Little Pablo
Although my thesis is representative of myself, I chose to use a fictional character and a fictional world for two reasons. Firstly, this world and character are a part of a long term personal project of mine that I hold very dearly to my heart, which gives my thesis more personal ties to myself and my passions. Secondly, using sci-fi imagery gives me the opportunity to exaggerate the environments and designs in a way that gives viewers an opportunity to project their own perceptions of the future alongside the paintings.
Young Pablo, surrounded by filth and urban sprawl, escapes to his imagination to envision a brighter world. He believes that by leaving Earth, he will find the place where everyone else is smiling and living happy in a utopian life. The only thing in his way, which he doesn’t fully understand, is that he’ll need money to afford a ticket onto a ship to Mars. That won’t stop his happy-go-lucky self from sneaking onto the ship, though!
The canvas is 36”x48”, painted with acrylic. I used paint pens on lighting gels for certain transluscent parts of the collage. The polaroids are acrylic, gouache, and color pencil. The action figures are color pencil on mixed media paper. The wizards are linocut prints on scrap fabric, and the dirtiness is watered down gouche. Finally, the crumpled drawings are paint pens on lined notebook paper with colored pencil and gouache.