Memories

My first project at uni was to represent my memories on a canvas which I found very challenging, 'Memories' (September, 2012) started with an abstract painting, executed with acrylic paint on canvas, the composition of it is a square grid. For this painting I set myself some directions which started with making a list of fifty memories and through simple steps of selection of colour I depicted those memories on a canvas.

I continued with this project with three more paintings as 'Alien' (October, 2012). It is a figurative representation of one of the memories I used in the first painting, painted with oil on canvas.

The painting is a representation of a nude chest, I only used two hues of colour, it is mostly blue but one of the breasts is red representing an area affected by breast cancer.

My inspirations for this painting were both the fact that my own mother suffered from breast cancer as well as other artists who had focused their subject matter on the same theme; as 'Breast Cancer Series' by Agata Cardoso (2006-present) or 'Breast Cancer Examination' by J Oriel (2007). 'Breast Cancer Series' by Agata Cardoso is a collection of 10 photographs which shows the bare bodies of nine women who have recovered from breast cancer and, by consequence of it have visible damages.

The final part of this project is 'Moríría por ti' (October 2012), translated as 'I would die for you', oil on canvas. It is a composition of two paintings of a human heart. And as well as 'Alien', this piece is a figurative painting rendering of one of the memories collected for the first artwork.

On this piece I introduced, as well as the heart, two black squares making reference to the first abstract painting. Those squares also represent the decease of two family members.

The bottom canvas was purposely scratched as a result of a moment of frustration.

The subject of this painting is complex; it is love and life as well as death and depression, it is frustration and a terrible demise.

The subject of this piece is suicide. Through history many artists's topic have been focused on suicide as 'An Unfortunate Family' (1852) by the French artist Octave Tassaert or 'Le suicidé' (1877-1881) by Édouard Manet, or, more recently; 'Suicide Note' (2009) by Noredin Morgan or 'Flowers in the Attic' by Banksy.

All four paintings mentioned above were exhibited in the first Level 4 show in the studio (October 2012) and currently exhibited in the Spring Exhibition 'Time To Change' by Mindy Goose. Personally, I think that all of them, as a collection, work with each other, and especially 'Alien' and 'Moriría por tí' have higher strength and have achieved my purpose of showing my memories.