Leigh Cortez Art: Some work completed during first semester...

Throughout the semester I pushed the possibilities of what I could accomplish with skin tone using liquid acrylic and the spit-shading technique, concentrating on a series of portraits. I also experimented and developed a process to tattoo on rawhide and used pieces of tattooed rawhide to collage with the portraits. I experimented with hand cut geometric backgrounds to mimic the tattooed geometric patterns. Each piece was puzzled together to experiment with building surface and background using different, and sometimes untraditional material.

While building on the progress I've made this semester, during the second semester I want to expand compositions and paint more in the overall process of a piece, as well as expand thematically.

'Snake-Skin Jacket'
11"x14"

'No Brainer'
11"x14"

'Center Mass'
11"x14"

'Rats Get Fat'
8"x10"

For the above piece, 'Rats Get Fat, the background photographed image is of a tattoo I did on the person painted. Here I was experimenting with the experience of the tattooed image and the persons' emotion of the moment, both tattooed and then painted. However the effect is mostly lost in its entire intention, the experiment of representing the representation was interesting.