The image above is a shot of the beauty portraits that I have been working on for the past month or so. One of three projects of a series of images that will be turned into a comprehensive book of my understanding of beauty, sexy, and combining my favorite two subjects; chicks on bikes;) This started from a line of questioning that has started a long journey of learning. The very first question was why? Why do I make art? I answered that with; understanding, communicating, and inspiration. I like and enjoy understanding the world I live in through some form of expression and that expression becomes another form of communication with others of my understanding. This communication allows for inspiration and an interaction with others that I react to and notice if what I was trying to understand is being communicated well. Then I thought about what I would really love to understand and that would be beauty. The innate beauty in nature and of women are one of the most fascinating things that have been on my mind for so long. So I started with the portraits of women mostly because I am still extremely fascinated with portraits and getting better at understanding them. Having this focus on a series has allowed me to continue pushing composition, color, and design without getting too complicated with the image. The reoccurring idea that later came from creating the portraits was that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Like Bill Cunningham said "Those who look for beauty will find it" and I continue to test this idea out by going out and looking at something that I take for granted in nature like a tree. Then I begin to create beauty by that I mean creating visual pleasure by understanding the image that I am looking at and all its complexity through going down the list of principles and elements of design. Why? Because Merriam Webster Defines beauty as: the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit. And the web definition is very similar but talks more about visual pleasure which is: A combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, esp. the sight. So the idea that beauty is in the eye of the beholder from my understanding is that if the viewer takes the beauty for granted then they will not see it as well as if they really pay attention to the shapes, color, value, soft and hard edges, overlapping, pattern, rhythm, movement, and balance. I would say that the older I get the more I like to see things with a new eye and pay attention to things with more beauty and fascination then before.
2 comments:
The work is looking stellar, Orlando.
It's good to read about your thought process behind it all as well!
Thanks Vincent. By writing the thought process it allows me to learn about what I am thinking while I am painting or drawing. Or how I react to it after it is done. This should allow me to be more aware of my own process of creating work and be able to articulate it in words to others.
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