Artist Statement:
I chose to use Christian Bale’s face for this project from when he was in Disney’s movie Newsies based off the Broadway play, this movie and play inspired me as ive seen both. I specifically chose this photo because the character Christian Bale plays at this moment is conferring with his strike endorsing friends. The tech teacher Edward Meyers exposed me and many others to this movie and encouraged us to see the play which was quite beneficial to my understanding that this story was based off of a real part of history, the newsies strike. Before child labor laws were enacted children often got jobs selling news papers and working in factories as oppose to attending school, these now uneducated children were than taken advantage of until they had enough. This, as previously stated, was inspiring to me and so i find Christian Bale’s appearance in this movie as a defining moment, i no longer see him as Batman and instead i see him as a crusader during the day when he plays the part of Jack Kelly, the face of the newsies union. I included both lyrics from the movie and from the play as i feel both define this character. i found myself constantly adding contrast to balance the skin tone but it seemed to work out in my favor though it is darker than id expected it doesn’t take away from what the viewer should take from this piece. Which leads me to what id like the reader to take from this; the lyrics I’ve concluded take this character from his start to finish feelings with songs like, watch what happens, i never planned on someone like you, something to believe in, seize the day, and Santa Fe. Not all of these songs are sang by this character alone yet they describe the struggles of this character, to his love story, his lowest feeling, then ending in his defining moment to “seize the day once and for all”, so id like my viewers to pay more attention to the words put together to make this portrait, than to the picture it creates itself.
dallas' armed force 