The paintings have not received the praise which i had hoped for.
Damn their ignorance! Their professional jealousy has caused them to sneer at and disregard my work once again- they say that they are too small, that in places the proportions and figures of the women are incorrect. Just because they have so many fancy technological and digital skills the other students think that they are better artists than me; they may have these skills, but through gaining these they have lost the higher skills of artistic thinking!
But i know that they are wrong, and i will keep this etched into my mind even as I change the nature of my works to suit the ignorant popular demand... I have to think practically, I need their approval to gain the highest qualifications within this degree. By adhering to them for the meantime, I know that eventually someone will realise my obvious possibilities for greatness; and once I am a famous artist, I will have the power to create as I chose...
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
The painitngs are progressing well, and I am certain that they will articulate the sense of subtle tragedy and irony of the social disabling of the Sabine women.
I am posing Hersilia in the guise of the stereotypical 50's housewife, an almost comical yet at the same time hopeless, vulnerable figure; floundering between the invisible pressures of conflicts within the family unit.
Then, for my second figure I am depicting a suited businesswoman, a once powerful and elegant figure now cast down upon her knees in front of three tustling infants, defenses stripped away, folding beneath the multi-faceted levels of responsibility.
And for my third and final figure I will be alluding to the role of the women within a contemporary situation of violence; the political and ethnic warfare in Iraq. She will be in a protective, frightened stance of a victim, garbed in the enveloping and secretive abaya, yet the simple exposure of her eyes will reveal the possibility of her involvement to the violence surrounding her is less than peaceful.
I am focusing singularly upon these figures to highlight their powerful vulnerability, paying great attention to detail in my trademark style so that the tutors cannot help but be in awe of the unique contemporary spectacle placed before their eyes.
They will not be able to deny that I am truly one of their most remarkable, promising students this time!
I am posing Hersilia in the guise of the stereotypical 50's housewife, an almost comical yet at the same time hopeless, vulnerable figure; floundering between the invisible pressures of conflicts within the family unit.
Then, for my second figure I am depicting a suited businesswoman, a once powerful and elegant figure now cast down upon her knees in front of three tustling infants, defenses stripped away, folding beneath the multi-faceted levels of responsibility.
And for my third and final figure I will be alluding to the role of the women within a contemporary situation of violence; the political and ethnic warfare in Iraq. She will be in a protective, frightened stance of a victim, garbed in the enveloping and secretive abaya, yet the simple exposure of her eyes will reveal the possibility of her involvement to the violence surrounding her is less than peaceful.
I am focusing singularly upon these figures to highlight their powerful vulnerability, paying great attention to detail in my trademark style so that the tutors cannot help but be in awe of the unique contemporary spectacle placed before their eyes.
They will not be able to deny that I am truly one of their most remarkable, promising students this time!
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
So far I have discussed my feelings and sketched the ideas for my great paintings, but I have not made myself entirely clear in my intentions. I stress this for my own reference and in aid of increasing my own self determination, not because I want them to understand my motives. They scorn me through pure jealousy towards my higher planes of thought, my detailed and constantly developing techniques which they cannot possess, so therefore seek to wallow in their ignorance and ridicule my rise into new levels of artistic brilliance.
They, the tutors, the students who work around me, try to bring me down beneath their decaying and under-developed standards, to hold me back from my great works. But soon I will be in Korea, away from their meddling; free to express my own art and my own opinions instead of being forced to adhere to their set concept of what contemporary art must be. They are both trapped in the past, and constricted by the future of what art is considered to represent. In aiming for contemporary appraisal they lose the ancient complexities of the visual richness of the simple visual process of creating art.
The powerful messages of what has passed have been forgotten, and still the possibilities of what could be created from merging the past with the contemporary are painfully ignored.
But my work will bring an end to this great artistic ignorance... I will succeed in proving my worth as an artist to the world... I will make them see that my concepts have depth and understanding even if they are too foolish to comprehend them fully!
