More recent ideas for my painting: I want to make something inspired by the women’s marches in Iran of late, without making it about me and my work. Perhaps I need to widen my theme to feminism and women’s choice in general? It’s tough to figure out how to be respectful that it’s not directly affecting me, but a war on women anywhere is a war on women everywhere, and I am angry about this despite being halfway across the world from the epicenter.
I did a digital painting in highschool that was inspired by the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women epidemic and movement, and it got a lot of attention (relatively). Like, the piece itself got a lot of attention, and people were praising me when I was trying to make a point and the painting was not at all about me. I just want to make sure I’m clear about my intentions for the piece, and hopefully, I can be clear in my execution of it as well so that I draw attention to the cause, not myself.
Iran has been governed by a “Supreme Leader”, Ali Khamenei for over three decades.
Iran has been struggling with patriarchal ideologies and laws that have become increasingly harmful to women for a very long time, especially after the Iranian Revolution in the 70s. From generations and generations of strife and complete governmental control with extreme measures and violence, comes a new revolution.
After the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16th, 2022, global attention has been drawn to Iran and its barbaric totalitarian treatment of its people, especially women and queer people. Mahsa Amini was arrested for not wearing a hijab in public(“inappropriate attire”) and then died three days later. She
The police deny that she came to any physical harm while in custody, despite her father’s claims that he saw bruising on her legs, and is holding the police responsible for her death.
CBC reports: “The [Iranian] coroner’s report said her death was ‘not caused by any blow to the head and limbs.’ It did not say whether she had suffered any injuries.”
The report claims that she died due to multiple organ failure from cerebral hypoxia, which is when the brain doesn’t get enough oxygen for an extended amount of time, though the police had previously stated that she died of a heart attack.
Whatever the reason for her death, whether it was hidden personal health issues coming to a head, or external abuse by police, Amini died in police custody after being arrested for not wearing a hijab.
Women all over Iran and the world have sparked protests in response to Amini’s death. The incident has brought millions of voices to the forefront of human rights issues in Iran, and women are cutting their hair and burning hijabs in protest and solidarity for the cause.
Seeing first-hand videos and testimony from Iranians who are living through this conflict right now is making the issue so much more vivid and I just felt that I needed to make something to express this moment in time.
Midterm Painting Brainstorm Process
So these were the first inspiration pictures I found while looking through stuff on Pinterest (the source of most of my inspiration). I was super super lost at the idea of “juxtaposition” because I didn’t just want to do something basic, or predictable. I wanted to stretch the limits of the prompt as much as I could while still being able to justify it (which I often struggle with). It took several conversations with various family members before I stumbled upon an idea that I was even remotely interested in expanding. I was talking with my dad about how I wanted to incorporate space into my painting, and we went on a tangent, as we do, and started talking about the postponed Artemis 1 launch. This got me thinking about Artemis and Apollo, and also the irony that the Apollo missions were the first humans to go to the moon when Apollo was the sun god in Greek myth and religion, and Artemis was the moon goddess. So all this is to say that I finally decided that I wanted to make the twins my subjects for this painting.
I then toyed with the idea of siblings, and maybe I wanted to make a humorous painting showing them as more human than deity, but I ultimately decided that might be a little harder for me to figure out, and I’ve already spent enough time debating with myself over this composition.
So then I got lost down a rabbit hole of supernova and nebula pictures, real and artistic renditions, and I was thinking that the background could be something like this. I’m not so sure that it will be quite so colourful though, because I don’t want to detract from the subjects, and also don’t want it to be too confusing of a composition.
I think that after all greyscale in my other painting class, I was getting a little colour home-sick, and maybe over did it a little. 😛
So now I’m researching and experimenting with how to create a glow effect, because I want the two to not just be human depictions of the myths, but also of their celestial bodies. The sun burns and glows, and the moon reflects. I’m trying to figure out how Apollo can give off a kind of glowing effect, how to make that seem natural, and also how to make it seem like Artemis is reflecting the light off her skin, but also her skin has to be her own colour, etc., etc. It’s very hard and complicated. Not to mention! I have to figure out what style I want to paint this in! At first, I was thinking just my usual weird-shaped eyes style, but then I thought what if I make it look sort of greek-statue-esque? And then I thought what about a more stylized flat colour style like the picture in the gallery above?
And, I was thinking too, this doesn’t seem like a painting that wants to be done on paper. It also doesn’t seem like the kind to be done on wood. I feel like canvas would be best for a pair of gods. Preferably a large canvas- but of course! I didn’t buy enough canvas last time I was at Fabricland, and also haven’t made my frame yet, and I don’t want to wait any longer to get started on this because I’m afraid that if I don’t start it now, it won’t get done in time for the due date, and then I just won’t ever finish it because there won’t be a due date anymore. Do you see my problem? Long story short, I’m just going to shell out and buy a big canvas from Michael’s.
Updates soon! I’m hoping to get my canvas on Saturday so I’ll start working on it on Sunday.
Artist Research
Artist-Research