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Entries in nocturnal (35)

Friday
Mar012013

The Shadow

Digital painting and photo texture.

I love the idea that the small rabbit has become terrified of his own shadow, failing to recognize his own projection. This is both literal and symbolic; the shadow self/unconscious, etc.

The shadow rabbit escapes with plans of his own, he has a purpose.

x

Monday
Feb252013

Inbetween remembering and forgetting...

To see larger and with more detail, please click the image.

Digital drawing/painting (rough sketches created individually, then collaged into a larger piece)...

Imagine there's a part of you that has become split off, or trapped somewhere else in time. The past, perhaps. Most likely. I think that they are aspects of the same person, struggling to become whole. The floating girl is that missing part of the self which haunts dreams and possibly even the places of the past where she still walks. Always looking for an answer.

I wonder about the ghosts which belong to the souls of those still living.

The following image came together whilst playing with 'leftovers' from the one above. I really love the black cat!

 

 x

Thursday
Feb212013

Flower Girl

Digital painting and collage.

A reworked older image from 2007.

Another kind of changeling. She doesn't quite belong to the human world, feeling more at home in the presence of slowly growing, silent things. She prefers to speak without sound. She also reminds me of myself as a child; the emotion more than the face. This could also be interpreted as a loss of innocence, a wish to return to the bliss of unknowing.

x

Wednesday
Feb202013

The Storytellers

Digital illustration &  collage.

Will possibly discuss this later....need to sleep x

Later: I will ramble, as always. I wanted to merge the fairy tale theme with alchemy. 'The Storytellers' concerns transition, which has kind of become the main theme of my work in recent months; an ongoing process of change, renewal, metamorphosis. Sometimes something has to be brought to an abrupt end to be able to begin again, to become revitalised. The dome, scissors and playing card represent the sensation of feeling trapped (by fate, circumstance, domesticity, whatever you wish) whilst the egg, heart and cosmic surroundings promise hope and liberation........ Because that potential is always there, in the heart/art and mind, however unyeilding our circumstances may seem.

And even later: Having thought a little more about this following a comment over at flickr, I also want to add that the symbols within my images almost always concern my own life and dreams, my memories (or loss of) or desires. Scissors and blood would generally represent a cutting of ties, or an ending of some sort, never actual violence. In this case, the storytellers have the potential to escape the apparent safety of their 'dome', whilst the egg kind of symbolises freedom and new beginnings. So let's see if they have the guts to fly!

The playing cards always represent something very personal to me. They are either the seven of spades or the seven of hearts, and work as polar opposites. I am also - as may be obvious by now - extremely fascinated by the writings of C. Jung and Marie Louise Von Franz, especially her interpretations of fairytales. In this sense the seven of spades connects to the what lies hidden, unconscious, or concerning dreams. The seven of hearts relates to what has become conscious, emotional content and clarity.

I hope that this doesn't just read like a pile of fanciful claptrap, because I am not sure of any other way to describe the meaning of my images! x

 

Monday
Feb042013

weird girls conjuring things....

 

not sure about this one. 

may edit!

x

Saturday
Feb022013

Horses

 

5 Horses

Digital painting with watercolour & Lace.

The five horses who were also five brothers. A magical transformation within a dream. The house represents the self, the fox a protector and the small ghosts an echo of the past.

When I was child my family kept horses. Five horses. They always seemed so exquisitely beautful... yet somehow remote, as if already belonging to my future dreams. x

 

Sunday
Jan272013

Walking in the clearest night...

 Black Cats

are princely cats.

doodle/drawing.

x

Tuesday
Jan222013

Laura's Dream

 

 Digital drawing.

Will add text tomorrow, I am so sleepy now.

x

Wednesday
Jan162013

Buried Treasure

Buried Treasure
Digital drawing with lace.
.
A psychic/magical process, largely influenced by two wonderful books: Old Peter's Russian Tales & The Shadow and Evil in Fairytales by Marie Louise Von Franz (a remarkable Jungian writer). Have been reading both over the holiday period and also getting to grips with a new computer system and software - my first upgrade in over 8 years! I was absolutely terrified of the change, yet moving forward has opened up an entire new world of wonders for me. These last few images are quite possibly evidence of that, although I am still learning so not quite achieving exactly what I set out to do. But it doesn't matter, because I am in love!
I really want to create a new series/folder for these works: there's something of my love for Lotte Reiniger, Yuri Norstein here.....they're not quite silhouettes, nor animated, but they are somehow connected to the movement of the music that I have been working to. As I work, the images move and dance and shimmer, and a story forms as the image progresses. There's something special about Russian fairytales. I'm not sure that I can explain exactly what that is, but I am really taken by the descriptions of nature, how nature and the elements play such an integral part. They are populated by so many exquisite magical creatures. And this influence ties in so neatly with the writings of Von Franz: magical creatures/forces of nature as symbolic manifestations of the (collective and personal) unconscious.
I feel the desire to work primarily with animals & magical creatures more than ever, even if I don't exactly intend to abandon my little girls completely......I just feel that I may have grown away from the child as a central motif, perhaps something within me has progressed past this - The girls are powerful but always mute. Pretty, yet detached. Immobile. I want them to transform somehow, to explode out of their silence. I think that my previous image 'Revenge of the Girls' kind of illustrates that to some extent. They are simply changing.
The 'Buried Treasure' here is a symbol of (as is usual with me) a recovery of what lies lost or hidden. Potent forces underground. The girls possess magical little gardening forks and have dug out their hearts......they are supported by a constellated horse and two black shadow horses in the background (wearing spiked crowns, which I don't think you can discern at this resolution).
x
Friday
Dec142012

Revenge of the Girls

Revenge of the Girls

Detail

Revenge of the Girls ver.2

So, I decided to confuse you by not being able to make up my mind which version to stick with. Again. Kind of experimental, rough sketches, playing with newly designed brushes and textures, drawn mostly free-hand and incorporating (instead of deleting) flaws/mistakes.

The scene depicts a world of ghosts and dreams: the girls revealing their true nature (not necessarily a bad thing), or transforming into nature, which they are both attuned to & protective of. I prefer the first version visually, although the second version feels more in keeping with the theme (transforming instead of already transformed).

Inspired by 'The Bears Revenge' by Moulettes, which I am really enjoying working to at the moment. You can listen to a sample here.

x