This painting was my final for my studio class last semester, which was a recreation of a Frida Kahlo painting. Some of the research I did to create this piece include digital research to discover more about her life, even watching a documentary about her life. I did historical research by reading a book about her art, which conveniently also had great pictures of her paintings to copy from. In creating this piece, I used both observation and comparative research to make my own version of her work. In further creating the piece, I used both material and experimental research as I made this piece my own. Going into the process, I did not think that creating the piece itself was a form of research, but as I directly studied her style through the art itself, I ended up doing research on Frida and her art more deeply than just by reading an article.
If I did new work inspired by this piece, it could be in multiple ways: I could be inspired by the painting style, the color, the composition, the meaning behind it/subject matter, or the tools I used create the work. However, I did so much historical, observational and digital research on the artist herself going into the process that I think if I were to do a new piece, I’d do more comparative, experimental and material research by painting more and directly studying her style. By working with my hands and trying to copy the way she crafts her paintings rather than more extraneous details of her life, I could understand the how better after learning the why through the other methods of research I used.
