Al Polston

Is It Cake? Process

Added 2024-07-19 17:00:04 +0000 UTC

Concept

I did not set out for this piece to be the marketing image for my show or my favorite piece, but it was. It started out as a very different idea in the beginning, but letting ideas breathe can reap decent rewards. My intention for this piece is themes of guilt and shame. I have personally struggled with eating disorders for a large portion of my life, so the general idea of sweets ands food for me personally already embodies shame. Living on a farm and growing up with animals in a farm setting many many animals will die. You can do everything right and still accidents happen, things get sick, and you just don't know what you don't know til something bad happens. I wanted to include a donkey in my show and thought using a donkey head would be visually appealing. There is a loose idea of "Have your cake and eat it to" here, especially with animals. You want them, because they bring you joy; but they all come with the built in tragedy that is the end of their life, regardless of how that happens.

Early Idea

I was struggling with the idea I wanted and including donkeys, I was somewhat satisfied with this idea, but felt it wasnt that interesting and the colors were not coming easily to me.

New Idea

Sometimes ideas just hit you and this felt so much better than the first concept. I messed with the composition digitally for awhile, moving the cake around, adding a plate, the knife moved a hundred times. I zoomed in and out on the head. But this is where I landed: