Kiki Smith

Artist Kiki Smith has explored a lot of different dynamics involving stories, specifically in regarding Red Riding Hood. Smith has had a long time interest in wolves and the natural world. Its intriguing that in her work she represents the wolf and woman as equals instead of the natural prey and predator.

What is quite refreshing about this piece is that it shows a different side to the usual violent nature of the story of Red Riding Hood, showing an unnerving companionship between them, as the wolf lies totally docile at the woman's side. I love the contrasting way Smith has created these pieces of work with this new dynamic between human and beast, totally at ease in each others company. 

The piece below shows not adults, but children in mutual peace with the forest creatures. I like the way Smith has done one child with a deer, the deer being the usual prey of humans but both totally at ease in each others presence, and the other child (the one wearing the red cloak) is side by side with the wolf. Both pairs are natural enemies, at opposite ends of the food chain and yet are sitting in total comfort with each other.

I also think her style is really beautiful in the way she creates these illustrations, and the toned down colours she uses. I think the way in which she's drawn the wolves captures their essence really well.

This piece is different in that instead of the wolf and the girl living side by side, the woman is stepping out of the belly of the beast. It's a much more intimidating piece of work, the woman standing in a challenging stance, striding forward from the wolf and facing away from the fallen creature. She is in a position of power as she moves forward, appearing to have ripped her way out of the wolfs stomach to freedom, and emerged victorious.

Paula Rego

Paula Rego

I have been really interested in Rego's work for a while now. The way she captures her audience is really clever and she positions her characters in the frame in such a way as to make them seem imposing or as victims.
She inspires me both in her painting style which is stunning, and in the way she uses fairytales as influence in her work and reimagines their meaning or the way the story unfolds.

This piece by her for example, is called 'Snow White playing with her Fathers trophies' and depicts Snow White sitting in the forefront of the painting with a stags head on her lap, with her legs placed in a traditionally masculine pose. The stepmother gazes on in anger and jealousy in the background. The stags head represents the failed attempt of the Evil Queen of murdering Snow White and being fooled by the heart of a stag instead of a human one. For me, the painting also gives reference to Red Riding Hood due to the over whelming use of red in the painting and the stag giving reference back to the forest, as well as the green on the curtain behind her.
The fact that Snow White has her feet placed on a cushion implies the youngness of the girl, as in the original story she was supposed to be around 14 years old. In addition to this there is a strong contrast with the white of her dress hinting at purity and innocence, offset by the severed stags head and the red surrounding her.
Her gaze is also quite important in the piece as you can clearly see her turning away from the natural direction of where the rest of her body is facing and gazing over her shoulder with a strong challenge in her eyes. She has also very deliberately been faced away from the stepmother in the background, as if she is not worth her time, and as a statement of defiance.

Snow White playing with her Fathers trophies

Rego's painting 'War' is one of my favourite pieces. The artist stated it was inspired by a photo in a newspaper from the early stages of the Iraq war. There is heavy symbolism in the piece, not the least of it being the two main characters have heads replaced with rabbit heads. Reasoning behind this may be that rabbits are an animal associated with running away, they are the prey not the predator and they are also painted white a symbol of innocence. 

A meaning that I'm not sure Rego did on purpose or not, or if it's me reading too much into the piece after reading too many fairytales but I feel a strong association with Alice in Wonderland for this painting. The main part is of course, the white rabbits in the centre of the work. Also the main character wearing a blue dress, as the character does in the story implies in my mind a connection. 

The colours are also quite bold, blues, oranges, reds and yellows quite prominent through the painting. There are several characters also scattered around the work and it's very busy; there is a lot going on and always something new to see.

Poems and Shorts

I found some quite adult and more complex interpretations of the original fairytales and they're quite horrific at times.

Little Red-Cap

At childhood’s end, the houses petered out
into playing fields, the factory, allotments
kept, like mistresses, by kneeling married men, 
the silent railway line, the hermit’s caravan, 
till you came at last to the edge of the woods. 
It was there that I first clapped eyes on the wolf. 

He stood in a clearing, reading his verse out loud 
in his wolfy drawl, a paperback in his hairy paw, 
red wine staining his bearded jaw. What big ears
he had! What big eyes he had! What teeth!
In the interval, I made quite sure he spotted me, 
sweet sixteen, never been, babe, waif, and bought me a drink, 

my first. You might ask why. Here’s why. Poetry.
The wolf, I knew, would lead me deep into the woods,
away from home, to a dark tangled thorny place
lit by the eyes of owls. I crawled in his wake,
my stockings ripped to shreds, scraps of red from my blazer
snagged on twig and branch, murder clues. I lost both shoes

but got there, wolf’s lair, better beware. Lesson one that night, 
breath of the wolf in my ear, was the love poem.
I clung till dawn to his thrashing fur, for
what little girl doesn’t dearly love a wolf?1
Then I slid from between his heavy matted paws
and went in search of a living bird – white dove –

which flew, straight, from my hands to his hope mouth.
One bite, dead. How nice, breakfast in bed, he said,
licking his chops. As soon as he slept, I crept to the back
of the lair, where a whole wall was crimson, gold, aglow with books.
Words, words were truly alive on the tongue, in the head,
warm, beating, frantic, winged; music and blood.

