Self Portrait Project:
Artist Statement
For my self portrait I really wanted to do a David Bowie inspired thing. I wanted to have blue eye shadow just like he had in his song 'Life On Mars'. While talking about the meaning behind the song Bowie said, "I think she finds herself disappointed with reality... that although she's living in the doldrums of reality, she's being told that there's a far greater life somewhere, and she's bitterly disappointed that she doesn't have access to it." She has been alienated from her friends, her family and the rest of the world but she is ultimately living up to what she sees on screen. She is a lost soul who doesn’t see art imitating her life so she decides her life should imitate art so that she feels a place of belonging. I also took inspiration from one of my other favorite music artists YUNGBLUD who wrote a song called ‘Mars’. He said, “I remember on Vans Warped Tour, it was kinda crazy, I remember this one girl came up to me and she said that she had a sex change, she was formerly a boy and that my music helped her get through that and feel that her identity—it was okay to be herself. And that was f*cking crazy for me, and I can tell you that there’s a song on the new album, about her, and how inspiring it was to kind of help someone like that, it’s f*cking crazy that our community helped someone feel like they could be themselves and take a huge step and achieve their goal of wanting to be themself.” I’m not trans myself, but this hits me anyways... I felt lonelier when I was with my friends than being alone. I felt irrelevant and this song somehow expresses the anger and hurt of being too scared to be yourself in such a beautiful way. The community that YUNGBLUD has created made me realize that i'm not alone, it's just a very beautiful and accepting community that makes me feel welcome and loved.
For my self portrait I really wanted to do a David Bowie inspired thing. I wanted to have blue eye shadow just like he had in his song 'Life On Mars'. While talking about the meaning behind the song Bowie said, "I think she finds herself disappointed with reality... that although she's living in the doldrums of reality, she's being told that there's a far greater life somewhere, and she's bitterly disappointed that she doesn't have access to it." She has been alienated from her friends, her family and the rest of the world but she is ultimately living up to what she sees on screen. She is a lost soul who doesn’t see art imitating her life so she decides her life should imitate art so that she feels a place of belonging. I also took inspiration from one of my other favorite music artists YUNGBLUD who wrote a song called ‘Mars’. He said, “I remember on Vans Warped Tour, it was kinda crazy, I remember this one girl came up to me and she said that she had a sex change, she was formerly a boy and that my music helped her get through that and feel that her identity—it was okay to be herself. And that was f*cking crazy for me, and I can tell you that there’s a song on the new album, about her, and how inspiring it was to kind of help someone like that, it’s f*cking crazy that our community helped someone feel like they could be themselves and take a huge step and achieve their goal of wanting to be themself.” I’m not trans myself, but this hits me anyways... I felt lonelier when I was with my friends than being alone. I felt irrelevant and this song somehow expresses the anger and hurt of being too scared to be yourself in such a beautiful way. The community that YUNGBLUD has created made me realize that i'm not alone, it's just a very beautiful and accepting community that makes me feel welcome and loved.
Photoshop Tutorials:
Original Image Photoshopped Image
Original Image Photoshopped Image
Original Image Photoshopped Image
Original Image Photoshopped Image
Letter Portrait:
Project Description- I started this project out by looking for things outside my house that resembled the letters in my name. My name is pretty long and I didn't want to go through photoshop on every single one of them so I just spelt Ari even though no one calls me that. I went with a fall theme because fall is my favorite season and the colors are beautiful. When I selected the pictures I liked the most, I took them over to photoshop and refined the edges, combined them together and added a border.