Vietnam War Art Project
Artist Statement
My art takes a critical view of the psychological issues that war creates. War is a drug. As time passes, an ever-deepening dependence begins to swell in the mind of those trapped in the high. Step-by-step one stumbles down the road of self-destruction. Eventually, one consumes war only to stay numb. I chose to convey this perspective through my art by creating an image of a skeleton’s head burning. The skeleton represents those affected by war and how drugs and war decay and eat away at your health, flesh, heart, and brain, leaving nothing but fragile and weak bones. The burning skull symbolizes the war drug use and how it completely consumes your thoughts and your essence. The smoke also represents how the head is constantly trapped in a destructive high.
The refinement process evolved my art piece from a bland first draft into a detailed, emotionally impacting, and visually pleasing final draft. My first draft has no background and the smoke and the skeleton had very little detail. The smoke in my second draft improved drastically. I used charcoal instead of a normal pencil. This gave the smoke more depth and movement. In my third draft, I created a dark background, and gave the smoke even more detail and depth my adding white and completed the skeleton. I ensured all the elements in my piece came together cohesively by using similar colors, shades, and styles throughout the entire piece.
My inspiration for my art piece originally came from a photomontage of a skeleton with a head as bomb explosion. Once I saw this piece, I was moved and inspired to use this concept of a burning head. I then looked up similar pieces and found an image of a girl with a burning head. I took the skeleton idea from the first piece and the smoke from the second piece and put them together to create my piece.