Mark Making/Diptych/Process/Statement

Diptych Statement

The two panels of my diptych represent the concepts of serenity and disruption. I chose to illustrate these concepts because they capture two opposite experiences that often combat one another on a day to day basis. Whether you find peace in the sound of rain on your window late at night or in the comfort of a loved one’s touch, serenity is refreshing and results in an empowering mindset. However, serenity and calmness is often brief due to a fast paced world that disrupts peace with it’s demands and expectations of us. Disruption and disturbance comes in many forms such as stress, responsibilities, anger, conflict, drama, or heartbreak. With the challenges of the human condition, it can be hard to find peace in the chaos and balance oneself. While serenity and disruption are two contrasting ideas, they share the common trait of being a powerful influence on what mindset someone approaches life with.  Both panels were inspired by the techniques and concepts I executed in my Mark Making Grids. The Mark Making Grids gave me a better understanding of how to use elements and principles of design to illustrate and communicate ideas in abstract art.

In my serenity panel, I used repetition, continuance, and direction to create the feeling of radiating movement and centeredness. The pattern of triangles in the background creates a rhythm that is symbolic of routine and definite knowledge that goes unchanged through time. I chose a high key value range to decrease contrast on the white paper and to create something that visually isn’t super attention grabbing but rather a foundation for the piece. On top of this, the pattern is interrupted and overpowered by a much brighter set of shapes. I chose yellow and pink for this to create strong contrast against the background as well as warmth. This yellow circle and the rings that move outward from it represents finding a sense of balance and peace in the both the extraordinary and mundane experiences of daily life. When one strives to find peace in little moments, it allows them to seek out this serenity in other, less peaceful aspects of their lives. Similarly, the cirIce radiates this calmness with rings moving outwards.

In my disruption panel, I used density, sequence, continuance, and direction to illustrate untamed chaos and disturbance. Because this piece captures a more negative energy, I used a low key value range and high contrast to add to the chaotic character of it. The yellow square the contrasts its background, is representative of balance that attempts to contain disruption. In the center of the square, is a point from which i drew lines in and out of the box, always returning to the center point. By doing this, I created the sporadic and outward movement of the lines, with increased density as they travel towards the center of the piece. These lines are representative of any and all the negative feelings and challenges that create disruption in our lives. They move fast and tangle in one another and around the frame to illustrate the difficulty in sorting out and pinpointing one specific source for the negative attitudes resulting from the problems they represent. The frame in sequence interacts with the lines where the heavier lines have seemingly broken through and wrapped around it. Again, this captures the concept that containing and sorting one’s troubles can be difficult when the problems extend past what we choose to perceive inside this frame.

Reflection

These assignments and project were challenging to me not in a technical sense of skill and execution, but in the creative aspect of developing and producing concepts through abstract art. Abstraction is something I don’t typically do in my art because I struggle with how to communicate an idea without the use of a definite subject matter or scenario being illustrated. However by breaking down the elements and principles of design that should be considered when creating any piece of art, I was able to better understand how I can develop, execute and communicate ideas to invoke certain feelings in the viewer through these techniques. My final diptych was inspired by squares of my ink page and my collage page that illustrated chaos and peace. I took the elements of those studies that I found strongest and most effective for conveying my concepts, and incorporated and accentuated those ideas in my final diptych. Overall I’m happy with my piece because I feel that my ideas came across, though visually I feel as though the serenity panel lacks interest, especially when compared to the chaos of my disruption panel. I wish I had considered more closely how the two panels relate to each other and their overall aesthetic appeal when displayed together.