Dinner and a Movie Final Solution

Artist Statement

This work was inspired by my perceptions of the movie Inside Out. I was particularly drawn to the idea of acceptance. With the theme of acceptance in mind I decided that I would create a work that displayed the five stages of grief. The stages of grief being denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Denial is expressed through the purple section. When doing research, I found that purple was symbolic for denial and it also fit perfectly into the color pallet for the movie. Additionally, the two empty bowls were another way that I found to express denial as I was thinking about denying oneself food as a way that people often grieve. Next, the red section exemplifies anger as well as the lighter which was a way to carry the idea of the heat and pain that anger causes. The green section was meant to simulate the idea of business men playing a game of poker while getting ready to bargain a deal out of their opponent. To add to this, the green color is meant to emulate a poker table and the two sets of cards are expressions that this is the third stage in the five stages of grief. For the black section, I included a hurricane glass full of black water. It is no secret how painful and dark depression is, but if you look closely you can see the yellow circle reflecting off of the glass representing the idea that depression might seem like it will go on forever, but there is hope of a better tomorrow. The hurricane glass is significant because it is a representation of the dark and stormy struggle that is depression. Lastly, the yellow section is a representation of acceptance. I wanted to portray the idea of "When life gives you lemons" and how, while the other stages are not fun, it is important that we allow ourselves to feel these emotions, but that when they are done we learn and grow from them.