Renee's Introduction Selfie (Inspired)

 

                                    Inspired Selfie,                                                                                                                                                                           Salman Toor's "Part of a painting I just destroyed."

I am a B.F.A in illustration, working on a personal portfolio that will be exhibited for my show. I have studied art since middle school and joined art programs, including the Student's Art League, J.C. arts, and the Jersey City Mural Arts Program. I also worked with mentors at Mana Contemporary's Eskeff. Program. In addition to creating narrative illustrations, I am passionate about traditional art history and the history of illustration. Overall, my goal as an illustrator is to be part of a visual development team that could put together concepts to create a more extraordinary project. I love creating works of couples and families happy together. Most of my commissions capture happiness and love between two characters, and in my personal work, I aim to display the subtlety of love. Therefore, Salman Toor's work appealed to me the most. 

When researching artists on Art21, Salman Toor inspired me the most out of the five. His art is based on his experiences as a queer man living in a contemporary cosmopolitan area. The paintings he creates capture moments of intimacy, vulnerability, and self-reflection. His work also features his friends and their partners, showing how close the queer community is compared to where he had lived in Pakistan. 

I enjoyed his style as he trained in classical Dutch-European art. However, as he continued developing his style, he created abstractions and queer puddles as he describes them, showing lovers squished together and friends melded into one. Showing unapologetic queer art is a step forward in society accepting LGBTQ people overall. Protecting the livelihoods of the LGBTQ is one of my main socio-political motivations. While politics have improved regarding fundamental rights for same-sex marriages, much work still needs to be done. Salman Toor's art shows the anxieties and disempowerment queer men face in society, as it is still an ongoing issue that could be improved over time. 

My inspired selfie has three layers to it. First, I took a selfie of myself and painted it with oil on canvas, meant initially as a master study of Gustave Courbet's painting technique. Since the painting was inspired by another European painter, and Salman Toor used European art as a foundation, I decided to use it for my selfie. In a sense, this selfie is a master copy over a master copy, blurring all the smooth lines made with oil paint and trying to capture the subtleties of Toor's brushwork and emerald green. It was a fun exercise, and this painting technique inspired me to paint like this more often.  

Sontag Reading

“Photographs really are experiences captured, and the camera is the ideal arm of consciousness in its acquisitive mood.” ( Susan Sontag) 

• Photographs are moments captured when a person desires to maintain a memory of the subject. The camera is an extension of the person taking the picture, thus why it's referred to as ‘ the ideal arm of consciousness’. Photographs of happy families and landscapes put the viewer in the photographer's perspective, showing moments of happiness and beauty to share that captured experience with others. My favorite photographs are antique pictures of pets, which show the much love the photographer had for their friend. I viewed a collection of photos from the 1940s, and most of the reel featured the family’s beloved dog, capturing every moment of his life to cherish forever. Photographs are tiny windows into the photographer's world, and viewers can empathize with the subjects of the photos.

“Even when photographers are most concerned with mirroring reality, they are still haunted by tacit imperatives of taste and conscience” (Susan Sontag). 

• Reality can be boring sometimes, but with the photographer's skills, they can make the most mundane subject into a work of art using angles, lighting, and composition. Photographers, like painters and poets, seek artistry that appeals to their audience. Instead of mirroring reality outright, they are idealizing reality using their skills in art.