#evé

[clownfoolery-offical]

Golden Kit

Evé, with a shiny new coat of gold leaf! (Hah)

Please do not repost my works to other platforms without permission AND credit! Please, and thank you!

[ladyem-s-grimoire]

[eveartstudios-blog]

Kim Kardashian takes a selfie and breaks the Internet...

Kim Kardashian takes a selfie and breaks the Internet. But, that overtakes the mental space in common imagination of the plight of literally millions of displaced people every day. How? Why?

Media plays a large part in how we define things nowadays, especially how we absorb things. As Warhol so adeptly put it, "Social actions are makeshift forms." So how do social, cultural, and political mores - ideas, really - come to describe what is outside of a larger shared experience? How does that happen today? What role does media play in the formation of our ideas?  What is the effect on both the insider and outsider?

I am asking very directly, "If I ask to imagine a person robbing a gas station, what does that person look like to me?" If I ask to think of an immigrant, "What mental picture is formed in my own mind?" Is the "other" always dangerous? If so, why so?

In one form or another, the Pieta and Warhol's cans have quite a bit in common. They were both examples of and critiques of the media of their day. Michelangelo felt so strongly about the sacredness of his subject that it became much more than a simple memorial. It became a symbol of simple, accepted suffering... and of motherhood for hundreds of years. Warhol elevated one of the most mundane subjects possible - a commercially labeled soup can-to the highest levels of modern art. It remains one of the highest forms of profane art, even today.

At their core, they are both imagined visual imagery. They both contain a language of sacred geometry. They can both evoke emotional reactions from their viewers. Warhol once said that we have lost the ability for emotion. I wonder if that is true? Has modern media given the sacred and profane equal footing on the playing field of viewers?

What does this mean about the way we understand each other? How is there an inside and outside when we are constantly sold that there really is no difference? How do we react to that messaging? What makeshift forms are defining and redefining the way we understand the world around us? What role is there for empathy in the world today? 

[eveartstudios-blog]

Growing up Catholic

This is my friend and "big brother," Fr. Tom Lucas. He didn't ask to be put into my art journal. But, I am hoping that he doesn't mind. He has been a huge influence on my life artistically and spiritually. In a way, he helped bring me back around on the map. Outside of my folks, I can think of no better person to represent the best of Catholicism and the possibilities of openness and  humanist advances from inside religion than Tom. So, once again, thanks big brother for helping me start this new art journey - whether you know it or not.

Well, this opens up a can of worms. But, not in a bad way. I think a big part of exploring what I am doing with my art and work at this point in my life - especially in terms of exploring that space between what we deem sacred and profane in our world and the way that is represented in media is key to making my project work well.

~Evé

[eveartstudios-blog]

What is a Pietà?

According to Wikipedia:

“The Pietà (Italian pronunciation: [pjeˈta]) is a subject in Christian art depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus, most often found in sculpture. As such, it is a particular form of the Lamentation of Christ, a scene from the Passion of Christ found in cycles of the Life of Christ. When Christ and the Virgin are surrounded by other figures from the New Testament, the subject is strictly called a Lamentation in English, although Pietà is often used for this as well, and is the normal term in Italian.”

This, as opposed to:

 http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/news-wrap-syrian-refugee-families-arrive-in-u-s-amid-state-leaders-objections/

“The Pietà (Italian: [pjeˈta]; 1498–1499) is a work of Renaissance sculpture by Michelangelo Buonarroti, housed in St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City. It is the first of a number of works of the same theme by the artist. The statue was commissioned for the French Cardinal Jean de Bilhères, who was a representative in Rome. The sculpture, in Carrara marble, was made for the cardinal’s funeral monument, but was moved to its current location, the first chapel on the right as one 

 http://news.trust.org//item/20151030103619-stgp4/?source=dpagetopic

enters the basilica, in the 18th century. It is the only piece Michelangelo ever signed.”

— https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet%C3%A0_(Michelangelo)

I am sure that if art historians and art students are reading this, they are saying to themselves, "Yeah, so... of course...that's obvious." But, it isn't obvious to those not well versed in art history and it is worth noting. There isn't just one. And that is important. Because as a concept the Pieta has a universal appeal. It is not just important imagery to Catholicism.

[eveartstudios-blog]

Start from the center and move out...

'Begin at the beginning,' the King said, very gravely, 'and go on till you come to the end: then stop.'― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

It may seem odd to start an artistic project that has overtones of Latino Catholicism in its aesthetic, with the image of a Buddhist mandala. But really, it's not. As I've grown to recognize what compels me to create art, the mandala cuts to the chase, an Occam's Razor, to how I understand the universe and my place in it.

For me, art usually starts by retreating deep inside myself right about the time that I think I am creatively empty... Whether this approach is right or wrong is immaterial. This is simply an observation about the way that I historically tend to start projects.

Creating art is not just something that can be entirely mechanical and totally objective. I have to care about what I am doing. I have to invest something of myself in it or it is not worth doing.

For my newest project, which is concerned with using art as a bridge to elicit empathy from people toward refugees and immigrants, I have started with those people closest to me and moved outward.

On a daily basis my family is the center of my universe. In itself, this is not particularly earth shattering. I imagine it's the same for many other people. They are the first people to become models, initial inspiration, and sounding boards for ideas. Anthropologically and psychologically speaking, the emotional seesaw between joy and sorrow experienced by both child and parent throughout life creates an emotional and sympathetic bond that is so deeply seated, so engrained, and so fundamental that referencing it can be a powerful motivator to change people's ideas about others whom they deem different from themselves. Suffering and pain supercharge emotional response.

I can't imagine any one of my family and close friends in pain, without having a visceral emotional and connective empathetic response to that pain myself.

Even someone who has no children of their own is someone's child (even if alienated). The relationship between parent and child, whether positive or negative, is one of the basic formative relationships that makes us who we are as human beings, and it also allows us to recognize the humanity of others. This seems a particularly apropos issue in the present day.

Michaelangelo knew this. To him, the parent/child relationship was a sacred relationship. That God made himself man and that a human woman agreed to be his mother was one of the most compelling stories of the New Testament that he could sculpt. At a glance, the Pietá urges the viewer to understand that God and human beings both suffered and at the same time were fully capable of love and empathy toward each other and for others.

By juxtaposing portraits of modern day Islamic and other multi-regional refugees and migrants inside the context of traditional Latino Catholic religious poses of the Madonna and Pieta, the suffering parent and child, I attempt to amplify empathy in a viewer for marginalized people going through nearly impossible ordeals.

~ Evé

[raidens-archive-blog]

8? êwê

8) Screenshot your favorite blog

hmm… it’s so really hard evé. i mean, so many blogs are my favourite~~ but i don’t have a main-favourite blog yet úvù .

and i can't decide what blog show ;________; *starts shaking*

*tanny goes away ‘nd explodes*