In the end I did about 15 hours of research before actually beginning this entry, and learned some neat stuff along the way.
1. I began with googling folklore and was fascinated by a Bolivian legend about how the armadillo (charango) learned to sing. http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/07/the_armadillos_song.html Originally, the body of the instrument was made of an gutted armadillo body! The sound is quite like a ukulele. There are lovely samples of the music online, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQizCn0cp2A though I can no longer find my favorite, recorded live, impromptu at a cafe/bar by a tourist somewhere in Bolivia. Ok, back to the sketchbook. Sadly, when I sat down to sketch out ideas, I couldn't follow through and had some sort of creative block. It was too cutsie, so, after several different attempts, I decided to start over
2. and I found myself researching Dia de los Muertos. I found the brightly painted skulls inspiring and especially liked stuff related to the Godess Mictecacihuatl, like this cameo and this guy's drawing. But once again, pencil to paper resulted in nada, so I began again.
3. My third and final journey was into animal symbolism and I was fascinated to read all the different symbolic stories related to animals, from Celtic myths to Buddism, it's a treasure trove of inspiration. I've never been a fan of the sugary, over-commercialized butterfly image, but the stories were intriguing, poetic and sometimes contradictory (can represent spiritual evolution/transcendance -or- an inconsistent, unfaithful partner). So, in the end, I went with this.. . I think that listening to the audiobook of Alice in Wonderland flavored the resulting style as well.
:) Thanks everyone!
1 comment:
YO! the ultimate - this is beautiful Angela! Those butterflies are magical yet a little creepy at the same time. This piece is like a dream not to be woken up from. The writing in the center is beautifully embedded into the visual! Wow - what a beauty, fragility and balance!
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