1. EMINEM PAINTING: LOSE YOURSELF
ARTIST STATEMENT:
This is a painting from a scene in my favorite movie, 8 Mile, with my favorite rapper, Eminem. In this picture, Eminem is in a rap battle against one of his rivals for the title of the next great rapper. The scene from the movie has a lot of powerful energy and movement, mostly from the crowd and the rappers themselves. This why I painted the crowd with a variety of bright colors in quick slashes, almost as if their is motion in the background. This painting was not meant to be made realistic, but less detailed in order to catch other aspects of the scene, such as flow. The famous song from the movie is called Lose Yourself and that is where the idea for this painting came from. In the song, Eminem goes to describe how to be successful in big opportunity moments, you need to do whatever it takes to achieve this once in a lifetime chance. I wanted to represent this song through this painting I made. Eminem came from a world where all odds were against him, and yet, he has become the most popular rapper in history. In the end, I was extremely happy with the outcome because I believe I captured the perfect image of what I was trying to express.
2. CARDBOARD MOUNTAIN: NOT AFRAID
ARTIST STATEMENT:
In this model, there is a wooden man holding up a cardboard mountain with only his own body, as if he has all the strength in the world. This would be a pretty supernatural event if this were to be taken literally, but the point I was trying to make in this is that the wooden figure has "the strength to move the mountains". Not only is he strong for doing such an incredible feat, but he is also not afraid to do the impossible. Even the biggest of roadblocks and detours cannot stop him from doing whatever it is he wants to do. In the song "Not Afraid" by Eminem, he describes himself as someone who is brave enough to take a stand against the world. Everyone may not believe in him, and although most people may have their doubts, he is not afraid to chase after what he dreams of becoming. He welcomes his help to anyone who is going down the same path as he was, one where only led to destruction and heartbreak. The main aspect I wanted to capture in this piece of artwork was to show that the wooden man has the strength to do anything, even the improbable. No matter what gets thrown his way, he will always find a way to get through the obstacles. This song speaks to me and I wanted to build a model to show exactly what it makes me think of when I hear it. I feel I executed just that and I am extremely satisfied with the outcome.
3. iPHONE: Love the way you lie
ARTIST STATEMENT:
For this next project, I decided to go off the song "Love the Way You Lie" and demonstrate a broken relationship through modern times. I made an iPhone out of wood and painted text messages being sent back and forth between Eminem and his ex wife Kim, which basically represents a breakup for normal teenage relationships. I wanted to put the lyrics of the song into the text bubbles themselves in order to tie back to the overall message the song has in the first place. All along, Eminem thought his love with Kim could be forever but through the unimaginable things he and she had to face together, Kim eventually left him, twice. After all she had said to him and promised, she gave it all up for drugs and her own thrills. This is what the song means to me, it stands for the lies Kim had told Eminem throughout their relationship. My final project was made to create a relatable experience just by looking at the phone itself, even without not knowing the song behind it. I feel I accomplished this goal and made not only myself but my teacher and classmates extremely satisfied with my work.
4. Who's the real slim shady?
ARTist STatement:
In this multimedia project, I used a piece of cardboard for a background base, painted some mugshot lines with height measurements, and cut and pasted pictures of people out of a magazine and glued Eminem heads on top of them. In the song The Real Slim Shady by Eminem, he tells all the posers in his life to step down while he remains standing as the true Eminem. The project that I made was to bring up the topic of who is who in the photograph. In this mugshot, there are five people, all who appear to resemble Eminem. Although, there cannot be five, since there is only one Slim Shady. So according to the picture, the real Eminem is five foot and nine inches tall, blonde hair and blues eyes, weighing in at 155 pounds. In turn, there are a couple answers to this question of who is the real Slim Shady, this being because there are some who appear to be close in height while one is crouching on the ground where we can't really tell how tall he would be. You have to use your imagination and guess who the real one is because it is a mystery.
5. Stop motion Space bound animation
ARTIST STATEMENT:
In this animation, I took over 800 pictures to form a stop motion of the music video Space Bound. I wanted to do this because I have never tried something dealing with animation before and it looked really fun to try out. In the beginning it took a little effort trying to make all the pieces stay together but I feel it was worth it all in the end. I colored all the backgrounds myself and cut out the characters too. To get the people to move, I pushed pins through the back of their bodies in order to adjust them to a different position each time. This is what caused the characters to look like they were in motion! I had a really good time trying to make this project work and doing it on something I enjoy like Eminem just made it so much better! All of my art projects this semester have been about Eminem and it made me happy to finally do a video about him!
6. lyrics video
ARTIST STATEMENT:
For my final project, I decided to do something I have been doing for the past few months on my own time. I created a lyric video for one of the songs I remixed to an Eminem song called Buffalo Bill. By remixed, I mean to say that I took the instrumental of the original song and added the hook, while leaving out all the rest. I added my own lyrics and then recorded the track and made the lyrical video to go with it. I have done a few Eminem songs before, but this one was by far my favorite one because it's of a true story dealing with past events ion my life, as are most of my songs, but this one was a bit more personal. I like to do these types of projects because they make me feel like I have done something worthwhile when I have completed them. The people who have seen them have given me great feedback, this one as well! I am always very excited to work on another video like this one so I will most definitely be doing more of these in the future! Whether people like what I do or not, it won't bother me because it is what I love to do and it's what makes me happy. To all those haters who think they can bring me down, in the words of my idol, "I am whatever you say I am. If I wasn't, then why would you say I am?" Your words can't break me!