Watercolor, Acrylic. 2020
For this piece, I did a traditional watercolor on 11 x 15 inch Hot Press Watercolor Paper. The watercolor is then framed in a metallic bronze acrylic paint, finished off with a watercolored ribbon that has micron letters, and is displayed 3-dimensionally off the page to give it some life. This piece is a "self-portrait" for how I've been feeling during the quarantine and ironically how I was feeling while painting it. Instead of my own face, I chose to represent myself with a blob fish, his squishy and sad face creating a mood that can be interpreted and connected with by many during this time, from glum to cranky to absolutely over it. The blob fish is also a creature that looks normal when in the water, but decompresses into what we see here when it is pulled out. The fish out of water metaphor also relates to many of our current unusual circumstances.
Coronavirus has restricted many students to be stuck at home with minimal access to supplies. Due to this, one of my classes resorted to focusing on only watercolor since that was the only medium on the course description we could all do from home. I learned how to watercolor entirely in quarantine with only notes, videos, and many practice assignments. I have grown to love the medium and am in a way thankful for the opportunity I was given to learn it, a silver lining in the midst of all this.