ADVANCED DRAWING

Reid’s Alter Ego

My understanding of an “alter ego” is a personality that embodies all the qualities that the real life person, the original ego, does not. When it comes to making art based on my own alter ego, I find myself uninspired. I find the concept of an alter ego in general to be limiting to my identity, as it suggests that I do not have the potential to embody certain traits in the range of human expression. I think it’s dangerous for anybody to consider themselves incapable of any human emotions or dispositions actually, so, for this project I have decided to reroute the definition of “alter ego” in my own mind to represent the personality of mine that is the most central and childish - the energetic essence of me that excites me and that would grow the most wild in me if my body and mind wasn’t ever plagued with doubt or social responsibility.

My new definition of an alter ego inspired an immediate mental image - a nude, playful figure in an electric, dusky blue colored world. The nudity was important to me for conveying a celebration of the capable, strong human body as well as a lack of shame that I wish I could live in much more than I currently do. Blue came to me for the reason that it references dusk, which is a time that for me represents simultaneous birth and death, beauty and danger, concepts that I want to have less fear of and more appreciation for.

To study the disposition of play, celebration of bodies and the color of dusk I turned toward various preexisting art. For play I leaned on beautiful photos I found of a young Marilyn Monroe by Andre de Dienes. With the tightness of these shots, Marilyn is displayed like a great marble monument, assigning her power, however her youthful appearance and kind expressions are inviting. The duality of Marilyn’s fragility and dominance influence the scale of my alter ego and the moments of treating the body like sculpture. When it comes to the consideration of bodies I learn much from the oil painter Denis Sarazhin. Sarazhin’s men all display lithe, capable, agile, almost acrobatic bodies. I pay close attention to the skin texture Sarazhin creates too. The shine, moisture and rawness of the skin evokes youth and tactile sexuality for me. And lastly, in exploration of dusk, I look towards fantasy films and depictions of magic like those in Kenneth Branaugh’s Cinderella. Cinderella’s dress is incredibly deep and layered blue, creating a cloud of dusk that is thick, noxious and moody but also, for its, brightness young and energetic.These colors persuaded me to draw in pigmented, messy chalk pastels. I look at more glamour, loneliness and youthful energy in videos of performers preparing and pampering.