But then I was young – and it took ten years 
in the woods to tell that a mushroom
stoppers the mouth of a buried corpse, that birds
are the uttered thought of trees, that a greying wolf
howls the same old song at the moon, year in, year out,
season after season, same rhyme, same reason. I took an axe

to a willow to see how it wept. I took an axe to a salmon
to see how it leapt. I took an axe to the wolf
as he slept, one chop, scrotum to throat, and saw 
the glistening, virgin white of my grandmother’s bones.
I filled his old belly with stones. I stitched him up.
Out of the forest I come with my flowers, singing, all alone. 

Carol Ann Duffy 1999

The Little Mermaid

by Anne Widdowson

The Little Mermaid began to chop
Her shimmering tail in two,
And squirmed beneath the axe’s head.
Blood spread across the clammy flesh,
Wet tissue sprayed about her chest,
As she maimed the sticky limb.

The cleft drooled, alien matter,
Not only to us; the girl was sickened
By the mutant fin, felt hatred
For her mongrel blood.
But time for alterations and tweaks,
To correct this monstrous flaw.

She grasped the fragile nerves and snapped;
Scales scattered where the water lapped
Her stinking slab of meat.
Scraps of sinew licked her wrists,
Slimy, hot beneath her frenzied touch,
Her shaking, grisly hands.

The child admired her work, unfazed
By the carnage, the carcass, the sight,
Hefting the chunks like a cripple might.
The pieces oozed and bulged,
Her figure, in her eyes, much improved
Compared to that dreadful tail.

With a sigh of respite and release,
She regarded the newly botched legs
And smiled. Fillets replaced the fin she had,
Hardly equipped to walk on land.
What a pity she’d never stand
On her two new stumps.

A New Direction

So, I found myself struggling with my project, as I was beginning to get bored of it, finding it uninteresting and not having and plan on how to develop it further. 

I decided to explore an alternative direction with the common theme of combining movement and stillness. 

Instead of using my illustrative drawings which, while good practice and I enjoyed doing them initially, were quite flat and I was very uninspired and didn't know where to take them next. After spending a long time trying to force some sort of idea of what to do next I eventually started to look at doing something a bit different.

I began thinking of using paint as a medium in which I could work for my project. I used to paint a lot and I loved it, and it would be an opportunity for me to develop my skills further. I have already been looking at artist Paula Rego who's work has been influencing me since the beginning for her use of fairytales and symbolism in her work.

So my new plan is to create a series of large scale paintings based on iconic fairytale characters such as Alice in Wonderland and Red Riding Hood. I want to incorporate movement into my work digitally, in ways which I am still trying to figure out. One idea was to use projection, or maybe projection mapping, to add movement to my piece... I was also considering having a soundscape or somethings. 

I want to think about how in my work I can figure out the different nuances of the lead women from the tales and how the women are perceived compared to how I could possibly interpret it in my own way. 

Interestingly, I have found some really interesting rewrites of fairytales by different poets such as Carol Ann Duffy, and in Angela Carters 'The Bloody Chamber' which I am looking at for my dissertation and am thinking I can pull from those versions of the traditional tales and use them as inspiration for my paintings.

It's been a while since I've properly painted so I have done a few practice pieces at home, testing out different techniques. 

RESEARCH

These are some research films I found on vimeo when I was looking for inspiration and sort of did some work that was vaguely similar to what I was thinking of doing. It was tricky as I couldn't find a lot out there.

Five Moving Paintings from Anete Melece on Vimeo.

I enjoyed this piece, the artist used projection mapping over their art piece and it looks amazing, and is definitely something I am considering looking into.

Mono Amor - Projection Mapped Paintings from Nate Siggard on Vimeo.

TJ's concept art

Another film I am doing storyboards for it TJ's Alt Du Gjør, and have done some concept art.

TJ and I had a few meetings to talk about what he wanted and he showed some examples of other films that he liked the stop motion design for to give me some inspiration.

TJ's film has both stop motion and live action parts, which are visually very different. The stop motion part of the film is full of bright colours and natural scenery, contrasting strongly with duller tones and cold brick walls of the live action segment. 

I tried to make the stop motion concept art full of bright colours and have a more childlike quality similar to Kubo and the two strings and other stop motion children's films.

Concept art for stop motion segment of film

                 

In comparison, the life action concept art is dull and boring and full of negative space. I tried to consciously tone down the colours and make the characters small in the frame.

Concept art for live action part of film

  

Billies Storyboards

As part of my learning agreement this year, I have joined a few other groups in the position of creating their storyboards for them as I enjoy drawing and I like to collaborate with other groups. For Billie's project, we had several meetings and talked through what it was she wanted, which was imagery of symbolic objects and actions for her experimental film. She had come up with a thorough shot list of what she wanted and I came up with the first draft of the storyboard. Through other meetings and communications we have added/are adding more shots in as her film develops.

Moving Drawings

Practice 1 from Chloe Debonnaire on Vimeo.