They, the tutors, the students who work around me, try to bring me down beneath their decaying and under-developed standards, to hold me back from my great works. But soon I will be in Korea, away from their meddling; free to express my own art and my own opinions instead of being forced to adhere to their set concept of what contemporary art must be. They are both trapped in the past, and constricted by the future of what art is considered to represent. In aiming for contemporary appraisal they lose the ancient complexities of the visual richness of the simple visual process of creating art.
The powerful messages of what has passed have been forgotten, and still the possibilities of what could be created from merging the past with the contemporary are painfully ignored.
But my work will bring an end to this great artistic ignorance... I will succeed in proving my worth as an artist to the world... I will make them see that my concepts have depth and understanding even if they are too foolish to comprehend them fully!
Third entry
As I think of the great social injustices rife in our world, regardless of many great actions which have been undertaken to achieve some sense of equality, and consider it in relation to the tale of the Sabine women, I am certain that in some ways women never will be visualised as the equals of men.
Images of the perfect housewife still circulate to express feminine ideals, and although businesswomen may hold a stronger image of power and credibility within the workplace they still become mothers, they still have to juggle the responsibilities of marriage, child rearing with their career persona.
Unlike the times of ancient mythology women are no longer stereotypically the fair, pure and neutral sex. Women are involved in acts of violence and death of their own accord, and in this turbulent and bitter world of ethnic, religious and cultural hatred they, women and infants are no longer an image of purity and innocent mediation that exempts them from the harm and horrors of the conflicts they may try to prevent.
It is with a sense of irony that I determine that the righteous and maternal image of the Sabine women, combined with the stereotypical, clichéd images of women within contemporary society results in the woman, tragically powerless and pathetic amongst the bloodthirsty world of men.
Images of the perfect housewife still circulate to express feminine ideals, and although businesswomen may hold a stronger image of power and credibility within the workplace they still become mothers, they still have to juggle the responsibilities of marriage, child rearing with their career persona.
Unlike the times of ancient mythology women are no longer stereotypically the fair, pure and neutral sex. Women are involved in acts of violence and death of their own accord, and in this turbulent and bitter world of ethnic, religious and cultural hatred they, women and infants are no longer an image of purity and innocent mediation that exempts them from the harm and horrors of the conflicts they may try to prevent.
It is with a sense of irony that I determine that the righteous and maternal image of the Sabine women, combined with the stereotypical, clichéd images of women within contemporary society results in the woman, tragically powerless and pathetic amongst the bloodthirsty world of men.
Monday, 27 April 2009
First entry
We are living in a world of distended social upheaval and discontent; a world where what we think and believe are entirely different principles to our immediate and resulting actions.
We are living in a world where certain individuals hold vast fortunes which they fritter away upon possessions which affirm their great wealth, yet millions are starved by their terrible poverty.
Somewhere along the way, regardless of the many successes and developments of the human race, an aspect of our conscience, a higher level of humanity has been lost.
To see what is missing, all we need look at are the glorious tales of the heroic acts depicted throughout the antiquities of Ancient History; regailing the selfless sacrifices, great strength and courage of the heroic, god-like figures who battle on through scenes of horror, fighting for the freedom of body, mind and soul.
However, although these conflicts were often fought for higher, nobler purposes, the carnage of these great battles showed within the sufferings of the ordinary people who fought and died, or became entangled in the bloodbaths which ensued. The great images of ancient heroes do not portray the horrific reality of such scenes... yet prehaps this is what gives them so much power to capture the imagination and enthallment of those who view them.
One such tale of ancient heroism however has a uniquely interesting and considerably more peaceful conclusion; the tale of the intervention of the Sabine women between the soldiers of Rome and the men of Sabine.
Three years previously to the confrontation, the Romans had kidnapped the women of Sabine and forced them to marry and reproduce to ensure the continuation of the great Roman civilisation.
