. My next major experimentation came with how I wanted to blend the warped picture of my face. I wanted the picture to have high contrast and stand out from the background but also fade into it. My final experimentation was with a gradient layer. My piece is meant to be dark but still show contrast so I tested different levels of gradient and whether to have the gradient as the top layer or behind the face.
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Critique
My final piece turned out different, but better than expected. Throughout the process and experimentation I went from no Photoshop skills to being able to produce a solid work. My original idea was to be more realistic and limit the filters. Stylistically I had planned to mimic the distortion from my inspiration piece, The Scream, and the background flow. In my final work, the face turned into a almost pop art style hard outline. Seeing the realistic distorted face didn't portray the message I wanted it to like I thought it would. I felt people would've gotten lost in the details of the face when the expression was what I wanted the focus to be on. This process was difficult for me. It took a while to get an idea and figure out how to connect it to the story I wanted to tell. A lot of emotion went into telling the story in my essay and I wanted my piece to fully reflect that.
Compare
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Contrast
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Essay
I’ve struggled with expressing myself correctly my entire life, but recent years have proved to be the worse. Since fifth grade I’ve kept some form of a journal. It started basic as a daily rundown of events. In 8th grade my journal became a way to hide. During the transition from my K-8 elementary school to high school the journal became a crutch. I was no longer surrounded by the same people and close friends I had known my whole life. I could no longer pour out my emotions and vent my problems to my best friends. My friends and I all had different schedules and went to different schools. I made new friends in high school, wonderful, kind, supportive friends, but I hadn’t known them my whole life. I wasn’t prepared to bring my personal problems to school. I did my best to keep my school image positive, quiet, and private. That’s where my journal came in.
My journal was a crutch. I no longer had to share my feelings. I could write them down, bottle them up and hide them away. I could cry it out alone and leave my room smiling. Freshman year this worked, I would go through the process every so often and move on. If anything happened where I really needed to talk to someone I could still go to my best friends. Sophomore year I went through a period where I was losing my close friends, some of my biggest problems were with them so I felt I didn’t have anyone to talk to. I felt alone. I was constantly surrounded by supportive family and friends, but I chose to isolate myself. Once again instead of vocalizing my problems I buried them. I began to resent my family for not trying to help me even though I told them nothing was wrong. I thought they should know I’m hurting, they should know something is wrong. I ended up pushing them away. Instead of talking to my parents I yelled. I pushed all my confused feelings of sadness, stress, and isolation into anger. Soon it was like I had a switch. I would be happy at school and the minute I came home all I felt was anger. Half the time I didn’t even know why I was angry, God bless my parents because I would walk through the door mad. My only communication with them was short and aggressive. The only time I tried to sift through my feelings was when I was writing, even when writing they were all just confused rants filled with me blaming others for my hurt. I was constantly forcing all my feelings into a stupid 5 by 7 book. I screamed and yelled and cried into this journal till I couldn’t anymore. I stopped writing, but I still wasn’t talking, I just kept everything in my head. I’d break down at least once a month. I’d cry for hours for no reason. I realized how far I’d fallen on my birthday. All day it was like I was lost. I sat in my room tried to do school work, yet all did was cry. I felt broken. Nothing could make me happy, it was my birthday, but it was my lowest point.
After my birthday I started to talk. First to one person I’d grown close to, then to my best friends again, then to my family, and now to everyone. My saving grace was reflection. By talking it out I realized my only problems came from isolating myself. Nothing was as serious as I had made it out to be. In the end I was screaming about nothing and elevating my own unhappiness. I had gone through something so many people my age do. I was finding myself and maturing. I just took the hard path by choice. My experiences over the last year helped me develop into a better person. Life is a learning process and I’m still learning, learning how to control my anger, cry when I need to, and above all communicate with those who love me.
