In the Bathtub, We Lie
Watercolor & Digital editing
92 x180 cm
February 2015
There are many things people will do to gain other's love, attention, and affection, including darkening their world or imposing harm on themselves.
In my new piece, the social issue I chose to tackle was the romanticization of depression. Depression used to be known as a mental illness, which could cause on to harm themselves physically too. Nowadays, it is seen as a style, or even a trend, represented through melancholic, pretty girls, and sad quotes in black and white photos. As war did in movies, depression has been glorified.
The main symbol in this piece is the bathtub. It represents the ‘circumstances’ these girls are putting themselves in. The bathtub represents a fake coffin, and thus a fake death wish. Also, the water that isn’t full, but only brimming under her face represents how close they come to being suicidal. These girls are forcing themselves to believe they are living sad lives, to become the pretty, cool girls on tumblr. The flowers represent the beauty they see in this sadness. I chose to include flowers with meanings of forgery, fraud, and negative beauty, such as lichen, bugloss, and clematis. Lastly, the hands surrounding the bathtub represents the attention and doting these girls receive from society, which only encourages them to continue being this way.
The artists that influenced me are Fumi Nakamura and Martin O'neill. Nakamura influenced my use of arranging my subjects, and both influenced the use of flowers. The medias I used this time were watercolor and digital manipulation. I am already quite experienced with watercolor, so there were no problems. I have also used photoshop often, but not in editing art. From this experience, I got to learn more about resoltion and color editing. It only caused minor errors in the piece, which is why I am satisfied with it.
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