Furious at the rape of their women, the Sabines eventually launched an attack upon the Romans. However during the kidnap and the battle, the Sabine women had given birth to Roman sons and therefore formed an attatchment to their captors, so in a bid to appeal to the better nature and sense of empathy of the men they placed themselves and their infant children in the midst of the battle.
This act of intervention resulted in an end to the battle, and in embracing one another, the great peoples of both nations united and became one.
Nothing higlights the conflictions of the intervention as predicament of Hersilia; daugther of Tatius, King of the Sabines, and now wife to Romulus the leader of Rome (by whom she bore a daughter and a son). Whoever is victorious, she loses someone she loves dearly.
Although the intervention in this legendary instance was successful, the tragedy of this image of great tension, this magnetic pull that could be forced into either direction, brings to light the painful position which the socially constructed family values can place upon which women find themselves irreversably trapped within...
We are living in a world where certain individuals hold vast fortunes which they fritter away upon possessions which affirm their great wealth, yet millions are starved by their terrible poverty.
Somewhere along the way, regardless of the many successes and developments of the human race, an aspect of our conscience, a higher level of humanity has been lost.
To see what is missing, all we need look at are the glorious tales of the heroic acts depicted throughout the antiquities of Ancient History; regailing the selfless sacrifices, great strength and courage of the heroic, god-like figures who battle on through scenes of horror, fighting for the freedom of body, mind and soul.
However, although these conflicts were often fought for higher, nobler purposes, the carnage of these great battles showed within the sufferings of the ordinary people who fought and died, or became entangled in the bloodbaths which ensued. The great images of ancient heroes do not portray the horrific reality of such scenes... yet prehaps this is what gives them so much power to capture the imagination and enthallment of those who view them.
One such tale of ancient heroism however has a uniquely interesting and considerably more peaceful conclusion; the tale of the intervention of the Sabine women between the soldiers of Rome and the men of Sabine.
Three years previously to the confrontation, the Romans had kidnapped the women of Sabine and forced them to marry and reproduce to ensure the continuation of the great Roman civilisation.
Furious at the rape of their women, the Sabines eventually launched an attack upon the Romans. However during the kidnap and the battle, the Sabine women had given birth to Roman sons and therefore formed an attatchment to their captors, so in a bid to appeal to the better nature and sense of empathy of the men they placed themselves and their infant children in the midst of the battle.
This act of intervention resulted in an end to the battle, and in embracing one another, the great peoples of both nations united and became one.
Nothing higlights the conflictions of the intervention as predicament of Hersilia; daugther of Tatius, King of the Sabines, and now wife to Romulus the leader of Rome (by whom she bore a daughter and a son). Whoever is victorious, she loses someone she loves dearly.
Although the intervention in this legendary instance was successful, the tragedy of this image of great tension, this magnetic pull that could be forced into either direction, brings to light the painful position which the socially constructed family values can place upon which women find themselves irreversably trapped within...
Summary of the Project...
Using the image 'The Intervention of the Sabine Women' by David, my task was to study and research both contextual and visual messages within the painting, and the complexities of the life and character of David himself. This research lead to a tryptich painting in which I focused upon three of the female figures which I considered to be focal characters within the original image, aiming to give them contemporary, yet tragically ironic twists which I will explain throughout this continuing blog.
The blog will take the form of a piece of fictional writing, focusing upon my own developments from the work, yet assimilating aspects of the character and opinions of David which I have observed within my research of his life; as both artist and man.
I will become my own master; envisioned, ambitious, arrogant and selfish. But I will also become flawed, in both my concepts and artistic techniques. The brilliance which I believe to make me my own master will be what leads to my downfall...
The blog will take the form of a piece of fictional writing, focusing upon my own developments from the work, yet assimilating aspects of the character and opinions of David which I have observed within my research of his life; as both artist and man.
I will become my own master; envisioned, ambitious, arrogant and selfish. But I will also become flawed, in both my concepts and artistic techniques. The brilliance which I believe to make me my own master will be what leads to my downfall...
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