REFLECTION
In my opinion, the three sins that define America the most are gluttony, sloth, and lust. These sins take many aspects in our society, from fast food to strip clubs; these places are commonly visited, but unnecessary towards the functioning of society. It could be argued that mattress stores are necessary because everyone needs a bed, but what better way to represent sloth than the allure of sleeping in a comfortable bed and avoiding the world outside? Mattress stores provide a gateway to laziness, just as how fast food inevitably leads to obesity.
With my three locations as backdrops to the scene, truly representing the despots of American sin, I chose the most fitting lead to represent America as a whole country: the President. These images are not meant to be a political commentary about our current President and the actions that he has done because he is merely a reflection of our American society, and plenty of common-folk have done far worse than Trump ever has. The President is an icon, a symbol of America, and seeing him surrounded by lowly places such as Taco Bell helps to promote the idea that America is rooted in these sins.
The CNN headlines are designed to reflect the general public. Most people watch the news and believe everything they see on it, which is symbolic in these images of the general public of America also being involved in these sins, not just the President. The “Breaking News” headlines are ironic in nature because there is nothing new about the fact that America is largely overweight, but that is the true point of these images. I was not trying to make a political expression of our President, instead I was trying to show the American population what we all have in common and what is destroying the American dream: gluttony, sloth, and lust.
INSPIRATION
My inspiration for my final three composite images came from this initial image, which was a sort of self portrait featuring my biggest sins: gluttony, sloth, envy, and greed. I liked the idea of utilizing one central image and expressing a different sin using various aspects of that centralized image. My Photoshop skills were pretty poor when I first created this image, and it is obvious it was edited together, so for my composites I decided to focus on making a more realistic scene and avoiding using emojis because they were too on the nose for me.