Starting My Take on a Postmodern Painting

For our next painting assignment, we are required to create a postmodern painting. This required some research on my part. Although I have taken several art history courses, learning about postmodernism and creating your own composition are two completely different challenges. My research included finding patterns throughout postmodern artist's work such as the mediums they used, the topics they covered, and any sort of common aesthetic or themes. If you Google "postmodern paintings" you might be surprised at the wide variety of styles that come up! It took me a while to figure what, if anything, they all had in common. My first (and very unintellectual thought) was: all of these are really weird. The subjects of the paintings were really out there and and crazily abstracted. A lot of the topics poked fun at traditional paintings such as the Mona Lisa (many of you have likely seen parody paintings of her). They have a range or styles and a range of mediums. Some of the topics even seemed contradictory. 

I honestly had no clue where to even start for my own painting. Then one night while watching several corny rom coms with my roommate, we got into a discussion of the silly tropes that room coms seem to repeat over and over. I decided to have my painting poke fun at the reoccurring plot point that two people fall in love because they both like the same obscure band and think that music "totally sounds better on vinyl." I love cheesy romance movies, so I could go on and on about the silly tropes they use that would never cut it in a real life relationship. Above are some of the thumbnail sketches that I created. I decided to go with the top left one. I wanted to convey the narrative through a still life because I like to tell stories through objects rather than people (I also just really don't drawing or painting people). I have included a record player and an album cover with the several possible names including "The Band No One Else Understands" and "Obscurity Binds Us." I wanted to poke fun at how movies will have the first thing that a lead couple bonds over be their "unique" taste in music. I also plan to include a love letter (but I am not sure what I want to write in it) and an engagement ring. As of this week I have already finished my underpainting and have begun to add color. So far I am having a lot of fun. Painting something that makes me laugh has been a great way to relieve the the stress of midterms and escape the reality of school and job hunting.