Hi there,
Well, I know Christmas is past, and it's January now, but I thought I'd show you this anyway. I started this the night of Christmas, and it took me a while to color. I was out of town, and more importantly, away from my laptop, for the past week. I just got back into town yesterday, and I went out to Downtown Long Beach last night, so I haven't have time to blog since then. So here I am to cap off my blogging from 2011.
I started this off as a christmas memory, but it is also a reminder of the feeling of being in church. The feeling is an important theme in my creative work here. I like to create, in the viewer's eyes, the feeling of being somewhere. In this case, it was the feeling of being in a small, cozy church sanctuary on Christmas Eve. In this one, I used more dark tones. I also showed the lights coming down from the ceiling, and from the tree in the corner. The points of light are what give it that cozy feeling.
You know what I mean? Have you ever been in a church, or a house, or anything, at night? It's dark, but the little sources of light or warmth (this goes for cold and warmth, too) make you feel really warm, and secure inside. We all have our little places that we like to go to for this feeling. For some people, this would be a church, for others, it would be a restaurant, or a city, or a club or gathering. People are either given, or find, these places that give them a sense of comfort, constancy, meaning, and well-being. For many people, this is the function of a church, synagogue, mosque or temple. It is social, as well as religious.
The photo above is of the church that I used to go to when I was little, where I went on Christmas Day, as I explained last week. As I grew up, the church and I grew apart. Now, I am largely ambivalent about church, but I still believe that people who are religious can have good motivations. For instance, the ministers at this church run a number of after-school programs, since this is an inner-city church. I did volunteer work for them for four years, as at my high school, 40 hours of community service was a requirement for graduation. The kids who go to this church are often from poor families. They didn't have good educational resources back then (2005 to 2009, a few years ago), so the organization, which my Mom and I worked for, helped them with schoolwork and learning. So this drawing was partially based on this church that I used to attend regularly. I still attend, albeit less often.
I did this from an image I saw in my mind when I thought of going to church. I have been using impulse images more in my work lately than I used to. This year, 2011, I have devoted more attention to my drawing technique. I decided to use my first mental images more in my work. I'd try to think of something, look at what came to my mind, and record that. I used to want to plan out the right way to represent some image. I still do that sometimes, however, now, I am using a much rougher style. The big development of this year is I am branching out.
I said to my friends, It will be sad that 2011 has to be over. This was a good year, overall. In 2010, it seemed like all the news was bad. In 2011, it was about an even split between bad and good news. It was also a big year for my artistic endeavors. I got the idea to do this blog, putting my works up on it. I had to put it on the shelf for a while, then I finally got it up and running on December 16. The end of a landmark year, the beginning of a unique blog.
Well, what I can say is I have many good entries on their way in the year that has just opened, 2012. I will have some more good material up for you soon. Until then , see ya, and keep wondering, folks! I think that will be this new blog's sign-off line.
No comments:
Post a Comment