donderdag 13 september 2012

What's best

How does one decide what is best to do? Or-to state the problem otherwise: When can you truly say: "I am an Artist". And what exactly does it mean to be an artist? Does it imply you make money by creating "Art"?

For me it was never the "Profession" if you can even state being an artist as having a profession. I feel artists color the world by both being part of it as well as not being a part of it. their presence being as confusing as Descartes definition of the dualistic soul.

Artists are needed at the edge of human conscious, using what power of observation they have to create an alternate perspective on human interactions and perhaps the implications of our existence as humans. Unlike the people around him an artist must mainly know others while knowing himself is not necessary in his role of observer. Therefor his existence in itself is to be doubted. Though it is important for him to have an idea,a concept of a concept of ethics, though these may also cloud his pure view of the world. Is it for the artist to judge or simply to describe so that the viewer may judge?

And hence I am not sure what my role consists of..

donderdag 6 september 2012

Religious rambling

The Backwater Gospel is a Horror short in all it's redneck, religious glory. Telling us about fear casting the first stone and that perhaps some priests are no better than a devil in disguise(perhaps most priests even)

Is it possible for any man of the cloth to be true and just to an ancient memory. Isn't it time we re-define religion into philosophy: accepting it for what it is: not a watchful, vengeful eye in the sky, but a life philosophy, a (once) message of peace and love so we can come to the realization that murderering heathens is never in name of "God" but all the more in profit and name of the church that pulls the strings.

Fear is what keeps us together, huddling like sheep in anxiety over the "vengeance of God" so that we become so afraid of punishment that we forget to live and love in peace and sicerity. Through time WE forgot the message of Christ, and fell right into the marketing trick called Christianity. Wake up, for the sake of peace and the co-existance of humanity, wake up from this lie of power and might. For all that truly matters to them, is them.

It's not too late to save yourself: live, love and let live. Being a good person is not about worshipping God, it's not about ideals or even about sharing. Being a good person is caring for one another and what happens around you. And from that source in you, goodness shall flow, without even being able to read or understand a word. At the end of the day, we shall all have to learn to live together as humans with one planet to share in which we all need food on the table and someone to carry us through hardship-an idea, a physical person, an ideal- in that concept God exists in us all as willpower that can persevere over anything, WE had the power to accomplish things all along, and that is all there is to it.

Anyhow, done with the rambling, on to the animated goodness: Credits to the makers of this film I Will soon be posting more animated stuff.

donderdag 7 juni 2012

a warm summer night

Illustration commission for a friend, a sleeping girl in a victorian inspired bedroom, though the bed was the most work detailing it's hardly visible. ^^U

zaterdag 2 juni 2012

Five hundred new fairytales found

Fairy tales forewarn and prepare us for a life that will be loaded with dangers – but dangers that can be intelligently calibrated so that we’ll know when we must be brave and fight despite the odds, and when we should retreat to seek a safer way around. Moving beyond films, I am hopeful an upcoming video game being developed by Krillbrite entitled "Among The Sleep" brings this classic fairy tale aesthetic to the gaming medium with a compelling and rich narrative to go with it. I also believe the Latin American literary movement known as “magical realism,” exemplified in novels like Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude” is another example of the reemergence of the fairy tale in “adult” storytelling. Not to be confused with “surrealism,” in “magical realism” the narrative remains absolutely realistic – but with the moments of magical epiphany just as emphatically asserted to be “real.” The effect is a powerful statement that there is more to life than what the controlling “order” demands life must be limited to. The novels of Isabel Allende also comes to mind as examples of "magical realism”. In his “real” fairy tales, Marquez teaches that there is real magic in our lives, but it is only attainable by those with the truest and most faithful hearts.
Full link can be found here

As for the questions:

What is your favorite classic fairy tale and why do you suppose it has a special significance for you?
Alice in Wonderland, It always seemed so exciting to be in a completely different world where flowers and animals could talk, but it wasn't made terribly unrealistic by simply accepting that this was possible, therefor it seemed to be able to happen. I kept appreciating it as I grew older for the fantastic mental images it provided in the story context. Alice grew up, and so did I, but I never quite forgot Wonderland, although it might have become a little darker *smile*.

2How do you feel about Snow White and Alice in Wonderland becoming armored women warriors in their latest film retellings? Is this an empowerment of women?
I must say they were brave enough in their original context. I always admired Alice for her intelligence, Snow White a little less, but her I appreciated because of her inner beauty. Making them armored women just seems a little overdone, hollywood-style. It's a bit too much, I enjoy the subtle context of a good book more than an easy movie with special effects.

3Is there a particular fairy tale that terrified you as a child?
There was one particularly cruel fairytale version of hansel and Gretel in which they were locked into a boulder by a cruel stepmother and shoved into the sea to arrive on an abandoned island with a witch that was quite explicitly described as a cannibal(with heads on stakes adorning her cabin) I was never spared the gruesome details as a child, because of those too, you have to learn. And what can be possibly wrong about telling those when there is a perfectly responsible adult around to tell you the meaning of them and the context/lesson of the story?

4Is there a particular fairy tale that excited your imagination and lifted your heart?
None in particular, I wouldn't be able to make a fair choice without regretting my answer. I simply love fairy tales in general and there are some I favor in particular, but they lift my heart in general.

5In your view which popular film, book or video game has most misrepresented or tortured the essence of a classic fairytale?
I have (been) read fairy tales from all over the world bound into a book over a hundred years old by my grandmother, she passed away when I was 12 and the stories will never be quite as magical. But it also keeps all stories read to me surrounded by an ever-magical aura that will never quite lose it's meaning no matter what influence modern times let lose on them. I think it's wonderful in a way modern media prevents fairy tales from being erased from our collective memories horrible in another that they milk them for all they're worth, which prevents people from reading and indulging themselves into the wonderful stories they actually are.

woensdag 30 mei 2012

Ask any artist about “emptiness” and they’ll tell you about the constant recurring nightmarish emptiness they must face down almost every day as a part of their vocation: the blank space that they must fill. Whether he’s a painter facing a blank canvas or she’s a poet facing a blank computer screen, the blank space awaiting transformation at the hand of the artist can be the loneliest and cruelest place on earth... Read more here It contains a nice exercise to find out where your inspiration comes from. What/Who is your muse, did you ever consciously invoke it?

zaterdag 19 mei 2012

Spring feeling

Don't you just love those first warm days of the year? I know I do, I love the twitter of birds in spring(though it is surprisingly more difficult tracking down where it's coming from)When they seem to have saved all their songs through the winter for the courting of females.

Golden Dragonfly, Doesn't it look like it's wearing a shining armour?
A Dragonfly wearing nature's most beautiful silky colors
If the dragonfly is clad in silk then this little beatle must be wearing the costume of the imperial guards :3
Another beautiful dragonfly
Some wonderful Ranunculus repens
Dreamy
Light filtered by leaves, turning the scenery into a fairytale <3
Under momma's wings

 
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