Project #2 Reflection

Lesli Cuamani Visual Design
November 2, 2015    Period 7
 Project 2 Warhol Portrait – Reflection Journal

   Andy Warhol (Andrew Warhola) was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 6, 1928. His parents, Julia and Ondrej Warhola, were immigrants from what is now known as Eastern Souvlakia in the early 1920’s. Warhol was a successful magazine and ad illustrator who became a leading artist of the 1960s Pop Art Movements. He experimented with a wide variety of art forms, including performance art, filmmaking, video installations and writing. In the late 1950s, Warhol began devoting more attention to painting and soon in 1961, he revealed the concept of ‘pop art’- paintings that focused on mass-produced goods. Throughout Warhol’s artistic career, he painted vivid celebrity portraits as well as everyday consumer products which created a major stir in the art world. Up to this date, his famous paintings can be seen at The Andy Warhol Musuem in his city, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately he passed away on February 22, 1987 in New York City. Viewing Warhol’s creations, I would buy his artwork because they capture simple colorful objects or people that are intriguing to the eye and make you reconsider your perspective on how it would look like before the mash-up. His artwork doesn’t necessarily remind me of something specific but it’s giving me a hint to be different personally and generally. Doing what others are doing is repetitive and soon sounds or looks dull; his artwork displays how you can become imaginative with small everyday things that are overlooked. It reminds me to show off who I am inside disregarding negative commentary. The association is both pleasant and important because his work just goes to prove that there is no real limit to being expressive.
Critics in pop culture discuss and evaluate any artistic activity and dramatize the art with the current meta, which is high-level analysis or commentary. However, criticism is made by people who generate informed and uninformed opinions to point out faults. An informed opinion is based on knowledge of the facts and carefully considered principles; it relies on evidence instead of limited personal experience. But an uniformed opinion is a statement with no real research or studies to support it. This is very similar to that of taste and bias. Taste is when one does not pick a side to an argument because they like it, but support it with reason, but bias is when a person is prejudiced in favor or against one thing or person usually in a way that is considered unfair.
Warhol’s protraits have somewhat of a similar aspect in terms of colors, shape, balance, etc. His color scheme in each portrait varies due to it being unrelated to the emotion the work gives off. He has many ways of making his works ‘pop out’ by having a complementary color scheme, which the colors that are used are opposite on the color wheel. Warhol uses a monochromatic color scheme as well, meaning he uses tints and shades of just one color and more. Just like color schemes, he also follows the Rule of Third since his portraits are not directly centered in the middle of the whole. Portraits are important to use because it displays a certain type of feeling or emotion that can be perceived in many ways. It shows you a bit of the artist, a bit of the viewer, and a bit of the world in general. The artist wants to persuade you in thinking like he/she did and make you feel deep down inside. Artists have been painting portraits throughout the ages to express a certain vision in the form of art, such as: paintings, drawings, photographs, etc. Apart from visualizing, they may be painting portraits to create a homage for a certain family member, person or celebrity (famous figure). Making a portrait like Andy Warhol makes me feel grand and was a really fun experience to play around with colors. It was very difficult because if you messed up in the beginning and didn’t go back to correct yourself, once you get to the adding color station, there will be a certain problem you might face so you have to start all over again. There were many steps taken during this project but as always, peers are always there to help you out and give you advice on how to improve your work. I can see myself using these skills in the future in schoolwork or when it comes to being artistic on computers. Knowing how to change colors to fit my personality is an advantage from the things I learned in this project.