relan004

1) Theories of Contemporary Art :
Any art that was made post World War II. As long as what an artist wants to express can be delivered, it should be art regardless on which practice or method they used. Contemporary Art enjoys far more working artists making far more art.
Collectively, it seems much more socially conscious than any previous era has been. A whole lot of art from the last 30 years has been connected with one issue or another: feminism, multiculturalism, globalization, bio-engineering and AIDS awareness all come readily to mind as subject matter. but at the same time, it doesn't have to be.

2) How these theories created a foundation for current art :
In current art, they seem to be expanding to newer mediums. They take the drive for expression that would usually be placed on canvas to be considered art, and use it with sound, software, and distortion of their overall message. As long as the artist can portray what they want, people have gotten more creative on the materials and resources they can use to do it.

3) An artist that influences my work :
As far as known contemporary artists go, I'm inspired most by Konstantia Sofokleous, who is an animation artist. She influences my work in the way that she conveys personality and emotion through cartoon characters in her work. (including drawings, short 2D & 3D animated movies, and new media.) I am also inspired by modern animation artists, such as Craig McCracken, Roman Dirge, Jhonen Vasquez, and Mitch Schaver. Many of the characters in their art are highly geometric and nearly thin to the point of being stick figures. Typically, they involve insane characters who live in dysfunctional societies.

4) An artist I dislike :
Contemporary artists that I dislike are usually the ones that splat paint all over and claim it to be art. Or just the simplicity of a shape that doesn't work together to make something. They usually come across as being rushed, or like they never had an idea of what they wanted to start with. The artists that I found most fit those descriptions among other contemporary artists are Horst Trave and Frank Stella.

5) About my work :

My self portrait was made from a picture I took in the woods and edited to take place in a fictional world. The abandoned city is the alienation from activities of common society since I do a lot of things on my own. I placed myself with cartoons to express how many people perceive the world in a comical and unconscious manner. It is contrasted however by changing the sky to the realms of space were saturn lies, since the appearance of Saturn usually represents the amplification of reality. This being a self portrait, I find it represents my outlook on the world since I don't think many things in life should be taken seriously. Rather, people would find life more enjoyable by having a sense of humor.

The bunny in the upper right corner is perceived as a prey animal, as well as a symbol of creativity. It is also representative of being a quick thinker because they are quick on their feet. It is also burning a marshmallow, which typically represents lack of self confidence. So as representing myself, I believe that a lot of my lacking in self confidence is burned away by whatever level of creativity I seem to have have. Just the fact that the bunny is pink usually means I'm pretty happy. :D

I put a dragon in there too since according to the chinese zodiac, I was born in the year of the dragon. I also wanted it to be green so that my self portrait could the sense that it is striving for some sort of recognition. It's sneezing because it usually mean a haste change in plans, and I'm known to do things last minutes which usually screws up people's schedules, not just my own. And since those changes are usually stress and trouble inducing, i thought the fire coming out portrays the stress that sometimes happens when my plans change. Lucky the umbrella that separates me and myself from the fire because it symbolizes unwillingness to deal with negative emotions. Blue was a color chosen for the umbrella since blue represents the optimism of the future. There's also a stool that my cartoon self is standing on, that should be symbolizing how I'm not really comfortable about speaking my mind honestly. By making it a cartoon image, I made it so I shouldn't be making a big deal about it either.

Another cool thing to note is that 3/4 of the picture is fiction/not real, thus fitting the the chosen quote used in this work :)