Inspiration - Different stages of life

When I was doing research online for my coursework, I saw some interesting depiction of the different stages of life.

This picture depicts:

• You start with Milk Bottle
• Kids enjoy Pop and Juices
• Young – mid age is dedicated to beer
• And finally at old age the hospital drink would be the one you can have.

This work used the different bottles to represent the different age groups. I did the same in my sec 3 eoy paper by using the different chairs to represent the age groups. For my coursework this time, I mainly used the photos and other 2D objects, like different types of paper and money, to represent the different experiences people of different age groups are going through.

Other interesting ideas about aging and the different stages of life:

The four stages of life
1) You believe in Santa Claus
2) You don’t believe in Santa Claus
3) You are Santa Claus
4) You look like Santa Claus

Success is:
At age 4 success is . . . . not peeing in your pants
At age 12 success is . . . having friends
At age 16 success is . . . having a drivers license
At age 20 success is . . . having sex
At age 35 success is . . . having money
At age 50 success is . . . having money
At age 60 success is . . . having sex
At age 70 success is . . . having a drivers license
At age 75 success is . . . having friends
At age 80 success is . . . not peeing in your pants

This is interesting as it clearly shows that our life is really like a circle, and when we ages, our life kind of return back to the life we once had when we were little. Hence, elderly need the same care and attention that people are giving to their children. People tend to forget about the elderly as they think the elderly are old enough to take care of themselves. However, elderly are just as dependent as children. And it is really sad when they do not get the attention and care they deserve.
People should realize that when they are taking care of their kids, they should never forget about their old parents.

Inspiration - Sec 3 EOY

I got my coursework inspiration partly from my sec 3 EOY paper. I choose the title "Natural Phenomenon" to paint last year.

The concept of this painting is kind of similar to the one for my coursework. This painting also explores the theme of aging and the cycle of life

However, in this painting, I used the chairs to represent the different stages of life. For example, I used the wheel chair to represent the elderly and the office chair to represent the adults. I was fascinated by the fact that at the different stages of life, we sit on different kinds of chairs. The different kinds of chairs also tell us a lot about that particular age group. For example, the wheel chair tells us that as people slowly ages, their body become weak and eventually they will depend on a wheel chair.

The office chair suggests working for the adults. The third chair, in the middle, is a student's chair, which suggests that studying is a important part of a teenager's life. The chair that shapes like an animal represents the children, where they often sit on these kind of chairs and have fun. The last one at the bottom of the painting is a baby stroller. This symbolizes the fact that babies are often taken good care by the parents.

It is interesting as at both the beginging and the end of life, people seem to be more dependent, where both the baby stroller and the wheel chair requires someone to push them. It shows that both the babies and the elderly should be given more attention as they are the weakest in the society. This shows the cycle of life, where we slowly become stronger and we then start to turn weak again and eventually we need someone to take care of us again.

The big clock at the background symbolizes the time that seems to fly past in our lives.

Overall, the concept in this painting and that of my coursework is rather similar. However, I chose a more direct way to express this theme in my coursework this time. I also added in more objects for each of the age group to better express my theme of aging and the cycle of life.

Inspiration - a letter from mom and dad

This is a video that inspired my coursework. It is a video showing how the elderly feel when they get older. Many elderly in the word are lonely, they do not expect a lot, just a bit of company and understanding. They only want others to be able to sympathizes them and allow them to have a better experience when they life are coming to an end.

This is the main purpose of my coursework. The aim of my coursework is to allow people of different ages to be able to sympthesis and understand people who may be older or younger than them. I wish that after people view my coursework, they will be able to see the world through the perspective of the others and try to understand the pain and stress they are going through. (I wish that students after viewing my work will understand that they are much taken care of when they are young, however many people of the other age groups are facing pressure and fears such as the fear of death faced by the elderly.)

Hence, I would like students to understand that they should try their best to appreciate the people around them and make the people's (mainly the adults and elderly) life easier.

Inspiration - Rembrandt self portraits

Between those fortyyears Rembrandt modeled for himself so many times that we can't help but wonder why. There seems to be several advantages for Rembrandt to turn to the mirror for inspiration. One notion suggests that as a young and struggling artist, Rembrandt was the most readily available model. He could paint himself anytime, anywhere without having to pay or rely on a professional model. Another reason for the multitude of self-portraits may lie in the typical clientele of the time. Rembrandt often painted his own face deep in the shadows or with grimacing expressions, techniques that he certainly could not explore on the portrait of a wealthy client. Kelly noted that fo r Rembrandt, "self-portraits became an outlet for feelings and ideas concerning the nature of human existence which found no satisfactory channel elsewhere." In this case, his own face provided a wide range of opportunity for growth and discovery as an artist.Rembrandt's series of self portraits through out the years became a source of inspiration for my artwork. Firstly in each of the self portraits, there are detailed depictions of each and every structure on the face and accurate capture of the texture of the skin. For the self portraits that were done in the earlier years, the facial textures depicted were rather smooth and the figure looks to be full of energy. As there seems to be a sense of curiousity in his eyes.

