The Cave
Facade & Writer

An Intro to Symbolism...

Home | Self Portraits | Beloved... | Blue Brother-Sister Portraits Set | Yorick & Surreal Hand Study | Facade & Writer | Secret | Envy | Release & Fire Girl | Aurora Luna Series | I Arise From Dreams of Thee | Blue Eye Gift | Red Eye | The Humility of Paris | Tribal Designs | Sketches... | Orb of Power Series | Merging | Signatures, Icons, & Userpics | Digital Art | Contact Me

facade.jpg
Facade

facadeoriginalsketch.jpg
Original Sketch

"Facade" was my first real symbolic piece.  The concept is rooted in the feeling of putting on an act of being alright when on the inside you are full of sadness.  The symbolism being within the color scheme...The blue represents the depression, while the "normal" coloring represents a sort of  mask or makeup of normalacy...the "facade". 
 
Like in old monster movies when the character is turning into the monster, saying "Get away!Don't look at me!", but even their hand covering their face betrays the truth.  The mask only lasts for so long before the makup starts to melt away and fade and smear, and then what's underneath is exposed, and even when you try to hide the truth, the truth is seen.

writer.jpg
Writer

writer_referencephoto.jpg
Original Reference Photo

 
 
 
"Writer" was originally borne of randomness essentially.  I was at work and there was a piece of white cardbord with a slit in the middle, big enough for me to put my hand in.  And as I looked at my hand, I thought of what a great surreal picture it would make.  So I took my digital camera and snapped a digital photo  of it.
 
As I painted it, I thought it seemed rather boring as just a hand on a white background, and  wanted to ahve some sort of liquid to ooze or drip out of the opening that the hand was coming through.  I originally wanted to do red...but thought that would make it look too much like a papercut and blood, which would make me uncomfortable (given that I have had friends who used to cut themselves) so, as good a piece as it could have been, it was still a concept  I did not wish to pursue.
But no other color would look right...green...yellow...orange...pink...blue...purple...nothing would work.
 
Finally, it hit me...BLACK. 
Ink.
 
Which led to the title and the implied symbolism of a writer.  A writer doing whatever the mind behind the eye of the beholder percieves it to be...whether it be drowning in their work, or escaping Writer's Block, or emerging exhausted and ink stained from the mentally messy business of writing (which is my own perception).
 
The original was given as a gift to an artist friend of mine.