Dreamers
1. Define which techniques you tried and mastered? Struggled?
The technique that I tried was painting with acrylic, something I found myself struggling with while doing this project was gluing the blocks together, when I was gluing the blocks together I used hot glue. The glue was a good way to stick them together but when I was forming my wall I kept changing my mind on how I wanted to place them so i found myself mistakenly putting glue on the wrong sides and I struggled a lot to take the glue off since it was on wooden blocks. Another thing I struggled with was making sure the glue didn't come out from the cracks, because I had some over flow and it made some of the parts look a little messy but overall it wasn't too bad. With the acrylic the only thing i struggled with was making sure I didn't get the paint on the other colors, and with the stars since there had to be many of them, in the process of painting them on it smudged so they look kind of off but other than that the acrylic was quite easy to use with how I was using it. I was struggling with how I wanted to do the eagle as well so instead of painting it out, I somewhat tried photoshopping it in.
2. How did you draw inspiration from other artists techniques or aesthetics in your work? In what ways did you derive meaning or gain historical perspectives from their work? Why these artists?
In this project I didn't necessarily get inspiration from other artist because it was an idea I got from a friend, which then was switched to be more my piece and more original.
3. Describe the evolution of your piece. Decisions made. Compositional elements.
While in the process of deciding what to make my project about I was in a internal conflict because I didn't know what I exactly wanted to do. I wanted to sew the American Flag and the Mexican Flag together to symbolize two cultures coming together and clashing because of one's race. In addition I wanted to add fake white roses to the borders of the Mexican side of the flag to symbolize the false sense of hope that Dreamers have while being in America. I ultimately did not go with that idea because of how expensive the flags turned out to be, instead I took a different approach and had completely different idea on how I wanted to accomplish my vision. I ended up buying Jenga blocks and had them stacked up to make a border prototype and had the idea to have the flags on each side, I made the American flag to have all the blocks there to make a "perfect" wall and for the Mexican flag sides I decided to remove blocks. The reason I chose to do this was so emphasize the idea of how America wants to have a perfect society without foreigners, by building a wall. The reason I chose to remove blocks from the Mexican flag side was because for Mexicans there's sense of hope, dreams and everything along those lines slowly collapsing, the more and more segregated America wants to become.
4. If you could consider doing something over, explain why you would do this and what you would do next time?
If I could do something over I would get better glue and better paint, i would do this because I would want my project to be visibly pleasing and not look rushed and not well done. Next time I would make sure to be so much more careful if I used hot glue on my projects again because the hot glue can make thing looks extremely sloppy if mistakes are made.
5. Elaborate on how this piece links with your other pieces? What is the common thread?
This piece links with my other pieces because I had made the plan on focusing my pieces all around my Mexican culture and this piece will link with the rest of my works because it's a continuation of my second project, this project was also focused on DREAMERS and DACA. I decided to continue the same idea because I want to take it further and create more pieces that will express the struggle and the fears DREAMERS and Hispanics in general but through different methods.
The technique that I tried was painting with acrylic, something I found myself struggling with while doing this project was gluing the blocks together, when I was gluing the blocks together I used hot glue. The glue was a good way to stick them together but when I was forming my wall I kept changing my mind on how I wanted to place them so i found myself mistakenly putting glue on the wrong sides and I struggled a lot to take the glue off since it was on wooden blocks. Another thing I struggled with was making sure the glue didn't come out from the cracks, because I had some over flow and it made some of the parts look a little messy but overall it wasn't too bad. With the acrylic the only thing i struggled with was making sure I didn't get the paint on the other colors, and with the stars since there had to be many of them, in the process of painting them on it smudged so they look kind of off but other than that the acrylic was quite easy to use with how I was using it. I was struggling with how I wanted to do the eagle as well so instead of painting it out, I somewhat tried photoshopping it in.
2. How did you draw inspiration from other artists techniques or aesthetics in your work? In what ways did you derive meaning or gain historical perspectives from their work? Why these artists?
In this project I didn't necessarily get inspiration from other artist because it was an idea I got from a friend, which then was switched to be more my piece and more original.
3. Describe the evolution of your piece. Decisions made. Compositional elements.
While in the process of deciding what to make my project about I was in a internal conflict because I didn't know what I exactly wanted to do. I wanted to sew the American Flag and the Mexican Flag together to symbolize two cultures coming together and clashing because of one's race. In addition I wanted to add fake white roses to the borders of the Mexican side of the flag to symbolize the false sense of hope that Dreamers have while being in America. I ultimately did not go with that idea because of how expensive the flags turned out to be, instead I took a different approach and had completely different idea on how I wanted to accomplish my vision. I ended up buying Jenga blocks and had them stacked up to make a border prototype and had the idea to have the flags on each side, I made the American flag to have all the blocks there to make a "perfect" wall and for the Mexican flag sides I decided to remove blocks. The reason I chose to do this was so emphasize the idea of how America wants to have a perfect society without foreigners, by building a wall. The reason I chose to remove blocks from the Mexican flag side was because for Mexicans there's sense of hope, dreams and everything along those lines slowly collapsing, the more and more segregated America wants to become.
4. If you could consider doing something over, explain why you would do this and what you would do next time?
If I could do something over I would get better glue and better paint, i would do this because I would want my project to be visibly pleasing and not look rushed and not well done. Next time I would make sure to be so much more careful if I used hot glue on my projects again because the hot glue can make thing looks extremely sloppy if mistakes are made.
5. Elaborate on how this piece links with your other pieces? What is the common thread?
This piece links with my other pieces because I had made the plan on focusing my pieces all around my Mexican culture and this piece will link with the rest of my works because it's a continuation of my second project, this project was also focused on DREAMERS and DACA. I decided to continue the same idea because I want to take it further and create more pieces that will express the struggle and the fears DREAMERS and Hispanics in general but through different methods.