The Rebirth of Venus

Remember this lonely little Venus that I started during my 100 days of art challenge?  On a solitary journey towards becoming, arriving to the wilderness?  Yeah, she's been sitting every since, waiting.... on me.

I am drawn to the famous painting, "The Birth of Venus" by Botticelli.  It depicts the goddess Venus, having emerged from the sea as a fully grown woman.  Arriving to the sea shore upon a shell, aligned with the myth to explain her birth.  On her left, the wind god carries his bride towards the threshold, blowing the shell amongst a shower of roses, gently caressing her hair and the incoming waves that seamlessly break over the shore.  As Venus is about to step onto dry land, a hand maiden waits patiently for the goddess to come closer, reaching out to cover her shy naked body with a cloak. Venus' contrapposto stance depicts grace as she carefully leans on one hip, modestly covering her private parts, slightly revealing her sexuality.
 

It's been said that this painting "illustrates the birth of love and spiritual beauty as a driving force of life.  Once she lands ashore, the goddess of love will don the earthly garb of mortal sin", an act that could lead to the creation of a new life or the possibilities of an everlasting one.  Once draped in earthly garments does she become a personification of the church which offers a spiritual transport back to the pure love of eternal salvation?  In this case the shell upon which this image of Venus stands could be seen as a symbolic pilgrimage.  "The sea brings forth Venus just as the Virgin gives birth to the ultimate symbol of love, Christ."  Is Botticelli's Venus meant to represent the idea of divine love?

Rather than choosing one of the many interpretations offered for Botticelli's depiction of the Birth or Arrival of Venus, I think it's better to view it from a variety of perspectives.  This layered mythological, political, and religious composition was intended to portray the goddess as the epitome of beauty arousing humans to physical love at first sight, then inspiring intellectual love upon second glance.  After further investigation, one might be inspired to lift the mind towards the Creator.  Lets get lifted.

When I became a mother, I experienced The Rebirth of Venus.  I have my own ideas of what that means as I add my own layers to the many layers of this great classic.  I'll explain more about my motives as it progresses and as she emerges, but can I just say....I am so addicted to illustration as fine art.  It makes all the spit rush to my mouth....soul stirring artful storytelling at its' finest.  Food for my soul.

"The Rebirth of Venus"

WIP

And just in case you were wondering, my Venus arrives on a cowrie shell and my hand maiden, and my God who controls my wind, just so happen to be trees....anything less would be uncivilized.    

RANTics: Keep Swimming

It's been two whole months since I've blogged.  Why must this task be so difficult?  I've been working up a storm but inching forward.  Why does the life of an artist have to be this way?  The process is soooooooo long and drawn out.  And nobody wants to pay you for your process, they just want the pretty end result.  But you can't afford to not get paid.  So you chase a check full time and chase your dream part time all while sacrificing your sanity because the ideas are flowing way faster than your hands can find the time to produce, you start to rationalize that maybe somehow you can get away with not sleeping until you die so that you can spend every waking hour trying to squeeze it all in........my heart hurts, cause I've got something to prove.   

Yes.  This is one of those posts.  One of the one's where after you've come to terms that nobody is really listening you decide, I'm gonna talk to myself, because I've got something to say that I need to hear......yep, that's exactly what I meant.

I've decided that my dreams are ghosts, and GHOSTS ARE REAL, they're haunting me, and I AIN'T SCARED OF NO GHOST!  I'm gonna catch that mickey fickey put it in a box and show it off to the world to prove my point!  I AM A DIABOLICAL GENIOUS! okay, maybe not but,  I AM A MESSENGER!  I AM AN ARTIST!  I AM A BAD, AS IN GOOD, MOTHER SHUT YOUR MOUTH!

This post will probably never be published.  Someone might think I'm drunk.  But I'm not, I just....have this dream.  That God gave me a story to tell through my art.  And it's a message that HAS to be heard, by me, and hopefully some other folks too.  So what the heck,  I'm gonna publish it. 

I hear Nemo telling me to "keep swimming".  I might be delirious, but I just might really be on to something too.

 

Keep Swimming (work in progress) oil on masonite 

She's Strung!

Despite the missing hand that's still drying and the horribly fit joints, I have to say she's coming along quite nicely.  Once I give her a good sanding and everything starts to fit snugly (which will probably take umpteen hours) I think she will be a great first try at creating my own ball jointed doll.  I can't believe she can stand on her own two feet.  I can't believe I made it to this point.  I can't wait to paint her brown!

 

 "Can you do something with this arm and my hand lady?"

 

I love the poses that you get with double joints, if I could just get them right . . .  

 

Stay tuned.....

Getting Closer!

So I'll get back to posting the 100 days of art which have turned into 240 days, I've stopped counting . . . and blogging about it, but you know me.  Creativity comes in waves and so does blogging in my case!  So I'm skipping all the stuff that I need to catch you up on and showing what I'm currently working on instead. 

