POST CRITIQUE RESPONSE
The aim of my 3 piece self portrait was to convey the idea of how as I have grown older, society has imposed many “rules” on me as an individual. Being a girl in today’s society, we are told “don’t let you dress be too short”, “don’t become too fat”, “think twice before you say something”, “behave differently in front of your elders, and differently around your friends” the list is endless. What I have come to realize is the number of people that we force ourselves to satisfy has increased with age. As well as the different ways we act around different individuals. I used symbolism of the color red to convey loss of innocence in the three portraits. During the critique, almost all my peers did understand the intention of my pieces, and how as we grow older the masks that we succumb to finally end up getting to us. I wouldn’t say I got any “surprise comments” however, someone mentioned how they wanted to see a focal point in the pieces since the background was too overwhelming. At the same time, I actually intentionally wanted to emphasis on a mix of background and focal point to suggest tension and confusion in my pieces. I wanted it to be monotonous. However, I would want to revise a few things, to start with the title of my work. Instead of naming it “ Masked” which was extremely obvious, I would want to name it “Red”. Since the color red is very symbolic of the loss of innocence in this piece. I would also in some way want to connect the hair from one part of the piece to the other to show continuation, and to show that they are all the same people. Some people did get confused about the “blue” eye in the second painting, I would want to change that back to brown to avoid any confusion about the character in the pieces.
