Artist Statement
This project illustrates seemingly gruesome deaths, in beautiful ways. I was inspired by many similar pieces which talk about death, beauty, and femininity.
Feminine presenting people are always expected to be at their best and beautiful, even in the extremes. Beauty in pain, beauty in sickness, and now beauty in death. I wanted the women in these pieces to be beautiful. Despite the intense action, their emotions are subtle. This is to show the theme of conflating woman hood and perfectionism. Women are often dismissed if they display intense emotions no matter the cause, so they are taught to bottle up their emotions. I showed them following this social norm even in death.
Another layer of these portraits is the racism on top of the sexism of these expectations. Minority women face challenges because of their races, they are discriminated and harmed more often because of racist societal norms.
For each piece I picked an analogous color scheme, and switched around a combination of shapes, to make each unique while also fitting together in a series.
Piece Breakdown
Stab
For this piece I chose a pink to yellow color scheme. The expression on her face is one of fear, directly relating to the color yellow. Which can make the viewer feel unease.
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I chose square as the primary shape for this piece. Making her head and focal point square. The hairstyle is triangular, while the nose is rounded.
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Since in this piece it's implied she is stabbed through the heart, I had flowers coming mainly out of her chest "wound", but a few coming out of her mouth. Implying she is coughing up blood.
Shot
This piece has a cooler color pallet, ranging from pink to blue. Blue is generally associated with calm emotions, and the cool color pallet reinforces this. Her emotions are more on the resigned side, almost acceptance.
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The main shape for this piece is a circle. The head is a circular shape, the hairstyle is square, and the nose is triangular.
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It's shot is implied to go through the side of the head. So I put flowers mostly coming out of the side of the head where the exit "wound" is, as well as some of the side of the entrance "wound".
Suffocate
Last we have a piece with a more mixed color pallet. I chose to do from blue to yellow. Green relates to sickness, and yellow is again related to unease. So for her facial expression, she seems scared and almost sick.
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This shape for this piece is triangular. Her head is triangular, her hairstyle is circular, and her nose is rectangular.
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The "wound" is a little more vague. The implication is her neck was sliced and she is suffocating due to the "wound". I made the flowers pour out of the "wound" as well as some flying upwards, to imply it's more violent.