Project # 1: Faux Selfies

Project #1: Faux Selfies

Artist Statement: The following works were created to tell a collective story of a young man. His story is not different than most of ours, yet he has found himself stuck in a past that no longer exists. A relationship can have many impacts on our lives, but when we refuse to let go we miss out on what was meant to come after. These images depict just that. A young man who refuses to let go of his past relationship has cut himself off from the world. In all aspects of his life, he is no longer able to see the lighter side. I contrasted my color scheme to accentuate the depressing theme as well as the missed opportunities from living in the past. The opportunities that are not seen by the young man are represented through lighter colors whereas black and white (and blue) represent the past. I used cigarettes as a reoccurring image to showcase the self-reflection and coping mechanisms adopted by someone still mourning the death of a relationship. I chose to use different mediums to reflect the young man, sometimes a stoic statue, a skeleton, or sometimes just a human male. This project came with its challenges as it can be difficult to show missed opportunities through digital art. I found it hard to express (without words) that more color meant the opportunities that are missed through living in the past. Nevertheless, I created these images to represent a reality that many have lived through. Oftentimes we underestimate the effect a relationship can have on someone's psyche, and this was created to demonstrate just that.

Six works completed in Adobe Photoshop: