Inspired by Barbara Kruger and her use of bold text over images, I created these simple yet fashionable collages using Supreme’s (streetwear brand) famous logo.
I printed these vintage Arabian like photos and overlaid a red duck tape with the Supreme logo as an experiment in preparation for a project I will work on soon.
PROCESS
Henri Matisse has always been one of my favorite artists, his choice of colors and shapes never fails to fascinate me..
Few days ago I wanted to experiment collage digital art inspired by recreating some of his famous work.. in addition I used vintage photos from the web in a attempt to express some of the spiritual qualities I admire such as peace, joy, adventure and human connection.
I tried to maintain Matisse style in choosing bold colors to shape the background for the overlaying vintage photos. The contrast between the colorful background and the b&w image triggers focus on the body language and the emotion conveyed in it where the colors of the background translates these feelings.
I haven’t been active on the blog for quite along time now.. simply because i wasn’t inspired and wasn’t producing any art work! life happen to get you caught up in its rat race and then suddenly something happens and you take a pose and rethink all your choices..
My mom sickness the past few weeks was a huge shift for me.. now i am trying to live into the moment and be at the NOW rather than running in the rat race…
i created the following digital art pieces from old family photos + photos i have taken from previous trips to morocco and done some digital pop art on them, my love for colors is endless and here am using very bold strong colors to reflect the strength of the emotions attached to it.. those images reflects my love and my appreciation for the past but with a wider view that leads me to appreciate the now since all the moments of the pasts used to be NOW so actually there is no past its all the NOW…
When I first submitted my study plan to join MA Fine Art digital, I proposed to use art as a tool to explore Qatar specifically, the region generally and its social characteristics. At that point, the themes I was interested in were language, food, fashion and travelling. I was aiming to investigate the role that social media plays in setting trends and making people try new things they have never tried before. The focus of my study was how social media is in control of shaping and influencing a lot of social trends. Being a conservative society which is keen on maintaining traditions juxtaposed with this accessibility was the main area of my study.
However, things have changed in my country since 5th of June 2017. Three of the GCC countries got the entire Qatari nation by surprise by announcing that they are cutting all diplomatic relations with us and starting a blockade on Qatar. Since then, Qatar and the Qatari people changed on so many levels. Surprisingly, this blockade made people closer as a community and strengthened the ties between the people and the government in Qatar. Despite all the expectations that Qatar will suffer on the social and economic levels, it raised the sense of pride and belonging amongst us.
For so many years all GCC countries including Qatar were close and looked at as one unit. However, this blockade created a chain of hateful and judgmental statements on media and social media between the 3 GCC countries and Qatar which contradicted past relationships.
In parallel to these political issues, I have been going through a huge change in my life spiritually. In addition, this political crisis and blockade that my country is still going through made me realize that my mission as an artist is changing. The focus of my work shifted from concentrating on social media and its impact on our community in terms of travel, food and fashion. Now, I am exploring the power of art and the impact it could possibly have to influence societies and bring them back to love.
Therefore, I decided to change my study plan from its previous topic and choose the subject “Judgment of others & of self, and the way through to return to love.”
My main aim is to shift the audience energetic vibration from fear and judgment to the vibration of love, since one single person energetic shift has the power to create a ripple effect across the globe.
Honesty and authenticity throughout this project is a main key for me to reach my ultimate goal. We all struggle daily from judgment, either we are judging ourselves or judging others on their political views, sense of style, way of behaviors and many things that we might think are minor or silly. No matter how kind, spiritual or compassionate we are we keep judging all the time. At the beginning, we might feel good or better than others when we start judging them but at the end of it we feel bad, isolated and we lose the sense of belonging.
Throughout this project I would like to observe my own and others judgmental patterns, reasons behind it, and find the way through to return to our true nature which is love.
After changing my topic, I started experimenting my ideas by using also popular photos and adding my own touch of colors, lines and abstract shapes using Photoshop. However, now I am trying to hide all the details of the photo and keep the focus on the expression of the people in the photo. This allows the audience to examine their feelings toward the photo when its pulled out from its detailed features (style, body type etc.).
What I am interested in exploring next, is taking my own series of photos for different people and creating the same technique with it. But, I am still trying to decide on either taking random real photos of people on the streets? Or creating my own staged photoshoots?
Another thing I am still thinking and trying to figure out is that I always wanted to transfer my work from my laptop screen to the form of installations, for example Projected film in motion? Large scale printed canvas? Or printed over plastic? The challenge here is to decide on which path I should take? Or should I try more than one medium and then decide?
For my study project, I have been looking into the work of the German Artist Gerhard Richter who have been exploring in his art the borders between art and painting as part of my research.
Other research approaches I have been investigating my topic through are:
BOOKS:
MOVIES:
The German Artist Gerhard Richter has often explored the border between painting and photography in his art, but his series of ( has been largely overlooked until recently. With a collection of over than 2000 over painted photographs that he started since the 1980s.
The project is a combination of the impulse for economy/reuse with Richter’s artistic vision. The process begins with a group of commerically processed 4×6 family snapshots, made by Richter himself or others while on holiday, at his home or studio, or on walks in the park. The second component is the leftover oil paint, with various colors melded together, smeared on the long plastic blade that Richter uses to scrape paint across his canvases.
