Digital Collage
Size 36 x 24 in, 170 resolution
Medium Digital Manipulation
Completion November 2021
Size 36 x 24 in, 170 resolution
Medium Digital Manipulation
Completion November 2021
Exhibition Text This digital collage shows how dance and an injury can affect your mental health and create change. This piece was inspired by John Stezaker and his piece “Muse” with the way he creates pieces from various relationships. Jesse Treece’s piece “Mountains Between '' inspired me because of how he combined two different pictures to create one. Using a camera to take pictures and photoshop to create the digital collage to create a meaningful piece that goes along with my essay. |
Meaning Behind the Art
Ever since I could remember dance has been a part of my life. At 3 years old I was already in ballet and tap, I continued with these but also added tumbling and jazz into the mix. One memory that stands out the most is when my parents took me to Irish Fest one year and I saw the Irish dancers. At that moment I knew that's what I wanted to do. So that September I started Irish dance along with the other dances I was already doing. By the age of 8 I knew that I only wanted to Irish dance. Since that day I have been Irish dancing.
I’ve been lucky to say that I’ve never really been injured until March of 2021. Previously leading up to regionals in November 2020 I was in a lot of pain. My hips were always in pain and they made weird snapping noises. I tried everything to be pain free until I danced at regionals which worked. At the same time my hips were in pain, my foot was. It was the ball of my foot, I really thought nothing of it. I just assumed it was being overused from the amount of practice we had. After regionals my hips and foot got a little better due to the lack of dancing, but they only got worse. We were filming a show for St. Patrick's day and I came home every night crying because I was in so much pain. My mom knew something was wrong because I have a high pain tolerance and for me to complain this much shows how much pain I was in. I danced through the pain and finished filming the show, and the next day we went to a sports medicine doctor to figure out what was wrong. After multiple X-Rays I was told I have snapping hip syndrome and sesamoiditis. They said if I would have danced one more week my foot would probably have been fractured.
I was told that I could still do Nationals over the first week in July. After a month off of nothing I started physical therapy. I was told I could start dancing the last week of May for a competition that weekend. For all of June my foot had never been worse. I could barely walk but I continued to dance to train for Nationals. The day I danced at Nationals my foot was the worst it's ever been. I remember looking at my foot and I didn’t have an arch there was a huge bruised bump where my arch should have been. During that day a part that stood out the most was when my dance teacher was taping my shoe, and she got so scared because my legs started shaking so much and I felt nothing. The next day at the airport we made another doctor's appointment. At the appointment they told me I needed an MRI, the doctor took a look at my foot and said yeah this is bad. When we got the MRI results back they said that I had fractured my sesamoid and that I had caused other problems with the muscles in my foot and it went up to my ankle. The MRI also said that some parts of my foot could be in a boot but others should be casted. My doctor decided to put me in a boot with crutches. After a few weeks on crutches I could stop using them but I had to wear the boot until the middle of October. My doctor also told me that visiting a sports psychologist would probably be helpful. He said that because I have been injured for so long my subconscious brain is slowing down the healing process. When I went to the sports psychologist they diagnosed me with anxiety, saying that this was one of the reasons my injury could taking so long to heal.
This injury has taken a toll on not only physically but mentally as well. When I was first diagnosed in March I remember almost crying every day because I couldn’t dance. It was so challenging to just sit at dance and watch everybody but not be able to do it. I remember when I came back to dance just for Nationals hopeful that the happiness dances had brought me before would come back. It never really did, I was happy for the first week but the pain over threw that. I was in so much pain it wasn’t fun. After 5 minutes of dancing I would need to stop or be told to stop by my teachers. Throughout this month I wasn’t looking forward to Nationals, I was counting down the days until I could be done and go back to the doctors. When Nationals finally came to an end and I went to the doctors it absolutely crushed me to hear that I couldn’t do the regional competition this November. It hurt even more to find out that I probably couldn't start dancing until 2022. It sucks to have people ask me if I like being injured or how lucky I am that I don’t have to go full out and dance, but the truth is that I would do anything to dance again pain free. Throughout this injury I have fought through the sadness of not being able to dance and having to watch from the sides. I have learned to overcome this sadness with hope to recover where I don’t have to repeat this process and to look forward to the future.
