For the postmodern principle project, I chose to do appropriation as my art piece. The way I incorporated this principle was by putting my own colorful style into a painting of a famous monument, the Taj Mahal. I used a variation of colors, textures, and values in order to make the painting look bright and appealing. One contemporary artist that I'd taken inspiration from for this project was Leonid Afremov. Afremov's paintings are especially appealing to me because he chooses to use extremely bright and colorful paints, making the painting look even more attractive. The other aspect that I took inspiration from was his use of texture. In almost all of his paintings, Leonid Afremov has a certain technique that he uses for either the trees, sky, people, buildings, and roads. This technique creates an interesting visual effect for a painting that is just depicting an ordinary scene in a park or the streets of a small town. I somewhat demonstrated the same stippling technique for the sky and grass. In fact, many viewers have already told me that the Taj looks like it's on fire. I purposely wanted to create a completely different outlook for this project because it brought more interest for a monument that people are so use to seeing; and with the colors and textures of the painting, I was successful doing so. I grew as an artist by taking inspiration from Leonid Afremov. I not only took inspiration of his use of colors, but I made my own style for the stippling technique that he uses in his paintings. In most of Afremov's paintings, you will see how the brush strokes are vertical, almost square-like shaped. However, in my painting, I adapted this technique into my own style and used a circular motion with the paintbrush; therefore, making the background look more "explosive-looking". My growth as an artist is mostly centered around discovering my own style. I realized that I really enjoy colorful paints, and therefore made another project with various colors as well. My other project was the Teens-Inspired piece which had us take inspiration from a piece in the art museum. I again used my colors, however now I used them on a face. The important aspect of this painting was the geometric-look of the face. Instead of doing the same smooth and stippling effect I used in the Taj Mahal painting, I chose to use the colors in a different perspective. I realized the face looks more "futuristic" with the geometric shapes painted throughout the face. I also played around with the colors for the hair and eyes, making the whole theme of the painting to be abstract. Although I still used Leonid Afremov's colorful aspects, I didn't use his paintings as a big reference or inspiration for this project. However, this artist certainly allowed me to discover my style of painting in the first place, eventually making my projects more unique and personal. Therefore, my understanding as an artist has changed from taking simple, basic inspirations into very large and creative adaptations.
