'Sally' – A trilogy of surreal disproportionate art
‘Sally‘ is my first artwork from a series of three works of surreal disproportionate art. Disproportionate because I’m creating a frame that is out of proportion and shows the main character at the bottom only.
I enjoyed creating these pieces a lot. I like to distort reality in my Surreal Stories and create things that are unusual, uncommon, bizarre… that would not and could not exist in real life.
I created ‘Sally’ at the beginning of December 2019 and had so much fun with it that I created ‘Lisa‘ shortly after by the end of the year. And then later on, in mid-2020, I made the third piece of this series – ‘Zara‘.
What all three pieces have in common are the disproportionate framing, the huge pinned-up hair of the characters, one or more hands that are reaching out beyond the frame, and the different natural elements.
The Making Of 'Sally'
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Work in Progress shots
With ‘Sally’, I was going to create a surreal wall frame. That’s why I chose an old-fashioned, grungy wallpaper as background for my creation.
I especially like the wrinkles on the paper, they contribute to the feel of the artwork…
As you know, I like to use natural elements in my surreal creations. Here, I’ve created what will be the background of the wall frame – a dark blue sky with clouds. You can also see some of the brambles that will be growing out of her pinned-up hair… (The brambles are free stock from TinusDream on DeviantArt. Thank you!)
The lower part of her mahogany hair is already there, it’s still pretty ‘raw’ and needs more digital editing. So does the face, which is again my own face as always in my Surreal Creations. I’ve already added some blur to prepare the face for the subsequent digital painting…
I’ve finished her pinned-up, voluminous hair and done some major work on her face. I’ve scaled up the eyes, overpainted the lids, the eyebrows, and the lips.
I wanted her to have an expressionless face – just looking straight out of the frame, with blank eyes and unreadable thoughts. This expression is already perceivable, even though I’m going to make it much more prominent later on…
Some more brambles have joined her hair, a few pieces of jewelry and the first rose. Also note her earrings that are hanging outside the frame. This was a major idea of this creation – to have elements that reach out beyond the frame to convey the impression that the everything in the picture is actually alive – about to move out of the frame or into it…
Another important part of the image is the three hands. Yet another piece of surreal disproportionate art. The hands are something that all works from this series have in common, but I’ve also worked with the same concept before in ‘Naufragée‘ (2015) to express a certain theme. If you’re interested in the meaning of the hands and the creation process, then check out the Making of ‘Naufragée’ here.
As for ‘Sally’, the hands demonstrate the aliveness of the subject in the frame and the attempt to reach out from inside the frame into the real world. Are all of the hands ‘Sally’s’? And are they there simultaneously, or are they rather a projection of successiveness? I’m leaving that open…
And there’s yet another element that appears in many of my creations. I hardly create a piece that does not feature a few drops of blood… The brambles’ thorns are injuring the hand that holds on to the frame. If you look very closely, you will notice two little drops of blood dripping down on the frame and on the wallpaper…
‘Sally’ has made some major progress. I went over the eyes again to make them more expressive. There’s some sort of sadness that joined her blank look, and there’s also a teardrop running down her cheek…
‘Sally‘ is completed. Some more elements of nature have come in. You know that I like to work with natural elements a lot, and I also like to combine the ‘beautiful’ ones with the ‘ugly’ ones. The image includes a ‘beautiful’ bird, ‘beautiful’ butterflies and roses, but there’s also the ‘ugly’ side: spiders, bugs, moths, worms, …
I really like to work with this combination of beauty and ugliness, because – after all – life itself is beautiful and ugly. One cannot exist without the other.
There are elements coming out of the frame. On the other side, there are also elements outside of the frame that are about to crawl into the frame, like the bug on the left, or that are just sitting on the frame, like the bird, the butterfly, or the rose. These elements symbolize an exchange between the world within the frame and that world outside of it. It’s all fluid, it all flows…
Will ‘Sally’ come out of her frame and the outside creatures go into the frame? I don’t know…
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I hope that this post helped you gain some insights into my creative process and better understand what I meant to express through this work. However, I know that art is subjective and I am always interested in knowing how my viewers perceive my art.
What do you think about this piece? How does it make you feel? What does it mean to you? Please feel free to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments. If this piece inspired you to create a new piece of your own, I would love to see it! Post a link in the comments, tag me on Instagram (@ginangiela), or reach out to me directly. Make sure to sign up for my email list below so you don’t miss out on new ‘Making Ofs’ and other cool stuff. ♥
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