I wanted to explore the power of femininity, the idea that a woman's influence in this world, both now and at it's conception, is such a strong force. Equating and juxtaposing the harsh imagery of a gun with the softness of form to express the idea:
A woman's body is a powerful weapon.

Gods

I am so proud of this project. I spent a lot of time and energy into making the costumes, headpieces, and backdrops. I made (almost) everything you see on the models using wire, recycled jewelry, and other craft items.

This was my final project for my conceptual class and my final project at the Academy of Art so I wanted to go out with a bang and I really think I achieved what I wanted and more.

Each deity has two photos and four polaroids.

There was a time of gods. Places where titanous forces met in volcanic explosions, creating new life and new land on Earth, raining down from the heavens. These gods were not those resembling any human form, they were concepts of change, monstrous catalysts that shaped the face of the earth: destruction, creation, and expansion. As man and woman began to blossom on the face of the planet, these gods began to assume human form, taking from our faults and needs and wants, each ideas that are rooted deep within us.

There is Arreat, the god of war. 

Arreat thirsts for blood, for carnage, creation through destruction. Ordained with the sacred purpose of survival and conquering. Arreat is man’s most basic sense of violence and bloodshed. He is what pushes man to survive, to kill, to push forward as a species. 

There is Himé, the goddess of wealth. 

Himé, bathed in an abundance of riches and gold, craves more. She pulls man towards excess with greed’s siren song and traps them in a cycle of despair. Buddhists refer to Himé as the root of all human suffering. She is intoxicating and desirable. Her forces have toppled empires. They cause thievery, murder, and deception. She embodies internal conflict. 

There is Flora, the goddess of fertility. 

Flora brings new life to fruition and gives old souls back to the earth to be recycled, forever nourishing the planet and the life on it. Flora is the flowers in spring, the maggots in the corpse, the baby being born, the rooting trees. She is change, desire, sex, reproduction. She is life. One of the eldest gods, she was one of the main forces that pushed Earth to spin. 

There is Pherra, the goddess of the hunt. 

Pherra is the daughter of Arreat and Flora. Pherra is motivation. She plays to win. She is competition. Unlike her father, she is stoic. She is cunning, quick, and lethal. She is a decorated huntswoman with the eyes and the force of a hawk. She is a beast.

The Divinity of the Forest II

So for my color final I decided to expand on my previous series.

I wrote this while still warm from the sun and hiking all day:

I've been to a place of lore. A place where the golden warmth bursts through a layer of cold and fog, its light shining down from the immeasurable heavens. A place with ravines and hooting owls. A place with running streams, the waters cold and reminiscent of the silver city. Travel to the east and you'll find me. Lost in myself. Lost in the notions and delusions of grandeur. Lost in the unending wild where I am nothing. I am there, memorializing the beauty of freedom and the vastness of leaves and dirt that lies before me for those to come. I come with alchemy and electricity to tell the world about the palatial trunks and chandeliers of vines and birds. Nature's beauty is the soul's fountain of youth. With each step the woods engulf my doubts and my worries. Powerful titans roam these places, forces of change and existence that constantly keep the forest breathing and growing. The illusion that I am a ghost in the machine is shattered and my roots grow stronger. Being human gives us a great responsibility, the power to protect and understand the world around us. We must not forget that we are her children and that we work together. Within each of us is the power and energy bestowed upon us by those before and borrowed from those to come. Our uniqueness is our specialty, we are chameleons by nature. We are a universe created by the universe to observe itself.

Recently I developed two rolls of film myself in my room. It's the first time I've developed my own film in about 3 years. They came out underdeveloped because of some misstep in the process but I actually really like the results. I like the photos more than if I had just gotten them developed at a photo lab and done it correctly. Something about doing it yourself is so satisfying it's completely worth it.