This essay will analyze how the work of Chuck Close greatly influenced me in relation to my drawing as I was inspired by the expressive nature of the fingerprint portraits. Also, how exploring Close’s artworks and underlying meaning of his works caused me to question the meaning I wanted to portray in my drawing which therefore caused me to come up with my final theme that is Surplus of Individuals, Scarcity of Presence. Chuck close believes that the human face is a symbol for the roadmap of a person’s life as it tells the journey that one has been on. Close suffers from a condition known as face blindness- this causes him to forget the faces he has seen unless they are in a two dimensional form; this is one of his main influences for making portraits as it enables him to remember the faces of the most …show more content…
It is the portrayal of Close’s mother-in-law. I believe in this case the subject matter adds to the meaning of this artwork as his is clearly a representation of an elderly woman. This relates to the idea that ones life journey is shown in their face; this woman has clearly lived a long life and therefore has a long life journey to tell. Like this underlying meaning my drawing too focuses on ones life journey, with a clear focus on interactions with people and the impact of people who we come across in our journey. The realistic nature of this artwork further inspired me to experiment with this style of art as I find it fascinating how something that is so non-traditional can in fact create something extremely naturalistic. Lastly, when looking at the artwork it is not immediately distinguishable that it has been made out of fingerprints as it is so naturalistic; to me this relates to the meaning of my drawing as although we are seen as one person by the people around us we are in fact made up by all the people who have been prevalent in our