RUBY RODRIGUEZ.

P7 1

Artist statement

Surrealism is a 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature that

sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the

irrational juxtaposition of images and is also the main idea for our self portrait.

Surrealism is destructive but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting

our vision a quote by Salvador Dali that inspired my self-portrait and me. For my self-

portrait I used symbols that matched my identity and personality. We stenciled the first

draft of the portrait and used positive and negative space throughout the project. The

purpose of the project was to give us a better understanding of surrealism and our own

identity.

For this project I used three symbols to symbolize my identity. My symbols all

represent around the same thing, wisdom. My first symbol was the rings of a tree, and I

had them placed on my forehead. The rings represent wisdom and the past. The rings of a

tree show the history of the tree in great detail and no rings are the same so every tree is

different. My second symbol was tree branches reaching up towards my fingers starting

at my wrist. This symbol represents wisdom, strength, and also unity. My final symbol is

like tree vines being spread throughout my hair, which represents beauty and strength.

These symbols are examples of shapes and forms. Being Native American and coming

from two tribes (Choctaw, and Yaki) in my culture trees are respected and honored, and a

sign of strength, wisdom, family, and unity.

I created this portrait to represent who I am. The artwork I created in my opinion

should be in art galleries. My portrait is about myself and represents wisdom and so do

my symbols, the rings, vines, and the branches. I think my artwork will fit better in art
galleries because, I think all people would enjoy, and understand my portrait. But I do

think that more of the younger crowd would take an interest. I assume that my audience

would wonder how wise I am especially since Im so young, because most people wont

expect that from a person at such a young age. Surrealism in art portraits is considered

both a cultural and revolutionary are movement. An artist once said, everything we see

hides another thing. We always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an

interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can

take the form a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say, between visible

thats hidden and the visible that is present. A quote that inspired me by Rene Magritte

who painted the son of man. Another artist that I look up to would be Frida Kahlo, this

woman because her story of how she began painting was amazing. Frida was a strong and

independent woman who held her ground and demanded to be heard in amazing ways.

She inspires me in many ways, her work was her life and she painted with amazing

symbols and surrealism.

Many artists have inspired me. But just to list a few would be Rene Magritte,

Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo, and Pablo Picasso. These wonderful gifted artists have

inspired me to create my self-portrait based on surrealism. With the identity of wisdom

and symbols that include, rings, trucks, and vines of a tree.