Gehenna

Gehenna 

I have started third year/ this academic term having moved into a creative warehouse house share living with various different artist's all sharing a large communal artist studio. This has been integral to my creative practice and an essential element of creating 'Gehenna'. I was allocated studio space at the university studios but have always felt more comfortable and flexible creating work at home, where I can be as messy/ loud as I like with out worrying that I'm interrupting or irritating others, and work to my own time schedule, allowing serendipitous moments of inspiration to come to fruition. I didn't want to be separate from my work so I could spontaneously take advantage of lightbulb moments and work on its creation at the drop of a hat with no prior planning or travelling involved. 

Because I now have access to this open plan large space to paint in 24/7 in my home, it has made working comfortably on this piece large scale an incredibly flexible and feasible option, which I believe will enhance the success of the piece.

Background/ concept

'Gehenna' is an image that symbolically communicates to the viewer the horror and nuances of being stagnant in the process to recovery with post traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. I read into a plethora of topics to inform the creation of Gehenna's thumbnail, including ancient Egyptian mythology, psychology, spirituality and more. I have been planning to paint 'Gehenna' for several years now but due to my mental health haven't felt well enough to instigate the creative process. Now that my healing has substantially progressed, I am finally ready to dive into bringing this image to life, subsequently letting it act as a catalyst for sharing my personal narrative. 

Materials/ medium

In my project proposal, I have stated that I plan to work predominantly in acrylics when painting Gehenna as I am more versed in using acrylic than any other type of paint. However, alongside acrylic paint, I would like to incorporate the use of oils and spray paint to achieve some of the effects rendered in the thumbnail digitally. The gradients and light hazes featured within the thumbnail image would be difficult to reproduce using acrylic paint only, so I think the involvement of these mediums will not only aid in improving the overall quality of the painting but in my material experimentation as an artist.