The purpose of this project was create a wax encaustic collage centred around the theme of ‘Skin’. We wanted to learn to start generating ideas on various themes, so that we might one day create a series of different works around a central idea. With this in mind, I created this piece I named “Masks”.
The idea of my theme is that we are more beautiful under the mask society places on us. As females, our skin is usually covered up with makeup because we grow up learning that we need to wear it to be more beautiful. We all get placed underneath the same mask. The same standard. Our skin is used to identify who we are, yet we hide it because the world doesn’t deem it good enough. Human beings are imperfect. That’s just a fact of life, but we strive for a perfection the magazines and companies tell us we can achieve. The main collage on the board is constructed solely of images I found in various National Geographic magazines. This is because National Geographic travels across the globe and takes pictures of so many people, from so many cultures, who are all themselves. They’re more real than you will find anywhere else. They’re real people. With normal lives. And they are still beautiful. Then on the mask I collaged a bunch of words and brand logos I found in a ‘People’s’ magazine to represent the makeup we put on and what we deem to be perfection. I then painted the mask with clear wax, but I purposely made it uneven and not smooth because I wanted to create a “painted on” appearance that disrupts the beauty. Even some of the collage elements were ripped which added to the representation that even perfection isn’t perfect. As well, the mask is a masquerade mask because the whole idea of a masquerade mask is to cover up your identity, and your skin is your identity. By having the mask looking drastically imperfect, it really elevates the contrast between the beauty of the real people vs. what society says is beautiful. The piece has the images creating the shape of a head, with the mask being placed on top to create the illusion of a face being covered up. Another thing I did was cut out an area around where the “eyes” would be on the head shape and placed an image of a beautiful mass of water to show that we have a beauty within our own minds as well. The cut out was inspired by collage artist John Stezaker who has a series of works called “Masks” where this technique was used. I really think the final product of the piece demonstrates the idea I was trying to get across.
For this project I used a very neutral palette of colors. Since most of my images on the board are of real people, it took a very skin tone earthy palette. This really helped emphasize the idea of skin, and identity since not every photo has someone with the same skin color or ethnicity. The mask on the other hand is a more complex palette. Since no brand logo is really the same, I have a variety of colors on the mask. Although they aren’t all very pigmented. Some of it is in black and white, some of it has color. I think the miss match of colors really emphasizes the idea I’m trying to portray in that it makes the mask less appealing to wear.
Although I didn’t include any text on the board of my piece, I did incorporate pieces of text from the ‘People’s’ magazine that just to attract attention to the messages we are being told about beauty. I had lines like “The centre of my universe”, “How she does it”, “My everything”, “Reveals tips on timeless aging.”, and “I want to look like I slept all night when I didn’t sleep at all”. The two most impactful that I have included are the simple word “Perfection” and the Maybelline slogan “Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s Maybelline”. These two are drastic evidence of what we are being taught to believe. The fact that they wrote “Perfection” on a page in their magazine is telling us that this is their definition of perfect. and to be perfect, we need to look like this. Then for the Maybelline slogan, it’s telling us that maybe that person really is that beautiful or maybe she’s only that way because she wears our product, which you could too. It’s degrading. We are all beautiful people. Yet we choose to believe otherwise and fall for the marketing of these companies telling us that without them we won’t be beautiful. I chose to include these because they prove what’s wrong with our society and how we cover ourselves up because of false ideas implanted in our heads since were born.
To create the collage, I started with taking my wooden board and priming it all white. Once that was dry, I painted the side black so that only the top was white. When that finished, I covered the top of the board in 2 layers of wax to use as a base. Then I went hunting. As I stated already, I mostly looked through National Geographics for images of real people, and then I looked through People’s to find brands and text for the mask. Once all the pictures I liked had been taken out of the magazines, I dipped them into the wax so that they were easier to cut and place onto the board. To cut out the images of the people, I used an exacto-knife along the edges of their bodies using the precise cutting technique. Quite honestly I felt like one of those crazy ex-girlfriends who cut out the faces of their ex from their photographs. Once all the images were finely cut out, I layered them onto the board to create the shape of a head out of their faces by overlapping and superposition. I tried to make sure that all the faces in the images were visible since faces, heads, and masks are the main components of the piece. Next, using the exacto-knife again I cut out from the area around the eyes the “rip out” section. this left a 3D effect since there was multiple layers in that area. Next I took the knife again and used it to scratch up the edges around the area. After this, I took the image of the water and hill and trimmed it to fit just outside of the space, and then lifted up the surrounding area to place in on the board. Then I trimmed it up so that it looked flush with the section on the sides. Finally, I took a piece of parchment paper, placed in onto my piece, and ironed overtop to melt the layers together. For the mask, I dipped into the wax, then placed the words onto it in a very messy fashion. Then I used a paintbrush and some of the clear wax to add another layer that looked quite messy and like brush strokes.
The most difficult part of the project was probably trying to organize the images into the shape of a face or getting the collage elements to stick onto the mask. it was hard to place and overlap the images to create something that resembled a face. As well, trying to pick what images and where they were going so that they were all visible and fit well together. I found basically the entire project enjoyable. It’s a new style of art that I wasn’t aware of, but quite enjoy doing. I loved brainstorming the idea of skin, and watching my design come to life on the panel.
Overall the entire project was just success in my eyes. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process and final result. It is definitely one of my new favourite pieces. I think I really captured my main idea and concept, as well as created a piece that is just overall visually appealing. ‘Masks’ is a piece I really hope other people enjoy.
-r..g
