Evaluation

My theme is on Phobias. I focused on “fear artists” like Francis Bacon and Laurence De’maison and other artists like Ana Mendietta and Marc Quinn. Using these artists, I focused on the fears: Arachnophobia, Entomophobia, Emetophobia and Dysmorphophobia. I found Dysmorphophobia (distortion and morphing of faces) the most effective as it was a clear visual tool for disturbing imagery.

I found my primary source photographs of Entemophobia not as useful as despite the experimentation with Macro lens and the development of pictures into observational sketches and mono printing, it didn’t result in any development of substance. Therefore, I decided to use spiders as my main fear.

I tested out printing techniques such as Embossing, Colourgraphing and Monoprinting, relating to Entomophobia however it didn’t refine my ability to produce clear work, so I didn’t continue using them.

I used a 3D response of Emetophobia -inspired by Marc Quinn- I wanted to focus on how a person throwing up would perceive their next steps into not panicking and the feeling like they’re not in control which is captured through the use of hands invading someone’s space, forcefully pushing down a person and reaching up into their throat to make them gag. This could also be perceived as a person panicking to the point where they feel like they’re having an out-of-body experience.

I chose this theme because I related to it from personal living situations with a family member which provided primary source. Through this, I have learnt that people with phobias can be very complex and it can stem from multiple complications like neurodiversity’s (not to be confused with Neurodivergent). People can misunderstand the seriousness of certain phobias and the impact it can have when being overlooked or ignored. My main goals are to make the audience sympathise through the personification of fears, by undoing stigmas and humanizing people’s demons in a healthy and understanding light, but not excusing them.

A lot of secondary source was spent researching how we responded to fear when linking to the brain and forms of conditioning.

In my final Fine art response – an A2 portrait acrylic painting called “Study for a portrait” I learnt the importance of composition, layering, mixing colours and improved my awareness of colour theory and applying tone, hues, tints and shades. I produced a range of hues only using black and white to alter tints and shades. The most effective technique was when I needed a highlight without using pure white, I produce a blue tint that effectively made the spider the focal point. My composition improved when I altered the depth of colours, exploring the layering technique to lighten the background and darken the foreground to bring to viewers eye to the spider.

I will make sure to plan out my tones and understand how to communicate the focal part of my point before starting my painting as well as incorporating more water into my tones, as I learnt acrylics can surprisingly communicate a nice washed off, pale look. Due to learning the importance of colour theory, I feel like the only thing I’d change is my refinement of the painting. I’d like my piece suspended on a string so it’s constantly rotating, therefore, you can see both sides of the canvas which have wire spiders and webs on the back. This is my favourite part of the piece, as it shows my versatility with what I’ve been given.

I haven’t completed all of my ideas. I wanted to create more disturbing clay figures centred around the connection of Germaphobia and OCD or perinatal depression and OCD as well as fears of Obesophobia (fear of becoming fat), Dysmorphophobia, Traumatophobia (fear of injuries), Hemophobia (fear of blood) and Trypanophobia (fear of syringes). Due to Covid lockdowns, there hasn’t been enough time to make practical work, so reducing my options to create an impactful piece was challenging but I ultimately stuck to Emetophobia, Entomophobia and Arachnophobia for their relevancy.

This project hasn’t supported my progression of becoming a Graphic Designer nor understanding Graphic Design. I used a Fine Art approach and created a Fine Art response primarily since it’s what I wanted to do and we weren’t working with clients. I’ve learnt how the brain responds to fear and the ways in which we can develop these fears- and that despite how individualistic fears can be and how we cope with these fears, we all have a fear. This project is supposed to highlight the humanness of the subject.