Cindy Sherman  

Cindy Sherman is an American photographer. She is famous with her iconic portraits that depict women as imagined characters from film and other media.

 research website: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/cindy-sherman-1938

 untitled A

untitled B

untitled C

untitled D

For me these 4 photographs are not only show the different age of women,  Sherman also show the character in different age group. Untitled A is the eldest lady; she has very confident smell and very heavy makeup. Untitled B has a cool young women who does not care the detail of her life and I think she is unwilling to take this photo. Untitled C is a young teenager  who is quite and also with a heavy makeup on her face, So I think she is probably looking forward to grown up and to become an adult. Finally, untitled D has the youngest girl. Her hairpin and her clean, happy face indicate that she is now in a very pure age.

What Cindy Sherman inspire me is that showing a story or telling a thing not only can present by a film or a book, these can also be tell simply a photograph. It also remain me that how important the facial expression and the dress , decoration can have very big effect on the work in every field. 

Sherman had explain the series of this photos:

These images were from a series of head shots that I made to show the process of turning one character into another. At that time I was merely interested in the use of make-up on a face as paint used on a blank canvas. I was experimenting with several types of characters – i.e. starting with an old person who then gradually became a drag queen. While the original series showed the entire process (about fifty 3” x 5” photos), later I chose a smaller group to make into slightly larger separate pieces. I unintentionally shot them with a very narrow depth of field, leaving only certain parts of the face in focus, which gives some of the features [a] malleable quality.

(Quoted in Contemporary Art, p.98.)

"Whoever wants to know something about me as an artist which alone is significant they should look attentively at my pictures and there seek to recognize what I am and what I want. ”
- Gustav Klimt

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-gustav-klimt

The kiss

This painting shows tow people holding together between the flower , their pose is strange but balance and beautiful. And the background is golden colour, shining and dreaming. It give the feeling of their love and tragic ,because the women seen losing her life. What I like the most about this painting is that this shows the story of artist's life, experience and imagination , and these two people seen like the characters in Greek myth.  This really inspire me to think about doing self portrait in an indirect way. To put myself in a  story or  a special  seem that can transfer you emotion , experiment .

This pattern was taken  in the place I live. I am interested in this pattern because this pattern looks very beautiful and it is unique in the world . 

the thing I like about this picture is that these branches is like the natural decoration of the guide broad.

Based on my primary research, I am inspired by these natural texture, shape, and colour.  So I decide to find a story that has connection with nature, which is  A Midsummer Night's Dream.

A Midsummer Night's dream is a comedy written by William Shakespeare  in 1595/96. 

Willian Blake painting of fairies in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM .

This painting give me the feeling that forest is another world which is different from our reality. There full of magic, fairies and happiness.

There are magical story and love story happened in the deep forest in the midsummer night.  So in this story even thing is the forest is very dreamy and beautiful. The most impressed character for me is the queen of fairies --Titania.  

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This costume designed by Gabriella Pescucci for Michelle Pfeiffer in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999).  I think this costume  is very delicate and well considered. There are lots of embroidery create curve, round ,regular shapes and lines to make this costume's texture very beautiful and colourful  just like some insect, butterfly. The type of dress is like the people in greek myth , very natural body shape.

I think this work very inspired me in different areas. For example, I learn how important the textile of fabric can effect audience' s feeling. I also learn how to express the element I have from the environment.  

The dumky mask in A mid summer night's dream

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1gKnCQklllb1dzJxQ68wbZk/bollywood-banjoleles-ballads-and-beyonce-a-musical-dream

This mask is different from the other mask. It can be see through and people cans the actor's face. The head of this dumky is very cute and attractive to me.It is a framework with fabric , wires and feather. It inspired me to think about the connection between remove and the mask. So when people wearing mask, it just like removing their faces.

I just simply search the key word FOREST, and I found this video. It recorded the trees , road in the forest and the sound of rain hit the ground .  This video remain me that the important and special of the forest not just because there are lots of tree and mud road，the air or the atmosphere and the sound of the forest are also very vitial part of the forest, Such as the rain hit the ground; the dry leaves drop to the ground; the voice when you walk through the grasses and leaves, these are all very important and special.

The patterns have very random texture, and it is a representation  of our losing life ; an important part of our body.  I like this way this artist making it into different texture to make fabric.  So this inspired me to thinking about how we record and memorise the existence of ourself. I get an idea to keep all the hair in different stage .

 The artist is using rice power to make something similar to the plastic bag but it will be degrade very soon after being used. I  like this material because it is eatable and it consider the problem of plastic cups. People keep using new plastic cup and create new plastic cup, some people will even trow it Into ground and ocean, so people are creating  non-degradable rubbish to harmful to the environment. So if this this kind of material replace the plastic, it would successfully improve  the environment .

https://materiom.org/recipe/59

This the website I get from the CSM library session. We choose this material because the quality of this material is hard and solid.  It is more suitable to create shape and the ingredient are most come from our daily life. 

Tragic love story Because we want to make ring for people who will divorce in the future. So I decide to found some tragic love stories as some inspiration.

1 First story: Apollo and Daphne

Apollo was the son of ZEUS (the God of Thunder) and Leto. He had a twin sister, AETEMIS, who was the Goddess of Hunting.

Apollo was also famous for being an oracular god, and had two cults in Delphi and Delos. People would come from all over the world to learn from Apollo what their future held. It was believed that, as the God of both medicine and plague, Apollo could heal people as well as cause disease by shooting people with his arrows.

Daphne was a Naiad Nymph in Greek Mythology, and was the daughter of a river god. She was famous for being incredibly beautiful and for catching the eye of Apollo. However, Daphne was determined to remain unmarried and untouched by a man by the rest of her life.

Greek Mythology states that Apollo had been mocking the God of Love, Eros (also known as Cupid). In retaliation, Eros fired two arrows: a gold arrow that struck Apollo and made him fall in love with Daphne, and a lead arrow that made Daphne hate Apollo. Under the spell of the arrow, Apollo continued to follow Daphne, but she continued to reject him. Apollo told Daphne that he would love her forever.

Daphne turned to the river god, Peneus, and pleaded for him to free her from Apollo. In response, Peneus use metamorphosis to turn Daphne into a laurel tree. Apollo used his powers of eternal youth and immortality to make Daphne’s laurel leaves evergreen. It’s believed that Daphne has to sacrifice her body and turn into a tree as this was the only way she could avoid Apollo’s sexual advances.

------  From https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/myths/apollo-and-daphne/

Gian Lorenzo Bernini 1622-1625  

For me, I am impressed by the soulful love from Apollo and how playful this love story happened.  Based on my and my partner concept ( Questioning the sustainability for the things important in our life ),I think that  it is very suitable story.  Apollo can never touch Daphne but laurel tree, while tree is a sustainable material and also can be disappear . I get lots of inspiration from this story to consider the shape of our concept ring and also the material .