1. I think artists make portraits because it's a very simple way to start creating art; you have a reference in front of you and everything else, from the emotion, the medium, and the intent is in your control. An example of a purpose for portraits, besides serving as a visual representation of a person or group, is capturing an indescribable emotion while attaching it with the image of humanity; something we are very familiar with.
2. I believe a community consists of a circle of people who can form a connection and sense of belonging within each other due to their similar experiences, identities, beliefs, and interests. 3. Communities I frequent are the LGBTQ+ community, artist communities, fandoms of my interests, and my classmates and friend groups. 4. Casteel's works are very simple, unexaggerated poses. I like that she captures her references, not in painfully extravagant situations, but in subtle, natural settings. It's realistic and normal. Paired with the "normalcy", her palettes are vibrant, and striking, occasionally she does not use the colour of actual skin but instead goes for deep blues, or violets. Her work usually follows the same formula, but they are all unique and pleasant to look through due to her variety of colours in each piece. 5. Casteel's community seems to center around a focus on family and familiar connections. It is implied that their neighbourhood is not really a wealthy one, and the schools Casteel and her twin brother attended in were not exactly the most safe for them due to them being targets of racial discrimination. Despite all that, though, her community, the people within her neighbourhood, are happy together, treat each other with a type of fun casualness that you would normally see within a family. 6. Casteel mentioned that she wanted her portraits to capture black men's bodies in a more natural point of view, and challenging stereotypes like the criminalization and sexualization of black men. The people in her paintings are sitting comfortably on chairs, on the pavement, on buses, just trying to get through their daily lives normally. 7. The way I perceive Casteel's works, between her clothed and nude models, is that the paintings with the clothed models are a snapshot to someone's subtle everyday life, while the paintings with the nude models are an intimate view of their vulnerability, their self, their inner beauty.
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this is a very lengthy response i'm so sorry!
1. The Jeepney Convenience Store!! 2. Jeepneys and sari-sari stores are two vivid aspects of the first 12 years of my childhood in the Philippines. To me, there’s something very interesting about combining two concepts to build a main idea. What’s a better way to do it for this project than putting together the two things that make me feel very nostalgic? So, behold, a sari-sari store within a jeepney. The things that come to mind when I think of these and their impact to my childhood are colour, energy, the feeling of being alive, and being surrounded by warmth, and I hoped to capture that feeling in the model. I chose the jeepney and a sari-sari store out of all the other things that remind me of my childhood because I thought the idea of a travelling store carrying all that colour and energy with it to share with the rest of the world is very cool. 3. The jeepney is a common transportation method in the Philippines, and what really makes it so memorable to me is that they are moving canvases, carrying vibrant, beautiful artwork and signage, mainly painted on by artists dedicated to their craft. The roads are more unique because of them driving around. Sari-sari (variety) convenience stores, on the other hand, are a staple of a typical Filipino neighbourhood. They’re family-owned, quite small, but sell pretty much everything you would need and want in your daily life, such as snacks, packets of shampoo, school supplies, all at a very affordable price. It’s a big lifesaver for those coming home to from work or school, for those who need an emergency stop for a couple of eggs, or for those who just want to buy some soda, and typically the person at the front is someone the neighbourhood knows very well. Both are very important aspects of the Filipino community because they bring people together, and I believe that closeness is a big part of Filipino values. The thing with jeepneys is that it’s a very narrow space and seats are parallel to the shape of the vehicle; they are two whole logs of cushions. So, on a full jeepney, you are either sitting directly beside someone, or you are facing someone. And I suppose, it’s not awkward at all because that’s just how it always is. Everyone within a neighborhood tends to know each other very well too, so it adds to the whole familial vibe of it. 4. Obviously, there’s the jeepney and the sari-sari store, that I have mentioned several times. Those were a great part of my childhood, so I based my project around them. In the store, snacks hang from above, decorating the store like a curtain. Those snacks are quintessential for any Filipino store, and the way they are hung up like that is a signature look for sari-sari stores. The Potchi and Flat Tops wrappers are my personal favourite candies that I happened to find at the supermarket. Those snacks are what the kids look forward to when they stop by the sari-sari store, as they carry a couple of pesos in their hands. On the jeep and the sorbetes freezer, there are sprinkles of “white flowers” which are supposed to be jasmines or sampaguita, the national flower of the Philippines. I wanted to incorporate them into the project too; when I think about my memories, like getting off the jeepney ride to the church, the fragrance of the sampaguita garlands sold by vendors at the front of the church would hit me. On the jeepney’s door, there is a picture of a pink flower. My original plan was to draw a carnation, but it ended up turning into an unidentifiable pink flower instead. Still, I think it will suffice. Carnations, or pink flowers in general remind me of the flowers my grandmother used to take care of, decorating our home in the Philippines. 5. I just used cardboard and acrylic paint since I didn’t really have anything authentically “Filipino” on hand. However, I did have the candy wrappers hanging at the front of the store and I thought they would add some extra shine to the model. As I mentioned, these are the snacks we would usually buy at the sari-sari store. The flat tops are particularly notable, I think. They are chocolates made without cocoa butter, making them have a different texture and no “melty-ness” like milk chocolates. The reason is because of the weather being very humid in the Philippines, storing flat tops is a struggle without refrigeration. It has a unique taste that I really like. 6. I hope the model I created paints an image in everyone’s head that Filipino culture is very vibrant and full of warm colours. Filipinos usually live with values that has one being positive, welcoming, and persevering through hardships. Despite not having much, you make do with what you have, and indulge in the beauty of the simple things in life. The sari-sari store is not a grand supermarket. The jeepney is not an expensive mode of transportation. However, they are very rich in memories to me. 7. I am very proud of the piece! I poured every hour I could into it, and I love how it turned out. It is exactly as I imagined it. Normally, with projects as big as this, I tend to be too ambitious for my own good and make things up as I go, and it ends up not really working out. But I think every piece of this model fit into place like a perfect puzzle. Both my mom and I were excited about the product when I finished it, and she started sending the pictures to our family back home, and they loved it too! So, I think it is a success. 8. I’ll have to give myself an 9.5 for creativity. Because, though I love everything about it, I feel like it's not very unique, as it is literally... a model of a jeep combined with a convenience store. But I suppose the paint job makes up for it, and assembling the whole thing was a big task too. 9. I normally don't like to give myself too high marks because I don't want to feel too proud of myself, but this time I do have to go beyond 10. I really planned out the measurements, the constructing, the colour palettes, everything. I think this could be the peak of all the art practice and colour theory studying I've been doing over the pandemic. Before, my projects used to be lacklustre and I didn't really take art too seriously, but now I've began to start looking at my work process with more depth, and this was the result. |
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