Artist Inspiration Series

I chose Wardell Milan as the inspiration for my on-paper series. The subject matter of my series is dancers because Milan often depicts athletes and much of his work shows movement. His flowers inspired the heavy black outlines on some of my figures and the spontanous colors that show the interaction between them. Applying the color loosely yet thoughtfully turned out to be my greatest challenge during the assignment. The figures with shadow in ink were inspired my Milan's boxers and bodybuilers. He uses scratchy and dripping ink effects to create volume, but I decided to use the ink in a more controlled way in order to keep some of my style in the drawings. The almost solid black figures were inspired by a few of Milan's pieces that show white figure cut-outs along side shaded figures in a different position. I thought this techniques showed a time lapse and would be an interesting way to show interactive movement in my dancers. I left much open space on the pages to mimic the way Milan simplifies his backgrounds. In my series I used ink, ink pens, an acrylic paint.  

Wardell Milan's Artwork

 

Series On Paper

Preliminary Work 

Series Off Paper

In my off-paper series I decided to keep with a dance theme. For each of the five sections of the video I combined a selection of moves that demonstrate a different principle or technique of visual art, through performance. In order to help differentiate each section, I have worn a certain sock color for each. The green sock portion shows geometric line through a series of rond de jambe. During these movements the dancer's goal is to create perfectly round motions in the path of the foot and straight lines in much of the movement of the legs. The blue sock section shows organic line through the arms. Though the arms pass through predetermined poses, dancers' arms have more opportunity for variation in line and are never to be held stick-straight like the legs. The steps done in the orange socks demonstrate repetition and pattern. These chosen steps are most always done in a series of repeated patterns at the barre. The next section in which I wear yellow socks shows depth. My traveling movements show how an audience experiences variations in depth on stage, like a viewers experiences it on a flat canvas. The final section with red sock shows vertical line, a basic tool in visual art. I selected these movements to show a progression of how vertical lines are used in ballet, from simple ground work to more challenging jumps. Though some moves show the legs moving in other directions, the ultimate goal of these steps is vertical height and a rigidly upright torso.    

https://youtu.be/2qQaAAoLg7c