Alter-Ego

Sheridan Scifres

Professor Cindy

11 April 2018

Advanced Drawing

Alter-Ego Project

Starting this project I was really lost as to what to do because I don’t find myself holding this elite higher version of myself to be something I strive or wish to be. While at the same time an alter ego doesn’t have to be necessarily a ‘better’ version of you nor a lower one, and that’s where I started to generate my ideas from. I am a very open person, except when it comes it one thing: my femininity. Once I started thinking more in depth about it I realized that other women I sometimes, rarely encompass or embody is some dead form, like a skin of a snake shedding, or can be seen as a birth of a butterfly, something that lies dormant and only when I’m ready do I let it evolve.  This article I found very interesting on what feminine qualities may look like (http://lovepolarityandpassion.com/differences-between-men-women/feminine-femininity-look-like-part-1/) and to be honest, I don’t think there has to be a look to be feminine. My piece was then birthed: an image of myself throwing away this skin of whom I feel uncomfortable to wear, that society tells me to be, and that sometimes I shape shift into when it seems necessary.

            I love working with patterns, something I discovered back in freshmen year when I came upon the artist Kehinde Wiley. His paintings are not only big, which I often times find myself doing, but they also create these environments that both encompass and compliment that subject matter he paints while at the same time can almost overthrow them.

This made its way into the brick surrounding of my piece, although nowhere near the detail and ornate patterns Wiley creates, it still provides a space for my subject matter to inhibit. His content matter also is something I have always been a huge fan of: that you as the artists are a recorder of history, a mirror and reflection of the current day, a marker, and a point in time. This video is of Kehinde discussing those ideas. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiGxR4e8lEQ) 

            I also am very interested in some of Yayoi Kusama’s drawings and paintings. Her drawings are literally made out of patterns, and to me, really involve the viewer. They create a spatial environment that is only possible through her manipulation of the tiny dots. So as for me, I choose the pattern of brick and simplified it to the repeating pattern or a red square, because detail isn’t what I was going for rather than accomplishing creating this environment that is not relay the foreground nor the background of the piece, but rather simply exists.

Being a very interdisciplinary artist I often find myself converging as many mediums as possible to create a piece, weather that be: painting with drawing, drawing with sculpture, video with sculpture, the list goes on and on, I love it all. In my drawings I notice this idea comes into play, I often times combine multiple styles from simple line work, to realism, to adding color, to outlining works, whatever I in looks good and emphasizes or creates the concept in my head I will use. MY drawings for me are almost more of collages and sculptures than single entities themselves composing one or two mediums. Expanding my field and the materiality of art is something I am always intrigued by. Jack Whitten is another artist I highly admire. His art practice and the volution of his work over time is something fascinating to me. His Slab paintings that stand alone as one big gesture are some of my favorite paintings, similar to those of Jackson Pollock. Here is an interview of his life and philosophy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFVsd450nCU&t=339s)