Project Two
Title: Ladder To Tranquility
Size: 27.94 cm by 35.56 cm
Medium: Acrylic paint on canvas
Date: October 2021
I was inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe's "Ladder to the Moon." The idea behind my piece is that happiness is hard to reach. The ground represents negative aspects of life, while the sky represents desires of mine that are impossible to reach. I decided to have my ladder float as well to be a physical representation of happiness being hard to reach. But the top of my ladder is broken to show that once you do finally get close, it all comes crashing down on you and creates false hope.
Artistic Inspiration
Inspiration Behind The Piece:
I was inspired by this piece because of the absurdity of it. I like the idea of a ladder floating even though that is obviously unrealistic. I also really like the simplicity of it and just looking at this piece, the idea for my piece came right to me with a twist to make it more complicated. I was inspired to have the ladder in my painting float as well to create a physical representation of my desires being hard to reach. I wanted to make mine slightly more complicated than the original piece with a collage-like look to it by adding words that represent my desires in the sky and negative aspects of life on the ground. I also wanted a bigger variety of color in my piece so I chose duller colors for the ground to match the negative aspects and bright shades of purple, pink, and blue for the sky to portray positivity.
I was inspired by this piece because of the absurdity of it. I like the idea of a ladder floating even though that is obviously unrealistic. I also really like the simplicity of it and just looking at this piece, the idea for my piece came right to me with a twist to make it more complicated. I was inspired to have the ladder in my painting float as well to create a physical representation of my desires being hard to reach. I wanted to make mine slightly more complicated than the original piece with a collage-like look to it by adding words that represent my desires in the sky and negative aspects of life on the ground. I also wanted a bigger variety of color in my piece so I chose duller colors for the ground to match the negative aspects and bright shades of purple, pink, and blue for the sky to portray positivity.
About Georgia O'Keeffe:
Georgia O'Keeffe was born on November 15, 1887 near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. She was an influential American artist in the Modernism movement and is well known for painting flowers and bones, as well as skyscrapers in New York and New Mexico landscapes. She grew up on a Wisconsin dairy farm with six siblings and received at home art lessons. O'Keeffe learned the techniques of traditional painting when she attended and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York. She experimented with abstraction when she studied Arthur Wesley Dow's ideas and sent some of her abstract pieces to a friend in New York City who showed them to Alfred Stieglitz. Stieglitz was an art dealer and photographer who later married O'Keeffe. In 1916, he was the first to exhibit her work. She made her first New Mexico trip in the Summer of 1929 and was inspired by the landscapes and Hispanic culture. She spent a couple decades living and working in New Mexico and eventually moved there permanently in 1949 three years after the death of her husband.
Georgia O'Keeffe was born on November 15, 1887 near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. She was an influential American artist in the Modernism movement and is well known for painting flowers and bones, as well as skyscrapers in New York and New Mexico landscapes. She grew up on a Wisconsin dairy farm with six siblings and received at home art lessons. O'Keeffe learned the techniques of traditional painting when she attended and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York. She experimented with abstraction when she studied Arthur Wesley Dow's ideas and sent some of her abstract pieces to a friend in New York City who showed them to Alfred Stieglitz. Stieglitz was an art dealer and photographer who later married O'Keeffe. In 1916, he was the first to exhibit her work. She made her first New Mexico trip in the Summer of 1929 and was inspired by the landscapes and Hispanic culture. She spent a couple decades living and working in New Mexico and eventually moved there permanently in 1949 three years after the death of her husband.
Planning
Planning Sketches
For my planning sketches, I knew that I wanted the sky to represent my desires and the ground to represent negative aspects of life, but I thought of several ways to do it before coming up with my final idea. My first idea was to portray my desires and what I want life to be as heaven with clouds and a castle, while the ground would be represented as hell with flames or dark mountains. However, I decided that idea was overused. However I liked the cloud idea and used that in my next couple planning sketches. I finally decided I wanted to go with something more complicated and collage like.
