This piece was for our final project. When I was searching for a concept for my final piece, I happened to be doing some reading for my philosophy class. I was on the topic of existentialism and read this argument by Henry David Thoreau in which he described the lives of those who choose a safe life-route set by society instead of what they are truly passionate about as a state of quiet desperation. This phrase really stuck with me and I wanted to try to illustrate the phrase in my piece.
I thought of a scene that could be very chilling and arctic. I also wanted to have a symbol demonstrating how fleeting life can be, thus the skull. I created the composition in Photoshop, using various photos and photo manipulation techniques. I wanted the final composition to have a feeling of sublime, reminiscent of art from the American romanticism period of the 18th century.
