(SW13)+Imprisonment

Studio Work # 13 **Imprisonment** **Media:** Acrylic on Canvas, **Size:** 35 x 45, **Month of completion:** December 2012

**Description:** This is a painting of a person's face with a lock locking his mouth. The lock symbolizes imprisonment because locks is what restricts and limits the freedom of any object or anything. I used my imagination to create a unrealistic painting that shows the restraint of people and how they don't have freedom of speech. Egypt has faced a lot of problems and one of them is freedom of speech. A lot of Egyptian citizens have no voice in this country therefore I painted a lock of a mouth to show how this person cant speak because of the lock.

**Analysis:** **What were the artistic and/or cultural influences for this project?** **Who/what influenced either the composition and/or the style.** The artist that I was influenced by Renne Magritte, a surrealist who used his fantasy and his imagination to show a message of reality. I was influenced by his surrealism idea and i thought of painting a unrealistic painting that would show reality. The reality of my piece was always ignored until the Egyptians went down to Tahrir Square and finally had a voice when protesting for freedom. Also Magritte has always used acrylic as his media for all his pieces; this was another influence.

**What materials/media/processes did you use and or experiment with, and how?** I used acrylic to paint on canvas. I have used acrylic in a lot of my previous project and i find it the easier media that any one can use. It make the paining look realistic and it gives a great effect to the painting.

**How do you think you have responded to advice and criticism during this project (and during the term), both from fellow students and the teacher. Did you actively seek advice? If so, was it useful?** I used a lot of advise form my technology teacher, Mr. Tennant that used to teach me in grade ten. He showed me every single step that I had to go over on Photoshop to edit my two photographs of the lock and the face. After I was taught how to cut and paste, change the brightness and contrast, stretch the pasted image, and create a photo into white and black. It was then easy to edit my two pictures which came to look look really nice.

**Clearly explain the weaknesses/areas for improvement -** Something that I don't like about this painting is the neck. I really can't see that there is an actual neck. The head looks like its floating which shows that this piece is incomplete. Something else that I was unsuccessful with is smoothly blending the white and black together. I tried my best to blend the colors together but I think that its a negative painting, I find it nice that the way I blended the painting is rough.

**Clearly explain the strengths of the piece –** Something that I really like about this painting is that the black and white colors are creating a dull and a negative affect to the viewers. I like that the painting shows the views how sad those people who doesn't have freedom of speech and those who doesn't have a voice in their country. I also like how the painting focused on the lock itself which make the piece more stronger because it's whole idea is about the lock and imprisonment.

**What could you take through to the next project and develop further? This could be anything, from a technique to an idea, not necessarily just the theme.** I am thinking of using digital media for the next project. I want to used Photoshop for editing photographs that i will be taking to symbolize imprisonment.