Pictures of Inspiration Continued

Pictures of Inspiration

Calder's Mini Circus

Draws many parallels to my play in a suitcase because of the scale and human interaction to make the characters and parts move.

Saya Woolfalk!

I recently discovered Saya Woolfalk as my classmates were giving presentations for my Fibers class and I must say I am glad I have now heard of her! Woolfalk works with painting, performance, costuming, video, and installation to “playfully re-imagine the representational systems that hierarchically shape our lives.” She makes plush costumes and creatures with bright rainbow colors reminiscent of child play. She possesses a "coloring book aesthetic marked by fruit punctuated landscapes, sharp-toothed creatures and a palette pink aplenty. But taking her inspiration from ethnographic, feminist, and psychoanalytic theory, Woolfalks’s worlds of whimsy are for your more sophisticated inner child."- Art 21 Over the past couple of years, Woolfalk has worked collboratively with other artists and anthropologists to create No Place an alternative world that is as real to Woolfalk as the one we live in. The inspiration she brings is from her ability to be entirely consumed in both realities to the point in which she no longer differentiates between No Place and the some place we live in. Her six chapter film called the Ethonography of No Place is a series of parts that serve to document No Place. The people who live in this mystical realm are part human and part plant who change colors over time and when they die become part of the landscape. Some of her influences include a book called Mythologies by Roland Barthes, the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland, Super Mario Brothers, and Hayao Miyazaki. The color in her work inspires me greatly as well as her affinity for story and performance. I can see my work moving more and more towards performance as I continue on my journey.

Julie Heffernan

Heffernan's fantastic portraits and still lifes are visions of places out of this world. They are enchanting and almost eerie in a way. The colors are rich and vivid and the quality of the paintings makes them seem old, precious, and passed down for generations. According to the Mark Moore Gallery where she has recently displayed her work, " Akin to Magical Realism, Julie Heffernan's lush self-portraiture utilizes a myriad of art historical references to present a sensual interior narrative, a self-allegory whose half- hidden political agenda is the literal background of the paintings. The dark, Grimm fairy tale-like undercurrent transforms her aristocratic, operatic portraits into a contemporary vanitas or memento mori, acting as both a stylized fantasy and a Bosch-like warning." The narratives Heffernan creates through her portraits inspires me in creating my own and paying attention to minute details in order to add more and more layers of discovery.

Julie Taymor

Julie Taymor has been a highly influential figure in the realm of puppet theater, performance, and then cross-combining of cultures to create an amazingly, moving visual display. She traveled to Indonesia and Japan to study traditional Bunraku puppetry, and while in Indonesia she formed the Teatr Loh in Bali which included Javanese, Balinese, Sundanese, and Weatern Actors uniting the cultures. Taymor received her BFA in Mythology from Oberlin college and found a particular interest in Shamanism and Balinese ritual. She traveled to Toraja to witness a royal death Ceremony where the people would leave the royal bodies out to decompose and sacrifice bulls on their behalf. During the dance and sacrific one of the bulls would not dies and an old man told her it was because of black magic. The ritual had a lasting impact on her life and work. Major Themes in her work include cultural transition, madness, boundaries, cultural differences, taboo, personal limits, religion, shamanism, deprivation, and progress. Her magnificently crafted puppets "always tease an audience about the nature of identity and aliveness of her figures" She likes to combine many styles of performing and puppetry into one like in her production of The King Stag in which there are aspects of Japanese Kabuki Theater, Balinese ritual, and Italian Commedia dell'arte. She even invented a new type of puppet for the Broadway Lion King Performance by combining a Javanese rod puppet and a Japanese Kuruma ningyo dolls by rigging the heads, limbs, and torso of the puppet to the actor behind it. Her commitment to her work and expanse of knowledge across fields is very inspiring and I seem to find myself sort of following in her footsteps.

Voodoo

Voodoo is a syncretic religion (a combination of many cultural beliefs) based on the practices and beliefs of West African and Roman Catholic customs. It originated in the 16th Century in Haiti as African Slaves arrived on the Island and were forced to convert to the religion of their "masters" while still retaining their African traditions. Haitian Voodoo is similar to New Orleans Voodoo for they both believe in deities called Lwa who are servants of the over all god Bondyè, who does not intercede in human affairs. Voodoo also takes great care in the veneration of the dead and protection against witchcraft. New Orleans Voodoo is the kind we associate with voodoo dolls, and hoodoo (folk magic) It is a cultural form of the Afro-American Religions which developed within the French, Spanish, and Creole speaking African American population. It was this religion that introduced the concepts of the voodoo dolls and gris-gris into our culture. Gris-gris is a hoodoo amulet or talisman that protects the wearer from evil or brings luck. It usually describes a small cloth bag worn on the person. Inside is placed a mixture of one or more of the following:oils, stones, herbs bones, nails, hair, grave dirt, or other personal items. No one is quite sure how voodoo dolls became a means for casting a spell on or enchanting a person but most agree that it stems from the practices of voodoo queens. During the nineteenth century, Voodoo queens presided over ceremonial meetings and ritual dances. They also earned an income by administrating charms, amulets, and magical powders guaranteed to cure ailments, grant desires, and confound or destroy enemies. I feel that Voodoo relates to my work because of the rich history and aesthetic. The little girl in Jump! reminded me of a voodoo doll while I was making her and I have always had a strange affinity for the strange and super natural as it pertains to spells, herbals concoctions, and contact with the spirit world.