Media Collage Painting

After the ridiculous workload that was the portrait projects, we are now starting on our media collage paintings in Intro. The way this works is that we chose images from the media and made a physical collage, and now we have to make a painting from that collage source (though we are free to incorporate collage into the painting or represent the collage in different ways on the painting). I've had an idea for this painting for several weeks now, and after collecting some choice images I was actually amazed at how well they fit together. I think my subconscious was intentionally searching for specific imagery, because I inexplicably visualized some of the key images (though not necessarily their relations to one another) from the outset. Anyways, Chris never got a chance to talk with me about the painting in class today, so he asked me to write an email explaining my thoughts on the project. So here is that email, just to give you an idea of what is going on with my painting:

Hey Chris,

So the basic theme of my painting is going to be media in excess and its negative
impacts on people/society. The generic excessive viewer of media is portrayed in the
center of the painting as a large, very bloodshot eyeball and a brain just behind it,
which will be dull, drippy, and ugly (not quite a "this is your brain on drugs" but
close). The brain will be entangled with two cords: one from a mouse and one from an
x-box controller. The brain imagery will also be enhanced by an MRI scan showing
hemorrhaging. Around the periphery of the central viewer, there will be various media
images.

Some specific media images related directly to each other. There is a CNN screenshot of
soldiers in Iraq holding up what looks like some kind of missile launcher. This image
will be obscured/blocked by a stormtrooper holding a gun (at the exact same angle as the
rocket launcher) and a screenshot from Halo. These fictional images cover the CNN image
to suggest that the fictional media world of video games, etc. is more real to the
viewer than real life. An image of Warcraft, a PC role playing game which has a
tendency to completely take over people's lives (I know a few), plays into that theme
more. Warcraft is essentially in its own virtual world, which essentially replaces the
real world for players (moreso than most other video games).

I'm also including images of popular TV shows, specifically CSI and Lost. The Lost
image is particularly important, as it suggests that the viewer has lost touch with the
real world, or is even lost among the many fictional media worlds. I've also included a
picture of Homer Simpson and the American Idol logo, both of which are popular TV shows
but the images also have a specific relation to each other. American Idol is spatially
right below/overlapping Homer Simpson, suggesting that this character has become the
ideal American (a lazy person who sits on the couch and watches TV all day).

Finally, I've included some popular internet media sources as well because it's so easy
to waste a lot of time on the internet. A picture of Potter Puppet Pals in Harry Potter
and the Mysterious Ticking Noise (the Snape, Snape, Severus Snape video, if you have
seen it) represents Youtube in general, and I've included 2 LOLcats. Which sort of
proved my whole point, as I spent easily over an hour looking through the LOLcat images
even after choosing two. One is a video game reference to play into that (it says Bad
Respawn, relating to the feeling of immortality and power that goes along with video
games) and one references models and negative self image (a cat is sitting next to a
thin cat statuette).

Some things I'm not entirely sure about are how drastically disgusting I want to make
the brain. A "rotten brain" seems a little too extreme, and I think that the
hemorrhaging brain MRI covers that aspect, so I'm wondering if I should just go with a
sickly looking color. Also, I'm not entirely sure of what to do with the background. I
know that I sort of want the images to blend into each other and/or a fuzzy or foggy
background to create a swirl of media chaos, or an ethereal plane leading to many
different media universes. I'm still trying to work out how to portray that visually.

That was probably a longer email than you expected, but those are pretty much my
thoughts on the painting so far.

*Brian*

So there you have it. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Hopefully I have the energy to make this painting as awesome as my plans for it are. Those portraits really did drain me though. As did other recent events.

Also, I could use some suggestions for my final painting (which is coming up really soon!). I initially wanted to do a pondscape with frogs and dragonflies and such just because I like wetlands and wanted to paint it. But I think that Chris will feel that it doesn't have enough meaning. It's basically just a realistic scene more or less copied from a few images. I like the scene, but it would really just be a pretty picture. So now I think I want to do something with anthropogenic environmental effects. I read an article on amphibian declines recently, and the title was Ghosts in our midsts: something or other about amphibian declines. That ghosts in our midst imagery kind of stuck with me, and I think I may paint some phantom frogs to comment on amphibian declines (because they're important, damnit!!!). And I think that in the distant background, I want to have a city. I don't want this to be an urban pond. I think that on the left side I'll have a cityscape, with a natural landscape on the right. So it's a pond at the threshold of human habitation. And I want to somehow portray urban expansion. My initial thought was some kind of creeping/groping hands (evil-looking, of course) pulling up trees in the background or otherwise engulfing the natural land. And the pond will of course look pristine and wonderful, but will be in obvious danger.

Anyways, if anyone has any brilliant thoughts on what else I could do with that/better ways to portray expansion, let me know.