When creating my STEAM festival submittal, I aspired to create a work of art that was representative of the styles of art I had observed over the entirety of this course. When deciding on the subject matter of my piece, I knew right away I had wanted my piece to be based off Spider-Man as a character. Not only had I previously worked with the character earlier in the year when creating a surrealist collage, but I had been directly influenced from the history of pop-art; Andy Warhol’s direct usage of iconography from pop-culture and brands drew me to the idea of using a figure from pop-culture myself, with mine being Marvel’s Spider-Man. My choice of a fictional character also further ties into lessons learned throughout the class, as many art styles were born in direct response to consumerism and culture born from it, such as postmodernism, pop art, and aspects of dadaism that were critical of contemporary culture. By focusing on this subject matter, I sought out to explore how these facets of art throughout the seminar can, in conjunction with one another, analyze consumerism and how it impacts society. Through this piece, I intended to not only encompass the art I had learned about from the course, but force myself to come to a conclusion on the nature of consumerism through this fictitious figure and artistic experimentation.

After settling on the subject matter for my piece, I knew that I would like to use a plethora of materials. At the beginning, I simply used mere pencil onto paper to first recreate a pose of Spider-Man hanging from a web. To encompass ideas from surrealist art, I intended to avoid using reference images within the work so as to represent what “Spider-Man” is to me on a more subconscious level. Through avoiding references, it forced me to consider how Spider-Man, as a character, exists in my own mind, tying back to my original postulations about consumerism; how does this character persist in my memory? What do the stances I envision this character performing within my mind entail about how advertising and consumer culture has affected me on a personal level? What other poses can I envision? Is there just one pose that can truly encapsulate this figure within my mind? By asking myself these questions, my figure slowly expanded; what began as a simple pose recreating images I had seen of Spider-Man hanging from a web mutated and evolved, with more arms and legs added to encompass more and more poses that existed within my mind. From this, I was subconsciously drawn to another feature: a literal spider. Subconsciously, I had abstracted the figure of a man into having eight limbs, the animal the titular character of my piece derives his powers from. Pop-culture and consumerism had, in this manner, subconsciously impacted my view of both a natural animal and a fictional icon, mixing the two together into an inseparable manner within my mind. With this, I felt I had succeeded in representing one aspect of the course through this drawing; I had embraced the ideals of surrealism and automatism as an artistic practice to arrive further at my conclusion regarding consumerism and the culture permeated by it.

As I had created an abstracted man with multiple limbs, another figure came to mind; The Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci. The figure of a man with multiple limbs reminded me of art history that wasn’t even represented within the class, yet this piece struck me as a place of inspiration to analyze consumerism’s impact on culture through fiction. The Vitruvian Man was created to combine mathematical principles with art to create ideal proportions for the human figure. The sense of creating something “ideal” is an idea that can be directly linked to fictional characters and consumerism; companies strive endlessly to create “ideal” versions of their properties for the sake of earning higher profits. Characters such as Spider-Man are rewritten, redrawn, and reiterated an immeasurable amount of times to create versions of them that are more appealing to all consumers so that more comics may be sold. The concept of the “Spider-Verse” within culture is proof of this; an infinite multiverse with different versions of Spider-Man exist in canon of the comics, but in a meta-textual sense, this is done so that Marvel as a company can have more and more “ideal” versions of Spider-Man to market. Much as my own piece had mutated through surrealism, Spider-Man as a figure has mutated and evolved in his own way due to consumerist culture.

With this revelation, I had settled on including both the concept of the “Spider-Verse” and The Vitruvian Man into my artwork. My abstracted figure shifted into being representative of differing versions of Spider-Man that exist– ranging from Spider-Man’s Venom attire, to Miles Morales, to Spider-Gwen, to Spider-Man Noir as characters featured within the piece. Differing techniques and materials were required for each mutation of the piece. Varying from using pens, to cross-hatching with pencil, to using colored pencils, to shading through dots, I was able to incorporate several mediums into one piece, matching further with artistry that was observed throughout the course. With the main figure of Spider-Man himself, I settled on using paints and markers to draw attention to the main figure.

