2017 Annual Student Exhibition

Today I toured the Annual Student Exhibition in Loyola's Evergreen Campus Art Gallery.  While I did not ask the people working why the pieces did not have names or titles attached to them, I was intrigued by this all the same.  The Gallery had a mixture of art works which ultimately made it difficult to choose, but what caught my attention the most was a cumulative piece that included hand drawings of dogs.

The layout of the piece is what initially caught my eye; the spacing between each work was pleasing to the eye.  What then caught my attention was the apparent disconnect with the photos and the collage they were in.  While I mostly focused on the hand drawings of the dogs, I didn't understand why there were other pictures (I believe of ink) included in the collection.  Here is a picture of the collection:

Left

Right

The entire collection gave mixed feelings and insights which gave it even much more depth than it could bare.  The picture in the top left corner of a sketched drawing of a cat with wings is unrealistic, but the three drawings of dogs are as realistic as a hand drawing could get.  The ink paintings of an eye and what seems like scissors cutting a noose turned this somewhat happy art collection into something much more somber.  Overall, the entire collection left me wondering which is why it made such an impact on me.

Postmodernism Project Visual Analysis

Denotative (physical description of the piece):
This piece was derived from the quote by Jean Baudrillard, "Americans may have no identity, but they do have wonderful teeth".  The key terms I decided to focus on within the piece are "America(n)", "Identity", "Perfect", "Teeth", and "Unknown".  Visually, the piece have a dominant square or rectangular shape that includes a conglomerate of colors from the color wheel.  This allowed me to choose from a multitude of colors to pull out with paint from the original Photoshop collage image.  Ultimately, I felt that light blue, diluted red, vibrant red, and vibrant blue would be the best colors to choose to exemplify the colors that depict America.  My attempts to "draw out" these colors and where they originate from on the printed collage are shown through different brush strokes with the paintbrush and a dripping effect with the color red in the bottom right corner.  Because the Photoshop collage had a demanding rectangular shape, I thought it would be best to cut the Bristol pad it was pasted onto into an organic shape.

Connotative (emotions and associations):
I do not feel as though looking at my piece would be able to immediately reveal the quote it was based upon.  I like this because it leaves room for interpretation.  I feel like the incorporation of the colors from the American flag can help the viewer associate it with America on a basic note, but also the presence of teeth (both perfectly aligned and individual) gives it a feeling that should combine the two themes.  My attempt at covering the Statue of Liberty, Austin Powers, and the unknown person's mouths with perfect teeth was to make the viewer uncomfortable or hyper aware of America's obsession with perfect smiles.  The quote about the UK and character versus America with white teeth helps reveal the difference between the two nations, thus highlighting the skewed preferences.