A Guide to The Hobbit

This August I will be exhibiting at Fanexpo Canada for my second year in a row. The four day event promises another weekend of monumental attractions, celebrities, comic creators, artists and as always, a bustling crowd. To the delight of fans anticipating the two-part release of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, I have chosen to dedicate my efforts into illustrating J.R.R. Tolkien’s much beloved novel as a small introductory book. Filled with a compendium of facts from Tolkien’s Middle Earth mythopoeia, fans of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy films and books can learn about Bilbo Baggins’ There and Back Again journey and its major players through pictures and accompanying text. The illustrations will profile each group of dwarves as represented in different scenes from the novel.

Thankfully I am able to design Tolkien’s characters with little to no influence from the film, with the exception of what few images exist from pre-production concept art. Jackson’s dwarves deviate from our pre-conceived notion about the appearance of these underground dwellers and are instead keenly tailored to their personalities as well as culture. There were some reservations, however, about how far the director was willing to tamper with the classic visual characteristics of dwarves and their racial values. Thorin Oakenshield and Kili, for instance, fail to meet the Longbeard standard with their ostensible grooming and lack of facial hair. To be fair, after the handsomeness brought onscreen by Aragorn and Legolas from The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, he had to appease the female demographic watching for hunks ;).

My dwarves resemble more of the Iron Age Scandinavians I envisioned with my first reading of The Hobbit. In addition to referencing clothing and armour from concept art produced by The Lord of the Rings Trilogy art department, I consulted museum imagery of preserved Iron Age bodies recovered from bogs in Sweden. With their pointed caps and shoes, the bog people embody the true essence of the dwarves Tolkien would have scribed about from Norse mythology.

Sketch for Thorin Oakenshield:

“We are met to discuss our plans, our ways, means, policy and devices. We shall soon before the break of day start on our long journey, a journey from which some of us, or perhaps all of us (except our friend and counsellor, the ingenious wizard Gandalf) may never return” 
An Unexpected Party; pg. 17

Sketch for Ori, Nori and Dori:

“There was a howl of anger and surprise from the goblins. Loud cried the Lord of the Eagles, to whom Gandalf had now spoken…Other birds flew to the tree-tops and seized the dwarves, who were scrambling up now as far as they ever dared to go” 
Out of the Frying-Pan Into the Fire; pgs. 100-101

The Space Between Opening Reception July 21

As soon as the activity and splendour of the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition subsided, I realized that I had approximately two weeks to prepare my final pieces for The Space Between collaborative exhibition. The race to opening reception taught me more than a few lessons in effective time management. In summary, I am working an entire painting simultaneously rather than allotting my time to marginal, precious details. An obvious suggestion that has only taken hold of my stubborn ways recently.

Thursday, July 21st marked the opening reception of The Space Between at Gallery 1313 on Queen Street West. Rachel Idzerda, Kailey Lang, Celia Krampien and I’s work welcomed an overwhelming crowd of attendees. It was a successful night and I must extend my heartfelt thanks to all the students, faculty, friends, family, Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition goers and passer-bys that came to opening night or visited the show during its 10 day duration. As for my fellow exhibitors, you guys are gold. Working with you was such a joy, thank you for bringing your talents to this experience.

Photographs of pieces exclusive to the gallery show. I will post scanned versions soon!  

In-studio process work for previous postings Prince Lindworm and Oedipus Rex. Notably listening to theYoutube audiobook for The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien in both :)

Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition July 8-10

I was more than honoured to have had the opportunity of displaying my work as a student exhibitor at the 50th Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition this year. Up until that point the show garnered a considerable reputation among my art teachers and peers in the visual arts field, but I had only ever attended once. The weekend of July 8-10 was ushered in with a great deal of stress, but to much avail. Never had I seen art glorified on such a scale. I spoke with a variety of people from the arts background, gallery owners, authors and collectors, many of whom took enthusiastic interest in my subject matter and endeavoured to help me find new folk tales to illustrate. Unbeknownst to me, more than a few of the tales I painted represented an important era in the lives of those who witnessed them at the show. Show-goers from areas of Eastern Europe especially noted that the stories of their nation’s childhood have long been buried in the graveyard of oral storytelling, but they were once used as subliminal weapons of freedom. More than once a person would thank me for delighting modern eyes and ears with them. Two people signed my guestbook with the comments, “Glory to Slavic Ariyen Culture!“ and “Thank you for bringing them to life again”. This experience reaffirmed what the brilliant Joe Morse noted in one of his lectures, that you never know where stories are going to travel or how and who they will affect. Maybe children’s literature will be my destined path. I want to thank everyone who attended and took the time to visit and assist at my booth area. Your support and thoughtfulness are much appreciated.

I’d like to give a shout-out to a few outstanding student artists I met while at the exhibition. Both are incredibly admirable and talented individuals. Annyen Lam debuted her intricate paper creations at TOAE this year, and I cannot begin to express how meticulous her cut-outs of cultural architecture are. A single artwork would consume nearly a box of exacto blades.

http://www.annyenlam.com/

Adrienne Dagg won the student category for Painting at the 50th Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. Her understanding of the human body’s form and colour is impeccable.

http://www.adriennedagg.blogspot.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adriennedagg/

The weather was excessively hooottt!! Thank you to all you caring benefactors who brought me cold beverages (and my cherished coffee) during the weekend.

Kim and Lindsay dropping pennies into City Hall's interactive wall sculpture :)

On the third day, we experienced our first bout of rain after pure sunshine.

