Camouflage

Second week illustration for a poem containing wolf packs and sharp toothed loves. Was very jumbled when it came to this assignment and after a lot of inward childish huffing decided to just work on simplifying and actually planning out some sort of composition, because I lack any and all design skills haha!

Before leaving for class I looked at the image from a distance and my eyes couldn't really focus on the picture as a whole, like the last assignment there were two competing elements. In this one I really loved the wolf figure, and guess what? My teacher basically said the same thing, saying to further improve the picture by completely eliminating the back figure (which I may do later on).

The idea that this woman from the poem gained access to another culture through her loved one was really important to me. What was odd about the story is that she seamlessly is able to interact with them, when really no matter how much she would try there would always be her and them tenuously linked by a romantic relationship.

 Right now, at least from the perspective of someone living in an extremely liberal and open city,  people often want to push culture to the side so that they can take part in the surface culture of the American mass. However, even though we are told not to point out the obvious (and mostly beautiful) differences between each other out of a fear of being labeled either judgmental, naive or even racist, there still exists an overall insecurity in having an identity that automatically becomes exclusive because of natural differences in upbringing, religion or economic well being.

I'm not saying that everyone should link arms with "their own kind" and turn their back on everyone else, just that it's useful to understand that there's a power to being and insider and an outsider. That a person should ultimately be able to tread between the two without feeling guilt or shame.