Title

’Cause love’s such an old-fashioned word

Creator

Gesthimani, Kapralou

Abstract

The work submitted was created as a final project in the Painting course (Prof. Effie Halivopoulou) and is meant to emulate my personality, through creating a painted collage. The main goal of this work was to combine physical places in which I feel most creative -the beach and my desk- along with incorporating relevant elements, such as brushes, palettes, and my beach bag. I consciously chose to keep the visual elements of the work flat and reminiscent of cartoons and comic books, inspired by many artists such as Matisse and Lichtenstein, instead of opting for a photorealistic approach.

Artist Statement

For this painting project, we were instructed to create a visual diary unique to each of us and be creative in painting a collage, a combination painting. Besides the technical aspect of creating such a work, such as focusing on the forms or the scale, I found the initial brainstorming process more challenging, until I decided on what I would depict. This decision was heavily influenced by both my research and the brief, which instructed us to represent an existing space we know and use, and in which we are most creative. In the following essay, I am going to explain my complete process for this project, from my research and conceptualization to my formal decisions that led to my final result.
As mentioned previously, what I found more challenging was coming up with a clear and distinct idea, in such a way that I could portray it adequately and fulfil the instructions. That is why my first step was researching the works of different artists, many of whom were suggested by our professor, so as to become inspired and understand what style I felt best reflected me, too. That is how I ended up with a similar style to my previous midterm project. Through my research, I found myself intrigued by the works of many artists, most notably those of Henri Matisse, Mickalene Thomas, Larry Rivers, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, and David Salle. Specifically, what intrigued me most and what I tried to imitate was their use of color, a comic book feeling, but perhaps most of all, how each of their works gives off such vibrancy and personality. That is the same feeling I aimed my work to give, believing that a vibrant, colorful palette would reflect myself and my personality much better than any naturalistic approach ever could.
After I began having a better understanding of how I wanted my painting to look, I started creating a few digital drafts to visualize my thoughts. I made them by creating a collage of a plethora of photographs I had taken, focusing on two main ones as the focal points of the work, as they constitute the places I have a stronger connection to and feel I am the most creative in. Those two are the beach, used as the background of the work, and my room, specifically my desk with my easel and paints, used as the foreground of my composition. Moreover, I made sure to include photographs of myself, as well as a collage of other objects, such as my beach bag and sunglasses, my paints and palette. In addition to this, I knew I wanted to include some aspect that would reflect my love for music, which ended up being quite tricky to include in a way that would appear organic and match the rest of the work. Originally, my drafts included a collage of many songs, their lyrics portrayed slightly overlapping, while in the final work, I chose to include only a single line of the song “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie. Specifically, placed at the top of the work, written and painted in a way that would emulate magazine letter cutouts, is the phrase “Cause love’s such an old-fashioned word”.
Furthermore, when it came to putting ideas on canvas, I chose to base my final painting on my second draft, continuing to be heavily inspired by the artists I had researched. Due to this, I consciously decided to keep my figures and landscapes more simplistic, having them reminiscent of comic books or cartoon characters, instead of focusing on achieving realistic details. In order to achieve a similar look, I opted for keeping flat colors throughout the work, with minimal shading, found only on the skin of the figures so as to make sure the hands would be visibly separated from the rest of the body, instead of appearing as one indiscernible mass. Furthermore, I chose to incorporate my midterm in this project, through displaying it in the canvas shown on the foreground of the painting, something which while existed in my reference photograph, I decided to do in a fashion reminiscent of Matisse’s “The Red Studio” where he incorporated smaller, more simplified versions of his previous works. Thus, similarly, I depicted my midterm project, simplifying it greatly and keeping present only the core details, so as to not take attention away from the rest of the simpler composition. Finally, in a manner also reminiscent of my previous project and Lichtenstein’s popular work, I created contour lines around each object and figure in this painting, thick and darker in shade than what they were outlining.
When all is said and done, my focus when creating this project was to best reflect me while still following the instructions given to us, in a way that what I created would feel like a visual diary of my life and personality. In a mixture of song lyrics, color, and paint, I can confidently state that I can see the essence of my character in my final work.

Keywords

Combination Painting

Vibrant

Visual Diary

Subject

Visual Arts

Date Available

May 22-23, 2025

Type

Painting

Course

AR 3025 - Painting

Instructor

Halivopoulou, Effie

Session

Visual Arts Exhibition

Location

Art Center Gallery

Meet the Artist Time

May 22: 15.30

May 23: 15.30

Artist tour of The Art Center Gallery to the ACG Gallery: 17.00

Event

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