Human Anatomy Mask






Superficial Muscle Anatomy, Head
Fiber, acrylic paint, form-fitted


I was inspired by the Hindu concept of varna, and the temporal nature of human life. Behind the face of each caste, regardless of their social status, is the same anatomy.
Another cultural influence was that of Indonesia, whose masks predate the Hindu and Buddhist culture. The mask below, with origins unknown to me, is designed in the tradition of the Indonesian people, and combines what I believe to be inner and outer features: what looks like a small brain is at center on the forehead, and flesh toned ribbons, or just ornate foliage, adorns the head.  I adopted a similar color scheme in my rendering.

I also sought to emulate a mask similar to the traditional Día de los Muertos.
Día de los Muertos is celebrated internationally, but was designated as a day to commemorate lost family members by the Mexican people, first. 
The principle features of this mask are deep black areas of contrast around bone cavities, such as the eye sockets and the nasal cavity.
My interpretation of this art movement is that the underlying structure of all world human beings is the same: skin and bone.  Life is commemorated for what ripples a human being leaves behind, without the physical presence maintained.


The below images are reference material published by Sarah Simblet, from the book Anatomy for the Artist:



The images below are my early stages of sculpting the mask from Golden brand Fiber Paste, and then the beginning of the painting:









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NEA Arts |The Art of Failure|

      NEA Arts' publication The Art of Failure  is a creative look into the history of techniques and internal perceptions of artists and innovators whose success came with challenge. The artist who attempts to benefit their community through their effort shines through in each of these individuals featured. I found the insights exceptionally helpful, as they communicate to the human being inside each of us, prone to failure, ambitious for success.       Both authors Toni Morrison and Carlos Murillo speak of longevity, and the importance of maintaining self: the body and mind. They similarly work in literary and theatrical mediums: novels and scripts.  Both speak of the writing process as arduous, requiring energy, probably keeping them up late at night (or early in the morning) to accomplish work.      Similarly, dancer Sarah Kaufman speaks of dance criticism in the same way that Geoff Nuttall alludes to the grey areas of success in performing. It has an equal amount to d
Read more

Exploring Word Clouds

Image
This generator is an educational tool, and avoids the syntax tools and more complicated formatting options. Rather, the user pastes text into a box, and then sees a random arrangement appear on the screen to show a potential example. Along the top of the page, you can edit the color of the background and text by choosing from color pallets (already made).  The layout of the cloud can be changed to common shapes like a square or heart.   I find this type of web tool exceptionally easy for a classroom setting, and could be a fun visual literacy experiment.  The first site I visited in pursuit of my word cloud was https://www.wordclouds.com/, which teaches the user a special syntax for determining the size and emphasis of their words. 
Read more