Abstract
Artist's Statement:
Twenty-one is a composition portrait of a teenager. The technique employed includes printing the image on 5” x 7” aluminum flashing, using an inkjet transfer process. While investigating alternative printing processes, I learned of German artist Berit Myreboe’s hauntingly beautiful portraits that are manipulated transfer prints on aluminum, accented with paint. I emulated Myreboe’s work in using aluminum as a printing surface for my portraits, but I decided not to add paint to soften the images. I utilized aluminum as a printing surface to add depth to the work and to reinforce a sense of constant change as light plays across the reflective surface of the prints. The portrait is repeated to infer the imperfections of a developing teenager and to convey the myriad of emotions that lurk beneath the surface. The work is in reaction to my own children’s teenage development. The portraits are left raw, imperfect, and unfinished with the intent of evoking the changing and developing emotions of a teenager.
Rights Statement
Articles published in The Graduate Review are the property of the individual contributors and may not be reprinted, reformatted, repurposed or duplicated, without the contributor's consent.
Recommended Citation
Gillis-Janssen, Melanie F.
(2016)
Twenty-One.
The Graduate Review, 1, 34.
Available at: https://vc.bridgew.edu/grad_rev/vol1/iss1/11
Comments
Mixed media
30 x 40 in.