Know Thyself
Digital Manipulation 38.59 cm x 27.55 cm October - November 2016 |
Growing up with more than one culture is something that I heavily cherish. It has taught me to become more open-minded and to embrace diversity. The two cultures I have, affect the way I see people and also affects the way people see me. In this project, I wanted to show how I viewed myself, influenced by the work of Paul Calhoun. The two flags are the Karen and the American flag which represent their country and own unique culture.
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Meaning/Description
In this project, I used photoshop to manipulate flags and had them formed to my face. The two flags that I used are the Karen and American flag. I use the flags to represent the cultures that I am a part of. My Karen culture comes from my family and I primarily experience it at home where I speak Karen, eat Burmese food, and more. My parents are from Myanmar (Burma) and came to the United States, with me, in 2000. Coming here, they had to learn all about a new culture and had to conform to it. However, they did not let go of their Karen culture and they have made sure that they taught my sister and me about it. Karen culture is something that they integrated into me and I am very thankful for because it is what makes me different. And since I am constantly surrounded by American culture, that has also been integrated into me. Having these two cultures makes me bicultural and I show that in this studio. I have the two flags on my face because whenever I see someone's face, I like to think about their culture and see whether they show it. Faces are what people look at when they see someone. Like I said in exhibition text, how I look in this studio is how I hope others see me, bicultural. Figuratively, not literally.
InspirationI was inspired to create this piece back when I was working on my Arrival project, but haven't gotton to it until now. The inspiration for this piece came from the portrait of "Sa Hi Ner" taken by Paul Calhoun. I liked how he was able to show two different cultures in one simple picture, and that was a goal that I wanted to achieve in my project. It's a black and white portrait of a girl with an American flag hijab, which is simple, but it has so much meaning. I wanted to do what Calhoun did, so I took some of his elements and mixed it with some of my own. My own element would be the use of Photoshop to get the flags onto my face.
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Process
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The first thing I did, after finding inspiration was make sketches. One of the sketches have a Bansky inspiration and that's because I was looking at his work, but I ended up choosing another sketch, so I didn't include him in my inspiration section.
The first sketch shows a picture of a boy pointing at my face that is on part of the Karen flag on a brick wall. The face would have posterized, and would look like it was spray painted, similar to Banksy's work. The second sketch is my head under the Karen flag, however my head is higher than the rest of the flag, so it shows the general outlines of mjy face. The third sketch shows a portrait of me with the Karen and American flag painted on my face. This was the sketch I decided to continue with. The fourth sketch shows a variation of my first sketch. It is just my posterized face on part of the Karen flag. The fifth sketch shows a portrait of me, but with just the Karen flag. This sketch is similar to my third one. |
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After choosing the sketch that I wanted to continue with, I set up my camera on my tripod and took pictures. I had a timer on the camera so I could have time to get ready. Since there was no one to tell me how to position my head, it took longer and was frustrating. However, I got the picture that I wanted after about an hour. I got the right picture through trial and error, so before taking the next picture, I looked at the previous one and made slight adjustments so I was positioned in the center and not leaning more to one side. At first, I took colored pictures, but I didn't like how it looked and the color seemed distracting so I took the pictures with the monochromatic setting I had. Some of the problems I had with the pictures were that I was leaning towards one side, or my face wasn't centered. In some pictures, my face would be turned a bit too much, like in the second picture, where you can't even see my right ear. Some of these pictures are shown on the left of the page.
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Finally, I got the picture that I wanted. My face is centered, not leaning towards one side, and my hair looks nice. I transferred the picture from my camera to my computer and opened up Photoshop. I downloaded a picture of the Karen and American flag. During my sketching stage, I watched a video on how I would be able to put graphics onto my face. It was a tutorial by a user called Blue Lightning TV Photoshop and his video showed step-by-step instructions. However, I had to do things a bit more differently since I have two graphics to put onto my face instead of one. Below, I will show the steps I took to create my final project with images on the right.
1. Import the portrait.
2. Import the same portrait, and add a Gaussian blur (3 pixels). This will be used for the displacement option, which will be used later in the process. 3. Since I am going to be using two graphics, I split the face into two parts. Create a layer mask of just the face, 4. Transfer the Karen flag into this file and transform it so it's on the face and facing downwards. Lower the opacity, so it's easier to see the layer that is below. |
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5. Using the pinch tool, pinch the flag -72% so that it expands like a ball. The flag is being expanded like this because a face is not flat, it is round.
6. Keeping transforming the flag until it fits the face. It is important to cover the whole face.
7. Using the displace tool, choose the portrait with the Gaussian Blur for the displacement map. The displacement will conform to the features of the face to make it look more realistic.
8. Using the layer mask of the left side of the face, place it over the map layer. Since the mask layer is of only the left side of the face, any part of the flag that goes past the face will be cut off.
9. For the right side of the face, repeat the steps but using the American flag, and the layer mask of the right side of the face.
10. After the right side of the face is finished, make adjustments so the flags lineup in the middle of the face, make minor changes to the vibracy and saturation, and add the "Pass Through" blending option.
Those were the steps I took to create my project.
Conclusion/Reflection
This project is probably my favorite out of all of my works. I like the message and I really enjoyed the process. I enjoy using technology to make art and technology was all that I used in this project. If I were to do this again, I would maybe actually try to paint the flags into my face and take a portrait of that. Something I could of improved on could be the craftsmanship. I feel as if, I could of done a little bit better with the displacement of the flags
ACT Questions
1) Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
In Calhoun's work, there are two distinct cultures being contrasted through the use of a portrait, and I achieve that theme but in my own way. We both use black and white portraits with flags.
2) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author talks a lot about his use of black and white portraits to tell a story. Something as simple as just a picture of a face is very meaningful and is able to tell stories.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
The conclusions that I've discovered about people while researching my inspirations is that refugees and immigrants are vey strong and determined people. They came to a place where they knew nothing, so that they could get better opportunities.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea around my inspirational research revolved around portrait photography that was able to tell a narrative.
5) What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
Some inferences that I made while reading my research was that depending on what the main subject of my project was, a black or white filter will either help or severly hinder the message I am trying to convey.
In Calhoun's work, there are two distinct cultures being contrasted through the use of a portrait, and I achieve that theme but in my own way. We both use black and white portraits with flags.
2) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author talks a lot about his use of black and white portraits to tell a story. Something as simple as just a picture of a face is very meaningful and is able to tell stories.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
The conclusions that I've discovered about people while researching my inspirations is that refugees and immigrants are vey strong and determined people. They came to a place where they knew nothing, so that they could get better opportunities.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea around my inspirational research revolved around portrait photography that was able to tell a narrative.
5) What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
Some inferences that I made while reading my research was that depending on what the main subject of my project was, a black or white filter will either help or severly hinder the message I am trying to convey.