As the years progresses, then figures appears to become more serious and tense. It is visible that most of the times he will be frowning. This shows the process of Rembrandt growing and maturing as the years pass.

At the later portraits, wrinkles starts to appear. The face appears to be less energetic but there seems to be a sense of serene and calmness in the expression.

Rembrandt has expressed his life cycle through his self portraits, which is very relevant to my coursework. These portraits show the expressions Rembrandt had at the different stages of his life and also how his facial appearance ages through time.

Through his series of self portraits, we can see Rembrandt's process of aging and how his physical appearances changes as time progresses.

Inspiration -- Mayan Mask of Death and Rebirth

"This Maya mask shows the different stages of life as part of a never ending cycle of human evolution through life and the afterlife as it was understood by the Mayans. The mask has three layered faces, each representing one particular stage of life. The inner face represents the beginning of life at birth. The middle face is the most important one since it represents the adult stage when the person comes into his full potential and most of his life experiences happened. The outer or third face represents the end of earthly life.

This sacred time was viewed by the Maya as the end of one cycle and the beginning of another one. Death was followed by lavish preparations for the next life."

quoted from: http://www.squidoo.com/mayan_civilization

This ancient artwork of the ancient mayan civilization bears great relevance to my artwork. This artwork explores the theme of the circle of life and the issue of aging and death. The 3 different masks also illustrates the physical appearance of people at the different stages of life. The masks actually uses the textures and characteristics of the faces to symbolize the different ages. The smooth texture of the inner most mask symbolise the start of life, when the child or youth has not yet experienced the society yet, and he is still calm.

The mask in the middle (which symbolises adulthood) is depicted with lines over the masks which represents the winkles on adults' faces after experiencing the society and the complexity of life.

The outermost layer shows a very calm expression. As the mayans believe that "the end of one cycle is the beginning of another", so the mayans actually enjoys the progress of death as they believe that they are going to embark on a new journey.

The sculpture also discusses the theme of death, where they do not fear it, instead they welcome it as they will be experiencing something new soon.

Inspiration: Artist Laurent Dauptain sees himself staring back from his art

"Artist Laurent Dauptain is known for painting over 3000 self-portraits depicting his gradual aging.

Dorian Gray he's not.

Artist Laurent Dauptain has painted thousands of self-portraits over the past 25 years, capturing every new wrinkle, every new gray hair.

And the 49-year-old Frenchman says he'll do it until the day he dies.

"I don't have to worry about flattering somebody or hurting someone's ego," he said of his strange fixation.

Still, it took one of his most important critics - his wife of 13 years - a while to warm up to the project.

"At first I thought he was obsessed and crazy," admits Sylvie Dauptain, 46. "Now I understand."

"There's a lot of freedom," when you decide to make yourself your artistic subject, Laurent Dauptain said yesterday, shortly after arriving from Paris ahead of his exhibit in Chelsea.

It all started when, at age 20, Dauptain drew 12 self-portraits for a college assignment to imagine himself at different ages.

He was fascinated by the results, which depicted his face from age 15 to 95.

He set out on a mission to re-create the project in real time."

To know more, visit: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/05/06/2010-05-06_artist_laurent_dauptain_sees_himself_staring_back_from_his_art.html

This is an art exhibition showing the around 3000 self portraits of the same artist.

Firstly, I really admire the resilience and perseverance the artist has when creating this series of paintings. He need to constantly paint his self portrait everyday, no matter how bored or tired he might be. This art exhibition really shows us that being an artist is not an easy job. Many a times, artists need to continue with a piece of work for an extremely long period of time. And in the case of Duptain, he has continued on with his work for more than 25 years. Many of the good artworks in history also took a long period of time to complete, for exmaple Da Vinci spent nearly his entire second half of his life time trying to complete the 'Mona Lisa' which is now viewed as the most precious work in the world.

This series of painting also reflects his life. As he grows older, i guess this series of paintings can serve as a memory of his past as he can then reflect the things he has done in his life. Many a times, artists create works not with the sole purpose of exhibiting it. I guess artists produce the works with their own intentions. However, if artist only create works so that they can exhibit it and gain fame and fortune from it, then the process of art making has then lose its purpose and joy. Artists should do art for the enjoyment or reflection on one self or the society.

I guess this shows that no matter in creating artworks or other aspects of life, we always need to put in efforts and persevere on in order to achieve the best result.

This artworks shares the same theme as my course work. By painting his self portraits every day for 25 years, the artist has shown through his daily paintings, his every own process of aging. As we can see from the different self portraits, the physical appearance of the artist ages everyday. Although he did not painted the portraits with much details, however the audience can still feel the process of aging through his work. The paintings seem to be less energetic and having more calmness in the later portraits. He explores the issue of aging and the different stages of life in his painting, and this is the theme which I wish to explore further for my coursework.