Creative Assignment 2.3: AND HIS NAME IS TRUMP CENA

Intention: I really didn't have any lofty intentions in the making of my art piece. My goal in this project was simply to mix various elements of pop culture to create something new.

Context: I noticed that in the movie we watched in class, “Exit Through The Gift Shop”, many of the works made by Banksy and Guetta, mixed various elements from disparate times and themes, usually in order to convey a message. For example, at one point Banksy draws a picture of several children that apparently had used a plastic shovel to create a hole in the Israeli West Bank barrier, leading to a “paradise”. In addition to the idea of mixing various things, I also kept in mind the somewhat cartoony and stenciled style used by Banksy and several other grafitti artists featured in the film. Thus, in the making of my piece, I chose to mix two people in a sort of “Frankenstein operation”. I used Donald Trump and John Cena. Both are contemporary figures in pop culture. Trump is a businessman and political candidate while Cena is a professional wrestler and rapper. Both of them seem to have very flamboyant persona's. During his 2016 presidential campaign, he has called Mexican immigrants “rapists and murderers”. Cena, is famous as a nigh unbeatable wrestler, philanthropist, and good role model. Cena is also famous for his trademark catchphrase and pose “you can't see me”. Cena has become part of the “Unexpected Cena” meme wherein a short clip introducing Cena while his rap music plays is edited onto the end of some unrelated video.  

Process: I didn't have too much of a process, as the first thing that I had thought of in the context of mixing multiple pop culture icons was somehow mixing two people with over the top personalities, like Trump and Cena. I also noted that the two figures are related in that Trump is a big fan of World Wrestling Entertainment(WWE) and WWE owner Vince McMahon, and Cena is a five-time WWE champion. I did research into the various exploits of both Trump and Cena as well as how they are viewed by the public. I had Photoshop-related troubles several times, mostly regarding management of layers. I also had to decide which filter I would use. I chose “Poster Edges”, because I thought that it did a good job of capturing the style in which Bansky and the other artists worked, as well as of covering up for my inadequacies in Photoshop.

Product: I created a picture of Trump's face on Cena's body doing his trademark “You Can't See Me” pose, while wearing his own hat and sweatbands. I used Photoshop to cut Trumps face and then paste onto Cena's body and separate the various elements of the picture into layers for easy management. I then arranged the various elements to look believable. I then attempted to touch up the picture using color balance, to compensate for the differences in skin tone and lighting between the two precursor images.

Critique: I felt that this work was a great piece of art brought on by an almost divine inspiration, but tragically stifled by human limitations. It matched my intent perfectly, of just mixing two people with wacky personalities. The very sight of it makes me smile and chuckle to myself, though the laughter tends to be short lived because I remember the various flaws in it due to my inexperience with Photoshop.

Reflection; If I were to do this again, I would likely do something very similar. However, I would go about it in a way that delivered more of a message, In this instance, I might have put this picture of Trump/Cena in place of Trump in a political debate, in order to accentuate Trumps differences from the rest of Republican party and to talk about the direction the Republican party is going as a whole