HIBA'S E-PORTFOLIO
Capstone Research
To start off the second semester capstone research, I was invited to bi-weekly group meetings with Dr. Jennifer Willet and other students to discuss current projects and events. Participating in these meetings really helped me ask and get feedback on how to proceed with my project. I was advised to begin making small paintings to get the hand of how to use to the paints, and brainstorming possible subject matter that I wanted to depict in my final work for the capstone class.
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Following this advise I brought in 5 paintings, each very different from one another, to explore and play around with different art styles and themes.
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After making this set of paintings and showing them to the group I was still unsure of the theme of paintings I wanted to proceed with for my final. I was also given a new pigment which was the blue algae powder, this really helped out the whole process because making a true blue pigment was the hardest job of the whole paint making process. With the struggle of choosing what theme I wanted to go with, I did find myself drawn to the painting i made of the cultural dish "dolma" (full green painting to the very left). After a lot of brainstorming, I went and requested a meeting with Dr. Jennifer Willet. I mentioned how I wanted to go in the direction of painting traditional dishes from my culture (Iraq). I was advised to create another set of painting, but this time with this theme of culture and food in my mind. From this advise I created 5 more paintings but this time I decided to also switch up my painting method to include the new blue color, egg yolk, and the paint pigments to add a 3D effect, a shine, and a graininess to the paintings!
After showcasing these paintings during a meeting with Dr. Willet, I was advised to produce sketches in a sketchbook of potential final painting ideas that I had and I would present them to the group during the next meeting. With the sketches I played along with the idea of food and people, and from this I did a few sketches of people enjoying food at a dinner table, and people creating food by hand. Additionally I also went along with the idea of painting food itself and decided to do some sketches of a dish being cooked on a stove, and a table full of dishes. All of these sketches can be seen below:
After making these sketches I had them ready to show the group in our bi-weekly meeting so I can get feedback on which of the drawings to go with when it comes to the final paintings for the capstone research. The discussion brought me to the conclusion of making two really large paintings and two much smaller paintings (to add on to the previous collection of small paintings). The favorite images of the bunch of sketches were the dinner table of people sharing food, a pot on the stove, and the hands making traditional foods. With all of this in mind I began to make my final paintings. Below showcases this process.
The painting process of first big painting
The final painting
Painting highlights
These four images show my paint making process, a glimpse of my pallet, and the texture of the paints
These two images shows the challenges I had with the paint. The left image shows how much I struggled to work with the yellow paint color because the texture kept caking up, looking muddy and rolling off. The right image, shows the small patches of paint that would not blend into the rest of the paint.
Layering was my friend with these paintings. It added a 3D element, opacity to the colors, dimension to the artwork, and it added to the smell because of the cacked up pigments!
One little hack I came across by accident was I was blotting the paint with the paper towel because I added too much water to the mixture and it became too liquidy when I applied it to the paper. Once I blotted the paint on the paper it left behind this beautiful pattern made by the paper towel. I was so happy and surprised that I did this technique for the pants of one of the people in the picture and the shirt of another
The painting process of second big painting
The final painting
Some details that I added that I thought were cool are the residue of sauce on the inside and edges of the pot. Another detail is the red on and off switch on the stove!
Painting highlights
In order to get different colors, in this whole painting process I prioritized mixing. In these images it shows me mixing the pigments to get my desired colors. From this I would add egg yolk and water in a spray bottle to control the amount.
This image shows my reference for the knobs of the stove! This is my kitchen stove.
The painting process of the smaller paintings
The final paintings
These paintings I wanted to depict the hand making process of two cultural foods. The image to the left is the making of the "kuba" for the red sauce. This is basically a dumpling filed with meat that you later then add to a tomato stew. The painting to the right is the making of "falafel" which is just a fried ball of chickpeas. For these paintings I wanted it to have coordinating aspects to the other paintings, so i decided on a black background to make all the paintings harmonize with each other once they are place together. The choice for the red nail polish was a decision made to symbolize a woman making the food. This is because in my culture women are the ones who tend to cook in the home, and this also pays an homage to my mother and grandmother for all their efforts when creating meals for the family.
The Final Work
Reflecting on the the entirety of the paintings all together in this image, I am very proud of how far I have come and how much I had developed thought-out the semester. I began my paintings with no theme in mind, and also working against the nature of the paints. I would use the paints in a way where I would try to purposely avoid any pigment grains to show and I used them in such a commercial way. I did not embrace the texture and true application of how the paints were. However, slowly through the process of making multiple preliminary paintings I began to appreciate the formula of the paints and use then to my advantage. With all of these final paintings seen above, I made sure that the graininess and textures of the paints were all visible and used to add dimension and a 3D element to the works. Additionally by embracing the textures of the paints it brought out the smell of them too because of the multiple layers caked on. This truly adds to the bio art aspect of it all because you experience smell, touch, and feel from the natural pigments and materials in the art. One thing to note is that with these paintings I prioritized layering and mixing to give good opacity, color and different hues for the execution of the artwork. Another aspect I am proud of is that I used the visibility of the paint strokes (which was something i dreaded seeing in previous paintings) to flow with the painting. The strokes are very noticeable in the stove painting and in the pot. Overall I truly love the how all the paintings harmonize into a sort of series of culture, food, and people. The matching elements such as the blue accent, black backgrounds, little designs on the plates, different perspectives, and texture, all truly tie them in together. In sum, this entire capstone research until now has changed me as an artist. I never realized how dimensional and diverse the art field could be. I originally only knew art as making ordinary paintings with commercial paint, not something where I could experiment with natural mediums such as fruits and vegetables to create artwork. It was tis mindset that held me back from brainstorming for this project in the beginning because I made the paints but I did not work with them. I was trying my hardest to avoid showing a single grain of pigment on the paper, and my subject matter consisted of conventional things such as butterflies or landscapes. With the guidance of Dr. Willet and the feedback from the students at the bi-weekly meetings, my mindset was diversified at what the pigments I created had to offer and that I should embrace its nature in my paintings and deliberately show the true application of them. Additionally, with all of this guidance I was driven to chose subject matter that I personally related to and that I truly enjoyed. This is what made the entirety of this project so wonderful is that I truly connected with what I was painting. It boosted my motivation and my learning through out this whole process. I am so grateful to have been given this opportunity by Dr. Willet because this was a truly educational, skill-enhancing, motivating, and overall enjoyable experience.
Thank you so much Dr. Willet!!!