Labyrinth Project Creators Journal - Diana Whiley

Author: Diana Whiley
Adelaide, South Australia

06/18/19

Ideas are the foundation of writing. After starting this journal I looked back to the first idea I had that set others in motion.  

I’ve always been fascinated by snowflakes. They are all individual and beautifully geometric. I imagine snowflakes bouncing together and making their own music like wind song and water, a slow trickle that can become a cascading roar. Energy. Vibration. 

I read about Pythagoras, a scientist and mathematician from 660 BC who believed a vibration and resonance emanated from all planets and combined to from a harmony, a balance in the Universe. He called it “The Music of the Spheres.” 
It gave me the foundation of the magic in my fantasy world - music, resonance and mathematics – or more specifically geometric pattern that linked to the elements of life. 

For me, I was always going to base my characters on Earth, where magic is not a given but mainly appears in myth. I often wished many myths were true and imagined my characters having special abilities but unknown to them. 

Today's Mystery Art

Who Are You Child?


First person to answer the question wins. 

Win a free metallic print by Grey Cross Studios. We will post the winners name here once its solved! Feel free to post your answer at the bottom of this page, or on any social media where the image is posted.

Tips From the Art Studio of the Strange & Unusual

ENTER HERE ALL YE WHO WOULD LEARN OF STRANGE SIGHTS

Its amazing all the little personal things we discover while we work. Here are a few of my own personal (and sometimes peculiar) techniques. I will add to this list so check it out again

Pearlescent Paint - Pearlescent paint can be found in most art stores, usually near the metallic paints. Whats different is that rather than use it as just another paint, by using just a small amount, you can glaze over almost any other paint. This allows the color to still be seen beneath and creates a depth to the surface.

Styrofoam - Styrofoam has many more uses than people realize. It can make a darned good canvas substitute. Using a flat piece allows you to dig or melt into the surface, creating interesting surfaces and depths. You can also melt or cut through creating an opening which can be back lit.

Today's Mystery Art

Who Am I? 

THADDEUS STEVENS

Today's winner is Sarah Lynn Mayhew. Sarah guessed the answer on Twitter and wins a free print! 

Check back soon for a new piece of mystery art! 

Win a free metallic print by Grey Cross Studios. First person to answer the question wins. We will post the winners name here once its solved! Feel free to post your answer at the bottom of this page, or on any social media where the image is posted.

The Work of Photographer Ubo Pakes (New Work Added)

"The Man With the Bubblewrap Hat"

"In and around Carbon Market in Cebu City there are plenty of cargadors. Young (and not so young) men who carry the goods from the trucks and so to the shops and stalls. Mostly they have pushcarts, but they are also capable of carrying 40 kg of rice on their heads so that their hands are free... Quite often they then wear a towel or bag around their heads for cleanliness and protection. I was touched by the trick of this man by using bubble wrap. Practically and fashion sense in one"

"Man With a Beard"

This man was hanging out at Cebu City's Taboan Market and his nice beard just caught my eye. I asked him for a photo and he was just too happy to comply.

The Last Reef - Climate Sculpture

"The Last Reef" is part of my climate change series. This piece of dead wood was carved out by termites creating a fantastic patterning on the wood.

This is the True Nature of Evolutionary Art

The rules are broken, as well as the art. 

The first instinct of an artist when their art suffers damage is to fix it. In Evolutionary Art, the opposite applies. In the photo above you see a piece from the Evolutionary art series called Dr Grimm's Freak Circus and Petting Zoo". The original piece standing 7 feet high was created for a show six months ago. When the show was complete, the piece came back to the studio and became a permanent piece of art in the outdoor art space. 

Until now, its pretty much stayed as it was originally created. Then the lower torso of the skeleton fell off. Evolutionary Art teaches us that the art can take on other forms as it degrades, thus "evolving the art" to a new form. 

If you look at it, the piece just became much more interesting because the lower torso is laying there. The art just became something totally new. 

Now I can do one of several things. I could put the lower torso back on the piece of art. But that would not make it evolutionary would it? I could leave it exactly where it is and do nothing else. This would suit the doctrines of the art form but may create a small tripping obstacle for guests visiting the art space. Or I could move it slightly to eliminate the obstacle and I could add something new onto the piece where the torso previously was. Its all about choices. 

But if I want to stay true to the art form, then I will not choose choice #1. 

Its quite a fascinating art, where nature and time do a lot of the work for the artist. We just have to make decisions when something does change. 

Now in your minds eye, zoom this piece out 5 years. Its now 2024 and the piece has been in place for a very long time. But the artist (yeah thats me), has chosen to work with the piece each time nature destroys part of it. What does it now look like? Is there anything about the piece that is left from the original or has it changed so radically that is now totally a different piece of art? 

This is why Evolutionary Art is so fascinating. It is what is and then its something else. 

Intriguing, isn't it? 

Photos of a Transformers action figure should NOT be considered portrait photography. 