Richter than takes the photographs and pushes, pulls, and draws them through the surplus paint, lifting the prints to create ridges or allowing the paint to smear and drip to create spots and blobs. (No brushes are involved, although a palette knife is used from time to time.) The works are made quickly, with a large element of chance and spontaneity, full of simple gestural motion.
What emerges from this process are strange hybrid works, often spectacular in their contrasts. The most noticeable effect is that the colored swaths of paint conceal parts of the underlying photograph, leading the viewer to struggle to fill in the pieces of the figurative story, creating a sense of mystery or unknown. The abstract smears and ripples of color themselves have a beauty of their own, richly textured and swirled surfaces highlighting the “painterly” qualities of the medium. These two forces are then juxtaposed in each picture, with complementary or contradictory color schemes in the two layers creating additional visual excitement.”
By Loring Knoblauch / In Photobooks / June 24, 2009, From resource
Family
Museum Visit
Urban Landscape
People
Outcome:
By going through Gerhard Richter series of overpainted photographs, I noticed that he had a non-restricted intake on this project through experimenting the same technique on different themes & series of photographs. Since I am still not sure on which direction to take in my project proposal in terms of my main area of inverstigation this approach of his kind of helped me to start thinking of experimenting different areas by grouping each under one series and apply a unified technique to all as a start.
For now am planning to start with some family old photographs, and others I took during my travels by applying my Digital work on it, keeping in mind some comments I got from the critique class and the fellow students blogs in reference to my work.
Today I had the chance to show my recent art work experiments during the group critique class. With my busy schedule lately and not getting the chance to work on my project proposal yet this session and the questions I got are really helpful at this point, it will help me in exploring my options and ideas for my proposal in the coming days.
I was the last to go in the class and therefore I didn’t get the chance to answer/reply to all questions/comments I got, therefore i will go through it here in this post.
@Janet asked me the following: “how would it be if the photographic element were receded absented and the caligraphic remaining on its own?”
I actually never thought of this approach before, since I have always been fascinated by the beauty of the human subject and their movement, reactions and the surronding environment in a particular picture. However this is a great idea that I would like to give a try and share with you in my blog soon!
@Steph “Gerhard Richter collated series of personal photographs doing series of these overpaintings. You should have a look I will give the link. I feel the personal has more significance rather than the “borrowed”. The personal for me gives more connection. Also do you consider what you are highlighting and selecting within each image?
I just checked the series you mentioned, really amazing! I will have a special post on the blog about it soon! Thank you for sharing!
When it comes to the choice of photos I totally agree that the personal ones carry a deeper massage and have a greater connection that can be bridged easily between the artist and the audience! however I always had this thing for photos that are available to all and shared through different media channels, where by working on it I get the chance to speak globally to the audience and narrate my own vision, thoughts about it in order to create a new dialogue over it.
@Ben “Anfal – there is a fashion designer called Sandhya Garg who you might like. She was on Project Runway a few years ago. She makes fabric prints using derogatory words for women in her own language, but they’re really pretty and interesting :)”
Thanks Ben, I checked her work which I really loved, those are my fav!
@Steph: “For me in graphic communication, this is normally done for the purpose to gain the attention of the audience to certain products/aspects. Is there an intention in this itself highlighting and captivating certain areas of interest?”
intersting question Steph. As I mentioned before I have to fashion labels, one of them is modest Qatari clothing label and the other one is casual street wear. in my second brand I focus so much on the graphics and massages I use on the products to attract my customers, where most of the times I use words that are part of their everyday life etc.
In general I have special love for colors, shapes and words, and through my designs I love to share the visual beauty of it with my audience by creating fun, interesting graphic designs integrated in still photos that can create curiosity to know more in depth about whats the story behind it. you can see that clearly in the pictures I use from my family archive photos where I travel back in time to certain places, memories and moments.
@Janet: “I have an anthology of ancient arabic verse called Birds through a Ceiling of Alabaster – just for the title alone it is beautiful.”
The book cover itself is so pretty! you got me curious to order it and read through it! thanks!
@Jonathan: “ok — it might be helpful for you to experiment with both and keep them slightly separate as you explore?”
Yes, and this is part of the current challenge am facing now. Since both can carry different idea, concept vision and the need to determine will help me to form my project proposal for now.
@Steph: “check out joe cruz Anfal”
I love Steph how you get the direction am going through always! actually I am a big fan of Joe Cruz! His art always inspires me!
@Steph: “Nacho Ormaechea, this artist is awesome to Anfal”
This is like the first time I come across his work Steph! thank you so much for sharing! to be honest his work now inspired me a lot to try some ideas related to Qatar!
Finally i would like to say that this class was really inspiring and helpful! I am so excited to try more new things and share more posts on the blog!
in the past few weeks i didn’t get the chance to set and work on my project proposal due to my busy schedule at work, which made me realize that I have a lot of catch up I need to do. However I managed to experiment some art work ideas I had in my mind for a while and finally got the chance to try.
The method I followed, in these experiments is similar somehow. The experiments are based on applying different illustrations on photos using photoshop. The photos vary from old family photos, personal shots I took, and from the internet. Again lines, colors, shapes, and arabic typography is present in all of them.
I am a visual artist who lives & works in Qatar, my primary interest is photography and I love using my computer to add a graphic touch to my photos. Since I was a kid I always have been fascinated by cameras and new technologies. Continue reading “From where I stand”
Anfal AlKandari 