http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:Illusions-Child&section=today deviantART RSS for by:Illusions-Child en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:15:14 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://Illusions-Child.deviantart.com/journal/9105579/ http://Illusions-Child.deviantart.com/journal/9105579/ Sun, 18 Jun 2006 13:02:23 PDT i worked on it for about 6 months, from developing concepts through sketching, ink designs, development and abstracting, then finally getting it inked on for my 19th. my father is the only other to have this tattoo, on his upper arm.

the initial concept was that of a dream catcher. i find illusions, and delusion very interesting. through buddhist beliefs, we all are delluded to some extent. we have 'self grasping desires' (or something like that) which prevent us from having a balanced perspective. the final two words, and integrity, being the 3 pillars of my character in a way. and key behind the design.
so the dream catcher, being within an abstracted eye, is about seeing through dillusion, not getting caught up in dreams and nightmares too much. not letting jealousy and selfish motives influence my interpretation of events, and thus my actions and feelings too much.

It is to balance cynism and idealism, optomism and pessemism, depression with euphoria. since balance is a constant struggle, i do not seek a flat life, but to experience each, remaining objective as i feel each, to whatever extent i feel ready, or am subject to.

the eye is also said to be the window to the soul, and i love eyes, they reveal so much about a person.

the spirals also represent galaxies (also vague referance to yin and yang), and thus astrology/astronomy (as does the crescent moon). i am fascinated by these studies, and think they do have a great influence on our mood. the moon in particular, governing the tides (waves along edges of eye to refer to the sea)
full moons are stunning as well, and in classical literature, all below the moon, sublunar, is said to be mortal, all above it, immortal (stars, sun, gods...)

i love the sea, and am fascinated also by water,and the 4 elements and the ideal of being quintessential. i always seek self improvement, to reach this ideal, or enlightenment of some kind. however i feel most drawn to water and fire as elements.
the sea just hyponotises me, its colours, motion, sounds, smells, feel... each passage of water has its own character.
water is also fundamental to our existance, and has a peculiar structure, in that it is polar...

there is a tear, of blood or water within the eye. a referance to sorrow, and my experience with depression. it bring balance tho, as for every joy there is an accompanying sorrow. to love someone, u may lose them. to enjoy some time, u will pass it and miss it.. etc. this is also refering to self grasping dillusion; as removing *desirous attachment* to things in life brings contentment within buddhism. yet this is a struggle for me, as tho im not materialistic, i grow attached thru love, to friends, family, partners. and tho i am stronger now, i have always been very sensitive, both to my own emotions and that of anyone i care for. If one i care for is down, i literally feel as they do, maybe to a lesser extent, but theres a resonance...
i also pursue compassion to all, regardless of any prejudice i may have, or how disillusioned with life, and human anture i may feel.this is by no means easy at times.

there is a simplified heart above the tear, inverted. the tattoo is a little above my heart, and i prioritise emotions greatly in my life. i also think its essential to understand them within yourself through introspection, such that it allows one to be outrospective more, and have greater empathy.
tho it may never be possible to fully contemplate anothers mind, as you would have to lead their life, and more, we are all akin in our hearts. we have a different balance of drives, and react differently, make different choices- this is what makes us individuals- but regardless of age, race, gender... there are distinct patterns to our nature..
which in my view, are related to our drives, emotions, they have power over our mind greater than many acknowledge.

the circle is important. its a referance to cycles, and balance. balance is essential, and harmony, IMO.
call is causality, karma, referance one of newtons laws..
in life, there is always need fr it. the moon being a crescent is also a referance to this, cycles. 13 lunar cycles, signs of zodiac. tides being cycles, everything...
the infinity sign would have been harder to encorporate, but the circle is a powerful and simple symbol.
used in mandalas (tools for meditation), where the centre represents enlightenment, there is the heart, and centre of the eye.
wedding bands are circular and gold, an eternal untarnishable material, and a never ending shape. it can represent perfection... ]]> ~Illusions-Child http://Illusions-Child.deviantart.com/journal/8173374/ http://Illusions-Child.deviantart.com/journal/8173374/ Wed, 15 Mar 2006 21:49:57 PST they look awful, but its something, and a start.
i wouldliketo get access to mywork up in edinburgh, my sculptural work, some of my photography and ink/collage/crazy messy stuff.
its all from a little while back, but was wheni was working most intensely on my art and studying it. now my eye is elsewhere for the moment, unfortunately.
still developing my other ideas, and have some material to start playing with on photoshop, concepts to explore yadi yadi yadi... etc.
oh, and a piccy of my tattoo, with the development sketches going in scraps,sometime soon.
lighting, decent quality images of work etc,are for now well beyond my reach. but i have something, it may not be glorious, but its something.
hopefully as timepassed, my submissions will look sharper, be better and ..yeah.
generally whati will say is i use alot of metaphors, symbolism and such like in what i do. generally if something is there, especially in mymore abstract paintings, its there for somekind of reason, whether to do with composition and geometry, or something im trying to convey.
this is less so for the life drawing, i didnt personally know the model, so couldnt depict her as a person through that work, and we had an excercise to follow regardless.
the photograph, i had a bit of luck with. the figures in the bottom left looking on at the craze. NY being one of the fastest and more intense cities of the world... the track of the centrallower figure behind him.. (not very visible) amongst other things. the warm glow is also nice (IMO) as it also contrasts how bloody cold it was that day, and the yetis wondering around

