For this project, we decided to focus on Jean-Michel Basquiat because his art is bold and full of meaning, even though it can be tough to fully understand. His work mixes chaos with themes about identity, race, and society. We wanted to create something similar—recreating that chaos, but with a method to the madness, while still bringing him to the forefront. We conjoined different pieces of his art to fit that disfigured art style of his while showing the most important and stand-out aspects of his style. When forming this piece, we paid attention to the most foundational parts of his life; his fascination with anatomy, his dark childhood, his upbringing as an artist, and his previous works.

For example, the crown above his head was a staple of a lot of his art, as he was often held to such a high standard as the inventor of a renaissance of street art, and he enjoyed playing around with that idea. The tag “SAMO” behind him stems from his original tag as an artist. The skeleton represents his fascination with human anatomy and how the body moves, and he played around with proportions and body shapes constantly–something we tried to achieve as well. All of this is layered and stuffed behind him, almost like these topics jumble around in his mind constantly, as he progresses through what he sees New York City to be. Although Basquiat passed away, we feel that this mindset lives on in our perceived reality and what is most important in our lives. While the background here is colorful and chaotic for this artist, someone else might see a black and white rotting city dystopia, or a giant personal playground, depending on one’s lived experience.

Everyone, including us, has faced hardships in life, often in terms of not fitting in socially, succumbing to our flaws, or struggling to express ourselves. As first year students in college, we aspire to find our outlet, our spark that allows us to vocalize how we view the world. Seeing someone like Basquiat execute this, especially considering how young he was, acts as a direct inspiration for us, showing us how art can be anything, as long as we believe in it. That’s why the first chance we got to make a unique piece of art, we decided to incorporate Basquiat in it, as it was our opportunity to share this mindset with others our age who might feel misunderstood as misfits. Basquiat’s work shows how art can reflect the world around us and spark important conversations. With our piece, we hope to do something similar—using art to express both personal and social struggles, just like Basquiat did.