Throw Away Art

New Orleans weather is brutal. Outdoor temperatures can be deadly for most of the summer months. As we have been building the new outdoor art space, it became apparent from the start that are that was displayed out there would either have to be built to handle the heat, or would have to be brought inside after each and every show. 

All of the art in the "evolution art" series was built for outdoor display. But that still left a lot of empty space to consider. 

Last year I built 5 huge sculptures that were the first works in the evolution art series. These were high rise buildings that towered five and six feet high. It was our original intention to display these pieces in the outdoor art space also. But during a freak accident, one morning around 6am all five sculptures came crashing down and were destroyed. This wasn't the fault of the sculptures. We think that one of the shelves they were sitting on gave way, sending all five sculptures sliding off the shelf to land on the ground in a pile of debris. 

Such is the luck of an artist sometimes! 

Merging Still Life with Digital Art

Still life art and digital art work very well together. In still life, its all about how we arrange the objects to create a pleasing configuration. In digital art its all about how we are able to morph those objects into something different.

If we bring the two art forms together, unlimited possibilities emerge. In this image, we've created a temple scene still life using real leaves. 

The Problem of an Artists Inventory

What do you do with too much art? 

I've been creating for so many years now, that I constantly run into serious space issues in my studio. Our home is not small, but it is a simple fact that there is art everywhere. Art that sometimes gets damaged, art that gets lost because it gets placed where it shouldn't. 

So what do artists do when there are storage problems, especially those of who work in very small spaces? What do you do with the work when its not selling? What do you do with it when it stacks up to the point where one piece of art is destroying another because its all pressing in on each other? You've given it away, you've shoved art in friends faces to the point where people run and hide when they see you on the street because you might shove more art at them. And if you do successfully give away a great deal of it then where does it put you in terms of the value of your art?

The Forgetful Artist - Memory and Art

"There is so much I don't know. And so much I do know, if I just took the time to think about it."

I've made forgetfulness an art form. I stumbled upon the idea of actually training myself to forget techniques that I've learned. Now why on earth would I want to do that?

Its simple really. When I forget a technique and relearn it later, it returns in a different way. I do not allow a technique to take root in my head so completely that I fall into a pattern of creativity that excludes everything else.

A lot of artists learn something new and that's where they remain. They find a comfort level in repeating the same technique in slight variations over and over. I'm not putting that down. I think there are benefits to learning something and then exercising it over and over again.

I am an experimental artist in every fiber of my being. I revel in a piece of art so challenging and enigmatic that it is almost beyond my grasp to create it.

The Air Maiden (Sculpture Tutorial)

Finally we've gotten the new outdoor art space to the point where we can begin using it for projects. The first is the large piece of deadwood which will be cleaned and preserved first before becoming art. It will need a large plinth to support it, so the search will be on to create the base while working on the deadwood. 

The preservation process will take several weeks. The wood has to be tested, cleaned and anything that is too rotten will be carefully removed. The process is similar to working on bones in an archaeological dig. Along with custom made tools, I use a set of dental tools to carefully remove debris, old bugs, weed growth and the occasional cocoon, until the wood is clean and the remaining parts are strong. 

Once that is finished I will apply multiple layers of spray epoxy to preserve the erosion and grain of the wood. 

An Artists Memorial to Notre Dame Cathedral

The day Notre Dame burned, I cried. It wasn't for the religious implications of the fire, but for the artistic implications. To lose such an amazing structure and all that was contained within it was like a gut punch to the stomach. It really made me dwell on how much we have lost and will lose in the future and that we have so little control over all of it. 

This is the nature of art and one of the reasons we should always cherish the art we have around us now. 

Notre Dame, like any other piece of art (and yes I consider the whole cathedral a piece of art), will not survive. Its been lucky so far to not allow history or nature to wipe it from the earth. But we have to face the fact that as artists everything will eventually perish, including ourselves. We also have to teach ourselves and those around us to not just see the art before them, but to see the art over time. 

The Mona Lisa is still with us after so many years, but how many of us look at her with an eye towards who she was, the history of her creation, the journey she has made to be here today? 

It is the same with Notre Dame. For a few moments during that fire, the world stopped and considered more than just the building, but the whole of her history on this earth. 

This is the magic of art. The way most of us look at art, its just like a snapshot image. We say "oh pretty" then we move on, never considering the entirety of the creation. If anything is learned from this fire, I hope its that we take a little time to look at the entirety of the creation.  Its important. 

With the image above, I am beginning a series of memorial art for Notre Dame with the goal in my own mind to cherish this art completely. Because she may not be here tomorrow.

~Grey~

Art Behind the Scenes - Last Remnants of Man (Artist Grey Cross)

"Last Remnants of Man" was one of the most depressing pieces I've ever created. The piece was part of a climate change series, so right away the subject reflects a somber mood. I think because I was born and raised on an island in the Atlantic, the use of a ship and a lighthouse made it all the more gloomy for me.