From several weeks ago...

Here are some images of my progress in my journal from several weeks ago.

The picture on the left is the first page in my artist book and is a depiction of my childhood. It corresponds with the last page of my book which is me now and follows a similar layout to this page, with the same subject matter included. The colours in this piece are contrasting; the yellow highlighting happiness and joy (from a distance, thus distance from the dress) but darker more sinister colours, the blue, are apparent closer to the dress. The red is in the form of a heart, a common symbol throughout my artist book.

This picture is another page in its previous state (it now has been built up over the photograph). Unlike other people in my class I did not do each page to represent a different part of me (ie. fears, hopes, dreams, love, family, etc), instead I chose to have each page as a representation of how I believe I am viewed by other people (ie. the family page, friends page, myself page, etc). This page is a sort of 'outsiders' page. I come into contact with a lot of people that I see every now and then, that I am not close to. You wouldn't call them friends but you wouldn't call them strangers, and this is the page depicting the portrayal of me that they would see. It's a bit hidden, but fairly easy to get through to the first layer. I chose a photo of me that had brighter colours because people who don't know me very well only see a very bright, bouncy side of myself. The words on the door are the words I hide behind, because I often use language to talk myself up or down in front of people, and I conceal things behind text.

This was my dolls' house figure, (it has since been updated and changed slightly) but this was it in its half-completed form. It, like myself, looks very open and pretty and nice on the outside, Sonya said it looked "comfortable" and like it was "the kind of place you would feel at home". This was the idea. That's the mask that I hide behind generally, that it's all very pleasant and happy and comfortable on the outside. Underneath the stairs (which open out) it is darker and this is where my book "lives". In this context my book is like my heart, the essence of my being. Though the outside of the house is bright and nice-looking, there are some almost disturbing figures that are placed on it, for example the shadows on the walls. One of these is a woman, and she is the ghost, the shadow of, the reflection of the woman who lived in the house. Down below there is a wolf, a dark and misunderstood animal who is howling up to her. This can be interpreted as you wish.