Project 4, Cut paper, heart of the shrine

Describe: In this piece we see a beautiful night sky as the background, with a shrine encasing a flame with a heart in the middle. The medium of this project is, quite obviously, Cut paper, as well as glue and cardboard. My process was very simple, I started with the background, and mostly went with the flow of what looked best. The heart in the middle was more or less an afterthought, as a way to tie up the entire piece. Which was done very well.

Analyze: The title "Heart of the Shrine" indicates, the fire, is what runs the shrine, as well as that little heart piece. The time period, not explicitly shown in this particular particular piece, but it is very loosely based on older japanese culture. there are a few outside influences that caused me to create this piece, one being the fact I adore different cultures, and the way fire can very easily tie into them. As always, there is at least two principles of design, Emphasis and contrast. With Emphasis, the fire  is the main focus of the piece which is why it's so prominent, this also ties into contrast, because the background is made of gentle cool colors, while the flame is made up of bright vibrant warm colors, in order to drag your eyes to it.

Interpret: There actually is a surprisingly strong meaning behind this piece, though you wouldn't directly notice this unless you look close enough. The meaning, is a way to portray that, in shrines there is always something, that is very important within a shrine, with out that thing, the shrine is meaningless. In this shrine, that THING is the fire, without that fire the shrine would not do what its supposed to do. In this case, bring light, love and warmth to those who give offerings to the shrine.

Judge: This piece turned out really, despite me straying from my original idea. I wish my cuts could have been a bit smoother though. While my lines were slightly messy, the piece still portrayed it's meaning. To be honest I could have done the design of the shrine slightly better and portrayed it a lot better. Over all the piece turned out really well, and I'm especially very proud of how the flames turned. So in the end the piece turned out well.

                           


                                    
                                      Contemporary artist: Kanako Abe 


                               
                                     Master artist: Bovey Lee