this sketch provides a starting image for which is to become a bridge of hands of the bearskinners nightmares in which he goes to the bridge to take his own life. Hands which may signify a quote from earlier in the story, 'he knew that the man who sells his soul becomes the devils slave and burns in hell,' therefore the hands are the demons from the underground trying to gain his soul.

three daughters; this image shows the three beautiful daughters, eldest, middle and youngest at the moment in which their father brought the bearskinner back to the house with the news that one of them must marry this beast. so the while the eldest was angry with the father, the youngest wept, the middle daughter was neither angry or upset as she believed he had a good heart. So the ring above the middle daughters head signifies the ring in which the bearskinner broke and give to her to keep until he came back for her. It also has a connotation of a halo, as Claude Levis Strauss introduces the notion of binary oppositions to produce meaning in narratives. he studied the production of myths in societies and he believed that myths were used symbolically to understand the contradictory elements of the real world. IN binary oppositions, audiences know and understand one thing because of our knowledge of its opposite. Good vs evil in this case, good being the middle daughter and bearskinner and the evil being the devil.

opening to the book, 'they say, when a man gives up hope the devil walks at his side' i believe this is a powerful quote on its own and i dont want to overpower it too much so i wanted to keep it simple therefore suggesting concept through the plants, using the satanic symbol to give the viewer the effect of not being alone with the subtle use of eyes.

ive been experimenting to find my perfect mr bearskinner. ive been inspired by themes such as metamorphisis, exagerrating forms,use of symbolic shapes, and the forest, so ive tryed to conjure these all up and produce what i thought the bearskinner would look like. i was intrigued by how he was described in the book. 'So began the first year the solider grew filthy and the bearskin stank...By the second year, he no longer looked like a man in a bearskin; he looked like a bear...By the third year he no longer looked like a bear but a monster.'

so i wanted to incorporate this idea of the bearskin taking over not only his life but his body.

The devil has the power to assume a pleasing shape.' William Shakespeare

photo of the day...

satanic symbols..

apollo and daphne..

Bernini has a unique ability to capture the essence of a narrative moment with a dramatic naturalistic realism. I love berninis suggestion of metamorphoses through intricit and subtle detail.

michael palins full circle...

I was watching Michael Palins journey through all the countries bordering the pacific ocean and i was inspired by the local entertainment in Indonesia, weird and wonderful puppets...

lomobomo

some photographys playing around with the idea of the devil as a mask/fox...i apologise for the quality of the photographs at the mo, i will scan them in properly soon

elizabeth mcgrath..

i like how elizabeth seems influenced by the strange beatuies and grotesqueries of life. quite like the borders surrounding her artwork.

vania zouravliov..

revisiting level 5 narrative and critical theory..

Barthes described texts as 'open' or 'closed.' Some of the techniques used to invite or persuade the consumer/reader/viewer in the direction of what he called the preferred meaning are use of anchorage in conjunction with images- so the text/strap line or writing accompanying an image or sequence of images will give you a more overt message about the narrative meaning.

Barthes also decided that the threads that you pull on to try and unravel meaning are called narrative codes and that they could be categorised in the following five ways;
-Action/proiarectic code and enigma code (ie Answers and questions)
-Symbols and signs
-Points of cultural reference
-Simple description/reproduction

tutorial

i had a really good tutorial today and feeling more confident about my work, and think it has give me a boost to start working bigger scale A3-A2.
a couple of things i need to work on;

-metamorphosis; human, animal

-exageratting the forms and maybe using symbolics shapes integrated with the bridge or the trees

-bears; look at every aspect of the bear claws, skulls etc

-go through the text and find the key images and scenes.