JEREMY OLSON CONTEXT
Jeremy Olson is an artist that currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Olson is quite popular for the geometry that he uses in his paintings. Olson uses portraits to experiment with his style. By scrambling up different shapes of the paintings and putting it back together in the outline of the faces of the people. this is like a mental puzzle for the viewer.
Analysis
What can I see?
In this photo I can see a portrait of a woman with different parts of her face cut up into geometrical shapes to fit the outlines of her face. In some of the shapes you can see parts of her eyes, her lips, her nose and different parts of her face. In some of the shapes you can see her fingernails painted pink, this is the only thing that doesn't fit the puzzle picture as this painting is only a portrait and we only see her face to her shoulders.
In this photo I can see a portrait of a woman with different parts of her face cut up into geometrical shapes to fit the outlines of her face. In some of the shapes you can see parts of her eyes, her lips, her nose and different parts of her face. In some of the shapes you can see her fingernails painted pink, this is the only thing that doesn't fit the puzzle picture as this painting is only a portrait and we only see her face to her shoulders.
Feelings & mood
To me this picture screams confused identity, this picture shows me that the identity of this person is not well known. by mixing up the different shapes this shows confusion and by placing it in the outline of her face, this showed me that the confusion is her identity. In this painting there seems to be a mixture of dark and light atmosphere, which is shown by the dark shapes and the bright shapes all mixed up together. To me this picture also represents prejudice. The woman in the painting looks like someone you would class and think of as well put together, and by using the geometrical shapes on her face, it showed a disorder to this ordered woman's face. I chose this picture because the soft girly colours, such as purple and pink that were used attracted me to the picture and also because it stood out, it had a deeper meaning. |
Colour & mood
Olson has used soft and gentle colours for the majority of the painting, such as pale greyish blue, light purple, baby pink, light pink, hot pink, greyish green, light peachy colours and brown for her hair. Whilst in 3 of the shapes on her face she has used darker colours to represent shadows. These darker tones contrast with the bright colours and cause a dark feeling to the painting. Light & tone
The light is pointed to the right side of her face, which is represented with the lighter peachy tones whilst the left side of her face was painted using a darker peachy colour and some dark outlines to represent the shadows formed. The dark shadows or overshadowed by the brightness of the rest of the painting. |
What have I learnt?
- I have learnt with this picture that sometimes the weirder the idea sometimes can also be the cause of a great picture
- I have learnt that contrasts really help to make the photo interesting
- I have also learnt to use different shades of colours to represent different moods.
What can I see?
This is a painting of a portrait of a man from his head to his shoulders. In the centre of the mans face you can see different geometrical shapes, all scrambled up together, some are upside. Right in the centre is an upside down painting of his lips. In this painting you can see that this man is wearing glasses. The majority of the colours used were a light, sort of dull colour, apart from the orange that is used in some of the geometrical shapes. |
Feelings, colour & mood
To me this picture looks like a x ray picture, looking deeper into a person. The reds and oranges and swirly lines look like someone's intestines to me.This picture also reminds me of different pizza slices as the shapes are all triangles and have different colours and different things in them, what I might call pizza toppings. The artist has used subtle muted colours like a light peach, a light pink for the lips and has also used a dark blue for the man's shirt and a pale grey for some parts of his shirt and the background. Olson has also used a autumn orange and a blood red colour, which bring connotations of blood to this photo. |
Composition
I believe that the focal point in this picture is the biggest triangle filled with lips, roughly around the middle of this painting. This picture is definitely asymmetrical because of all the different shaped triangles filled with different pieces of this painting. With this painting i look at the biggest triangle -filled with lips- first, then I look at the triangle below it filled with reds and oranges, after that I look at the triangle at the top with a piece of his orange glasses in them. |
Light & Tone
With this picture the light is coming from the right side of this man's face as that's the side that's the lightest and his left side is darker, represented by using darker colours. The light and tone added onto this photo makes this picture more lifelike, and makes it stand out more. The artist has also painted some dark shadows behind the man's head this creates a sort of dark mood to the picture. |
What have I learnt?
- I have learnt to use dark shadows to create depths to my pictures
- I learnt that however crazy an idea can be it may also be worth it as it may create a masterpiece
- I have learnt that I can use my art to represent a certain thing in this case it was a puzzle