As I was going through the different open exhibition calls, I noticed this listing over different styles of hearts for an art exhibition and this specific requirement called to me. I did not have work that was set to upload forthe show, so I started making a composition after finding the exhibition. I was looking at the requirements, and it did state that “, the curator recommends that they focus prominently on the symbol of the heart,” which I started to brainstorm which sort of objects or themes I could create. My brain went straight to the “Strawberry Fields Forever” clip from the “Across the Universe” movie, where the main character, Jude, makes a mixed media painting of strawberries pinned into a canvas, signifying the deaths in Vietnam war. I liked the idea of the “heart” pinned to the wall and held there to bleed out, as it’s such a graphic image if it wasn’t censored by the strawberry. I found the strawberry image from Unsplash and the paper texture there as well. As I was looking for an image to use as the nail/pin holding the strawberry in place, there were no results that fit what I had in mind, so unfortunately the strawberry is floating against the backdrop. I was able to make the strawberry look like it was physically in front of the background by copying the strawberry layer, adding a black color overlay effect on it, and adding a gaussian blur on top of it. This and positioning the shadow layer a bit to the lower right of the main strawberry gives it the effect that makes the strawberry “pop.”
