Translation/Abstraction Project

Elizabeth O’Toole

Professor Rehm

Advanced Drawing

8 April 2020

Translation/Abstraction

Color & Form Exploration

As a continuation of our collection project and for our translation/abstraction piece, I wanted to combine layering of imagery and close up abstraction to put objects within a new context and create a new space from the objects in my green collection. I was inspired by the work of Sydney Croskery which we discussed in class along with collage style works from artists like Martha Rosler. I loved the way Croskery seemed to make sense of differing objects within the picture plane. She was able to create very effective black and white drawings with a lot of value and smooth shading. Her overall style and ability to combine unlike objects inspired my combination of items from my series. I wanted to use this manner of layering and combining imagery in my piece. But while I love the manner in which she puts pieces together, I have also always been inspired by the potent and moving collage works by Martha Rosler. While I cannot say my work holds the same political thematic content hers do, I wanted to find a way to combine seemingly opposing imagery to form a new cohesive idea.

         My work more than anything serves to continue exploring the emotive nature of color and space. Just as my collection project sought to explore the feelings and associations behind a color like green, this piece takes it a step further by involving forms and enlarged or abstracted objects within the picture plane. This piece combines only objects and imagery from my collection to create a whimsical, nonsensical setting. I used chalk pastel in only green, black, and white, on 34 x 44 inch natural colored paper with textures and objects from my collection to develop a new type of translation of my original exploratory concept. This piece is not necessarily to be looked at to decipher a political idea or message, but rather it is meant to be felt and understood however the viewer chooses.