Bindi

Artist Statement:

The piece was inspired by a memory when I was in elementary school where kids in my grade would always call my bindi weird or question what it was. One day after a girl said a very mean comment, I wiped it off and stopped wearing it to school every day and only wore it during religious occasions. I wanted to focus on my cultural identity and how strong of an influence it has in my life, there are some parts that get erased because of what others say. I also wanted to make a statement about how many use parts of other cultures as an aesthetic but ridicule other parts. I used dots throughout the entire piece to represent bindis, essentially creating a high-end artwork out of things that were called weird or ugly (that are a beautiful part of my culture). I used bindi in the hand and the smeared bindi on my face to demonstrate how culture is being wiped away.

Process:

I first made a sketch of what I wanted the piece to be like and took a reference photo of myself so I could see where I needed to shade. It was a bit difficult so I periodically looked into a mirror. And finally edited a picture I liked.

I then began experimenting with the background and other factors. I chose to do a black background to make the colors pop.

 I got stuck on if I should make the hand entirely out of paint or bindi and I decided to make the palm out of paint and the fingers bindi because doing it completely out of bindis made it hard to determine that it was a hand.