The Road to Happiness

"_{...is a long and treacherous one,"}

Size: 24 x 26 inches
Medium: Prismacolor marker, Sharpie Permanent marker, Triplus fineliner pens
Tools: T Square ruler, meter stick, 2h pencil, precision eraser
Time: 9hrs

This was a study on two point perspective in school; also my first prismacolor marker piece. It was very much an experiment in color pallates, medium and technique.
I was inspired by the color schemes in The White Stripe's music videos as well as a grade eight project which I never got to participate in during highschool.

What it's about (if you care to read):

First off, this image does make a rather political statement and I noticed that a red flag does seem to go off in many people's minds related to that. My class mates' first impressions were to either relate it to the occupy movement (referring to the tent) or to communism due to the copious amounts of red in the image.
However, there is also a towering building in the background surrounded by the radial effect; this is to accentuate its' importance. The main idea is that happiness is not always a simple goal to achieve.
In a big-box society based on consumerism and wealth, it seems that the land of tall buildings and bustling commercial areas is the shining beacon we all aim for. In many ways, society (or in this case, the individual) has abandoned the simple life consisting of open air and naturalistic lifestyle. Often, people frown upon the idea of living in such a way long term since our "happiness" has provided so much for us. In this world of cities and big business men, the individual is lost and becomes insignificant in a crowd (note scale of figure).

In short, the now unimportant and insignificant individual must overcome many obstacles to reach an ideal which we assume will bring us happiness in a consumerist-capitalistic society in which we live. Ideals are hard to meet and may be unrealistic at times. The image is meant to evoke a thoughtfulness on what the general northwestern population may be losing touch with.

As for the color scheme, I felt that it was good to keep the simplicity to trigger subconscious images of political propaganda posters. The colors are very bright and vivid, so as to draw the attention of the viewer to and important subject or issue.

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This is my actual artists' comment

Wow i'm really happy if you read all of that. I had a super fun time with this project since it gave me the opportunity to actually do some fun things i'd been meaning to.

Uh, yeah. I'm not too horribly politically informed but I do feel that some things aren't difficult to have an opinion on.