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ferrumaeternumI finished these a while ago, but haven’t had time to photograph and post them until now. They’re 6" x 8" linoleum relief cut prints. We were supposed to create something inspired by the themes in Japanese ukiyo-e prints, so I continued with the mythology theme. I’m a huge fan of Hiroshige and Hokusai, so I also incorporated some Japanese elements as well. The composition is influenced by this style, particularly the stylization of the border. Nature is very important to both pre-Christian Europe and Japanese cultures, so I wanted that to be the main focus. The falling leaves universally symbolize death. The raven occurs in most cultures’ folklore, so I am content if that’s how far the viewer reads into this piece. However, I did intend for these birds to specifically represent Odin’s ravens Huginn (thought) and Muninn (memory). They fly around Midgard (the world of men) every day and bring back news to Odin. The tree is once again meant to be Yggdrasil, which is given away in the shape of the ash leaves.
I’m still debating whether or not I should continue making mythology-inspired pieces because most of my audience is only familiar with Greek/Roman mythology (and dare I say Christian mythology) and I’m more interested in Norse, Celtic, and Egyptian mythology. I try to make it so even if the viewer doesn’t understand the symbolism, they can still grasp the overall feeling of the content, but I’m not sure I’m achieving that because I rarely ever get negative feedback from my classmates during critique. It also doesn’t help that my drawing teacher encouraged us to use mythology as a theme for our final drawings. I just don’t want to turn into some conceptual artist that can’t connect with their audience because communication is the whole point of art in my opinion. Maybe I should go back and try to dig deeper meanings from the Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Andersen’s tales most people are familiar with? I plan on having some kind of professional career once I graduate, so I want to find a happy medium between expressing myself and my ideas while still being able to relate to the viewer. If anyone has any thoughts on this, please let me know!
I also printed an edition of four on a multi-colored roll I made for a previous project I never used and plan on making a third edition of prints once I’m finished with all my big projects for the semester. These will be hand-colored with watercolor or watered down-acrylic.
How perfect is it that there are nine prints in the black and white edition and four in the colored? I’ll have to carefully choose how many I make of the hand-painted ones, as I don’t want to disturb the nice pattern of Norse numerology I have going on here. ;) If you want to get even nerdier, I also coincidentally printed these on a Wednesday.
I completely forgot to post this with my screenprinted scarf. This was printed on a scrap of cut-up black jeans I found in the lab, and I still have no idea what to do with it. (The Valknut literally means “knot of the slain” and represents Odin’s power to bind and unbind and control warriors’ minds in battle.) Unfortunately, I recently discovered that a lot of white power groups use this symbol, so now I’m a bit wary of using it at all. I know the Nazis used all kids of pagan imagery, but I thought the only surviving one today was the swastika. I know there are still racist groups that exist and claim to practice Asatru (which is bullshit because the pre-Christian Germanic tribes did not consider their spirituality or culture to be above others they came across). It’s hard for me to believe that people are still stupid enough to twist the Norse texts and pagan symbols toward their evil ideology, but I guess that’s life. I will have to decide if I should wear it anyway for its true meaning and risk being associated with these cretins or not use it at all.
I’m still debating whether or not I should continue making mythology-inspired pieces because most of my audience is only familiar with Greek/Roman mythology (and dare I say Christian mythology) and I’m more interested in Norse, Celtic, and Egyptian mythology. I try to make it so even if the viewer doesn’t understand the symbolism, they can still grasp the overall feeling of the content, but I’m not sure I’m achieving that because I rarely ever get negative feedback from my classmates during critique. It also doesn’t help that my drawing teacher encouraged us to use mythology as a theme for our final drawings. I just don’t want to turn into some conceptual artist that can’t connect with their audience because communication is the whole point of art in my opinion. Maybe I should go back and try to dig deeper meanings from the Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Andersen’s tales most people are familiar with? I plan on having some kind of professional career once I graduate, so I want to find a happy medium between expressing myself and my ideas while still being able to relate to the viewer. If anyone has any thoughts on this, please let me know!
I also printed an edition of four on a multi-colored roll I made for a previous project I never used and plan on making a third edition of prints once I’m finished with all my big projects for the semester. These will be hand-colored with watercolor or watered down-acrylic.
How perfect is it that there are nine prints in the black and white edition and four in the colored? I’ll have to carefully choose how many I make of the hand-painted ones, as I don’t want to disturb the nice pattern of Norse numerology I have going on here. ;) If you want to get even nerdier, I also coincidentally printed these on a Wednesday.
I completely forgot to post this with my screenprinted scarf. This was printed on a scrap of cut-up black jeans I found in the lab, and I still have no idea what to do with it. (The Valknut literally means “knot of the slain” and represents Odin’s power to bind and unbind and control warriors’ minds in battle.) Unfortunately, I recently discovered that a lot of white power groups use this symbol, so now I’m a bit wary of using it at all. I know the Nazis used all kids of pagan imagery, but I thought the only surviving one today was the swastika. I know there are still racist groups that exist and claim to practice Asatru (which is bullshit because the pre-Christian Germanic tribes did not consider their spirituality or culture to be above others they came across). It’s hard for me to believe that people are still stupid enough to twist the Norse texts and pagan symbols toward their evil ideology, but I guess that’s life. I will have to decide if I should wear it anyway for its true meaning and risk being associated with these cretins or not use it at all.
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Date: 2009-12-10 01:46 am (UTC)anyways if you do make a career out of this you should totally make a website or something. i'd totally buy something, i love your art style and the mythology. keep up the awesome work :D
OH, also, about connecting with your audience: imo educating people isn't a bad thing, i say just roll with whatever feels right and if you think people may not get what you're trying to say you can always add captions or footnotes or whatever. who knows, maybe you'll even inspire an interest in less-popular mythology in some people through your art. that'd be pretty sweet.
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Date: 2009-12-10 07:14 am (UTC)You're right, I really need to get an actual professional website up. I've had bands - one even signed to Nuclear Blast - ask if I'd consider designing album art (um...HELL YEAH, DREAM JOB!) and if I had a website with my work (which I don't). That is very kind of you that you'd consider buying something from me, but I don't think friends of mine should have to pay unless it is a one-of-a-kind painting or drawing originally for sale or something. I'd be particularly happy to give away prints, since I don't really need to hang onto more than a few and the rest will just collect dust. I also did a linoleum block print a couple years ago of lotuses, leaves, and koi fish if that's something you'd be more interested in. I don't have a print of one of the blocks by itself, but here's the drawing of what a single print would look like. This is what 3 x 3 of them printed together look like. Let me know if you'd like me to send you any of these!
Thanks for the advice! I think there's a lot of truth in that. You wouldn't think Viking/folk metal would be doing as well as it is nowadays, but it is, even though the listener might not be totally familiar with the mythology.