Elizabeth
Olsen.
For my sustained investigation, I wanted to explore the theme of distortion but literally and metaphorically. I began with the physical part. By looking into windows, cars, and other sources of reflection, I found places where the outside environment was altered by the reflecting object. I then progressed into trying a self-portrait oriented approach where I thought of how I distort my image to be perceived a certain way.
Throughout my sustained investigation, I used many different reflecting mediums to achieve my works. I started with cars as their paint can be quite reflective and the shape of the car distorts these reflections, then I found some dirty and old windows, and then I just kept expanding and trying new places. After focusing on the self-portrait route for a while I tried drawing on one of my picture to change its outside appearance and I put myself in the background of photographs to appear less important, yet many of those images, I felt, did not completely match the idea.
For my S.I. I explored the connection between emotion and chaos. As a senior in high school, with many terrifyingly and exciting changes in my future, I chose to pull from what I was feeling and push it into works of art.
I started this process intertwining self-portraits from observation with lines and textures to express the emotional chaos I was experiencing. As time went on the self-portraits broke up into separate pieces or faces to better express the intensity of my experience. I began to focus more on the abstract qualities of line, shape, color and texture as I continued, believing that the swirling energy in each piece was what best represented my feelings. I often used watercolor throughout this process because I liked how the medium can flow unexpectedly when used without caution and felt this expressed the unpredictability and changeability of my emotions. I also liked the contrast between the crisp marks of colored pencil, ink, and marker and the soft paint. By my final pieces I found the abstract qualities of the art materials and the elements of design better expressed what I was trying to convey than a literal representation of my face.