With the concept of the “Spider-Verse” further came the idea of differing forms of media within the piece; by printing out corner stamps, I included Dadaist tactics of collaging into the piece, as well as embracing concepts of the ready-made for my own art. The corner stamps I had chosen were significant in their own manner; by using one of Spider-Man from early comics in the bottom right, to using Spider-Man 2099 in the upper left, I sought to convey how as time progresses, the figure of Spider-Man will continue to mutate and evolve into differing versions of himself. Even into the far future, consumerist culture will force figures we recognize to change and evolve for the sake of more capital. Placing them in these positions also resembles a playing card; another form of entertainment that evolves and shifts as time goes on, further invoking imagery of consumerism and how culture is impacted by the drive for profit.

Lastly came the inclusion of The Vitruvian Man into the piece. The addition of the circle and squares required, in reality, little geometric principles and sought to invoke the image of The Vitruvian Man on a superficial level. While this may appear demeaning of the original artwork, I believe that by making only physical resemblance to The Vitruvian Man, I was able to place more focus on the key takeaway from its inclusion to the piece. In similar manner, to achieve a related appearance of an aged work of art, I used teabags to stain and “age” the piece overall, leading to certain areas smudging or dripping into each other, which I believe to be emblematic of chance operations within surrealist and dadaist movements. The central focus with the inclusion of The Vitruvian Man, however. was the inclusion of italian text within the original art piece. To mimic this in a manner I sought relevant to my overall messaging, I had replaced this text with a quote from Stan Lee, Spider-Man’s creator, which reads:
I used to be embarrassed because I was just a comic-book writer while other people were building bridges or going on to medical careers. And then I began to realize: entertainment is one of the most important things in people’s lives. Without it they might go off the deep end. I feel that if you’re able to entertain people, you’re doing a good thing. (Cavna)
This quote ties into, what I perceive as, another perspective on the evolution of consumerist culture. While it is undeniable that a large part of consumerism’s development has been due to the pursuit of capitalist profit, it is also undeniable that figures such as Spider-Man have impacted peoples’ lives for the better. As the figure continues to evolve for materialistic reasons, creators must innovate on the character to maintain the aspect of entertainment throughout history. As time progresses, the figure only maintains its relevance culturally and symbolically maintains ideals of justice, hope, and heroism. This quote, with its new perspective, was essential to the piece and what allowed me to settle on my final touches for the artwork.

Through creating a piece that encompasses art throughout the course, I have created an artwork that does represent these techniques and more. Through embracing surrealist, Dadaist, and pop-culture ideals, I was able to successfully create a multimedia piece that features techniques and ideas from all of these styles in my own manner. What was revealed to me as a result of this piece, however, was a study of consumerism and how it has impacted culture. Through this piece, I deliver a theme of how over time, fictional iconography and art continues to evolve, mutate, and expand upon itself for the sake of creating more profits and selling more copies. Much like my own drawing had changed, the figures we see throughout pop-culture will continue to evolve and change themselves to meet their end goals; through a meta-textual sense, the evolution of fiction seeks to deliver more “ideal” products to the consumer, working purely in the pursuit of profit and materialistic fortune. At the same time, it is this same consumerism that allows figures such as Spider-Man to be as prominent in culture as they are. The entertainment provided through consumerism, and the symbolic meaning of fiction upon culture as a whole, can cause all aspects of life to tie into each other, from nature to fiction. It allows us to reflect on art historically, and analyze what the evolution of art means as a reflection of society as a whole, and through the mixing of contemporary figures with historic artforms, can reveal how consumerism, as a practice, can encourage us to create not just for profits sake, but also for the sake of one another and to provide care through means not directly tied to the materialistic nature of consumerism.

Works Cited:

Cavna, Michael. “Excelsior! As Stan Lee Turns 93 Today, Here Are Our 20 Best Stan the Man Quotes – The Washington Post.” Excelsior! As Stan Lee Turns 93 This Year, Here Are Our 20 Best Stan the Man Quotes, 28 Dec. 2015, www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2014/12/28/stan-lees-birthday-as-the-comics-legend-turns-92-today-here-are-our-20-favorite-stan-lee-quotes/.