The wife complained that the painting from Day 27 (Baba Yaga) was too dark. Historically, Baba Yaga was not considered evil. Her role in older mythos was to help those that have already died to find their way to the Spirit Realm. So although she was associated with death, her role was benevolent. This is similar to the Greek character Charon, the boatman at the River Styx (to whom you needed whom you paid to ferry you to the underworld, as we all learned from Chris de Burgh). At some point, Christianity came in, with more patriarchal leanings, and it was most efficacious to slander the older beliefs, vilifying the older gods/spirits/myths.
In any case, to appease the wife, I painted a friendly, happy Baba Yaga, playing with the child she’d given a flying mortar-and-pestle ride to a couple days ago. All is well and everyone’s happy.
This painting brought up some of my issues about trying to make one work to have the same look and feel of another work. When I do a completely new thing each time, my difficulty in making one thing look like another thing isn't apparent.
Additionally, I like to come up with new ideas each time. It's a mark of pride to be able to pull random things out of mid-air, spin them, and create gold. (Silver? Bronze? Corroded tin?) That said, I do recognize there's nothing wrong with visiting "old friends." Watching a documentary of Jackie Gleason, he said when he was putting together the "Jackie Gleason Show" (the show which created "The Honeymooners"), he realized if they were to do a weekly hour, it would behoove him to have recurring characters. I'm not yet settled on that idea, but it's definitely something on my mind.
I do plan at some point to flip through the paintings from the beginning part of my project and see where else those ideas take me. I'll save that for a day when I feel particularly empty.
No comments:
Post a Comment