Final(Sheku)

 

Sunset Serenade: Majestic Wave and Mountain Symphony

"Rising Tides of Change: A Young King's Journey Through the Changing Landscape"

    With my final project, I wanted to connect my ancestry with something sociocultural such as the protection of black women. It is too big a subject to encapsulate in a single paragraph, so I won't say too much. I got the inspiration from my own hoodie, and the idea just came to me when I decided that I needed to add more to complete this piece. The staff displayed in this image is one that 'Mansa Musa', the richest person who ever lived, and who was the king of the ancient empire of Mali in West Africa. I included some African jewelry and some traditional clothing. I decided to leave this piece unpainted and connect it with a set painting of the ocean and it's tidal wave, as well as the view of a West African Beach from Afar.

    The main artist that inspired this painting was "Kehinde Wiley". I liked the way he would include modern elements in an old image that was already painted. It led me to want to include engaging scenery, as well as objects that were and weren't made in this era. I got some inspiration from his famous Napoleon painting. They were some more things, i could've added but for my first Self-portrait, it didn't look terrible. 

    Another artist that inspired me was 'Wendy Redstar". I liked the way she connected with her heritage and explored the role of Native women in her paintings. Also, her way of connecting to history had a huge impact on this piece. It was already troubling enough trying to think of an idea, but it did get a bit easier when I started to think about her work and its process.

chance to go camping, and attempt to reconnect with nature, and coming back I realized there was so much more that I could do to find inspiration.

    Another artist I got inspiration from was "Yoko Ono". Her strong sense of activism inspired me to want to make my piece a bit more political and meaningful. I didn't want to just draw anything, and call it a day. As much as I really wanted to, her work was an invisible force behind most of my decisional making.