Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Art of the Mask

I've been afforded the opportunity to join a team of amazingly talented women in the creation of collective art books. These are no ordinary books. Most of the women are mixed media artists, so the treasure boxes that the artwork is stored in are in themselves works of art. There are thirteen of us in all. This years theme is, "The Art of the Mask". Every month a new sub-theme is chosen. Each artist has created their own box and provided the substrate on which to work on. It then goes off to a new artist each month for them to add their own creation. At the end, each artist will have their box returned filled with a piece of art from each artist.

Here is my November contribution for a religious mask. I chose to work with an image of an Iranian woman who wears a mask for religious reasons and to block the sun.

Then here is my December contribution which is meant to be a humorous theme. For some reason I couldn't get the image out of my head of children and capes and cookie jars. Must be the mischievous child left in me.
Working with these women is such an inspiration and I feel myself stretching and reaching to go past my artistic limits - also to enjoy my art more. I can't wait each month to see what the others have created. While I only get to see a portion as the monthly box travels, at the end we hope to get together and share all the boxes and art. This is an opportunity I will always cherish.

3 comments:

  1. sounds amazing and you must be having so much fun!!!!! What a great concept and the art is amazing!!!!

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  2. Interesting painting of the Iranian woman! I'm 1/2 Iranian myself so to see an abstract depiction of the Iranian culture by an American (correct?) is interesting...where did you get the inspiration?

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  3. Hi Shay,
    I wasn't really thinking of combining the Iranian culture with the American. I think the green in the background makes it look more American? These projects are all involving masks and the Iranian woman is for the month that we were to combine the mask with a religious-based theme. I've always been fascinated by the lives of Iranian woman and what the mask means to them. Such a different culture than what I've grown up with that I've always been very curious about it.
    I looked for the name of this particular type of mask and couldn't find it. Do you happen to know what it is?
    Janeane

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