Task: Choose an object you believe represents yourself. With a partner, exchange objects, the story of the object and why you chose it. Using your partner’s object as a starting point, create something that represents both the object, as well as your partner’s personality.
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My Partner: Roselyn Grullòn
What object did you choos and why?: Nail polish; it is a big part of who I am, would usually not consider myself very feminine, but in that aspect I definitely am, won’t leave the house without make up and nail polish, also do nail design, way of expressing myself, love pink and red tones
What elements do you like best about your object?: It’s decorativeness as well as the ability to express both feelings as well as art through it
What is your major: Fashion Design
What kind of art are you most interested in? Pop Art, Andy Warhol, Roy Liechtenstein
What is your favorite color? black
Is this also your favorite nail polish color? Why? no, for my nails my absolute favorite is red (the color I chose for my object), but I also different tones of pink and darker reds
How do you like to have your nails? I like my nails long and pointy! I hate having short nails
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- First sketch on Photoshop, trying to imitate shape of fingernail and create a flower out of it
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- First try playing around with the fake fingernails, tried to figure out a way to make them stick together
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- Color Study on Photoshop
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- I did various sample nails with different nail polishes, mixing the colors I wanted until I settled on these
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- Nail polished around 500 nails in the different colors I chose beforehand. 6 nails for the darker colors and smaller nails, then 12, 18 … and so on, always numbers that can be divided by 6 because of the 6 symmetric pedals.
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- For the stand, I chose to build something transparent, so that it wouldn’t take away any attention from the colorful flower and the flower would be the only element with color. Stand is made out of 3 separate plastic parts: Little board at the bottom, a plastic tube and a little disk that is attached to the tube.
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Project Description and Reflection
As her avatar object, my partner Roselyn chose a bottle of red nail polish by SinfulColors. The exterior of the 2 1/2 inch high bottle is made out of two components: a glass body and a black plastic cap, which are both around the same height. The bottle cap is cylinder shaped, while the glass body of the bottle is rather round, getting narrower towards the top. As the bottle is made out of glass, you can see the warm red color of the nail polish inside of it. On the front of the bottle, the brandname is printed in capital letters and in black, creating a contrast between the red of the nail polish and the black lettering, which makes it more readable. Furthermore, the writing matches the color of the bottle cap, which creates a very harmonic composition.
Due to the nature of the material used, the glass bottle has a very fragile touch to it, while at the same time feeling cold and hard. However, as soon as you open the bottle, a tactile contrast is created, as the liquid that is inside is smooth and soft. Additionally when opening the bottle, an olfactory image is created, as nail polish has a very strong, chemical and toxic scent, that immediately spreads once the bottle is open. This smell is so penetrant, that while applying nail polish I sometimes feel like I can even taste the chemicals in my mouth.
The main purpose of nail polish is to decorate a part of our body by covering the original finger or toenail. In our current day society, a woman with well-manicured nails is considered beautiful and it is a sign that she takes care of herself and her body, which is why most people see nail polish as purely decorative. However, it can also be used to express emotions through the idea of color theory or to present so called “nail art.” While it is considered completely normal for women to wear nail polish, it is rather uncommon for men to do so, which is why nail polish has a very strong feminine connotation.
Personally, I really enjoy both putting and wearing nail polish, as I think it is really important to have clean and well taken care of finger nails. Especially in the design world, even though it is very hard to admit to this, appearance is such an important element of presenting yourself, and can say so much about you. I also believe you can tell a lot about a person by looking at the color of their fingernails and the connotations related to that color. Personally, I choose the color of my nail polish based on my mood and also my style, which is why I usually wear rather dark colors and rarely wear any light and bright pinks.
For Roselyn, these factors also played an important factor in choosing her object, as she agrees with the idea of expressing your mood and also an idea of who you are through the color of your nails. The reason she chose a red nail polish is because she wanted to express her femininity through the object. She claims that she wouldn’t describe herself as very feminine, but also would never leave the house without make up or nail polish on. This creates a very interesting contrast between the feminine appearance of her nails, which are usually painted in either red or pink, and her personality, which she would consider the opposite of girly. While this leads to the object not being a perfect representation of both her appearance and her personality, the contrast that is created enhances her diverse identity.
Avatar Object Replication
To replicate the avatar object my partner Roselyn chose to represent herself through, I decided to use the object, nail polish, as a material rather than to represent it. The replicated object is a flower, measuring around 14 inches in diameter, made out of separate acrylic fingernails. The flower itself is very geometrically calculated and symmetrical, with six identical pedals. The fingernails in the middle are the smallest, and their size then gradually increases when moving outwards. Similarly, the color gradient changes. While the center of the flower is colored in a very dark red, the colors gently blend into a brighter red, to an electric pink and finally to a pale pink.
In-between the separate fingernails, there is little spaces that you can see through, as the flower is not stuck onto anything, but is just made out of the nails being stuck together, creating a sense of transparency. This transparency is picked up again for the stand made out of a see-through block of acrylic and an acrylic stick, causing the flower to really stand out, as it is the only element of color in the piece. Furthermore, it adds to the idea of artificiality, which fake nails convey, creating a contrast between the shape of a flower, a product of nature, and man made products. However, the symmetry of the flower is something that would never be found in nature, hinting at the the notion of nature being reinvented by mankind.
The strongest visual quality of this piece is definitely the use of bright colors, which directly appeal to the audiences sense of sight. Even though the colors are so bright, the fact that they are all warm colors, as well as the subtle color gradient, make it a very harmonic composition. Additionally to our sense of sight, our sense of touch is also engaged when looking at the piece. Although the flower itself is flat, the separate and differently sized nails create a texture to the piece, making the flower come to life a little more.
The symbol of a flower is usually associated with femininity, beauty and sexuality; three qualities that can also be connected to nail polish, and therefore to Roselyn. Moreover, the symbolic nature of the colors used, hues of pink and red, reinforce this idea of femininity, as they are all associated with girls and beauty. While the pale pinks represent younger, more innocent girls, these develop into independent, strong women, represented through the vibrant reds. This development can be seen in the flower, as it starts off with pale pinks, and then, as you move further towards the inside of the flower, gets more vibrant and essentially darker.
To incorporate some of my artistic ideas and my style into the piece, I chose to work with geometry and color gradient, the two main elements most of my work is based on. Growing up in a family of engineers, mathematics have always played a very important part in my daily life and I feel strongly connected to the mathematical and measured aspect of geometry. While all of my siblings and cousins followed the for our family typical path of studying engineering, I constantly felt the need to create, causing me to try to combine design and maths. In this process, I looked at Geometric Abstraction and Op Art, focusing on artists such as Josef Albers, Piet Mondrian and Richard Anuskiewicz. Mondrian once said that “the emotion of beauty is always obscured by the appearance of the object. Therefore the object must be eliminated from the picture.” This quote has ever since I first read it inspired me and built my personal artistic style, as I consider color as the most important mean of expressing emotion through visuals.
