"The Siren"

Hi! Whoa… 2 posts in a row?

Last night I tweeted that I was working on an awesome tattoo design. As promised, here it is! “The Siren” ; I’m super excited by it because of the speed I did it… it just “flowed” and I love when that happens. For some reason it was just relatable I guess. (I’m sure we all know people like this character, whether it be a woman OR a man…) I’m gonna go out on a limb here and assume you know that I am speaking metaphorically, not people that actually eat or kill you. Lol.

 

Although this is not related to Lee’s music I wanted to share it with you because 1) It’s a pretty kick ass design & I’m super proud of it  and 2) It has an awesome story.  Besides art (obviously), when I was in school, I LOVED when we learned about Greek Mythology. I love stuff like that, it fascinates me. It was much more interesting than real life history…it was a world created by folklore and magic. So… I was excited when a friend asked me to design a tattoo of a siren from book 12 of the Odyssey. She wanted it done in my faceless style.  I have not read this book myself, but I was sort of familiar with the story. It’s funny because about 10 minutes before I was asked to do this, I was talking to someone else about wanting to sketch a mermaid. I have been thinking about doing a beautiful mermaid sketch ever since Lee posted the pictures he did with his wife,Jonna for the Project Mermaid shoot she did. Project Mermaid is actually a very cool project and you can read about it here:http://www.projectmermaids.com/

So I guess if you think about it, it kinda IS Lee-related because if it weren’t for him inspiring me to paint and draw again… no one would even know I could draw, let alone ask me to design something that they want permanently on their body! I also probably would have not thought to draw a mermaid either, but I can not wait to see it after it is done. *actually if you want to appt Lee art to this concept... I just realized it works PERFECTLY with "stay away" don't you think? 

Lol it's almost like 6 degrees of Lee DeWyze lyrics lol

ANYWAY:

For those of you that do NOT know what a Siren is, here is a summary if them that I saw on  http://www.gods-and-monsters.com/sirens-mythology.html

According to this site, “With the Sirens, mythology has created a physical personification of the danger of falling for a beautiful woman.

As any man knows, beautiful women can be dangerous. In Greek mythology, some beautiful women can be straight up deadly.

The Sirens of Greek mythology began specifically as a group of creatures who looked like beautiful women, but were really man-eating beasts. They sat on the shore and sang with voices so seductive and compelling that anyone who heard their song became absolutely mesmerized with them. So mesmerized, in fact, that they became obsessed with reaching the shore to get closer to the sound. And then the Sirens would eat them.

The term "siren" is used both in ancient and modern mythology, as well as in modern language in general, to describe something that is simultaneously dangerous and compelling. In later myths and legends, any creature that lured a man in only to cause harm might be considered "a siren" in the general context of the term.

With the original Greek Sirens, mythology depicts these creatures as beautiful women with angelic wings who play there lutes and sing. They were aloof and didn't make eye-contact with their victims, which made them seem all the more innocent and mysterious.

Different versions of siren mythology have them as having mostly bird-like bodies with the heads of women, or sometimes they had the torso of a woman and the tail of a fish. Both of these versions are likely confusing the sirens with harpies and mermaids, respectively.

The Sirens appeared most famously in Homer's classic "The Odyssey", where Odysseus had his men tie him to the ship and plug their ears so he could hear the legendary song of the Sirens and not rush to his death in a fit of insanity. As expected, as soon as Odysseus heard the song he begged his men to untie him, but he wisely had warned them not to do so. It was said that no one every got to hear the sirens song and live, though, as usual, certain heroes of ancient myth found a way. “

 

 I hope you like it because I do :-) anyway, back to my Lee art. ..... Talk to you soon!!! 

TONIGHT!!!!

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CORRECTION....

I wrote below that someone would be DANCING to "Open your Eyes", however it was used during the back story of one of the contestants . My apologies :-) but of course it was beautiful and was the perfect soundtrack for such a personal story. 

*************************************************Hello everyone!

Did you know that on tonight’s episode of “So you think you can dance”, Season 11,8:00pm on Fox, someone will be dancing to Lee’s “Open your eyes”?!?!?!

 

Make sure you tune in! I do not normally watch the show, but I will be tonight. (I could go into a rant here on why I do not support anything that involves Nigel Lythgoe; however that is not my style. I will never publically bash something or someone, especially when it can be traced back to me being a Lee fan. We are just as responsible for his public image as he is, so I will not…but you all know what I’m thinking)

That being said, I will be tuned in to hear how another artist interprets his song through their dance. It’s like what I do with my paintings, except they are using their bodies. Exciting!

 

ANYWAY…back to “Open Your Eyes”; the song is hauntingly beautiful & INSANELY relatable. I’ve said this before, but this song would fit perfectly into a movie scene where the main character is reflecting back on things and having a major epiphany. If you have not heard this song before… 1) shame on you… 2) Give it a listen... you’ll understand exactly what I am talking about and you’ll start reflecting on things too….

 

It’s funny that we should hear about this now because I have been working out the details in my head for a special sketch for that song. Freaky, right?  Anyway, back in high school, we did a few projects where we did portraits using motifs to create the shadows and details. It was actually one of my favorites; I loved it so much that I did my big senior portrait in that style. I will have to find that and hopefully post at the end of this post. 

 

My plan for this “Open Your Eyes” piece is to do an eye portrait using nothing but the song lyrics and other tiny music/ art related images. Confused yet? Below is a picture of a portrait of M.C. Escher with a few up close pictures.

 

This one is more designs and shapes, not so much words. My Self portrait was mostly words. The shirt was made up of my friends and their likes.... This give you an idea of where I'm going with "open your eyes".... 

 

Anyway, I do not usually tell you about my ideas before I have them at least sketched out; however I am pretty excited about this one… I hope I remember how to do it! Stay tuned! I have lots of cool stuff coming up. This one, I am turning the skull illusion sketch into a painting... Can't wait! 

 

Oh, and do not forget to watch So you think you can dance tonight on Fox at 8:00pm!!!!!!

 

Until Later……

 

Jenn