The New Year has been off to a great start. I started by putting my Etsy shop on vacation from 1/1 - 1/10 with the sole purpose of taking that time to re-connect with my creative side and take a break from filling orders. It's been so much fun discovering, testing, and making art that I want to share some of the treasures that have emerged!
The Full moon rising over my studio last night was so inspiring.
My fascination with elephants has re-emerged. I recently began researching their behavior and cross-cultural symbolism, which most commonly revolves around strength, wisdom, and endurance. I thought this shamanic website did a great job of expressing the many characteristics and traits of the elephant that can be directly paralleled with humanity, which is what interests me most - we have so much to learn from them:
"Elephants can teach us that gentleness, commitment, and communication in relationships is very powerful and necessary to keep relationships alive, trusting and loving, whether it be friends, family or partner. Deeply committed to all creatures with whom they have relationships, elephants are tough when protecting others and gentle when nurturing them. The matriarch (the oldest, most experienced female leader of a herd) leads in a way that is both gentle and inclusive. Elephants are able to communicate telepathically. This can teach us how to truly listen to others.Elephants are so similar, yet so different to our own species. We have so much to learn from them! Elephants have emotions that are comparable to human - love, joy, jealousy, rage. Just like humans, young elephants are dependent on their mums, until they reach adulthood. The general lifespan of an elephant also closely parallels that of humans. When a baby is born, the entire community gathers around the mother and newborn and rumble with joy. This is equivalent to tears rolling down their faces. Just like human babies, elephants learn about getting along in the physical environment. For instance, elephant calves have to learn the many ways in which their trunks can be used. The newborn elephant is born into a community of love. Calves have more than one mother so to speak, as all are willing, eager teachers, from the matriarch, to her offspring and their young. They want to nurture, protect and help the youngest among them develop. They also teach first time mothers how to develop their own nurturing skills. Loyal and affectionate elephants would risk their lives for the sake of others in a family group. Wild elephants have been known to grieve and even shed tears when a family member has passed away. Elephants have amazing memories and when mistreated they often seek revenge. Elephants show us that by supporting and loving one another, our own ability to thrive in the physical world is enhanced. We learn from them to pass on the gift of nurturing we received in our early years, be it from our biological family or others who helped us grow into who we are now. We must honour the elders of our community and nurture the young. Like the elephant, we need to help ease the transitions of those who are going into adulthood with gentle love, wisdom, patience and compassion. By having open hearts and minds, we can create strong relationships within the community, therefore building a strong community. "
With this knowledge, I decided to paint a family.
Elephant study in vine charcoal and ink, on gessoed panel. Charcoal and dye studies on recycled newsprint underneath. I was intending to use this as a study with a new collage technique, but fell in love with the image, so I left it as is.
Here is the underpainting with vine charcoal on hand-built canvas for a piece for our living room. I was especially interested in keeping the background elephants semi transparent, as if they could be spirit elephants traveling in stride with the rest of the family. I was decisive in each elephant's personality and age, and imagined how they might interact with one another in the picture. I especially love the little baby who is helping lead the heard, who inquisitively turns to look at her audience.
The next step was painting the atmospheric overlay using habotai silk and acid dyes. Unlike my silk scarves, this was not suspended in a frame - I just painted directly onto the silk on the table, with wax paper underneath. The pattern the wax paper picked up was just as interesting as what was produced on the silk... I added it to my stash of used wax paper that I've been hoarding.
The next step was mounting the dried silk onto the canvas. I must have done at least a dozen tests of different ways to work with the silk in layers, and you can imagine how excited I was when I discovered an acrylic medium that would permanently mount the silk to the canvas while also preserving the delicacy of the charcoal underneath - using a wax medium would have smudged everything beyond recognition. The one thing I didn't take into account was the sheer size of the silk made it impossible to mount smoothly - it wrinkled and bubbled in areas, but it actually worked out in my favor as it really helped emphasize the enduring heat of the climate and mimicked the leathery texture of the elephants' skin.
Next step was re-drawing with the vine charcoal to add more definition. Looking back, I actually really love this stage where the atmospheric quality is very much like a dream or a mirage. With just a bit more definition I think this could have been an excellent stopping point...
...however, I wanted to see how all of my tests would translate onto this large scale - so I filled in more of the elephants, and went back in with a quill pen and ink well to really emphasize the contour lines of these beautiful creatures.
I also used the pen & ink in some areas to capture the finely detailed wrinkles of their skin, and I chose to give the background elephants contours, but leave their bodies semi-transparent.
I may make a few slight adjustments but am very pleased with how this came out! It just needs a title now.
This was another experimental piece that I made yesterday, title TBD. Remember how I mentioned that I save all of the wax paper that I paint on top of? I finally found a use for it!!! For this I used a gorgeous piece of blue/purple wax paper and mounted it to a clear acrylic frame. I then used some recycled newsprint (much like what the painting is resting on top of) and did a quick sharpie drawing of an elephant and mounted that to the inside of the frame, which created a really interesting ghostly effect (you can see it most in her ear). I then went over the top of the image with more sharpie for added definition. It is fascinating to me how different this looks when backlit, and lighting and installation is definitely going to play a role in my work this year.
These next few months are going to be about finding balance - how to maintain my etsy shop as well as make time for this sort of creative play, which is so important - in addition to working my day job and balancing a social life with friends and family. I think it's going to be a great year, full of challenges and surprises. I hope you'll continue to follow along!
Thanks for reading!
