Final Project: Magical Realism

For my final project, I explored the theme of Magical Realism. I incorporated my drawings and photography to create a cohesive narrative of images. A few artists who have influenced my concept are Tanaka Tatsuya, Deborah Hamon, and Judith Golden. Influence also stems from watching a lot of cartoons as a child. The figures interact with their surroundings in the still life, merging reality and fiction together.

 

Each artist incorporates photography and another medium, Tatsuya creates miniature worlds following the days on the calendar. The artist’s approach to capturing this tiny world is an element I want to have in my final project. Deborah Hamon made a series that documents the coming-of-age of young girls. Hamon uses traditional painting and photography, as well as imaginative storytelling to convey the topic of identity and maturity. Lastly Judith Golden uses photography as a starting point and adds other forms of media on top of portraits to explore how reality and myth shape our understanding of the world around us. I admired how cohesive Judith Golden’s images looked; I want to apply similar techniques to my photographs. While I am exploring how the different mediums interact together, I want all the elements work together to tell one story.