Inspiration
For my Digital Collage I was inspired by John Stezaker and Jesse Treece. I was drawn to John Stezaker because of how he created his digital collages. Stezaker re-examines relationships between various things using photographs. Stezakers collage the “Muse” really got my attention because he used two completely different pictures to create one. This is where I got the idea to take two different pictures and put them together without blending them, leaving the harsh lines. Jesse Treece is another collage artist. Treece’s collages were simple and showed everyday things, his collages gave people joy. The collages offer a wide window to just stare and gaze into this alternate world where everything is inverted in ways unimaginable that he has created. Treece used the classic way of collages by making them on paper and cutting out pictures from magazines. The collage that inspired me was “Mountains Between ''. It was very similar to my idea of taking pictures and turning them into one. I also really liked the idea of taking these pictures and turning them into one without blending them, which both artists did. |
"Muse" John Stezaker
“Mountains Between '' Jesse Treece
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Planning
The first step I took was deciding what themes and what I wanted to do. This part was pretty easy because we had to do a writing part on this project. The idea that came to mind was dance and my injury. Since I deal with it everyday it's always fresh in my mind. The next thing I planned was what themes could be tied into this project. Once I decided on mental health and change I started looking for inspiration. After this I started to sketch a few ideas before I took the pictures. I tried to show the details and plan out how I wanted the picture to turn out in the end.
The first step I took was deciding what themes and what I wanted to do. This part was pretty easy because we had to do a writing part on this project. The idea that came to mind was dance and my injury. Since I deal with it everyday it's always fresh in my mind. The next thing I planned was what themes could be tied into this project. Once I decided on mental health and change I started looking for inspiration. After this I started to sketch a few ideas before I took the pictures. I tried to show the details and plan out how I wanted the picture to turn out in the end.
Process
After I figured out what I wanted to do my digital collage on, I started to sketch it. After a few sketches and ideas I started to take the pictures. I took the pictures of myself in my dance shoe first. I did this because of the lighting so it would be before the sun set. I had the idea in my head that I would stand one my toes with both feet and just crop out my right foot. After trying to do this pose I realized I couldn’t because I am still injured so I was in pain. I took pictures by just pointing my left foot so I wasn’t in pain.
After taking the first pictures in my dance shoes, I needed to wait until the sun had set to take the ones in the boot. This was a hard part because I wanted to get it dark enough to tell a difference in between pictures but I didn’t want it to be dark where you couldn’t see anything. The first time I took pictures it was too dark where you couldn’t see anything. The next day I timed it right and got the pictures where there was the right amount of darkness.
When I was first thinking about this project I wanted there to be a harsh line down the middle of the piece. I thought the line would show the difference between being injured and healthy and able to dance. After thinking about this I wanted to have the line blended, because I still danced even being injured so I thought this was a better idea.
I used Photopea to create the digital collage. I set the dimensions to 24 x 36 inches with a resolution of 170 for the collage. For the picture with the boot after taking the picture I changed the lighting to make it darker to really add to the effect I wanted to create. I uploaded the images and took the blended tool to blend the harsh line down the middle. I wanted it to look almost melted together because that's what I did, I was injured but still pushed through. Once I thought it was blended enough I saved it.
After I figured out what I wanted to do my digital collage on, I started to sketch it. After a few sketches and ideas I started to take the pictures. I took the pictures of myself in my dance shoe first. I did this because of the lighting so it would be before the sun set. I had the idea in my head that I would stand one my toes with both feet and just crop out my right foot. After trying to do this pose I realized I couldn’t because I am still injured so I was in pain. I took pictures by just pointing my left foot so I wasn’t in pain.
