Conformity
Year Completed: 2025
Medium / Materials: Canvas, acrylic paint, perforated cardboard
Dimensions: 12” x 24”
Series / Collection: Experience through Insects
Status: In Personal Collection
The Process
I first painted the background for my piece by mixing various shades of purple acrylic – some more reddish, some more blueish, some lighter, some daker – and painting them in a spiral pattern. I also painted in a rock in with grey paint and used a sponge to add texture. Then, I sketched out the ants in pencil. After that, I painted in the “conformed”/”evil” ants in shades of grey. Then, I painted in the main ant, struggling to maintain its own identity, in vibrant orange and yellow. Finally, I added in leaves made of perforated cardboard and painted them green.
Throughout the process of creating this piece, one thing I experimented a lot with was color. At first, I only knew I wanted to capture ants in this particular sense, but I was not sure how I would color them or the background. I eventually decided to make the “conformed” ants black in white and the main ant – not yet lost to pressures to be just like everyone else – in full color to extend my use of desaturated colors a symbol for a lack of originality, exuberance, and soul. I made the background purple to represent fear of losing yourself – the blue and red hues representing the sadness and anger of feeling trapped and pulled apart. The main ant is mostly orange to represent the anxiety and vigor it has in such a situation. Its yellow highlights represent the hope its existence, as it continues to fight for individuality, demonates. This yellow also is the opposite to the despair teh purple background expresses. I decided to add the green leaves to represent life the main ant’s creativity sprouts through its connection to nature. I also chose this as it makes the piece have a complete secondary color palette overall which adds a unique elements and evokes deeper emotions.
Materials
For this piece, I considered many possibilities of how I would decorate some other sort of materials besides acrylic, as I wanted to add more complexity. I looked through bins of materials and ultimately was most captivated by these strips of perforated cardboard I found with vibrant spray paint remnants on them. I thought about adding them directly into the background, but finally decided to cut them into leaf shapes to add more color and dimension to my piece.
Ideas
The central message of this piece that I wanted to convey was the experience of facing pressures to conform. Once one gets older and starts to become a part of society they begin to face pressures from their peers – whether it be in school, work, or friend groups – to fit into a specific box and act exactly how they do or how they are “supposed to.” I chose ants to express this as they have a very hive-mind like mentality – they all are nearly identical with no sense of self and work mindlessly for their queen. I referred to an image I found of ants creating a bridge out of their own bodies as it looked as if they were pulling a part this central ant in the process, leaving it suspended between them and comply out of control. I felt that this perfectly respentseed the feeling of having one’s own identity pulled apart as their peers try to get them to conform and be just another identical constituent of their own group, rather than an individual. Additionally, I added a highlight in the eye of the maint ant but not the others, to represent how it still has its soul and light in its eyes.