so there ya go. a couple of poor reproductions of my work..lol. (not that its all that anyway)
]]> ~Illusions-Child http://Illusions-Child.deviantart.com/journal/8108876/ http://Illusions-Child.deviantart.com/journal/8108876/ Thu, 09 Mar 2006 02:54:23 PST not too much has changed since mylastlittle rant.
i have however got many good concepts in mymind, amny ideas to develop, and so much buzzing around inside of me. jsut sods law is im at practically the hardest point of the year for coursework right now... and have no free time, even though i still manage to make some, for better or worse, for the net.
i have 3-4 things i can upload, via a friends camera, in teh near future.
-a photo i took representing the chaos and frenzy of metropolitan existance, and how it can isolate, taken in grand central station NY a couple of years back on an art trip.
-my tattoo design, and its development sketches, and concepts,symbolism, metaphors.
-my favourite life drawing, froma coupleof years back, largely line based, due to the style we were encouraged to do it in, charcoal and chalk.
hopefully, i can get my parents to collect the rest of my work which is still on display scattered around edinburgh, or was in display and is now growing dust mountains.
i may also finish developing my next attoo designs,one for the back (large) one for upperright arm. and playing with the idea of a band design for the upper arm.
i have some pros, and poetry imconsidering finishing off, but its reallypretty piss poor compared with the majority around here.
im just hoping by the time i find time, i havent lost all these ideas... i have them floating around but,will try and put them down here while i remember.
want to play with some photomanipulations, but also capture many of the original images, though i may need to ask some friends to model for me, though i wont be able to get exactly what i want being purely amateur, and scabbing off students what time and favours i can

i have a character, based in mymind. i want to draw him in many styles,black and white blocked, light dark contrasting. sketchy, with pencil.
pure line drawing, either in black ink witha brush, or fine point
collage.. ooh.i developed a kind of technique which i was very happy with during A level, quite influenced by cubism, and developedto the point of near complete abstraction (if thats a word..) some photos id taken of edinburgh, relating to the photo above but alonga slightly different, darker theme. if i can take asimilar style to this character, basically i want to develop and experiemtn agreat deal on this, and will need to do many focused drawings particularly of the face, and expressions i want to convey.am tempted to try both a 'cartoony' style, and a more realist style. but to be hoenst im not all that good at all and cant expect to be able to do what is in myminds eye.. oh well. justgive it acrack sometime i guess.

umm.what else. photographs, both landscape and some crude attempts to emulate Sebastiao Selgados portraits. wondering who would be thebest models though, would probably go for B/Wwith these, as i find it more expressive, somehow.

damn i had a piece of pros i really wanted to develop which i thought of last night, hmmm... from having a good talk with astrid, about the nature of friendship, bonds and relationships between people... oh yeah. Easter Island infact..lol. it was a little,isolated exampleof what our self desructive side can do, and not developing sustainably. i hope we can learn lessons from the nightmare teh ensued there, and since im obsessed with sustainability and all the hippy bolx,i may havea go at putting it into some more communicative and expressive form than incoherent rants.. which aremy favoured approach for now.

oh another idea, is a cold/warms stylepainting, closely related in its ideas to my back tattoo design, but based instead on a human figure, possibly walking through a crowd. the warms representing the ideals, optomism,colds the isolation,apathy,disillusionment...would probably work best as a short series, to convey different moods at different times and circumstances... as weall go through our ups and downs. needs more development...... alot more. couldmaybe be done as a photographic series at first, develop sketchesform this, then move onto oils anda bit more abstract maybe... dunno.couldalso be done purely in colds/warms for different images, or monochromatic... hmmmm....

Andas ever,i am tempted to have rants on issues i am particularly concerned with. I saw a great image which i have added to myfavourites, with the passage *silectlips, not silentminds* or somethign very similar, which set me thinking.....
also the environment,.. as mentiond above. couldlooka t conservation issues, and the obviousplight of , well,almost everythign in ourplanet.polar beers could become the first main sp... ]]> ~Illusions-Child http://Illusions-Child.deviantart.com/journal/7707437/ http://Illusions-Child.deviantart.com/journal/7707437/ Wed, 25 Jan 2006 18:44:41 PST just started, have a fair bit of art work, and a portfolio... but im focused on my degree right now, and have no digital camera. will find a means of uploading as much work as I can, and will spend less time online and more time getting back into sketching, planning, painting, scultping and hopefully photography when i find money for a camera.
also have some graphics packages available for my mac for photomanipulation, and various other graphics work which im keen on experiementing more with.
i jsut feel its a shame i have nothing to offer my profile as of yet, there should eb an old life drawing i did a few years back uploaded soon though... and maybe some variations on my tattoo designs.
Dyl ]]> ~Illusions-Child