Design and Style
My friend Farrin has nearly finished the piece I modeled for (earlier draft with orientation here). Incredible, delicate intricacy in ink and watercolor. Wreathing the edge is the phrase I believe in dreams repeated in many languages. Bordered by vines and flowers and firebirds, flanked by sphinxes and I myself a kind of hybrid womansphinx. A hybrid of a hybrid. A meta-hybrid. Love. How ideal are the proportions of these wings?
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Last year I agreed to donate my body to art for my erstwhile roommate, who began designing carpets as a child in Iran and now makes intricate ink drawings meticulously shaded with watercolors. My piece will be part of a dream sequence; a series of pieces depicting a figure in a dream, or on the threshold of a dream. The working title is Day Dream.
She has finished the black and white stage (which version I sometimes prefer to the colored end product (as none of the intricacy is lost), so I asked her to send it to me before any color was added), and doesn’t mind my sharing a bit early.
I am depicted with massive wings, geometrically wreathed in vines, flowers, snakes and pheonix-like figures, enclosed in an illuminated-manuscript-style frame with flanking sphinxes.
I love it, and she says it is her best work.
Farrin created this piece with some of my personal symbols and aesthetic preferences in mind. Here is the description I provided to outline my influences:
I find resonance in spirals and circles, especially intricate, natural versions of these abstractions; webs, peonies and other flowers, whorls of smoke, fractals. Also the sun. Colors I find compelling include sage, lavender, and rich shades of brown, copper, and gold.
I have been drawn to certain figures of nature and mythology since childhood, particularly the sphinx and the serpent, symbols of mystery and wisdom. In addition to being a hybrid of woman, lion, and [in my favorite cases] bird, the sphinx is also a guardian and can represent a gateway or threshold. To choose the sphinx as a personal symbol reflects my own hybrid nature, my acknowledgement of pervasive mystery, and my preoccupation with individual evolution. Most importantly, I find the sphinx and the serpent inexplicably beautiful and significant, and in embracing them I embrace my instincts.
You can see more of Farrin’s work here.