2-dimensional composition: dada ist alles. dada ist nicht. dada is kunst.

My pictogram painting is due tonight. And here it is, ready for submission.

And here's the reflection I posted:  

I found it difficult to make intentionally 'bad' artworks/pictograms. I sketched two compositions--one about alien abduction and this one about what is art? Thinking and deciding on a composition to paint took the most time.  This sketch of graffiti in an art museum was more fully formed, and so I went with it. 

I like the idea of making artworks that use symbols and/or linguistics theory and thinking about what is the signifier? and what is being signified? However, I never want to be obscure and I always want to convey a narrative.  And so, I like my "sign": Dada ist alles. Dada is nicht. Dada ist Kunst. Or Dada is everything. Dada is nothing. Dada is Art. I learned those sentences in a German class and did a little research on absurdist art movements while painting this composition.

The pictogram people were easy to paint, but the surrounding details were arduous to paint, especially the "no photographs" pictogram because it was so teeny tiny. I took in feedback on my previous paintings being too rough draft, and so I spent time painting additional coats and touching up and cleaning up edges. 

I'd only a smattering of semiotics, having studied it superficially in a linguistics unit to examine language as a system of signs and symbols in an English class. I've always thought about communication and meaning-making when it comes to making art, and so this exercise to focus on signs and symbols in general was a lot of fun.

I've always adored street art and graffiti--Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat have always been favorites. And now I admire Banksy. I find it so ironic that despite Banksy's political activism, anonymity, and criticism of consumer culture and social injustice, his subversive work in public spaces such as walls and buildings can get sold in a secondary market when a developer or building owner decides to remove and sell it.