Hippocampus
Lola H.
Acrylic on gessoed paper
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This is a piece about growing up. I decided to compose a mini room using objects significant from my childhood. The vibrancy of the colors and surrealistic scale give the room a dreamlike quality, representative of core memories and the emotions of adolescence. I used figurines and toys I collected when I was younger, and I built other aspects of the room (including the chair and window) using cardboard followed by a paper mache process. After finishing the actual creation of the room, I photographed it and first made a black and white ink study of the lighting. Finally I painted the room using acrylic on an 18” x 24” sheet of gessoed watercolor paper. The entire process including building the room, photography, and the ink study took about 32 hours. The final painting took around 25 hours. I wanted to paint something representing the growing pains most teenagers experience. The happiness we can find in our nostalgia about the carefree innocent emotions that seemed so easy to access as children. Sometimes we find, in our reflection of the past, an escape from the responsibilities of growing up and the impending reality of adulthood.
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To me, creativity is freedom of expression. It is something everyone is inherently born with, and everyone has their own way of being creative. Practicing my art has allowed me to communicate all my thoughts with others, as well as provided a space for me to reflect on my life.
