Icarus- Dare you to move

This piece was my final art project for the visual arts studio course that I took this past school year. Though I did some painting in high school, it was not until my third year of university that I really started to explore and enjoy working with acrylics. Since I hadn't taken an art class in three years, I was able to get rid of some bad artistic habits that I used to have (but not all T_T). Also, the hiatus gave me the enthusiasm and drive to literally throw myself into any project that my art profs gave me, so I had the opportunity to learn and grow a lot this past year. The colours in the painting are more vibrant than in this photo shows because my dying camera can no longer record both bright reds and bright green/blues accurately at the same time anymore, but this was the best photo I could get. Below is the project concept, if anyone is interested. ^_^

Title: Icarus- Dare you to move
Size: ~20 x 24 inches
Medium: Acrylic paint on canvas
In the myth of Icarus and Daedalus, Daedalus made wings out of wax and feathers in order to escape imprisonment in Crete. Icarus was warned not to fly too far out into the oceans, or too close to the sun. However, in his exhilaration, Icarus forgot the warning and soared fearlessly through the sky. As a result, the wax on his wings melted, and Icarus plummeted into the ocean and drowned. While this story has been passed down as a warning against youthful carelessness, and Icarus has been portrayed as a fool, I wanted to repaint Icarus as a brave, adventurous, and inquisitive person. (Er, and along the way, my Icarus became female ^_^) Daedalus may escaped successfully, but because of his caution, he will never discover the rush of exhilaration and euphoria that Icarus experienced. Using Icarus as my subject, I wanted to explore the idea that discovery requires courage. I wanted to capture Icarus enticing Daedalus to join her, challenging Daedalus to venture out of the confines of safety and certainty.

In a way, this challenge is issued not only to Daedalus, but to the viewer of the painting, and to myself. The viewer of the painting will be Daedalus, and it will be the viewer’s job to decide whether or not to accept the challenge and the risks, therefore the story will be open-ended. As well, this painting was a challenge to myself because it pushed me to explore outside my artistic comfort zone. In the past, my personal projects have consisted mainly of portraits of stationary people. Also, I am more accustomed to working on a much smaller scale (ie. 8.5x11 inches) so that I could focus on little details. This painting was an experiment in foreshortening and depicting a full figure in motion, and forced me to work on a larger scale than usual. While I am pleased with the way it turned out, I see that I still have a looot of room for improvement, and this is just a stepping stone to other future projects.