Self Generated Project

For the self generated project I wanted to combine aspects of deity worship with dolls or figurines.
I enjoyed drawing florals in my last project so that is where I started for this project.
I wanted to incorporate a living aspect in my project, so I chose real plants to be in my model.

Day of the Dead has always been an interesting holiday to me because of the artwork specifically. The bold vibrant colors and pop design intrigued me. This encouraged me to create a work with a similar vibe. Day of the Dead artwork encouraged me to use vibrant pastels with a black background, similar to the pictures below.

Day of the dead also commonly uses flowers because they are left on the graves of passed loved ones. The versatile use and meaning of flowers encouraged me to think about them as more than just a topic for a realistic drawing. The sacred-ness of a burial is a long running tradition, and flowers have been used for a long time in burial services. So, I lined my figure with small flowers, as if to suggest a burial or memorial of some kind.

I wanted my piece to be slightly more mysterious and ambiguous than typical Day of the Dead skulls, so I began to think about voodoo dolls and worship dolls, similar to the pictured below. There is something slightly humorous to me that we can place such deep meaning to something as simple as a doll. A part elephant part god, Ganesha, who was the "remover of obstacles and the deva of intellect and wisdom" can be reduced to a small, easily recognizable doll. While these dolls may be children from a kid's service at a Hindu temple, they stand for the same concept that 20' pure gold statues have stood for. Although they may not have the same impact they are representing the same almighty gods that have existed in Hinduism for thousands of years.

This aspect took my project in a direction of interpreting my figure into a drawing. I created a slightly more "godlike" figure than just a Day of the Dead skull drawing. The figure is meant to look slightly ghostly, and all-powerful, equipped with a two powerful staves, one of which was a leaf and the other a pine cone.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSJJi8WH9EY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Kx_HLwN_Pg