Title: La Llorona in the Creek
Medium: Digital Drawing
September 2017
Exhibition Text
"La Llorona in the Creek" was created to show the story of every woman's life and how it is related to La Llorona. This piece exhibits some of the things that a woman might experience throughout her life by using colors and references to La Llorona, everything from the hues to every small detail which adds to the fact that everything counts when it comes down to a woman's life.
The Meaning
"La Llorona in the Creek" is a piece that exhibits the story of a woman who converts into La Llorona. This woman can be any woman who has ever experience solitude or sorrow, this is the story of every woman who has ever lived. Each of the colors represent a little bit of ones life, everything from yellow representing happiness to black representing sorrow, each feature of the piece is a chapter to the story.
Experimentation
My skills with any digital work are minimal, for this project I challenged myself to create a digital piece. I wanted to learn something new, thus I decided to create a series of digital drawings related to a novel discussed in my literature class, Woman Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros.
My experimentation began by analyzing the novel and creating connections where I could explore another point of view and turn it into an art piece. Because of both the author's and my ethnicity are under the same umbrella, we share some traditions and stories; I found there is this legend on Hispanic culture about this woman who cried for her children and that Cisneros makes references of her though her novel, I experimented on different ways that I could incorporate both points of view of women into one drawing. For this I created many sketches and decided to make more than one digital drawing. The second part of my experimentation was the point were I began to draw, I had no previous knowledge on digital drawing, however I was willing to learn. I compiled some of my most intriguing questions and learned how to use many tools, this was a learning experience where I got to expand my knowledge and realize how many mediums of art there are in this world. After experimenting with some tools I began to draw the white and black drawings first and later the color drawings.
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Process
1. Finding Inspiration
From the beginning I knew that Cisneros was going to be my main inspiration, because of her talent and the relationship between her stories and La Llorona. However, I still needed to find an artist to base my work on. I began to research artist who were experts on digital art, but none of these artists gave me the inspiration that I desired. I continued my research and found Monet, an artist who conveyed emotions and reality into a single piece. This got my attention and it inspired me to create this piece.
2. Creating Sketches
In order to begin drawing I needed to sketch some previous outcomes of the final piece. I created two main sketches and from those two sketches I was able to create a total of six digital drawings. In these sketches I tried to show all of the elements combined between the novel and the legend, this was not very successful due to the fact that it did not show the process of the woman becoming La Llorona and this was the goal of this piece.
From the beginning I knew that Cisneros was going to be my main inspiration, because of her talent and the relationship between her stories and La Llorona. However, I still needed to find an artist to base my work on. I began to research artist who were experts on digital art, but none of these artists gave me the inspiration that I desired. I continued my research and found Monet, an artist who conveyed emotions and reality into a single piece. This got my attention and it inspired me to create this piece.
2. Creating Sketches
In order to begin drawing I needed to sketch some previous outcomes of the final piece. I created two main sketches and from those two sketches I was able to create a total of six digital drawings. In these sketches I tried to show all of the elements combined between the novel and the legend, this was not very successful due to the fact that it did not show the process of the woman becoming La Llorona and this was the goal of this piece.
3. Digital Drawings
I began by sketching and experimenting on digital drawing, this was only done for me to become more familiar to the tools of the program. Once I was done experimenting with tools I began to draw. At this time I decided to create different drawings all based on the sketches that I has previously created. I used a variety of colors and lines to create the drawing, I did not want the drawings to look perfect nor clean, I wanted them to exhibit life itself and how emotions are never a straight line.
Once I had all of the main lines on each drawing I began to use some of the other tools to make it look more like the artworks from Monet, once I was pleased I finished the other drawings.
I began by sketching and experimenting on digital drawing, this was only done for me to become more familiar to the tools of the program. Once I was done experimenting with tools I began to draw. At this time I decided to create different drawings all based on the sketches that I has previously created. I used a variety of colors and lines to create the drawing, I did not want the drawings to look perfect nor clean, I wanted them to exhibit life itself and how emotions are never a straight line.
Once I had all of the main lines on each drawing I began to use some of the other tools to make it look more like the artworks from Monet, once I was pleased I finished the other drawings.
Artist Inspiration
Woman Hollering Creek is a novel by Sandra Cisneros. This was one of the pieces read on literature class and arguably it was one of my favorites. This was one of the most reliable and fascinating novels I had ever read for school, this novel made me questions and wonder many things, but most of all it inspired me. I was able to obtain inspiration from Cisneros to create a series on digital drawings to exhibit the reality of some stories. The stories where she compared a simple woman with the legend of La Llorona.
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The artist that inspired me to create digital drawings was Claude Monet. Monet was a very talented impressionist artist who would paint simple landscapes with hues that would exhibit his emotions rather then the actual scenery hues. Monet inspired me to create a drawing where I would exhibit my mood and the scenery, by using elements of impressionism and realism.
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Reflection
The goal of this piece was to create a story of how a woman could potentially be or become La Llorona and based on the results of the piece I was able to meet this goal. I am pleased with the digital drawings, since this was my first attempt to digital drawings. If I were to do this piece again I would change the program that I created the drawings on, this would help me to experience different sources and choose the most reliable in order to create better drawings. I would also maybe use only one tool to create all of the drawings to mimic the technique that Monet would use to create his paintings.
The results of this piece are close to my previous goals and this is very pleasing due to the fact that each of the drawing contains a different meaning which create part of the story from all of the drawings placed together, these drawings exhibit the meaning without overly emphasizing La Llorona, which was the overall goal.
The results of this piece are close to my previous goals and this is very pleasing due to the fact that each of the drawing contains a different meaning which create part of the story from all of the drawings placed together, these drawings exhibit the meaning without overly emphasizing La Llorona, which was the overall goal.
ACT Questions
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
This piece was inspired by Monet, specially his technique on impressionism. How all of his brushstrokes were a word to create a sentence and each color a page, to create the final piece which is the story and I followed the same technique to complete this piece.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author of my research describes the technique that Monet used to use when creating his pieces and how impressionism changed the way that people look at the world.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Throughout my research I found that many cultures share traditions. Some traditions which are never forgotten and have a big impact on peoples life.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The theme that I focused on was emotions and nature. I researched mostly in emotions because I wanted the hues and technique to symbolize the emotions of the woman, but also show the nature and appreciation that I have for the creek as well as the woman.
5) What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
The inferences that I made while doing my research were that there are many artist, just like Cisneros, who incorporate their culture into their art. This makes the art more personal and relatable to others who share part of the artist's culture.
This piece was inspired by Monet, specially his technique on impressionism. How all of his brushstrokes were a word to create a sentence and each color a page, to create the final piece which is the story and I followed the same technique to complete this piece.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author of my research describes the technique that Monet used to use when creating his pieces and how impressionism changed the way that people look at the world.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Throughout my research I found that many cultures share traditions. Some traditions which are never forgotten and have a big impact on peoples life.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The theme that I focused on was emotions and nature. I researched mostly in emotions because I wanted the hues and technique to symbolize the emotions of the woman, but also show the nature and appreciation that I have for the creek as well as the woman.
5) What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
The inferences that I made while doing my research were that there are many artist, just like Cisneros, who incorporate their culture into their art. This makes the art more personal and relatable to others who share part of the artist's culture.