Robin Barth Portfolio

Microcosmos   

        

Microcosmos’ goal is to explore people’s internal emotions while juxtaposing this with global issues dealing with the disregard of waste. Most people fabricate their lives in order to appear flawless, when in reality, all people have issues and unattractive baggage. The body of work parallels society’s shyness towards being open and the disregard of waste on the planet as a means to expose those inner feelings through trash-like items. 

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First, using images of singular people are used to convey the singularity that many people feel when dealing with internal emotions. These individuals are displayed through various means of mark making to illustrate everyone’s uniqueness, for example using ball point pen, leaving a thin, scratchy mark, as well as watercolor crayons for a more expressive, organic contour. Within the depictions, backgrounds that feature recycled and “trashy” items, such as cardboard, string, and tissue paper, come to play in order to illustrate the unattractive feelings that some encounter within themselves. The role of these forms of discarded media is to display inner emotions as a landscape or cosmos, hence the title ‘Microcosmos’. The portfolio also matures into pieces containing scenes with multiple portraits in order to convey the reluctance to share these emotions. Overall, microcosmos’ purpose to explore the internal feelings of others through mixed media and accurately enforces the claim that everyone has their own cosmos within.