Here's a piece I commissioned (Artist: 西鹿的国) inspired by Ben's performance in Find the Funny years ago. His work has brought me so much laughter and joy this year, and meeting him in person was truly one of my happiest moments.
Wishing Ben and everyone a merry Christmas and a joyful New Year! 🎄
This is my most recent commission from @amaati! She was an absolute delight to work with and I loved every moment with her. This piece is centered around Finwë and Míriel during those brief happy years in Aman before her death.
I've had Thoughts regarding Finwë and Míriel and their colors. Amaati was a darling as I accidentally regaled her with some of my ideas about what colors to put them in and the politics of said colors while I was trying to figure out how I wanted them to look.
I knew for the most part what I wanted to have Míriel wearing. I wanted her to have silver hair and to wear a red dress. But then I thought that it'd be a neat way to tie in Fëanor's future obsession with Galadriel's hair by having Míriel have silver-gold hair. And then I thought that her using silver stars as her favored device would be good too. Stars being incredibly important to the Elves and pivotal to the Great Journey from Cuivienén to Aman means that Míriel would be very likely to have used them herself in her works. I decided that her color combination would be red and silver so that Fëanor could wear her reds and pair them with black as a youth/adult as a sign of his being in a constant state of mourning for her.
I really do like the idea of Fëanor shaping his entire identity around his mother by taking up her devices and colors and making them his own. After all, that man has no chill.
Finwë was incredibly difficult for me. Most of the time I see him dressed in purples as a subtle nod towards his eldest sons being identified by Red (Fëanor) and Blue (Fingolfin). But then I thought about how a young Ñolofinwë would shape himself around the idea of being the son of Finwë who is interested in politics and inserts himself into the court of the Ñoldoran and asserts that he too is an heir (if not the better choice) of Finwë. Fingolfin is associated in the Silmarillion with blue and silver and I think it'd really interesting if these were his father's colors too and Fingolfin took them as his own initially to identify as Finwë's true/proper heir, only for them to become part of the Ñoldor's factional rivalries as people chose sides over the princes, and later on using them to solidify his position as High King of the Ñoldor in Beleriand in the hearts and minds of his people by using the colors of Finwë Ñoldoran.
This would, of course, be another point of contention between Fëanor and Fingolfin. But Fëanor can't very well abandon his mother's reds in order to take up his father's blues? His entire sense of self is based on him being the son of Míriel Therindë (my laptop won't let use the thorn).
Still can’t believe I met Ben Walker last night at the Hope Theatre 🥹 He directed Wisdomless, which will finish its two-night run tonight— and he was sitting just a seat away from me!!! I gave him the art commissions and a congrats card I made for the show, and he was so kind and genuinely seemed to love them. 😭
（The photo didn’t turn out great because of the theatre lighting, but he was absolutely lovely last night.）
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