Perception Painting
OverviewTitle: The Destruction of Puerto Rico
Size: 60.96 x 60.96 cm Medium: Oil Paint Completion: December 2022 Exhibition TextMy oil-painted art piece, by the name of "The Destruction of Puerto Rico," is inspired by Frida Kahlo. It is intended to bring awareness and showcase the ongoing situation on the island of Puerto Rico. Currently, Americans from the mainland are relocating to the island in order to avoid paying taxes, and while the tax haven appears to be excellent for Americans from the mainland, it causes more harm than good for native Puerto Ricans.
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inspiration
Artist in Focus: Frida Kahlo
I was primarily inspired by Frida Kahlo, as well as her husband, Diego Rivera, for my perception painting. Both artists are notorious for linking their work to their culture. Frida Kahlo, especially, used her love of Mexican culture as a form of expressing herself.
The painting of Kahlo that I was inspired by was Self-Portrait on the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States. The painting depicts Frida Kahlo split between two worlds; a world of beautiful culture and nature and a world of modern machinery, inventions, and skyscrapers. She asserts her own roots by holding a Mexican flag to represent where her loyalty lies. Kahlo painted Self-Portrait on the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States based on her experience of living in the U.S., or "Gringolandia," as she would refer to it.
The couple, Frida Kahlo and her husband, Diego Rivera, packed their belongings and moved to the United States in 1930 after Diego secured several commissions to paint murals in the United States. After four years, Diego was still comfortable in his surroundings in America, but Frida was miserable and homesick, which resulted in the self-portrait.
The piece inspired me to create a political painting regarding a major issue on the island of Puerto Rico. Currently, people from the mainland, A.K.A., the United States, have been moving to the island to avoid paying taxes. While seemingly great for American mainlanders, the tax haven is of no benefit to Puerto Rico's population. The current situation on the island is an example of modern-day colonization. While taking influence from Frida Kahlo's artwork, my piece will show a split image of the island, one half beautiful, while the other gray and dull, run by mainlanders and money.
I was primarily inspired by Frida Kahlo, as well as her husband, Diego Rivera, for my perception painting. Both artists are notorious for linking their work to their culture. Frida Kahlo, especially, used her love of Mexican culture as a form of expressing herself.
The painting of Kahlo that I was inspired by was Self-Portrait on the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States. The painting depicts Frida Kahlo split between two worlds; a world of beautiful culture and nature and a world of modern machinery, inventions, and skyscrapers. She asserts her own roots by holding a Mexican flag to represent where her loyalty lies. Kahlo painted Self-Portrait on the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States based on her experience of living in the U.S., or "Gringolandia," as she would refer to it.
The couple, Frida Kahlo and her husband, Diego Rivera, packed their belongings and moved to the United States in 1930 after Diego secured several commissions to paint murals in the United States. After four years, Diego was still comfortable in his surroundings in America, but Frida was miserable and homesick, which resulted in the self-portrait.
The piece inspired me to create a political painting regarding a major issue on the island of Puerto Rico. Currently, people from the mainland, A.K.A., the United States, have been moving to the island to avoid paying taxes. While seemingly great for American mainlanders, the tax haven is of no benefit to Puerto Rico's population. The current situation on the island is an example of modern-day colonization. While taking influence from Frida Kahlo's artwork, my piece will show a split image of the island, one half beautiful, while the other gray and dull, run by mainlanders and money.
planning
To plan for my perception painting, I made multiple sketches to imitate my final art piece. I knew that I wanted my painting to represent my identity through my culture (Puerto Rican), but more specifically the issues that are taking place on the island of Puerto Rico. A very prominent issue on the island is the tax break given to foreigners of the land. While this tax haven is great for American Mainlanders, it generates many problems for native Puerto Ricans. While I am not native to Puerto Rico, I am very aware of the dangers that this tax haven brings to the island and I wanted to present that within my painting. My ideas have changed throughout my sketches to better represent my inspiration piece; Self-Portrait on the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States by Frida Kahlo. My sketches were made through the use of alcohol markers to imitate the blending components of oil paint.