Anyhoo, I am pleased to report that I have picked my doll back up and am now closer than I have ever been before.  I've been craving a new doll and my favorite artist hasn't offered a new YOSD so I've been impatiently trying to by the time until she does.  I've even contemplated buying a MSD doll, even though that's not my preference.  I have my eye on one in particular but I don't have any money to buy her, so the yearning has forced me into create mode.  Can't find one or buy one so there's nothing left but to make one and I've been doing, just that!  I started messing with her last night and I almost have all of her limbs strung together for the first time EVER!!!!  I had to patch up a few mistakes that I made because I'm heavy handed and ruined a few pieces that's why she isn't fully poseable yet, I'm waiting for her to dry so I can sand and pull her strings tightly, but here are my progress pics.

 Looks a little creepy like this, but I'm excited to have all of her limbs together... almost.  Remember last time you saw her she just had one leg?  Next time you see her she'll have a full body, all limbs intact!

 

Waiting for the balls on the feet and hands to dry so I can pull her together.  The good thing about paper clay is that I don't have to bake it, but I still have to wait for it to dry before I sand and tighten her up.  I refuse to remove the string to do all of that because I want to see her together and threading that string is . . . let's just say, a lot of cursing is involved! 

 Don't laugh at my homemade s hooks, crazy looking peanut joints, and funky hands, lol! 

This process takes so much patience and finesse, I don't know how doll artists do it.  I'm sure seeing the finished product is worth the pain, but MAN it's hard to get through the bajillion steps without wanting to pull your hair out!  Very tedious and tormenting, especially when you don't know what you're doing and you're just making it up as you go along.  What I wouldn't give to go to a workshop given by an established bjd artist who knows what they are doing!

So this girl is a very rough draft, with very amateur joints, and s hooks, and all the rest of that good stuff that I had to figure out on my own.  I have no idea what possessed me to take on a task like this, but I am pleased with myself for getting this far.  This is definitely a craft that you learn by doing.

While I was waiting for pieces to dry, I sculpted another head.  I think I might be getting a little better at that too.  Check her out.  She is another character from my graphic novel.  God help me when it comes time to sculpt her body.......

 I surprisingly got it pretty even all around for the first time and was so proud of that small feat once I cut her head open.

 I think I like her better without eyes.  I just need to find the right pair.  These are substitutes. 

Can't wait to sand her down and see the diamond under the rough.  Let's see how long this burst of creativity lasts.  

Days 15-28: Layers of Work In Progress

Okay, I promise that I have been working everyday still on this 100 days of art project.  I'm really sorry that I haven't posted in a minute, but the numerous projects that I have been working on just haven't gotten to a point where I want to put them out there yet.

You know I've been working on a web comic and that I'm painting digitally for the first time.  Hate the process!  I am not a computer person.  It takes too long, so I really have to work in short bursts.  It's looking good but it's still not finished, and I don't want to show it until it's done.  So stay tuned for that and know that this has taken up several of my days so far.

I created a really hot logo to go with the web comic, and I hope to digitally paint that, but it's still waiting in line behind the actual web comic.  I don't want to show it till it's painted, so it will debut with the web comic.

When I get tired of sitting in front of the computer pointing and clicking a paintbrush, I am working on an actual oil painting.  I love to paint, by hand!  It's very therapeutic.  So to relieve myself from the pixel blues, I started a painting that's been in my head for a while.  It's inspired by one of my favorite classic paintings.  I didn't sketch it out first.  I was so frustrated with the whole digital thing that I just broke out the materials and went for it.  I'm making it up as I go.  I already know the name of it and the meaning behind it but that's a secret to be revealed later.  The woman in center my look familiar and is a clue to the classic that is inspiring this "rebirth".

I'm still in the beginning stages.  I've only toned the masonite board and drawn a rough outline of the basic elements.  I'm a slow painter.  I have to let the canvas speak to me with each brush stroke.  Right now, this painting is whispering.

No matter what I'm working on, I'm always dreaming of making ball jointed dolls.  My art buddy, Lauren Brevner uses paper clay to make her sculptures, so I thought I'd give it a try to see what all the fuss is about.  You should definitely check out her blog, she's doing this 100 days of art thing with me and she is so talented.  Her blog is awesome and she's running a blog contest right now so if you subscribe and comment you could win one of her awesome sculptures!  You can see it here.  You have until Dec. 1st to enter! 

I'm really feeling the paper clay.  I'm using Premier clay by La Doll.   It's really squishy and takes some getting use to but it's fairly easy to work with.  I love that I don't have to bake it, and that it sands so easily.  I've found the trick is getting the basic structure down, then adding details once it's dried.  It takes some time to dry so it helps to work on parts in stages so you can keep it moving.  It also helps to have other projects to fall back on because it can get a bit monotonous.  The details are so time consuming, it takes weeks for me to notice my progress.  Which is another reason I haven't posted.  Just like painting, it involves layers and layers of work, so progress is slow.  I'd like to take more progress pics but when I'm working with clay, I get so caught up in the process that I forget to take pics along the way.  Here are a couple WIP pics.

This week, I'm focusing on the limbs.  I'm so proud that I have hands for the first time.  I avoided making hands like the plague, but I finally bit the bullet and went for it.  I still have a lot of work to do.  Endless hours to put in, but this is a good sharing point.  So, I've been bouncing back and forth from these three projects over the past 2 weeks.  I wish I had more to show you but sometimes it's like that, and that's the way it is.  Later homies!