What is a Deer?

Deer as a Spiritual Being

Yes, a deer is an animal that exists in most wooded areas; this is true. There is so much more to it though than that, and this is why it will be the focus of my subject concentration project. As a spirit animal, the deer represents gentleness, ability to move through life and obstacles with grace, being in touch with inner child, innocence, sensitivity, intuition, vigilance, ability to regenerate, and the ability to be in touch with life's mysteries. With some of these essences, ideas come very quickly to me, but others I have to ponder more.By focusing on such particular parts of its spirituality it helps me to create new ideas that otherwise wouldn't  have come to me. Such as the ability to regenerate. With this idea I can go in two direction: a metaphorical one or a physical one. I don't yet have an idea for either, but through consideration and progress on the other essences I'm sure ideas will come to me.
The idea of moving through life and obstacles with grace is much simpler to create an idea for. What better to represent grace than a ballerina. All I have to do for this essence is combine a deer and ballerina together and voila.
For the most basic essence, spirituality, a project is already underway: A wispy deer with golden antlers and done in majestic colors all painted on velvet. This project is almost done but it still needs more "magesticness" to be added. This may be done by painting in sparkles to the surrounding or maybe if there's room I can fit in little fairies (this may very well be over-kill though).
As a concentration subject, the deer as a spiritual being was a very good choice because it allows me to go beyond the deer and move into other realms of intrigue.

The other world

The artistic value of keys

How did a utilitarian object like the key become an object of art? I dont know about all people, but when I look at a key, I see something very pretty. I know that part of these is because of the pretty curls and ornate edges (and the fact that each one is individual), but I think that the real reason I find keys so pretty, is because of the possibilities it holds. In Alice in Wonderland, for example, the key gets Alice through the little door and into a magical new adventure. For me keys hold this kind of mystery. I never know what each new door opens to,so for each new key I see all I can do is imagine the world of possibilities; maybe it leads to another world, maybe an old book store, or maybe just a pretty rooming. No matter what it may lead to, each key lead to somewhere else that otherwise would not have been reached.

It's Raining

As I write this it's pouring outside. While dazing absently at each raindrop hitting the earth, I realized how beautiful each one is. They sparkle and fall with such grace. Each little tear that falls gives me the impression of individual little worlds. This idea of mine makes this gloomy day more enjoyable, because now i can think of all the little varieties of worlds falling. Nature as a whole can be a very beautiful thing as long as we take the time to appreciate it. Even natural disasters can be turned into art with the careful mind of an artist. I'm not referring to scenes taken directly from nature but rather nature that the artist took and made his own; when the woods become home to fairies, and when dandelion puffs turn to birds.


These images don't exist in nature, but the artist sees them with his mind. he took nature to inspire him and created something on his own. The whale for example is not real or even organic, but it was inspired by something that was. This is the beauty of nature, it has the power to influence everything from art to the minds of philosophers like Emerson and Thoreau...I'm sure there are even movies influenced by nature. 

Transparency

Truth
When I hear transparency what instantly comes to mind it truth. Truth should be easily understood and seen,  however it isn't always the case. For my next project the idea of transparency was presented to me. I played around with many ideas such ad fish in a fishbowl taken from a quote in the Elegance of the Hedgehog,and also the nature of both the heart and the brain (one as mechancical and one as sentiments). I liked these ideas but I didn't feel them too strongly, finally I decided upon the idea of society's affect on a girl's state. There will be a profile view of a girl all dolled up and seemingly calm and happy, however this is all a mask. The back of her head where one may find the brain instead there will be chaos: what is excpected of her, what she actually wants,and how it makes her feel. Her hand will be visable and applying makeup of some kind. This hand will be transparent and the inner workings will be doll like, also this hand will be controlled by visable strings. I hope to accomplish this price with the use of gauche, magazine clips, and water color.

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Rambling for the day

"There's not enough time"
"I'm late"
"This is way too long"
All of these are phrases that we allow to rule or life despite the fact that they relate to an abstract concept rather than a substantial thing. Someone once told me that "All we have is time," to this I respectfully disagree. We technically don't have any time because time doesn't actually exist. All we have is life. We all have the gift of life and what we choose to do we this gift is entirely up to us. It's with us as long as we're alive so let's make it worthwhile. If we want to eat that final donut, why not do it now. If we want to see friends, then now is a perfect setting. It's moments that should rule our life not time or how much of it we have left. If we just focus on how much time we have we'll never recognize how much life we have.

Día de los Muertos

                                        Only Dead on the Outside...

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With Día de los Muertos quickly approaching, I have been instructed to do a project relating to this day. I pondered over many ideas trying to find whichever would be the most fun to do or the most interesting. After careful (not really) consideration I have fumbled around with the idea of a mask. With this option, I can represent the classically ornate skull symbol and still be able to put my own thoughts into it. I can paint beautiful flowers and symbols on a paper mache mask. Following this base, I can then add my own mixed media aesthetic by attaching a flower crown mad of tissue paper (and such)

Life as an inspiration

Art, in essence, has always been inspired by what we see. Sometimes it can be a thought in our head that yearns to be placed into existence, other times we may see something particularly striking that we have to try to mimic. When one says art, I think of eclecticism, simple elegance, great literary workings of the mind, and old romantic culture (such as chandeliers and women decked out in lace). Eclecticism is perfectly represented by punk culture. It was started by a group of people that were sick of what they saw in the world, they then decided to rise up, become interesting, and create a whole new culture. There is nothing more powerful than that. As Vivienne Westwood states "It's a philosophy of life. A practice. If you do this, something will change, what will change is that you will change, your life will change, and if you can change you, you can perhaps change the world."  
I want to do this, create something that changes a whole mindset. This way I'll be perpetually satisfied with life.
 
After Eclecticism, comes the darling essence of simple elegance. Everyone can afford to be a little elegant and it adds great balance to the eclecticism of life. No one represents this better then the doll known to all as Audrey Hepburn. She had style from birth until death. She inspires me to be "a little lady" from the way I dress to the clothes and outfits I try to design.
 
However visual ideas aren't just created by what we perceive with our eyes but it's also sometimes perceived by what we read. Works such as Alice in Wonderland, and Elegance of the Hedgehog inspire my mind because they provide an unorthodox meaning to life. These idiosyncrasies inspire me to make every piece of work different and an anomaly. These book also provide me with fabulous ideas that I can base artwork on (such as the darling meaning of the Cheshire cat). 
 
Tying in with the classic is old romantic style. Women used to take pride in looking beautiful, as they wore their darling lace dresses covered in ribbons and drinking tea while wearing silk gloves. This image in my head inspires me to find my inner romantic side and create art that makes people want to go "aww, that's soo sweet." We don't have enough darling people or ideas in this world, and so I try to create such a world in my artwork. And through my art my lovely outlook on life is shared with others.