Ephemera
Title: We Mustn't Dilly or Dally
Size: 25.5x28 centimeters
Medium: Pumpkin carving
Date: 11/07/16
For my Ephemera I carved a pumpkin, putting together easily identifiable images from Tim Burton films, those that were the highlight of my childhood and influenced me as an artist. Burton's German Expressionist influence was a big consideration in how I made the piece (placement, choices, shading, etc.).
Size: 25.5x28 centimeters
Medium: Pumpkin carving
Date: 11/07/16
For my Ephemera I carved a pumpkin, putting together easily identifiable images from Tim Burton films, those that were the highlight of my childhood and influenced me as an artist. Burton's German Expressionist influence was a big consideration in how I made the piece (placement, choices, shading, etc.).
Artistic Inspiration
My biggest inspirations for this piece were German Expressionism (with a focus on film), the director Tim Burton, and Halloween. Tim Burton has a long history of being influenced by German expressionism, often eluding directly to major films of the era, and otherwise drawing from the style in character and set design, hinting thematically to this movement as well. German expressionism originated in post world war one Germany, as a response to the public's feelings after war and through experiencing economic trouble. It's known as the rejection of western conventions, widely depicting distorted and emotional realities. You often see Gothic and twisted figures and architecture, a dark expressionism movement giving artists full control over the film being created. The commercial Halloween in America celebrates dark symbolism in traditions celebrated across the country. Other times of the year these themes would be deemed inappropriate, yet at Halloween the tone of the media changes. Growing up Halloween had always been my favorite for all the things it celebrated, and I embraced them all year round, eventually in my art. I became infatuated with Tim Burton films for the celebration of what I came to know as darker interests and characteristics, seeing an abundance of the use of shadows and shades of grey, the celebration of the odd and lonely, and exploring "creepy." Having a clear artistic visual I was influenced by his films a lot growing up. For this piece I highlighted the German Expressionism in Tim Burton's films, collaging aspects together across the front of a pumpkin, since all of these things overlapped in my interest in them, as well as their own themes.
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Darsa, Alissa. "Art House: An Introduction to German Expressionist Films." Artnet News. Artnet News, 26 Dec. 2013. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.
Darsa, Alissa. "Art House: An Introduction to German Expressionist Films." Artnet News. Artnet News, 26 Dec. 2013. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.
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Process
Brainstorming/planning sketches
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I took a long time brainstorming a number of ideas, from sand sculptures to sticky notes. I almost settled on doing body paint, but drifted to the idea of recreating Disney movies in nature, and went further into deeper roots of my childhood and settled finally on carving a pumpkin. I had an idea of what films and shots I wanted to use off the bat (like Vincent on the stairs, the Boogie Man in the moon, the hill and the monster under the bed). From there I listed movies and found the most recognizable shots or characters, especially those that could be related to things commonly used in German Expressionism.
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The movies included in my original sketch were Nightmare Before Christmas, Beetle juice, 9, Vincent, Edward Scissor Hands, Sweeney Todd, James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Alice in Wonderland, and Frankenweenie. Two figures were excluded from the final pumpkin, and only one movie entirely excluded, that movie being Frankenweenie.
Carving To start off carving, I drew my planning sketch onto my pumpkin using a sharpie. Then I cut open the top of my pumpkin (pointing my knife inwards so the top would fall in), and carved out the insides with a spoon. Once I felt it was done enough I started experimenting with my tools to remove the shell of the pumpkin in large areas. Once the shell was completely gone I carved this area deeper, never breaking through to the inside of the pumpkin. Some areas had the shell carved away but not as deep, and others were left with the shell, all marked out on my plan.
Along the way, I used a flashlight and turned off all the lights in the room to check my progress and see how the pumpkin would look lit up. After a few days the pumpkin started to develop mold on the inside, from the damp environment of my basement. I scraped away most of it and kept carving for the time being, even though it made it so soft that some spots on the inside created pockets of mushy material. The night I discovered this, once I was done I soaked the pumpkin in bleach water, to kill all bacteria. After that I kept the pumpkin upstairs with paper towels on the inside so it wouldn't develop mold as quickly. |
The only parts of the pumpkin which were carved all the way through were the face under the stairs and the eyes of scraps, the skeleton dog from the Corpse Bride. These holes were all made using a drill with varying bit sizes. Once the Pumpkin was done I filled it with three different lights to achieve the light strength needed for it to be lit up enough.
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Taking photos
Taking quality photos was an essential part of the process, documenting the piece, since it would be gone in only a week. I had to find a way to light up the piece well enough for the photos, since flame wouldn't be enough. Instead I held it to the ceiling at first, and then put together a nunber of smaller bulbs with chords, setting them to the back of the pumpkin so they wouldn't be in the shot. I had to set upa place for the pumpkin in the basement so it had a white background, and a place on my porch for a real-life setting/domestic feeling
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While taking photos it was very important to use different settings and take a number of shots, so if some (or mnay) were unusable, you had many to choose from. The camera, kin the dark, had to stay reletively still, so holding it was not always an option. The types of photos I took were in a landscape, overview of the cohesive design, and close ups of details.