After taking the first pictures in my dance shoes, I needed to wait until the sun had set to take the ones in the boot. This was a hard part because I wanted to get it dark enough to tell a difference in between pictures but I didn’t want it to be dark where you couldn’t see anything. The first time I took pictures it was too dark where you couldn’t see anything. The next day I timed it right and got the pictures where there was the right amount of darkness.
When I was first thinking about this project I wanted there to be a harsh line down the middle of the piece. I thought the line would show the difference between being injured and healthy and able to dance. After thinking about this I wanted to have the line blended, because I still danced even being injured so I thought this was a better idea.
I used Photopea to create the digital collage. I set the dimensions to 24 x 36 inches with a resolution of 170 for the collage. For the picture with the boot after taking the picture I changed the lighting to make it darker to really add to the effect I wanted to create. I uploaded the images and took the blended tool to blend the harsh line down the middle. I wanted it to look almost melted together because that's what I did, I was injured but still pushed through. Once I thought it was blended enough I saved it.
This was the first picture that was taken and I liked the way it turned out, I just think that the angle was a little weird and out of focus.
This was on of the better boot pictures. I just think that it could be darker.
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This was the angle I liked but holding the pose was getting to be to much for my foot so I needed to change it up.
This is the final boot picture. I changed the lighting to make it look darker.
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This was the final picture I used. After changing pose's it not only helped my injured foot it helped my left foot also because I could make the arch look better in the picture.
This was after setting up Photopea to the right dimension before I started working on the final piece.
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This was the first picture taken in the boot. It was just to dark out making the lighting off.
This was the final piece after I blended that line down the middle of the collage.
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Reflection
Compare and Contrast
Similarities
Similarities
- How me and both of the artists used 2 different pictures and just put them together. We didn’t really take multiple objects to create one, we just used 2 pictures.
- I used the idea that John Stezaker uses with creating the collage to show a relationship, mine was between myself being able to dance vs. being injured.
- In both of my inspiration pieces they had used a human face for at least one of their pictures, when I only had my legs.
- In John Stezaker he doesn’t have the faces line up compared to mine where I tried to line my legs up.
Critique
ACT Questions
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
When I first started this project I knew I wanted to do it on dance, but I didn't know how to create the collage. After finding my inspiration that I really liked, that helped me come up with ideas on how to create and design my collage.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
When I went to find websites for inspiration to learn more about the artist most of them came up trying to sell me pieces. The other website I used gave me lots of information about different digital collage artists. Once I found an artist that i liked there style of collages I started to research them more.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Before I started researching and before I got injured I always knew about mental health. The thing that I discovered most was how much change can affect your mental health. Before I got injured my mental health was fine but after I got injured and had to deal with the change that's what really affected me.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
The themes that I decided to talk about in the piece are mental health and change.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
When I was trying to find an artist I found a bunch that would use their platforms to speak put about problems in society for example basic human rights, mental health, and climate change.
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
When I first started this project I knew I wanted to do it on dance, but I didn't know how to create the collage. After finding my inspiration that I really liked, that helped me come up with ideas on how to create and design my collage.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
When I went to find websites for inspiration to learn more about the artist most of them came up trying to sell me pieces. The other website I used gave me lots of information about different digital collage artists. Once I found an artist that i liked there style of collages I started to research them more.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Before I started researching and before I got injured I always knew about mental health. The thing that I discovered most was how much change can affect your mental health. Before I got injured my mental health was fine but after I got injured and had to deal with the change that's what really affected me.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
The themes that I decided to talk about in the piece are mental health and change.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
When I was trying to find an artist I found a bunch that would use their platforms to speak put about problems in society for example basic human rights, mental health, and climate change.
Bibliography
Baker, H. (2014, January 14). Top 10 Collage Artists: Hannah Höch to Man Ray. AnOther. https://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/3318/top-10-collage-artists-hannah-hoch-to-man-ray