My journal was a crutch. I no longer had to share my feelings. I could write them down, bottle them up and hide them away. I could cry it out alone and leave my room smiling. Freshman year this worked, I would go through the process every so often and move on. If anything happened where I really needed to talk to someone I could still go to my best friends. Sophomore year I went through a period where I was losing my close friends, some of my biggest problems were with them so I felt I didn’t have anyone to talk to. I felt alone. I was constantly surrounded by supportive family and friends, but I chose to isolate myself. Once again instead of vocalizing my problems I buried them. I began to resent my family for not trying to help me even though I told them nothing was wrong. I thought they should know I’m hurting, they should know something is wrong. I ended up pushing them away. Instead of talking to my parents I yelled. I pushed all my confused feelings of sadness, stress, and isolation into anger. Soon it was like I had a switch. I would be happy at school and the minute I came home all I felt was anger. Half the time I didn’t even know why I was angry, God bless my parents because I would walk through the door mad. My only communication with them was short and aggressive. The only time I tried to sift through my feelings was when I was writing, even when writing they were all just confused rants filled with me blaming others for my hurt. I was constantly forcing all my feelings into a stupid 5 by 7 book. I screamed and yelled and cried into this journal till I couldn’t anymore. I stopped writing, but I still wasn’t talking, I just kept everything in my head. I’d break down at least once a month. I’d cry for hours for no reason. I realized how far I’d fallen on my birthday. All day it was like I was lost. I sat in my room tried to do school work, yet all did was cry. I felt broken. Nothing could make me happy, it was my birthday, but it was my lowest point.
After my birthday I started to talk. First to one person I’d grown close to, then to my best friends again, then to my family, and now to everyone. My saving grace was reflection. By talking it out I realized my only problems came from isolating myself. Nothing was as serious as I had made it out to be. In the end I was screaming about nothing and elevating my own unhappiness. I had gone through something so many people my age do. I was finding myself and maturing. I just took the hard path by choice. My experiences over the last year helped me develop into a better person. Life is a learning process and I’m still learning, learning how to control my anger, cry when I need to, and above all communicate with those who love me.
Act
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
Edvard Munch's piece the scream inspired the distortion and expressionist qualities in my work to convey a feeling. The baroque movement was the inspiration for the dramatic, extreme contrasts in my piece.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Through my research I discovered why expressionists used simplification and distortion in their work. Expressionists wanted to bring feeling back to art and used certain methods to convey a feeling. The expressionism movement exaggerated a scene to create a feeling an artist wished to portray.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea around my research was feeling and mood. I wanted to convey emotions of disconnection and sadness and my research was centered around art movements that utilized certain qualities to change the emotion behind a piece.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
The art timeline goes through phases of realistic and non-realistic renditions of reality. The type of art a movement portrays is based upon the culture and struggles of the time. Expressionism was a result of war and the before and after effects of it, so artists wanted to shop the emotions of the time.
Edvard Munch's piece the scream inspired the distortion and expressionist qualities in my work to convey a feeling. The baroque movement was the inspiration for the dramatic, extreme contrasts in my piece.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Through my research I discovered why expressionists used simplification and distortion in their work. Expressionists wanted to bring feeling back to art and used certain methods to convey a feeling. The expressionism movement exaggerated a scene to create a feeling an artist wished to portray.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea around my research was feeling and mood. I wanted to convey emotions of disconnection and sadness and my research was centered around art movements that utilized certain qualities to change the emotion behind a piece.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
The art timeline goes through phases of realistic and non-realistic renditions of reality. The type of art a movement portrays is based upon the culture and struggles of the time. Expressionism was a result of war and the before and after effects of it, so artists wanted to shop the emotions of the time.
Bibliography
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Expressionism.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2 Jan. 2017, www.britannica.com/art/Expressionism.
“The Scream, 1893 by Edvard Munch.” The Scream, 1893 by Edvard Munch, www.edvardmunch.org/the-scream.jsp.
“Expressionism.” Art Movements, www.artmovements.co.uk/expressionism.htm.
“The Scream, 1893 by Edvard Munch.” The Scream, 1893 by Edvard Munch, www.edvardmunch.org/the-scream.jsp.
“Expressionism.” Art Movements, www.artmovements.co.uk/expressionism.htm.