Pop Art Self-Portrait

Pop Art Self-Portrait

Olivia Sims

My name is Olivia Sims. I am a first-year student here at Raritan Valley Community College and currently nearing the end of my first semester. As a student, I am an extremely disciplined, passionate, and hardworking individual in my studies and artwork alike. The perfectionist in me constantly pushes my limits and forces me to strive and do the best of my ability. I've had a creative mindset most of my life, as I always seem to find a way to connect emotions to my work and what I create. In addition to my artwork, I am a passionate creatively inspired photographer. Most of my artwork is initially inspired or imagined by a photograph of my own or formed through my ability to visualize and construct figures and objects in a visually appealing way. While I have been behind the camera for approximately seven years and have experience in different types of photography, I am passionate about portraiture as I love to make people feel good as a result of my work. I strive to bring out the best in people I work alongside, as I believe images have a powerful influence on individuals and the world. Ultimately, visual communications using design is something I hold close to my heart. Being a visual learner, I am able to grasp information successfully if it is portrayed in an appealing manner to the eye. That is how I chose my major; Graphic Design, because visuals are so influential within the world and hold so much beneficial power for people like myself. My goal is to be successful in a way that helps people using my interests and talents in design, art, and/or photography in my own approach.

The goal of this Pop Art Self-Portrait is to portray a bold, vibrant, and distinct expression of myself, yet in a straightforward way using various colors and a white background. The piece obviously encapsulates a different way of viewing an individual through vibrant colors that deviate from the norm. Being a pop-art inspired painting, it is meant to intertwine bold hues to distinguish shadows and highlights of the figure. While cooler tones resemble shadows and warmer colors depict lighter areas, the colors are placed delicately to formulate a piece demonstrating exactly where those shadows and highlights lay across the figure. The blank background provides a strong contrast against the colorful subject matter. This painting is meant to demonstrate my ability to use a variety of colors among one another, reflect natural highlights and shadows originally captured in a photograph through paint and technique, and grasp the audience's attention in general. This piece shows that I am able to push myself into trying new artistic approaches, and really give it my all in the process. On a more symbolic level, this painting can represent how people can view or connect another's aura and personality with a color. In my perspective, people's personalities and how they carry themselves give off similar energy to how a color would. This painting symbolizes how different people can be associated with a color all depending on who they are. In its entirety, my Pop Art Self-Portrait shows progression in my artistic abilities while connecting a deeper meaning to the piece's existence.

Created for Shyamal Raguso's Color Theory course.

2020

Copyright Olivia Sims. This item should not be downloaded, copied, or used without permission.

JPEG

Image

Gouache painting on bristol paper

14 in. x 11 in.