Process & Experimentation
So for this piece, the only thing I drew before painting was the ladder because I planned for the background to be more of a free for all to give it a relaxed and flowy look to the brushstrokes. After drawing the ladder, I started working on the lower half of the background by stroking on black towards the bottom corners, and working in some grays with white towards about halfway up the canvas. I then randomly stroked on purple, blue and pink paint in swirly motions to create a cloud-like look, going in different directions. This was probably my favorite part of painting this piece because I was laid back and didn't have to work about "messing up" like I did with the bottom half of the canvas. The bottom half was more difficult because I had to very slowly and subtly, make the ground go from a solid black, to a super light gray. It proved to be challenging because when I was trying to lighten and blend the grays with white, it would look splotchy and I would have to start towards the bottom again. But once I had the colors in the background done, I painted the ladder a simple and solid brown and then began working on the words. For the words, I referred to my final planning sketch and free-handed the words using a thin bristled brush and black paint. This proved to be difficult, because sometimes I would slightly mess up letters and fixing them made them look bigger, making it impossible to fit all of the words I originally included in my planning sketch. If I were to redo this piece, I would probably add a second coat of paint to the sky part of the background, especially in the purple because it wasn't very pigmented and didn't blend well. I would probably also write out the words in pencil once the background dried to make sure I could fit all of them on the canvas.
Reflection
Overall, I am happy with the finality of this piece and the message it gives. I think this project was fun and turned out cool because of how different it is from my past pieces. I usually paint or draw people, and when I do landscapes, they don't normally have a collage-like look that contains a bunch of words. This piece is definitely different from past projects and I think it has a clear message and meaning behind it which I am super happy about. There is also a clear connection between my piece and Georgia O'Keeffe's "Ladder to the Moon." If I were to redo this piece or change anything however, I would probably add a second coat of paint to the sky part of the background, especially in the purple and maybe write out the words once the background dried before painting them.
Compare & Contrast
Similarities:
- Both pieces contain a floating ladder giving them a fantasy-like look and not a realistic one -Both pieces have a abstract background that doesn't give off realistic looks for simplicity purposes -The bottom portion of my background is simple and dull just as her background is to represent the dullness and simplicity of life |
Differences:
-I made my ladder broken to represent false hope when coming close to a desired outcome, but her's is a simple and non-broken ladder -Mine has a collage-like look with words all over it to further clarify the theme and meaning, while her's is more open for interpretation -The upper portion of my background is more complicated than hers to represent all of the excitement in a desired life |
ACT Responses
1. Clearly explain and describe how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
I was inspired to incorporate the floating ladder into my piece to represent how hard it is to reach a desired life. However, her piece is more simple and abstract, while mine has a collage-like look with words in the background to further convey the message and theme.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration.
The two websites are a biography of her life as a child and as an artist. They talk about how her art career developed and who and what were her biggest inspirations.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc., while you researched your inspiration?
Culture often has an influence over an artist's art style and inspiration. We see this in O'Keefe's later works how her landscapes have changed and developed after moving to New Mexico.
4. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The idea was to turn O'Keefe's piece into a more complicated look and to show that a desired life is hard to reach as well as what life is actually like for me.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I think the death of her husband gave O'Keeffe an opportunity to explore past her boundaries and further develop her art career and abilities. While he was a very influential part of her life, he might have been slightly holding her back from reaching her full potential as an individual artist.
I was inspired to incorporate the floating ladder into my piece to represent how hard it is to reach a desired life. However, her piece is more simple and abstract, while mine has a collage-like look with words in the background to further convey the message and theme.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration.
The two websites are a biography of her life as a child and as an artist. They talk about how her art career developed and who and what were her biggest inspirations.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc., while you researched your inspiration?
Culture often has an influence over an artist's art style and inspiration. We see this in O'Keefe's later works how her landscapes have changed and developed after moving to New Mexico.
4. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The idea was to turn O'Keefe's piece into a more complicated look and to show that a desired life is hard to reach as well as what life is actually like for me.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I think the death of her husband gave O'Keeffe an opportunity to explore past her boundaries and further develop her art career and abilities. While he was a very influential part of her life, he might have been slightly holding her back from reaching her full potential as an individual artist.
Bibliography
"About Georgia O'Keeffe." Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. https://www.okeeffemuseum.org/about-georgia-okeeffe/
Lynes, Barbara. "Georgia O'Keeffe." Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Mar. 2021. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Georgia-OKeeffe
Lynes, Barbara. "Georgia O'Keeffe." Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Mar. 2021. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Georgia-OKeeffe