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My first sketches demonstrate a battle between native Puerto Ricans and American Mainlanders in front of the fort called El Morro, with the mainlanders holding signs with phrases to encourage other mainlanders to move onto the island. My next sketches show a Puerto Rican woman holding la bandera de Puerto Rico over her mouth to signify how our people are being silenced. My ideas have since changed to make my final project more similar to my inspiration. Frida Kahlo's piece was split in half, one side being of Mexico, the other being the United States. I wanted to use that idea but instead of being split into two lands, I decided for the land to only represent Puerto Rico, but one side being a beautiful, vibrant, healthy, thriving land, while the other side is dull, slowly being destroyed by mainlanders who only care about money.
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process
To start painting my project, I used the grid method to achieve a better understanding of where each component of my piece should be placed. I started my project off by painting the sunset. I mixed red, yellow, and white to create the sun. I kept mixing more white while also mixing in a dot of red to create the outer layers of the sunset. I then began painting El Morro. I mixed yellow, red, and a small swipe of black to create a rusted gold color to produce a realistic representation of the real El Morro located in San Juan. I then went on to paint the sky. While I originally imagined the sky to be one solid color, I changed my idea into a split sky, one side being vibrant while the other side is dull to better portray the Frida Kahlo self-portrait as well as the message I want to put forth.
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I used blue, yellow, white and a swipe of black for the first half and I used blue, white, and black for the other half. After deciding to split the sky into two colors, I also decided to paint the Atlantic Ocean in two colors, one is clear and beautiful, painted with blue white, and a small amount of green, and the other side is green and murky of pollution painted with blue, green, black, and a small amount of white. Below the ocean, I painted the sands and American mainland people made of money who hold signs encouraging other mainlanders to move to Puerto Rico to enjoy the "amazing tax haven". Lastly, I painted a Puerto Rican woman to cover about 1/4th of the canvas. I painted the woman as an afro-Latina with big beautiful curly hair, a common sight on the island. She holds a Puerto Rican flag over her mouth to demonstrate being silenced by colonizers once again.
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experimentation
Within my painting, I did lots of experimentation with the medium I chose. I chose to work with oil paint as I understood that oil paint blends very well compared to other paints such as acrylic. I have never used oil paint before this project and I also didn't do any previous research on the medium which forced me to quickly learn about the components of the paint. Through experimentation, I had first learned that oil paint was meant to be cleaned with oil, and while that should have been common sense, I hadn't put much thought into it. I also learned that oil paint doesn't "dry" for a couple of weeks. While this was frustrating, since the paint would tend to get on my clothes after touching a spot that hadn't been touched with paint for two weeks, I grew to appreciate this component of oil paint as it allowed me to change or blend certain areas that should have been dried.
I also experimented with color. I decided to purchase only red, yellow, blue, white, and black. This allowed me to make as many colors as I wanted without purchasing many different tones of a color that would only benefit me during the production of this project. I was able to create all of the colors I needed with the use of those five colors. Within color, I experimented with my color palette and the colors I used for certain aspects of my painting. I made many shades of blue for the sky as well as the water of the Atlantic Ocean. I wanted to show vibrancy on the side representing Puerto Ricans, and a polluted dullness on the side of the American Mainlanders. I also made many different shades for El Morro to achieve a golden, rusted, shadowed look.
I also experimented with color. I decided to purchase only red, yellow, blue, white, and black. This allowed me to make as many colors as I wanted without purchasing many different tones of a color that would only benefit me during the production of this project. I was able to create all of the colors I needed with the use of those five colors. Within color, I experimented with my color palette and the colors I used for certain aspects of my painting. I made many shades of blue for the sky as well as the water of the Atlantic Ocean. I wanted to show vibrancy on the side representing Puerto Ricans, and a polluted dullness on the side of the American Mainlanders. I also made many different shades for El Morro to achieve a golden, rusted, shadowed look.
critique
When comparing my piece to Frida Kahlo's Self-Portrait on the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States, I notice that we both split our paintings between two cultures, and while we both used the United States of America as one of the cultures, the other culture we chose were different; Kahlo chose Mexico as she is of Mexican decent while I used Puerto Rican as I am of Puerto Rican decent. In both of our pieces, the main figure holds their native flag to show loyalty. Mine and Kahlo's art pieces chose to represent our cultures' beauty through nature and historical architecture; her's being an ancient Mexican aztec pyrimad and mine being Castillo San Felipe del Morro
(also known as El Morro), the most successful defensive position in the New World.
(also known as El Morro), the most successful defensive position in the New World.
