Digital Collage

Another challenging project for digital drawing: come up with a digital collage. (I hate making collages. Mine always end up reminding me of my angst-filled teenage years.)

At first I had a very hard time trying to figure out how to organize and express all the ideas that flooded my mind while brainstorming. I wrote in my sketchbook and took time to narrate the feelings and images that came to mind. I did this for hours. After I was done I looked at my notes, felt just as lost as ever and just said "fuck it" and started gathering images that interested me and evoked feelings similar to those that I brainstormed with. I messed around for a few days with images, composition and narrative. I slowly found my way to this.

This is one of those creations that honestly found me. I searched for the images and played with combinations, but the pieces fell into place themselves and the narrative I had subconsciously been creating was revealed to me as I went. By the time I was 2/3 of the way done I understood what I was -trying to say- and spend the last 1/3 of the image tweaking and wondering if the message would be evident to anyone other than me.

For me personally this speaks strongest about my relationship with stereotypes, particularly connected to race and culture. I was thinking about blackface when I started this and so that image prevailed, so this has a strong connection to images and ideas of blackness. It speaks to me however, about the characterized elements of race in general. I wanted to touch on the perpetuation of these ideas in their different forms and the restrictive patterns I perceive in all of it, but I also think it shows the strange rejection and acceptance of these ideas.

I thought a cartoon character was perfect. There is no better form of character then a cartoon. It represents no one in particular and yet everyone all together, just as stereotypes do. There is also something about a cartoon that reflects elements of social ideals of race. We can feel free to express through cartoons elements that we wouldn't dare to do otherwise just as we can express through stereotypes things we'd fear attributing to a specific individual. Stereotypes and bias are openly accepted here and usually cheerfully and humorously.