A Limited Society
By Jungim, Lee
David, Joanna and Abigail Mason
There are so many wonderful and amazing paintings in De Young Museum. When I visited the museum, I realized that the area around the museum was so peaceful, and I instantly felt I would love the museum. Everything looked cozy and nice with great paintings. I saw a bunch of paintings, and everything seemed to speak to me, “Look at me, look at me.” I could not believe how much inspiration there was. For me, inspiration means that each object has a feeling, spirit or beauty. I really believe I can see beauty in everything, even dirt. At the De Young I was inspired by the painting, “David, Joanna and Abigail Mason” by The “Freake-Gibbs” Limner. Nobody really knows who the painter was because there is no information of the painter, but I saw something interesting through the painting, and I decided to create my own artwork from the interesting part by using Illustrator. The interesting part is that the painting is a mirror of society, and I summarized it in my artwork, “A Limited Society.” I tried to make my artwork simple, and tried to make it for viewers to be able to see my thought easily.
“David, Joanna and Abigail Mason” made by using oil paint for a portrait, and the focal point is three children: one boy and two little girls who wear fancy dresses and carry expensive articles. Each child holds symbolic items. The items are symbols of each child’s future and their parents’ hope. On the left hand side, there is a young boy who has expensive leather gloves and a stick. Both depict his upper-class standing. Holding a luxurious stick may mean becoming a successful businessman. Next, the second girl in the center and the other one on the right hand side hold red items. In those times, many children died from disease. That is why the painter put red in the painting because he or she did not want them to die young. Lastly, the girl in the middle has one more item: a fan that represents high society. The painter might have thought the little girl would be the flower of society. Actually there is nothing except children in the painting. The painting looks flat because there is no perspective. The background is simply black, and the figures are also standing side by side. Those elements provide the painting flatlook. However, the figures are proportional but a little bit unskilled because it does not look perfect, but the painter depicted the dresses and articles vividly. Also, there are numbers above each child’s head that represent the children’s ages. This painting is like a description. Therefore, viewers can think and imagine the figures’ lives through the painting.
“David, Joanna and Abigail Mason” was painted a long time ago, so the ideas of painting were quite different from what modern people think. For example, at the time of the painting, in 1670, painting was more like a craft, and including painters’ signatures was not considered important. Also they wanted to show their wealthy and healthy family to record their family history. I think that these ideas of painting are similar to mine and attracted me for that reason initially. But when I thought more about the painting, I was fascinated by the painting’s history because I had read Emma by Jane Austen. This is about social circles in the upper class. So, when I saw the painting, immediately I thought of the story of Emma because I thought the children’s lives might be the same as Emma’s life which belongs to the upper society. At that time, women needed to consider who were going to be their husbands, which was the most important issue for women. So, the ideas of the painting such as a craft, no signatures, more of a hobby for recording their family, and history of the piece of art are enough for me to create my artwork.
In order to create my artwork, first, I used Illustrator, and I tried to make it look universal and pretty. My artwork is based on the universe which is laid out in background. I chose cool colors because I think space seems blue or dark. I also added webs and numbers on my design. There are three eggs which represent children in the painting. In the foreground, I put one biggest egg to tell this is focal point in my work, and the others are in the mid ground and background to create depth. In the negative space, I put triangular shapes to look like space. Lastly, With the exception of the eggs, everything is geometric lines because society is hierarchical and looks geometric like mathematics.
My artwork focuses on society in the past. The web that I put in my artwork is important symbol. The web represents each child’s reality. I wanted to express that their lives might be stuck because of the web. The web is a society that old generation made for new generation. When the eggs are hatched and may become birds, they need to fly to a wide and huge world. But the web will not let them do it because society dictates the limits of where they should be. That is why when I saw the original painting, I could imagine children’s lives limited by their society. For example, today every human should consider not only housework, but also everything such as getting jobs. Their gender does not matter. Everyone has the same equality. However, in the past, Men’s lives looked freer than women’s. But I think men’s lives were limited as women’s. Men needed to act only like men. Women’s lives were also limited. Women needed to be housewives, which was women’s only job. Today most people try to accept another’s thoughts and personalities. Modern people do not think that because you are a girl, you must obey men. This sounds really crazy. So, the society in the past was too limited. They did not think of their lives outside of what was normal.
In conclusion, I found I could get inspiration from the history or context of a painting. For me, this was nice discovery because this lets me know how to see something deeply through the history of a painting. Usually, I see the painting’s skills, but this time I focused on what is behind of the painting. I was glad to learn how to create my own artwork with this way that I had never done before. In future, when looking at some pieces of art, I am not going to pass them but try to think and get inspiration, so I hope I can create another of my artworks again. We are all artists, so finding a different way to get inspiration is precious, that is to say the assignment was helpful for my art study.
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