For my Visual Storytelling Assignment I had the opportunity to work again with my totem the eagle. For sketch reference I looked back to some of the earlier work of Pear and Ink who you can find on Instagram. It’s such a shame that she does not seem to be practicing art any more. She was a great inspiration to me.
I had so much fun sketching the line work for this artwork. There is nothing better than a piece that comes together exactly as you visualized it in your mind conceptually. Although I had imagined it a little more pastel looking, overall it turned out exactly as planned.
I always knew what the background was going to be. Once I had decided on the photograph though, I had the nail biting wait for its arrival in the post as it was due right before the assignment due date; I could not get it printed locally in the size I needed! It was a VERY stressful wait!
Miss 12 (pictured) was involved it the final layout. I had two version of the Eagle; legs up and legs down. We played around with the positioning of both birds.
The concept behind “Watching Her Dream” is to do with mark-making, and came out of my “Not Your Shade of Brown” brand. Not Your Shade of Brown – a collaborative idea with Mahliha Rickards – invites gentle conversation about cultural identity with people who you may not realise are culturally diverse. NYSOB is about exploring mark marking, particulary if you have been separated from your culture and you do not know what your traditional mark-making might look like, or in what way your culture may express cultural narratives through storytelling and mark-making. It’s about finding your own way, making your own marks and placing the “Not Your Shade of Brown” label on it and declaring “I’m NOT white, I’m not black, I’m not your shade of brown. I’m different. Let’s talk.”
NYSOB does not seek to invalidate anyone else’s experiences and it takes very seriously the points of views, perspectives, economical and living conditions of all Indigenous, First Nations and First Peoples; past, present and future.
We ALL came from somewhere.
“Watching Her Dream” is an A2 Mixed Media artwork on 300gsm Canson.
