IB Visual Arts
Christian Martinez
Throughout my exhibition I wanted to convey the concept of movement through a digital artform, whether it be through the creation process or visually using strong repetition in the final artworks. I have always enjoyed using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to create and digitally manipulate found imagery, so this exhibition was a great opportunity to explore and refine my skills and techniques using these programs whilst using my own original photographic imagery. I intend my audience to look at my works and find something new each time they look, I want to be able to provide intricate and interesting details in my works. Combining my strengths with my interests, a use of street art and appropriations of well-known cartoon character imagery can be seen through my exhibition. Embracing urban culture especially in the areas that I live in, I focused on architectural details and specific places used in my imagery. All of my works are cohesive through their separate depictions of movement.
I used a variety of materials and techniques, many of which that I have explored, developed and refined whilst undertaking my 2 year IBDP. My favourite approach or technique is turning something simple or bland into something more meaningful and detailed. For example, an old box television, considered junk to most; however, is nostalgic for me. I used it to represent the time that as a child, I spent hours watching cartoons on weekend mornings. The continuous moving static- when there is nothing to watch on tv represents addictive tendencies of constantly wanting to be entertained by hilarious cartoon characters. The majority of my artworks’ inspiration stems from researching artists for example, Walt Disney, Banksy, Keith Haring and also artforms using techniques I was interested in learning about. This allowed me to experiment with developing my own techniques and use my own imagery to illustrate ideas from the memories of when I was younger. When wandering through different cities and urban landscapes, I look for opportunities to create new imagery from my wildest imagination. I think that may be also tied to the fact that occasionally my mind will run wild, which allows for natural creativity.
I want to keep my artworks different from each other by using different digital processes and visual styles to communicate different ideas. For example, sharp digital illustration contrasts strongly with my immigrant grandmothers aged handwriting, graphic comic book style depicts a blunder in a fast paced soccer game, photographic animation depicts constant movement in travel and digital photocollage is based on a still from a classic cartoon. My ‘straight forward’ digital photography depicts a ‘photo in a photo’. I believe the difference in the artworks will keep my audience interested and curious to view all of them, while conveying different concepts or senses of movement and invites them to move through the exhibition. By having imagery that is recognisable and familiar may evoke feelings of nostalgia and curiosity. The strategies I’m employing to create a connection between the artworks and the viewer include creating fine detail in the imagery, in the sense of the more the viewer looks the more they will find and featuring bright colours in the majority of my pieces that create focal points and certainly grasps the viewers initial attention. I have arranged my works to have my projected digital animation which contains the most movement in the middle of the exhibition and other artworks that are still images beside it. Upon first glance, my focal points will be the spray-painted box televsion sculpture and moving train carriage video loop because those artworks feature actual movement, something to watch. I want my audience to understand the urban nature about my works. I want them to feel that the artwork is new, culturally current and contemporary. I want to provide a lens from myself, that others can view as all of my pieces are reflections of my experiences, my friends and family.
My works have been inspired through my personal experiences, conveyed through the overarching concept of movement and feature interests and passions that I have developed over the IB Visual Arts course.
christian Martinez
Saturday Mornings
Sculpture using found objects (television, trolley)
148cm x 68cm x 50cm
My artwork evokes the nostalgia of watching cartoons as a child on large box set television. The prolonged television static represents the nature of addiction when it comes to watching TV. I appropriated the recognisable Metro Goldwyn Mayer logo that was seen at the beginning of many of my favourite shows as a child which triggered excitement for the next cartoon to begin. I created a stencil with Adobe Illustrator which was cut into large paper sheets to spray paint the logo.
The incredible tales of Fourths FC
Digitally manipulated illustration and photography
59cm x 42 cm
Having played football (soccer) this year with my Year 12 friends for the final time, each game felt like a comic or film and I wanted to be able to capture a memorable moment in that form. Using Adobe Photoshop, I created my own original different grains and filters to emulate a classic comic book style. My photos taken during a match to were reminiscent of action moments from the old comic books I read as a child.
Basketball with Dan
Series of four photographs
Overall size: 40cm x 94cm
Using photographic cut-out stencils of myself playing basketball, I photographed the stencils incorporating urban art and city landscapes. I used photos of myself recreating popular common basketball moves and inspired by Banksy, the background merges with my body to create focal points that are covered by the border of the paper. This allowed me to give the illusion of playing basketball in different places that I was not able to play because of government restrictions during 2021 Covid lockdown.
Tomcat
Digitally manipulated photography and sourced imagery
55cm x 53cm
As a child I grew up watching the famous ‘Tom & Jerry’ TV cartoon series which was the inspiration for my photographic illustration I created in Adobe Illustrator of the cartoon character of Tom. I gave him different textures from a variety of my photos I took in the city of Melbourne. I organised and compiled the colours and images using a clipping mask technique to similarly fit the original colour palette that cartoon Tom had. I wanted to create a rougher and more urban version of Tom by also incorporating real life elements instead of hand drawn cartoon features.
Endless Road
Digital animation of photo collage
3 second animation on continuous loop (MP4 File)
I participated in a basketball tournament in another city and the majority of my trip was spent travelling around the state. I wanted to create the feeling of what felt like an endless loop of ‘to and fro-ing’ by combining a public transit train with urban and rural roads. I used Adobe Photoshop to combine the different parts of images together such as the sky, road and train carriage, and Adobe After Effects to animate the still images to convey the sense of endless movement. When projected at a large scale the animation evokes the idea of travel in a grand landscape and sense of distance between destinations.
A home away from home
Series of 2 digital illustrations
Overall Size: 58cm x 90cm
The series of 2 illustrations depict the villages where my two grandmothers immigrated from when they moved to Australia in the 1950’s and 60’s. My Nonna migrated from the village of San Marco in Lamis in Italy and Abuelita moved from Asturias in Spain. I used Adobe Illustrator to depict a vintage style travel poster and incorporated their handwriting saying their final messages of goodbye and good luck in their original language and dialects as they left for Australia.
Neon Switch
Digitally manipulated photography
59cm x 45cm
This image contains multiple photographic overlays of my hand holding a neon Nintendo Switch Joy-Con. The Joy-Con is significant in the sense that I found myself constantly playing with friends online during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 to stay connected, to the point where perhaps I spent too much time playing. I used Adobe Illustrator to overlap the many pictures whilst turning my skin colour to match the colour of the Joy-Con to show that I was becoming one with the console.
Process portfolio
