Name: Bella Tran

Description: “Weight of the World” is an artistic retelling of the story of Chú Cuội, a childhood folktale that captures more mature essences of loneliness and loss of purpose. Chú Cuội crouches, looking down and gazing, wondering how he will get back home to his wife–on his back grows a banyan tree, the thing that provided him everything in life–his legacy, his people and his wife, whom he healed with these magical leaves. The top of the tree holds the moon, his eternal place of imprisonment, holding strong resemblance to the mother tiger, the one whom he saw use the magical banyan leaves to heal her cubs–the one who gave him this secret of which its current gifts as well as consequences weighs on his back for eternity.

An exploration of composition & details, MOUTHWASHING explores the complex relationships between the characters of the inspired video game; the focal point of the piece, Curly looks desperately at the viewer as he is surrounded by snapshots of moments in which he failed to take responsibility, and someone else consequently got punished for his bystanding. He is linked to all these moments through strands of intestines, a gore element taken from the game, in which when observing closely spell the words "TAKE RESPONSIBILITY", implying these mistakes weigh on Curly's conscience, and he longs for escape from them.

Exploring the oil paint medium, I painted a bunch of green grapes in dramatic chiaroscuro lighting. The harsh shadows and highlights of the grapes’ structure allowed me to employ a blocky painting style as opposed to a realistic depiction of the reference, as the accuracy of the lighting dynamics was more important than the realism of the piece. The warm primary light source contrasts the colder natural colors of the grapes as well as the background, which strengthened the overall color composition & dynamic.