During uni holidays – June till the beginning of October I would always work, so I can afford another year in art Academy. Education in Poland is free, university level included, but you still need money for housing(big Universities or Academies are only in bigger city's, so majority of students are from far away) plus food and so on.
For 2 years in row(again- only during holidays) I was working in historical buildings conservation. We did the so-called ‘quarrys’ - scraping off few inches squares of successive layers of paint, plaster and mortar to see if there were any forgotten frescoes or buried sculptures. When we have found some painting or sculpture – then it would start laborious process of uncovering it without damaging the delicate surface of the work of art. I liked this job, because every worker was carrying extreme responsibility. To work too fast or sloppy meant to destroy few centuries old frescoes. So you need to be extremely focus at all times. But it didn’t changed simple fact – that work was extremely boring and repetitive. And after a while I had to asked the chief conservator to move me to more creative tasks.
She looked at me suspiciously when I said, that I want to be moved to do something else.
-I thought you are thinking seriously about taken faculty form historical conservation? Is that changed?
-I did, but I feel I can’t use any of creativity here. And I afraid, that after a while I will became sloppy, purely because it bores me. Is there anything other that I can do?
-Of course, but you really need to rethink your choice of profession, my dear.
-How come?
-To work in historical conservation, and doesn’t matter if this is buildings, sculpture or paintings is to re-create something that some other talent did long time ago. My Darling – this job is for people without God’s Spark.
-…? (my eyes get very wide at this point, I am sure of it)
-do you have God’s Spark?
-I don’t think I do, ma'am.
-If you don’t – that’s good. It is very difficult life to be creative person. You are always hungry. You always looking for something fresh. Nothing can satisfy one’s curiosity. And this curiosity will lead you to trouble as well. But... there is no escape from it. If you are just trying to convince yourself that you can escape - think twice. So... do you have it???
-Spark?
-God’s Spark!
-I don’t think I do.
I often think about this conversation. The Chief Conservator moved me to reconstruction. I was sculpting missing noses, fingers, wings. Rarely had any sort of reference. And I loved it. Because I could add little bit of myself to it. It wasn’t very creative work, but it required some level of creativity. And this is the way I think about myself. There is something that drives me to try new things, discover new techniques, but it is not enough to form strong, all rounded style and talent.
Maybe it is a spark, but just ordinary one:)
About the drawing
This time the drawing has quite a solid background. And I don't mean that in a literal sense. The creature you see in the drawing is not my original idea. The Collect was created by the excellent Illustrator Keith Thompson. His book fell into my hands at the beginning of my studies, just at a time when I was working in conservation. I tried to create my own versions of his excellent character work and I must admit that I show my works here with my heart on my sleeve. I still don't measure up to this excellent artist. Nevertheless - I think I have made some progress.
According the artist, character I chose to emulate - The Collect - has been formed in a steel womb fitted to a female necromancer. The Collect is composed of souls captured at death and contained under high pressure with liquid aglaophotis( acording to wiki i is a herb mentioned occasionally in works on occultism. References to aglaophotis and to olieribos (both of which are said to be magical herbs) are made in the Simon Necronomicon.)
These souls were condensed into each other until enough life force was coalesced for the birth of a unified entity. The Collect now hangs in the upper stratosphere, a collection of uncountable eyes overseeing the earth and influencing world events.
Today I want to show you two versions of The Collect. Fist I did my first drawing in colour(at the time I was addicted to ProMarkers and thin ink-pens) in about 12 to 15 years ago. The second one, a pencil version became part of my ‘Scroll of Time’. I am sure you can count on third version in few years from now:)))
I wish you all lovely week!
Yours,
Strega Azure
I used pencils: 9B, 6B, 2B, F, 2H
Drawing & pictures are my authorship if not stated otherwise.
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