When scrolling though the North Carolina Museum of Art's collection the first piece that caught my eye was "Sunset Medusa," by Eugene Berman (1945). I was intrigued by the woman in the painting and wondered who she was. When staring at the painting for a while and pondering what to do as a response I found myself coming back to this one thought, who was she. Through this one thought I found my inspired art piece, I would show the face of this mystery woman. Once I had my idea I had to find the face of this woman, so I headed to pinterest.
I spent about on hour combing through pictures on pinterest trying to find the perfect face. I eventually found a face that portrayed just the right amount of power, despair, and femine features. Once I found the right face I had to transfer it from the computer onto paper. This is something that I continually struggle with, but with some help I found an amazing method to help me, the grid method. This is where you take your original image and draw a grid over it, you then do the same over where you're going to draw your piece. Then you match up the grids and draw whatever is in each box. This helps me a lot when I'm trying to draw more realistically.
After drawing for a couple days I went back and really looked at "Sunset Medusa" again, and realized there was something missing from my picture. Just drawing a face didn't seem like enough, so I knew I had to do something to elevate my drawing. I decided that the woman in Eugene Berman's painting was Medusa, maybe a more feminine less scary Medusa, but still Medusa. After realizing this I had to portray her as Medusa in my picture somehow. I didn't want to give her snakes for hair or a weird green skin tone, so I decided to give her a crown of golden snakes. I also decided to color in everything but her skin to make it seem like she was from a different world. This made her seem very regal, but still dangerous, just the image I wanted to portray.
One of the eye reasons I fell in love with Sunset Medusa was because every time I looked at the painting I got a different feeling. At first the woman in the painting seemed to be in pain or grieving for something or someone. Then it seemed like she has hiding in fear of something. The last idea that I had of her was that she was a higher being who was grieving for the loss of her kingdom. I loved that this seemingly simple painting was so complex you just have to look at it deeply to find some meaning. I was really inspired by how Berman used these delicate brush strokes to create something so beautiful and so powerful. My own picture is supposed to represent Medusa's face before she realizes something has happened to her kingdom. The title I have chosen for my piece is "Before the Storm," which is supposed to mean the calm before Medusa realizes what's happened to her kingdom and goes ballistic. I really enjoyed working on this piece and seeing how my art ability has grown though out this process. I'm very proud of my work and how it represents "Sunset Medusa" and my own aesthetic.