This year seems to be moving so fast. Maybe it is because I have had a full schedule and am creating lots of art.
This week was no exeption. I did two new paintings.
During my walk last week I figured out that I wanted to do something based of the Roman myth of Pandora's Box. I did some research and found some really cool things about the myth.
The box is really a jar. A large storage jar. The words were mistranslated! That sure changes things.
There are a few different ways of interpreting the story.
One way is what most of us are taught. Pandora opens the box and unleashes all the bad human traits upon the world, with hope remaining in the box.
One is that the jar held all the good things in humans (humans being made of the same clay as the jar.) Once the jar was open all the "Graces" escaped and only hope stayed in the jar. This is the one I painted. Humans are left without any good qualities/ Graces and are always hoping to find them again to fill the emptiness they feel. How sad.
The Graces/Virtues (and their flower) are: Hope (Snowdrop,) Harmony (Mountain Phlox,) Security (Plumeria,) Fairness/Honesty (Platycodon,) Mercy/Compassion (Red Lotus,) Freedom (Bird of Paradise,) Happiness (Pink Rose,) Peace (Olive Branch,) Worth (Buttercup,) Joy (Myrtle.)
The final interpretation I found was even more sad. The jar did indeed have evils in it. The type of hope in the jar was "false hope." The kind of hope that keeps you trying but never suceeding. We are doomed to keep trying to fill the void and overcoming the evils that were released, but we never will. This one makes me kind of depressed. As I see it, this one might be closest to the truth.
The other painting I did was a visualization of a common saying. Change of heart was done in gouache (a type of watercolor.) I spent some time planning it and practicing drawing the butterfly, since I have not done many of them.
I also have an event in the Middle of August! Music and Art in Wright Park. If you are in the Tacoma area stop by!
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In other news, my spouse runs a RolePlaying Game Library, www.alexandriarpg.com.
The library is going to GenCon this week! We are super excited. We packed up 90% of the library and had it shipped to the convention. It was quite a bit of work to get everything organized and palletized. GenCon is one of the largest "nerd" conventions in the USA. This is a huge step to getting the library to where we want it to be.
The goal is to teach people necessary life skills via the RPG systems. There are a lot of children who do not interact well with people or have not been taught how to communicate effectivly, heck there are adults that cannot do that. RPG's are a great way to teach this, plus other things like accounting, directions, and critical thinking skills.
If you are at GenCon stop by the Alexandria RPG Library. Make a character, play a game, or just browse!
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This weeks video is the Classical Music Skull.
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