.
A brand new Silhouette series.
To view the images a little bit larger, for clearer detail, please click on over to my Silhouette set.
.
.Second Nature #1
.
I have been aching to begin work on a new silhouette project for so long now. Oddly enough, these were created on my laptop, over a period of about 4 days (luckily, my laptop is connected to my scanner!). They have helped to soothe me, somewhat, after a long and difficult week. As with many of my works, this new series was inspired by a combination of music and fairy lore. I have been reading the most marvelous book by Katharine Briggs, concerning the traditions of fairy beliefs in British lore and literature. I am particularly drawn the the concept of the 'Seelie Court', Changelings, and the natural (or un-natural) transformations of nature, which are so often the most vital characteristics of fairy tales and folklore.
.
Second Nature #2
.
I am also dreaming of nature within.
Imagining such transformations as visual scenes within themselves. Nature bursting forth, and so on. I have always loved the idea of thoughts becoming manifest (however terrifying the results may be in some cases!), straying beyond the confines of the human mind...or body. These works are an attempt to illustrate just that, combining both the concept of symbolic transformation, with the unpredictable and uncanny.
..
Second Nature #3
.
Fairy children (those left as substitutes for stolen human infants) are said to grow up into rather uncertain, clumsy individuals in this world. It simply doesn't suit them. This was the idea behind the above image. Only other fairy changelings would be able to perceive her true identity, her sense of displacement amongst human things. Her longing for something that isn't quite apparent to her.
.
Second Nature #4
..
More fascination with shapeshifting nature.
So refreshing to work with such minute details! Both tenuous and complex.
I also love how these details are so barely contained within the figures, as if something curious and ever so unruly is attempting to burst out.
.
Second Nature #5
.
Another transformation on the run.
So many artists have been drawn towards this same theme, both contemporary and ancient artists alike. The human body becoming one with nature; limbs unfurling into complex, twisting branches, the torso in melancholy bloom with lichens and moss. The insides of the human body are so very complicated, mysterious and unfamiliar to us, yet at the same time they also appear to imitate nature (of course, we are born of nature), the visually familiar....that which belongs without. I am thinking now of how similar those little anatomical fibrous things (I have no idea what they are called!) are to naked trees.
Here is an example, to avoid confusion!
.
.
.
Second Nature #6
.
A fancier version of #2.
Why not?
.
Second Nature #7
.
Haha, the self same penny farthing which features in many of my earlier works! Now it is the turn of the sly blue fox (yet another shapeshifting charmer). It strikes me that his unruly nature is somehow more physically contained that the characters above. He has a very tidy outline, which can only mean one thing: This particular fairy fox is a little bit neurotic;)
..
See you later!
LoveLouxxx