DP2 Visual Art Reflection: Emily T.

“My body of work explores mythology through symbolism. Starting out, I wanted to draw animals to represent different emotions, and use vibrant colours, much like the style of Franz Marc. The only problem was the feeling I wanted to portray were not ones that I personally felt. Instead, I decided that, through my work, I am hoping to tell the stories from all the legends and teachings you hear in different cultures. I am telling these stories through symbolism, using different animals and colours to portray different human characteristics, traits and feelings. Many teachings and legends are very wordy and make it hard for one to find the underlying meaning of them, so my goal is to simplify the meanings behind the lessons, making them easier for the audience to understand. I hope my artistic interpretations can stir feelings that ultimately help convey the lessons. 

I have explored different mediums, including acrylic, watercolour, pencil and digital media. In order to capture the emotion I was trying to portray, I created clean lines and bright colours. I found it difficult to portray the emotions I wanted the audience to feel with the acrylic as my paintings were not very good. I made a stylistic choice to include a gold frame around my digital art. This is inspired by art of royalty that can be found throughout Europe, which is why I used it for my European tales-themed art. The ideas in my body of work are identity, heroes and leaders. My body of work explores the theme identity because these legends and stories from different religions are part of the identity of one person. I hope through this idea I can reach the audience on a personal level as religion and beliefs are things that people hold very close as a significant part of their identity. Heroes and leaders is another idea I use in my artwork. Many people worship another being, a higher being, a god or maybe just a public figure they look up to. My goal is to bring my audience’s heroes to light, to highlight them in all their glory, but also, in all their shame. I want to do this in order to balance their heroes’ faults and all that is deemed great about them. I do this using a contrast of bright colours and darker tones to shade. 

To establish a relationship between my body of work and my audience, I needed to acknowledge the fact that not everyone is religious. Some individuals are more spiritual than religious, or they simply believe in Darwin’s evolution theory, among other things. My body of work needed to have artwork for everyone. I have one spiritual artwork about wolves, and many pieces about religion. Atheism represented a challenge for me, so I decided to relate to my audience through emotions. I needed to be able to relate to them, so I picked the stories with so much betrayal, extreme sadness or happiness; raw human emotions that they can relate to, regardless of the context of the piece. I want my audience to learn that even your heroes can have emotions and faults, just like us. I want my audience to learn to be in tune with their feelings. Symbolism is heavily used in my body of work, and my goal for my pieces for the audience to understand what the animals represent. My exhibition is thematic style, because my works tell a story. I want to display them within the religion or belief that they are in, such as Greek mythology by itself, and Christianity in another section. My body of work tells the story of mythology over time, such as how some religions were formed and the different stories of those formations. The artwork will be presented at eye level, for the most part, to allow the audience to come and interact with the artworks. There are certain artworks depicting evil creatures representing death or chaos that will be hung lower than eye level to make the viewer look down, and slightly uncomfortable to help truly show the meanings within these pieces. Artworks with gods or heroes within will be presented higher than eye level, as traditionally speaking, gods were made to be worshipped, and therefore above us.” 

“This piece is inspired by Egyptian mythology, specifically the tale of Osiris, focusing around the crowning of his son, Horus. This piece shows the emotion of all parties involved; betrayal, hatred, sadness, and perseverance through different types of animals and colours.” 

“This piece tells the story of King Midas, a king from Greek mythology who wished that everything he touched would turn to gold (Greekacom). This piece depicts the moment when he touches his daughter and she begins to turn to gold. They are shown as dragons, since dragons are often known for being greedy and collecting treasure.”