Reflection
While I am not overall pleased with the final outcome, I am still satisfied with the accomplishments I made. I have never worked with oil paint prior to this project but after getting accustomed to its components, I was (mostly) able to efficiently and nicely work with it to get the best possible result for my painting. Blending-wise, I think I did an efficient job for the sky and the ocean, although I do believe I could have done a better blending technique concerning the sunset. For El Morro, I think I did well finding and mixing realistic colors to represent the real fort. I am also very proud of myself regarding the outcome of the hair on the main focus; I have never painted curly or coily hair before, and without any tutorials, I found a technique that I truly enjoy. But as the painting got closer to being finished, I began to rush, which caused certain parts of the to seem sloppy and messy. For example, the green money figures representing American Mainlanders look extremely rushed. The signs they hold look messy as well. My least favorite part of my piece is the part that was most rushed. I believe if I had better time management, I could have avoided this problem, but otherwise, I am satisfied with my work.
AcT connection
1.) Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork:
Frida Khalo's Self-Portrait on the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States inspired me to create a half-and-half scene of my culture and the U.S.. While the cultural half of my piece is not a representation of Mexico, it is still Latin American land. Although my painting is not a self-portrait, the woman shown within my painting holds her flag as Frida does in her painting to show loyalty to her land.
2.) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Frida Kahlo painted Self-Portrait on the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States as a result of being uncomfortable, miserable, and homesick after moving from Mexico to the United States ("Gringolandia") in 1930 after her husband Diego Rivera secured several commissions to paint murals in the United States.
3.) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Frida Kahlo held great love and loyalty to Mexico and her Mexican culture. When comparing Mexico to the United States, she often depicts Mexico as a beautiful, vibrant place while depicting America as a land full of technology, construction, and pollution. I conclude that she did not feel welcomed in the U.S. because of her culture. America is a place that only truly excepts white people, which is why Kahlo called the U.S. Gringolandia.
4.) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The theme around my inspirational research was identity through culture with comparison to the United States of America.
5.) What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
Through my research, I inferred that Frida Kahlo preferred her culture over anything else; the beauty that she saw in Mexico could never be matched by any other land, especially America.
Frida Khalo's Self-Portrait on the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States inspired me to create a half-and-half scene of my culture and the U.S.. While the cultural half of my piece is not a representation of Mexico, it is still Latin American land. Although my painting is not a self-portrait, the woman shown within my painting holds her flag as Frida does in her painting to show loyalty to her land.
2.) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Frida Kahlo painted Self-Portrait on the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States as a result of being uncomfortable, miserable, and homesick after moving from Mexico to the United States ("Gringolandia") in 1930 after her husband Diego Rivera secured several commissions to paint murals in the United States.
3.) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Frida Kahlo held great love and loyalty to Mexico and her Mexican culture. When comparing Mexico to the United States, she often depicts Mexico as a beautiful, vibrant place while depicting America as a land full of technology, construction, and pollution. I conclude that she did not feel welcomed in the U.S. because of her culture. America is a place that only truly excepts white people, which is why Kahlo called the U.S. Gringolandia.
4.) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The theme around my inspirational research was identity through culture with comparison to the United States of America.
5.) What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
Through my research, I inferred that Frida Kahlo preferred her culture over anything else; the beauty that she saw in Mexico could never be matched by any other land, especially America.
Citations
- Heardman, Adam. “Decoding Frida Kahlo's Border Portrait.” Mutual Art, 2019, https://www.mutualart.com/Article/Decoding-the-Symbolism-of-Frida-Kahlo-s-/1FCE5DB7B2121A16.
- “Self Portrait along the Boarder Line between Mexico and the United States, 1932.” Self Portrait Along the Boarder Line Between Mexico and the United States, 1932 by Frida Kahlo, https://www.fridakahlo.org/self-portrait-along-the-boarder-line.jsp.
- “Self Portrait on the Borderline between Mexico and the United States.” Self Portrait on the Borderline between Mexico and the United States by Frida Kahlo, https://www.kahlo.org/self-portrait-on-the-borderline-between-mexico-and-the-united-states/.
- “Self-Portrait on the Borderline between Mexico and the United States, 1932 - Google Arts & Culture.” Google, Google, https://artsandculture.google.com/story/self-portrait-on-the-borderline-between-mexico-and-the-united-states-1932/-QLCA772QViFIg.