Self Generated

Like many of my previous assignments, nothing immediately came to mind when thinking about what to create. Admittedly, it took me a couple of explanations to understand exactly what we were supposed to do. An explanation that helped me understand this assignment was, "think of it kind of like a still life you create". A few more question asked later and I learned we could also use found objects. With these two things in mind, I set out to conquer this project.


Still life, a classic in art. It's origins date somewhere in the Middle Ages and yet, has been able to continue prominence into the modern era. This form of art allows the artist freedom in choosing the objects, the arrangement, medium, and whatever style they could be trying out.

While I knew I had other options, once I heard "still life", it just stuck. With that in mind, I began to look for inspiration in how I could use this art form. My research began with the history of still life paintings. I came across this video, a talk given at Yale discussing famous Dutch still lifes. The speaker mentions how each artist was/is motivated by different things and reflects in the artwork. 17th-century Dutch artists are still able to convey emotions and messages through a seemingly ordinary arrangement of produce. Popular examples he spoke of were humor and biblical puns and references. 

He also spoke about how still lifes can capture the brevity of life. They very much capture the "now" and hold on to that moment forever. This serves a sort of time capsule. We can see the types of meals and ingredients people ate hundreds of years ago. They become a "slice of life" form of art. So I decided to do encapsulate some of the organic objects in and around my home. Among them are nopal, aloe vera, chilis, papaya, avocado, garlic, flowers, and lime. I either picked these objects from somewhere in the backyard or from the refrigerator. They also happen to be representative of my Mexican culture. Similar objects can be seen in Angela Swensons art.  She uses colorful objects often found in Hispanic homes to display in a still life painting. She is able to elevate every day household areas to colorful expressive forms of art.

The last thing to think of was composition. I came across a couple different artists who had an intriguing
'new point of view to a still life. One photo I came across was from a top down perspective with dramatic lighting. I really enjoyed how the liquid in the glass was still ablet to cast a shadow, despite it being clear. Another artist I came across was Suzanne Saroff. The way she photographs her still life's are extremely   aesthitically appealing to my eye. Something about the distortion in the photographs compelled me to try an replicate it on paper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivzN-9V9ps4
https://www.artpal.com/angsart
Angela Swenson
Suzanne Saroff