Abigail Rudkin

Growing up in a day and age where social media is a huge part of life, it has had a massive baring on my adolescence and the way that I communicate with people. As I have started to explore ways of advertising over social media for commission work, I have engaged with a lot of positive supporters, along with the negative comments in regards to my work and my appearance. Even though the negativity is hurtful and damaging. My use of acrylic paint on canvas to create a self-portrait that can vary between conceptual and figurative or both. I tend to create my work right after experiencing some sort of impact from social media, such as a negative comment or feeling. This helps to inspire what I create and visualise how I see myself inside my mind. The use of bright colour and scratching into the acrylic paint can be seen to contrast the actual portrait of myself. The contrast is showing a detachment between reality and the online world representation of me. The pulling between the figurative, that symbolises reality, to the abstract, to symbolise the online world. I express the bright colours are more of a disguise for the scratches that indicate the damage social media can do to individual real people. 

 

My personal fight between seeing the great advantage to social media for advertising and publicising work, to the immediate harm it can do for my confidence. In a way, the negative comments have done more for my fine art practice than anything else. Pain inspires me, without it my work would be simply a blank canvas.