Experimentation
At the beginning of my project, I went ahead with one idea to do body painting in the styles of famous abstract expressionist painters, like Pollock and Rothko. I experimented a lot with ways to turn the body into a canvas and apply the painting techniques I hadn't ever tried before. When I changed my idea, I had to experiment while laying out the design on the pumpkin; every mistake would take a few minutes to erase with a wet wipe. I also experimented ways to accurately use space on a round object.
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A few days into my project it started to mold and parts even caved away, leaving craters on the inside of my pumpkin. I had to experiment in ways I maintained my pumpkin during the initial carving process and ways to kill the growth (bleach!).
I had, until now, considered myself of fair knowlege about how to take photographs. I ran into problems taking my photos, because the light on the "no flash" setting would drag & blur if I held the camera myself, and it took me a fair amount of time to figure out how to manipulate the color of the photographs in photoshop to look like how the pumpkin had in front of me. I also improvised makeshift stands, when mine wasn't tall enough or I didn't want to part with my pumpkin quite yet to go look (boxes and chairs were useful for this).
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Decay
Reflection
While I had a rocky start when coming up with a straight idea for what to do for the project, I think the pumpkin, in reference to what I planned for it, was a success. It may have suffered from some sacrifices I had to make (namely excluding figures such as Frankenweenie) however it combines many of the essential films and highlights German expressionism in the way that I had intended. Seeing as I haven't carved carved a pumpkin since I quite small, and wasn't ever too good at it, I think my use of tools technically to create the picture was a success. This also limited me by making my experimentation take a long time, and so going back I would have made bolder choices off the bat so I would have more time for details and more figures, such as Frankenweenie.
My meaning wasn't everything I wanted it to be in terms of impact. It wasn't clear to me when creating if it had any meaning at all, and I pulled a meaning out of why I admired Burton so much yet it may have fell a little flat. I did show the essential parts to express which themes were important in Burton's work, especially to me as a young person, but it's a hard thing to explain and the piece doesn't say it clear enough so I have to explain it. There's an essence of dramaticism and visuals to draw away from the meaning of the piece, but it still lacks. It also didn't clearly connect with Ephemera in a dignified way; a pumpkin rots, and so has my childhood and the things I adored so much, but this wasn't the intention when creating it. Going back I would have laid out my plans for the meaning much more clearly and in more detail.
My meaning wasn't everything I wanted it to be in terms of impact. It wasn't clear to me when creating if it had any meaning at all, and I pulled a meaning out of why I admired Burton so much yet it may have fell a little flat. I did show the essential parts to express which themes were important in Burton's work, especially to me as a young person, but it's a hard thing to explain and the piece doesn't say it clear enough so I have to explain it. There's an essence of dramaticism and visuals to draw away from the meaning of the piece, but it still lacks. It also didn't clearly connect with Ephemera in a dignified way; a pumpkin rots, and so has my childhood and the things I adored so much, but this wasn't the intention when creating it. Going back I would have laid out my plans for the meaning much more clearly and in more detail.
ACT Questions
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
It's easy to identify how the inspiration affected my work, because I couldn't start the piece before finding it. My piece is a complete homage to the inspirations named above, creating a piece that highlighted the German Expressionism in the films of Tim Burton, through halloween tradition.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The authors I read from regarded the movement of German expressionism as a historical movement with a strong influence on western media in it's later years, something to be learned about. The author of my research on Tim Burton films had a similar view, looking to explain some of his artistic choices and present an analysis of common themes in his work.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I learned more about the cause and effect of a society on it's art forms, and how one's art in modern day comes from a certain frame of thinking influenced by many factors. Creativity is shaped individually, and not out of thin air.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
It was exploring the dark themes present in German expressionism and overlapping themes in Tim Burton's work, explaining them to explain their appeal to me as a young person and how they could have influenced me.
5) What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
I came to the conclusion that the sadness that the german public experienced (in which german expressionism was a response to) was largely due to economic problems, because of information I'd learned in my IB Global History course where I was able to place the state of Germany at the time stated.
It's easy to identify how the inspiration affected my work, because I couldn't start the piece before finding it. My piece is a complete homage to the inspirations named above, creating a piece that highlighted the German Expressionism in the films of Tim Burton, through halloween tradition.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The authors I read from regarded the movement of German expressionism as a historical movement with a strong influence on western media in it's later years, something to be learned about. The author of my research on Tim Burton films had a similar view, looking to explain some of his artistic choices and present an analysis of common themes in his work.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I learned more about the cause and effect of a society on it's art forms, and how one's art in modern day comes from a certain frame of thinking influenced by many factors. Creativity is shaped individually, and not out of thin air.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
It was exploring the dark themes present in German expressionism and overlapping themes in Tim Burton's work, explaining them to explain their appeal to me as a young person and how they could have influenced me.
5) What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
I came to the conclusion that the sadness that the german public experienced (in which german expressionism was a response to) was largely due to economic problems, because of information I'd learned in my IB Global History course where I was able to place the state of Germany at the time stated.
Bibliography
Conterio, Martyn. "Analysis of Art & Design in Tim Burton’s Films." Illusion Magazine. Illusion Magazine, n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2016.
"The Nightmare before Christmas." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.
Darsa, Alissa. "Art House: An Introduction to German Expressionist Films." Artnet News. Artnet News, 26 Dec. 2013. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.
"The Nightmare before Christmas." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.
Darsa, Alissa. "Art House: An Introduction to German Expressionist Films." Artnet News. Artnet News, 26 Dec. 2013. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.