I learned, being around Elena, that she is someone who feels very happy and accomplished living in Paris. Her apartment is a great source of joy to her but she still seems to be very attached to her home in Colorado. She is someone who has an open mind, loves photography and always has the drive to learn more and expand her horizons.
In this project I concentrated on presenting Elena through a fictional landscape or location that would embody all the discoveries that I made about her personality and her way of life. I tried to include almost everything in some way. It was quite difficult because there were so many things. The mediums that I used were acrylic paint, floral paper and graphite. I essentially divided the picture into two parts. The bottom section of the paper I represented her way of life in Colorado. Bluegrass, cliffs, floral patterns were some of the things that Elena mentioned, were part of her time growing up in Colorado. Leading up to the top part of the paper I painted sky-blue stairs much like the ones leading to her apartment. These were a significance of struggle that she had to endure in order to have the great apartment she has today. The top part was a representation of her apartment. The light blue suppleness of the walls show the light blue walls she has in her room. The photograph shows her love for her favourite Swedish photographer, Lina Scheyinus. There is also an empty table showing the possibilities she believes await her. Finally, the tree connecting to both sides of the paper portrays that she is very much connected to both places.
Now that I look back at my artwork, I think that it is rather messy and that there is too much going on at once. I think that my next step forward will be to incorporate less objects. Next time I will try to use only two or three because I realised that it is difficult to explain this many concepts at once. A collage is something that I might consider because I think I would be more confident using it rather than paint or graphite.
