Summer project, Distorted Portraits

Here are the results of a busy summer, a project called distorted portraits, 3 collages of people who have been and still are massive parts of my life, people that have effected my personality.

Before I started I looked at the work of established artist, ones renowned for producing works that can be described as distorted portraits, artists such as Francis Bacon, Bill Jacobson Tracey Emin and Gillian Wearing, in particular I was strongly influence for these pieces by Pablo Picasso, Hannah Hoch, Wanda Wulz and Matisse, 2 of which are photographers, not sure if that is a sign for what is to come or the fact that my artistic past has been in photography, anyhow these are the results

Lonely Woman

This piece is a portrait of my Mums mum, Nanna Wallis, in this piece I started out to portray her as a lonely sad woman but as the picture progressed I released that in fact I really don't think she was sad at all, lonely yes but happy with it, consequently I progressed from using parts of an old photo taken back in the 40's just at the time when she had re married, a reflective photo that has a sadness to it, to using colours and patterns from a photo taken in the 80's, a photo that has 4 generations in it, it shows Nan clutching my nieces hand, it shows love but a distant love. For my sister and I this lady was also an escape from our childhood, a safe place for the summer, where I wanted to use blue as a colour of sadness I was drawn to purples a colour of comfort, security and happiness.

Old Soldier

This piece is a portrait of Jack Kirkby,  I knew him as a grumpy old bugger, as a kid I was scared of him, he would sit in his worn out chair, in his council flat, a smoking roll-up sitting in-between his fingers, the walls of the room stained yellow with nicotine, occasionally I would visit and he would be smiling but that would be on a Sunday afternoon after the pub. In this piece you see his expression as I remember him, giving nothing away, no emotion, but what is he hiding? what is in his head? what isn't he talking about? Jack Kirkby fought in the 2nd World War, he fought in the Burma campaign, he never talked about it, this image is made up of images from that brutal campaign, I am trying to reflect what he saw, what he kept in his head, what was so unspeakable, we will never know, this old soldier died in 1986.

David drowning in grief

This piece is all about the year after death a year where grief changed a personality. David my partner lost his mum and with her death a part of David went with her. His personality changed from one who was kind and loving to one who was cold. The piece is about what grief can do, it can drown you if you let it.

Influences for this project

Picasso

Femme 1955

Probably one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, the first to use collage in paintings and a pioneer of cubism. Although not collage, in Femme 1955 I love how two different perspectives are married together, a marriage that should result in a grotesque image but even thought not symmetrically as the perfect human face is perceived to be the result is one of beauty.

Matisse

Recent publicity about an exhibition of Matisse has certainly proved influential, seeing the film clips of him working on his cut outs.

Blue Nude

 Hanna Hock

Involved in the Dada Movement in Berlin, a movement that evolved post world war one rejecting the Bourgeoisie, was anti establishment and Avante Garde, a movement that had big influences on styles such as Pop Art. Early on in her life Hock worked with embroidery and textiles which can be seen in her later work. Widely regarded as an early pioneer of the photo montage and collage

Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in German

Indian Dancer

Wanda Wulz

An Italian experimental photographer from the early 20th century who was involved in the Futurism movement. Today you can see her influences in film and TV work in particulate SC-FI series such as Doctor Who. Looking at her work I find I am looking at an old monster movie, a Hammer Horror film from the 40's, pioneering at the time, certainly pieces of their time, possible naive today.