Best of Both Worlds

Title

Best of Both Worlds

Creator

Kainourgiou, Foivi

Abstract

“Best of Both Worlds” is a 50x70 cm painting with acrylics on canvas. It portrays a pile of toys, consisting of figures, plush toys and other objects in a busy, colorful and chaotic composition. Somewhere amongst the pile, I inserted my self-portrait, looking up at the viewer. This way, I become part of the fantasy world of video game toys. It is a project which describes a collage of different images that takes place in my favorite comfort space, which is my room. It is an artwork honoring childhood memories and nostalgia.

Artist Statement

“Best of Both Worlds” is a 70x50 cm painting with acrylics on canvas. We were tasked with creating a collage of images out of ourselves in our comfort space, picturing our everyday habits and the feeling of safety. After reading the brief, I instantly knew that I would stage the painting in my bedroom, since I spend most of my time there. I also chose to take pictures where my plushies and figurines were showcased, since they are an important part of my room and one of the reasons that I like it so much. They are beautiful and fun decorations that give life and shine to my room. Aside from that, they have unique visual interest, since they are all piled up together, and they all have very different shapes, sizes and colours.

Additionally, they hold a very dear place in my heart, since they are plushies and figures that represent characters from my favourite video games. Video games are my primary hobby, which I spend a lot of time on, and usually play in my bedroom. They always brought me a lot of solace and still do. It is a hobby which I started at the young age of 8. Aside from the evident comfort value that video games have as fun games that can entertain anyone, that is the least of the reasons as to why I love them so much. My childhood was quite lonely. Due to many family problems I never really felt close to my family, which in turn led to me becoming a very closed-off, shy and insecure individual. This also led to me having a lot of trouble forming friendships, and so I spent most of my time in my bedroom, lonely. Video games were some sort of saviour, providing my young self with a sense of company from the lively characters and animals of the games. The immersive world that they created also allowed me an escape from my daily loneliness and negative intrusive thoughts. In a way, I grew up with these characters, getting to know them thoroughly. As I grew up and evolved into a more social, complete person, I kept video games as a big part of my life, which made me realize my own growth as a person, and how much I truly love this habit, since I was still indulging in it when I didn’t have need for it as much anymore.

After choosing my subject, I started taking a lot of pictures of every corner in my room that had such toys. To turn this into a collage, I decided to insert myself among my toys, scaling myself down close to their size. This way, I could reminisce my childhood years where I would escape into their fantastical world, and were I would imagine myself being friends with these characters. After creating a series of digital collages with pictures of myself into the piles of toys, I decided to keep the most visually appealing and challenging one, which entails a bird’s eye view of a large, intricate toy pile, and myself inside it amongst all the toys, looking towards the viewer.

To create this painting, I first roughly sketched out all the placements of all the objects from my chosen picture. It should be highlighted that I removed some objects, to keep the composition cleaner and easier to create in my given time frame. Then, with a darker pencil, I started sketching each object in detail and with rough, pressed outlines so they would still be visible after the first application of paint over them. Then, I applied a very thin layer of baby blue paint on the canvas to prime it for the rest of the layers. Next, I painted each object in a generalized colour that was part of their main colour scheme. Finally, I started focusing on each object individually, applying on them many different shades of colours to create the effects of dark tones, midtones and highlights. In many objects, I also exaggerated their colour palettes, applying colours that weren’t there, making the objects more eye catching and causing them to stand out.

In terms of my self portrait in the painting, I wanted to make sure that my face would stand out and look different from the rest of the toys, giving a surreal feeling to the painting and brining out its collage aspect. To achieve this, I painted my face last. This way, while painting it I constantly compared it with the rest of the painting to ensure that it was standing out. I made sure to use duller tones and colours than the rest of the painting, and shades that I did not utilize from the other objects. I should also highlight that I used a range of colours that were not actually part of my face but used them anyway to add flare and to bring the face to the surface of the canvas.

Keywords

painting

colorful

figures

Subject

Visual Arts

Date Available

May 22-23, 2025

Type

painting

Course

AR3025A1 Painting

Instructor

Halivopoulou, Effie

Session

Visual Arts Exhibition

Location

Arts Center Gallery

Event

Year 2025 | 9th Annual Student Research and Creative Arts Symposium

Tags

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