How to Break Up With Your Phone by Miguel Portan

From the moment I saw this piece it caught my eye.  It’s not very much to it and it’s straight to the point but is it so relatable. It is digital art  with sort of a paint based look by Miguel Portan. Which I believe make it into the New York Times. It displays a person trying to disconnect from their phone but some parts of the person’s face is still glued to the phone causing the face to look irregular and elongated. The image doesn’t have much shading or details. It’s very simplistic with very few colors but a certain kind of texture to the coloring making them pop. The movement in this piece is very well constructed as I find my eyes shifting from the person’s face to the phone and then back. The negative space in the piece and the contrasts between the red shirt and green background makes for a very eye pleasing visual, I think it gives the image unity. For me the two focal points is the person’s face and the phone.

I really think this piece works because I automatically connected with it on a personal level.  As the name implies how to break up with your phone is self explanatory towards the image. Even without knowing the title of this piece I believe anybody would have been able put that connection together.  As it is known, we live in a technology based society were phones and computers are everything, so I find myself and people of my generation glued to their phones.  We live on our phones and it’s hard to go days or even hours without it. This piece reminds me of that problem and relays the relatable message very well. Personally I have been finding ways to spend less time on my phone even though it plays a big role in the improvement and evolution of portable technology, that has greatly improved our lives to an extent. Cell phones are very innovative devices constantly improving, but the daily connections and unlimited amount of time the average young adult spends on their phone is unhealthy and it distracts them from reality. There’s but so much you could take from the virtual world or media/internet. At the end of the day, reality and living life is what’s most important, the outside connections, communication and experiences are what’s really going to make an impact and become  memorable. So I have a heavily support this piece and its deeper meaning of breaking the cycle of being glued to your phone.

As far as the other work by this artist go they are all simplistic and unique, and they happened to be digital art as well. Some of them even have similar topics like social media, web browsing, data files and others. From that I could see that this artist is very well interested in the virtual world and technology, whether that’s showing the negative side of it or just shining a light on the subject.