Meet Sir Constinople.

oof!

Am having trouble coming up with a commentary on this particular piece... It actually stemmed from my love of head scarves, haha shallow origins you say! Well, this fashion statement from the homeland spurred an entire inner conversation on religion, the role of women and the struggle of balancing our past and culture with the stream of western ideals that stress equality. Because though Everyone is needed to carry out some sort of duty to society, not everyone necessarily gets the respect that is deserved.

Ho hum, all the posts so far have been such downers!! I promise I'll make ya'll who read this something very happy and carefree for the next post :) something really cute!

Happy Fathers day?

Heres a picture I made for my dad for fathers day. I wasn't sure what to make for him since I kind of felt that my dad never really was that ultra-dad protector type, we were just always expected to take care of ourselves and not be stupid. Which I guess in itself was a kind of protector. 

Thus, because am currently obsessed with little red riding hood and all her incarnations I came up with this. Tada! 

She's an interesting character, Little Red. She's sent all by herself into the woods and has to learn about predators, and evil and the weighing of consequences. What was her mother thinking!?! 

There are of course all these different interpretations of what it all means, the most common one being that it represents a girl finding her way to womanhood, the red representing menstruation (collective "ewwww" from audience) and the wolf being that ever-present male who suddenly gives her attention once she's matured. 

It's very scary actually, how she's charmed by the wolf. Or atleast thats what I imagine, since the soundtrack for the Musical In to the Woods has been constantly playing. When we meet the wolf he bounces back and forth between him showing her all the wonderous things she will find if she leaves the path, while inwardly speaking of how he can't wait to possess her. He makes all these gutteral sounds, that are hyper sexual (in my opinion) and his voice oozed that ultra perfect 50s "honey I'm home" sappiness. What kind of appetite the the wolf has changes from different tellings. Current ones only say that he eats her, however early ones describe him asking her to undress and come into bed with him, all while under the guise of the grandmother. The whole things is so dirty! I LOVE IT! The musical does a good job of walking that tightrope between both so as not to freak out the children, but to touch on the nerves of the parents that are present.

The thing I love the most about "In to the Woods" is how they take fairy tales, which are known for their black and white lessons and show that nothing is ever so in real life. Everyone gets what they wish for and yet they still want more, bigger houses, different princesses etc. etc. In Little Red's case she says the following after being rescued:

And I know things now,
Many valuable things,
That I hadn't known before:
Do not put your faith 
In a cape and a hood,
They will not protect you
The way that they should.
And take extra care with strangers,
Even flowers have their dangers.
And though scary is exciting,
Nice is different than good.

Now I know:
Don't be scared.
Granny is right,
Just be prepared.

Isn't it nice to know a lot!
And a little bit not...

See, instead of feeling sorry for herself and letting this one violation sully the rest of her existence she learns from it and comes out a better person. It sucked, but she's thankful for it all the same. Thats a good story right?! Thats a story you want to tell your kids!

 

The Sentinel

             

Mmm, good morning today. The entire house smells like fresh quiche and bread because my mom is having a whole bunch of her friends over for brunch. Am very hungry and excited! After I plan on visiting my old high school art teacher, if I can get past security that is. But you're not here to here babbling about mundane plans, no! you're here for the art :)

So here's a little bit of what I've been doing. It all stemmed from this one night when I couldn't sleep so I just doodled a little bit. I don't know if I was distressed about something because everything that came out was kinda creepy, like dead worlds and ghosts leaving through the mouths of their hosts, rickity farm house beds etc. etc. I really liked this little (big) fellow that turned into a little painting. Not ultra happy with it because its one of those "the sketch was way better" situations but it was fun anyhoo. May go back and change the painting or just bring this character back.

Who is the sentinel you ask? Am not quite sure really. I know they're a passage way of sorts and a god-figure but beyond that I'm just as stumped as you.

Practice.

Figure I would upload a few blunders done in photoshop. Its quite difficult to make things not look cheap in this program! Maybe its because there are so many novice artists using it and putting pieces up on Deviantart.  Or its just too clean for my taste. There are ways to to make the image aged and with different textures but heh, don't know how to do that yet.

Anyway the first little picture is of some characters from this childishly drawn futuristic murder mystery I've been thinking creating and the second piece is just a dumb portrait, nothing new, but it did lead me to think of doing a series of portraits of real people involving my growth idea. 

Enjoy!

So thats why!

Have realized that i've grown mildly obsessed with Root formations and plant growth in general. Maybe its the upward movement or something, or how creepy it becomes. Plus When you look closely branching systems tie all of biology together. It doesn't matter if its the blood vessels in your arm or the whatever that holds jellyfish together. Even thought processes work through branching, starting at a central point and growing out to make quick connections with other vital tidbits of information.  Its not actually creepy at all, but beautiful and comforting. Comforting that even if one isn't religious there are still these underlying ties that hold everything together, a system of existence!

TOM!

A sketch of a scene from Tipping the Velvet. In it Kittie throws her rose to the pretties girl in the audience (an after show tradition) and it lands in the lap of Nancy who had been coming to sit in the balcony every night just to watch her. Thus the start of a complicated and eye opening love affair. 

Just loved the namelessness of their relationship, and the descriptions of sweaty caked on stage makeup and immaculate suits. Such an amazing world Vaudeville was, dang.