School: Eagle River High School
Grade: 12th
This piece is a mixed media homage to classic Hollywood horror movies. They’ve been a big part of my upbringing and American culture as a whole. I used a collage technique- the piece is entirely made of small paper snippets from magazines. The dramatic and grandiose lighting and color mimic that of 1940’s and 1950’s eye-catching movie posters. I included a war scene (which represent how war films contribute to the public’s shared understanding of the horrors of war), the Creature from the Black Lagoon (monster movies), the silhouette of a fainting woman, a screaming lady at the top (both common horror tropes), and a foreboding house much like that of the “Psycho” house, representing the horror of a physically dangerous location. This piece is overall a reflection of escapism and how we as a society have made horror movie symbols as a way to cope with the horrors of life, and how we take back that control with art and film.
