Anagapesis (The Process of Falling Out of Love)
Natasha Oslinger
This is what falling out of love feels like; this is the alienating feeling of unequally returned love. In this piece I tried to recreate the stormy, gray feeling of disconnection and disassociation from one’s relationships. I accomplished this by creating a piece with one central foreground component and an intricate background. The main focus of the piece is two girls painted in watercolor, although they are hugging, there is an emptiness between them as if someone took a knife and cookie-cutter separated them. In the background, I wrote all 365 days of the year prefaced with “BLUE ON” to show a certain subtle sorrow being felt every day. I did “redact” certain days, though, which is expressed by a thick black line covering the days spent on the better side of the spectrum. Through this I wanted to express the good days that almost make it worth sticking around for. An original idea I had was to put three smaller images at the bottom of the work, but, I felt like that would be distracting from the main focus and decided to kill the darling. Finally, I use blue watercolor to add cloud-like blue splotches to the background to give a better feeling of asymmetry and take up some unoccupied space.
The process of thinking of an idea for this piece then executing it was fairly simple, but, along the way I did make several large changes to the overall structure. To begin with, I figured out which emotion I would want to base my art on, I knew "the process of falling out of love" wasn't a traditional emotion, but, I felt like I would be able to encapsulate it well, so, I came up with an idea and stuck with it. I did three basic mock up sketched, each slightly more detailed than the last, then I started my calculations for the amount of space I would need for the background. I use a ruler and dived the page up vertically and horizontally. I realized I would have to make the words too small to read if I was to use the size of paper I was using to write all the days, so, I got a piece of paper 12 cementers bigger, then recalculated. Once I figured out what size I would need to write, I divided the page up into 365 sections. Then, I began on the foreground. In the center of the page, I lightly sketched the two main figures I wanted to focus on, then, went over them in watercolor making an interesting splotchy effect with drips and splatters accenting it. Once that was dry, I added finer details with a smaller watercolor brush and began on the background. I started the back ground by writing "Blue on" 356 times, then, I went in and wrote each day of the year, making sure not to go over the foreground component. Then I "redacted" some of the days to show add some symbolism to the art and make the viewer think deeper about the meaning of "anagapesis" and what the word "process" truly means. Finally, I used three different shades of blue to make cloud like shapes all around the page. I did change some of my original ideas throughout this piece, for example I started with the idea of having three smaller images under the main focus depicting three different scenes. But, I decided that it would make the piece too busy and could distract the viewer from the minute details and hidden meanings. In all, I am happy about the way this concentration piece turned out and I believe it delivers my original idea well.
Natasha Oslinger
This is what falling out of love feels like; this is the alienating feeling of unequally returned love. In this piece I tried to recreate the stormy, gray feeling of disconnection and disassociation from one’s relationships. I accomplished this by creating a piece with one central foreground component and an intricate background. The main focus of the piece is two girls painted in watercolor, although they are hugging, there is an emptiness between them as if someone took a knife and cookie-cutter separated them. In the background, I wrote all 365 days of the year prefaced with “BLUE ON” to show a certain subtle sorrow being felt every day. I did “redact” certain days, though, which is expressed by a thick black line covering the days spent on the better side of the spectrum. Through this I wanted to express the good days that almost make it worth sticking around for. An original idea I had was to put three smaller images at the bottom of the work, but, I felt like that would be distracting from the main focus and decided to kill the darling. Finally, I use blue watercolor to add cloud-like blue splotches to the background to give a better feeling of asymmetry and take up some unoccupied space.
The process of thinking of an idea for this piece then executing it was fairly simple, but, along the way I did make several large changes to the overall structure. To begin with, I figured out which emotion I would want to base my art on, I knew "the process of falling out of love" wasn't a traditional emotion, but, I felt like I would be able to encapsulate it well, so, I came up with an idea and stuck with it. I did three basic mock up sketched, each slightly more detailed than the last, then I started my calculations for the amount of space I would need for the background. I use a ruler and dived the page up vertically and horizontally. I realized I would have to make the words too small to read if I was to use the size of paper I was using to write all the days, so, I got a piece of paper 12 cementers bigger, then recalculated. Once I figured out what size I would need to write, I divided the page up into 365 sections. Then, I began on the foreground. In the center of the page, I lightly sketched the two main figures I wanted to focus on, then, went over them in watercolor making an interesting splotchy effect with drips and splatters accenting it. Once that was dry, I added finer details with a smaller watercolor brush and began on the background. I started the back ground by writing "Blue on" 356 times, then, I went in and wrote each day of the year, making sure not to go over the foreground component. Then I "redacted" some of the days to show add some symbolism to the art and make the viewer think deeper about the meaning of "anagapesis" and what the word "process" truly means. Finally, I used three different shades of blue to make cloud like shapes all around the page. I did change some of my original ideas throughout this piece, for example I started with the idea of having three smaller images under the main focus depicting three different scenes. But, I decided that it would make the piece too busy and could distract the viewer from the minute details and hidden meanings. In all, I am happy about the way this concentration piece turned out and I believe it delivers my original idea well.