The Space Between

While at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, I will be promoting The Space Between, a collaborative exhibition of upcoming Sheridan illustrators Kailey Lang, Celia Krampien , Rachel Idzerda and myself at Gallery 1313. The Space Between is a visual study of the ties that bind us as a race, culture and society. We arrived at the theme after recognizing the innate, mutual connections we shared as artists participating in the same Illustration program. These common interests laid the foundation for exploring areas of difference. Our ideosyncrasies, cultural backgrounds, ideologies and personal taste all contributing factors to the artwork produced for The Space Between. The exhibition is open for public viewing from July 20-August 1st. Approximately 2 weeks before opening reception on Thursday, June 21st! I hope to see you there.

Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition

Entering into its 50^th year, the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition is a juried showcase featuring contemporary fine art and craft that takes place annually at Nathan Phillips Square every July. As the largest juried show in Canada, TOAE is an ideal environment for established artists, undiscovered talent and creative students to sell their work to the admiring public and forge connections with art dealers and collectors.

I was fortunate enough to have had my work selected by their jury for the 2011 exhibition taking place on Nathan Phillips Square July 8, 9 and 10. I am located at Booth 306 in the Student Area of the exhibition. For a detailed floorplan of the event, please visit the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition Website at link. Come and visit me if you can! I hope to see many friendly faces.

Pagan Poetry

A filler illustration I completed for the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition while simultaneously working and researching paintings for my collective's upcoming gallery show. With Pagan Poetry, I was finally capable of balancing my purely decorative aesthetic with intellectual purpose. For an artist accustomed to carving layers of meaning into her pieces, this was a guilty pleasure. It is the harmonious combination of an elegant Greek goddess, a wooden helmet, owls, ancient stone, Gorgon beads and intricately braided corn rows .

The owl, a symbol of wisdom, was the emblem of Athena/Minerva, the goddess of war or more so the lighter side of war, 'victory'. The coin design hinted at in the background was issued in Athens in 479 B.C., after the Greeks wons decisive victories against the Persians.

Now for the tentative beginnings of Sophocles' infamous tragedy Oedipus Rex. Oedipus, as you may recall, was forsaken by his parents King Laius and Queen Jocasta of Thebes, and later unwittingly murdered his father and married his mother. When his newly begotten Queen learned of his relation to her, she committed suicide. In response, Oedipus gouged out his eyes, representing the King's dark descent into ignorance and faithlessness. My interpretation falls upon a common simile for life. Life is like a boat on an unknowable, unpredictable and vast sea. Unlike a river, an ocean has no preassigned destination. If one does not set his rudder properly he suffers a thrashing to the rocks or a watery death. We cannot navigate without a plan or destination. We must empower our own destiny. The tale of Oedipus Rex spells tragedy as the consequence of attempting to outsmart the inexorable, or fate. This is the last of the images I will show you from the upcoming gallery exhibit...the finals will make their debut at the gallery show. Stay tuned!

Black Mirror

When I was designated visual themes relating to History and Culture for my co-op exhibition, I deemed folklore an appropriate gateway to exploring archetypes and their universal, timeless presence in life, nature and society. Lately I’ve been sifting through cherished myths from a plethora of world cultures, including Scandinavia, Africa, China, Eastern Europe and South America. My third completed painting to date tells the Nordic tale of Prince Lindworm, which survives in several variations. To summarize, a childless Queen is approached by a wandering crone who offers to remedy her troubles with simple instructions. First the Queen is required to take a two handled cup and bury it on its head in her garden. The following morning, she must retrieve the forsaken cup and uncover two roses from the inside, one white, the other red. If she chooses to eat the white rose, she will give birth to a girl, if red, a boy. But under no condition should she eat both, otherwise grave, unforeseen penalties will ensue. However, at the moment of consumption, the Queen was struck by indecision and ate both. She was pregnant with a boy, as promised. But while in labor, she gave life to another entity as well…a lindworm, a hideous reptilian creature. She kept her grotesque bane of a child a secret for many years, but as he came of age, he could no longer tolerate confinement. One day as the Queen’s healthy son prepared to embark to faraway lands in search of a bride, the lindworm slithered across his path declaring, “I am the eldest, I am to be married first”. Every Princess foolishly coaxed into marrying the serpent was devoured on her wedding night. The situation of the kingdom grew desperate as the lindworm gained a notorious reputation for murdering his wives. A farmer’s young daughter was given up out of destitution to be the reptile’s latest sacrifice. Wallowing in disgust and fear for her predictable fate, the girl was approached by the same crone that aided the Queen. She gave her a blood-curdling list of responsibilities for the night of the wedding. The procedure involved the stripping of the lindworm’s multiple skins, whipping his bare flesh and bathing the wounds with milk. The bride did so, grudgingly, and managed to release the spell that imprisoned the prince in the body of a lindworm.

Fairy tales offer a moral crux by forewarning against disobedience, curiosity or immoral actions. The idea of devastating consequence drove the visual for this piece, and the archetypal mirror became my tool for conveying this premonition. Elements of the real world are horribly distorted and reinterpreted: the woman’s torque is a serpent, and the candle smoke is the spirit of an unfortunate wife being strangled. I cannot express just how much pain and pleasure was invested into the creation of this painting. Researching staple Nordic clothing, ornaments and symbols was a delight, as was my intense study of candlelit environments. The execution was scrupulous, wearisome. In the past, I would take little care into preparing my painting materials beforehand. With Prince Lindworm, my masonite board was gessoed and sanded so many times that the tooth was indistinguishable. It was a dream to paint on. I apologize for the poor quality of the photos. The painting's strong colour variation and details are completely eluded. I plan to have the piece properly scanned and framed soon! :D