Mixed Media-Myth

Project objective: to create a composition based on a myth that is not extremely well known and convey the message the story is trying to tell.
I was to incorporate multi-plate monoprints, colorless blender transfers, and collage on 5 wood panels and use various kinds of paper to layer for texture.

I was inspired by the work of mixed media artist Ingrid Blixt. She creates really nice texture and depth with photographs, monoprints, and other media.

This project was based on the myth Crow Brings the Daylight. According to the story, when the world was still new, the Eskimos lived in darkness in their home in the fastness of the north. They had never heard of daylight, and when it was first explained to them by the Crow, who traveled back and forth between the northlands and the south, they did not believe him. So they begged Crow to bring it to them. Crow flew for many miles through the endless dark of the north. After a long and tiresome journey, the daylight world burst upon him with all its glory and brilliance. Crow flew into a nearby village where he found a ball of daylight with a string tied around it. He snatched it up and returned to the north. The Crow dropped the ball, and it shattered upon the ground, releasing the daylight so that it exploded up and out, illuminating every dark place. The sky grew bright and turned blue. The dark mountains took on color and light and form. The snow and ice sparkled so brightly that the people had to shade their eyes. But Crow told them that the daylight would not last forever. He had only obtained one ball of daylight from the people of the south, and it would need to rest for six months every year to regain its strength. During that six month period, the darkness would return. The people said: "Half a year of daylight is enough. Before you brought the daylight, we lived our whole life in darkness!" Then they thanked Crow over and over again. To this day they still have six months of darkness and six months and daylight.

My intention was to create a sense of darkness on one side of the composition by using cool colors and daylight on the other by using warmer colors. I incorporated many layers of different kinds of paper, paint, and images to create texture and depth. I experimented with photo transfer methods such as with lazertran paper and the xylene blender pen but for most of my transferred images I used clear packing tape then adhered the image by ironing the tape until it melted to the surface. I used materials like leaves and crumbled toilet paper for background texture. I brought all these materials together to portray scenes from the story.