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empatia — Crows
by-nc-nd
Published: 2009-11-19 00:36:47 +0000 UTC; Views: 2932; Favourites: 82; Downloads: 29
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Description
linocut design for school50x70cm black marker on paper
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Comments: 28
A lot of things going on in this monochrome lineal art... like the weird doll ^_^ in the left lower corner... ^_^
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These DA group thingys are a fine & dandy idea but the resulting flood of new deviations that, well... floods my mssg centre means that I don't view them all. I could quite merrily spend all day viewing / commenting on spooky new artworks if it were a full-time paying job... but alas, the far less merry tasks of the Everyday clamour at my door yelling 'Mooncat, where the fuck are you'. It's a common problem but one I, in my conceit, am particularly miffed about. Jayzus-Shitfuck, I'm a Free Spirit for fawks sake! I renounced the dreary, shallow, hypocritical sanctimony of the Mainstream as soon as I was old enough to say 'Fuck the System' (circa 6 years old) so WTF do all these asinine asshats keep bothering me, trying to impose their self imposed 'responsibilities' on me, convinced without evidence as they are that these 'duties' have some sort of Platonic Reality? But that's a subject & a half in itself... I'm actually writing to comment on your pic (believe it or not!).
I mention the above only by way of preamble to illustrate the point that occassionaly I see a thumbnail of a new work that I just have to view, even though there's other things I should be doing... I'm such a flibberty-gibbet child... 
Of course, thumbnails can sometimes turn out to be Grass is Greener disapointments on closer examination... but this one is not such a one. Instead this Conjuration of Crow with it's intricate & ingenious detail, and the is rather intruiging & apealing, with it's combo of archetypal & (what appear to be) entirely personal symbols interwoven with a hallucingenic fluidity of design that despite it's apparent random chaos has an overall asymetrical balance.
I was also slightly startled to find that the artist in question was one whose work I was already fairly familiar with. Do you remember me BTW? Probably not... our virtual aquaintance was brief & some time ago, I can't even recall whether it was via VF or here on DA. But I remember you... or rather your work (you seem to cultivate - presumably by intent - a certain online reserve that leaves the person behind the veil of empatia an enigmatic figure)... I could tell from the first (the wonderful image from which your avi is derived) that you were destined to be a Dark Arts innovator, one of the few amongst all the derivative fashionistas recycling cliches. Which is why... altho I would never have guessed that this flowed from your black marker pen... I was only slightly startled. One comes to expect the unexpected of an artist such as empatia.
Speaking as one who (or so I have been frequently told by those in the Dark side of the Creative Industries who have attained a somewhat loftier status than I, amongst others) is also an Artistic Innovator I think a varied & ecclectic approach to style & medium (whether it manifests as simultaneous or phases) is a Good Thing. It's all too easy (esp if one has attained some sort of recognition and/or pro artistic status) to get trapped in ones own signature style. Original as such a style may be that is the point at which an artist becomes trapped in cliches of their own making, and ceases to evolve. And who amongst us hasn't got some evolving to do. We are on a journey to an unreachable destination... and that's OK, I think.
I had rather lost touch with your work... I think your work went thru a phase that didn't appeal to my personal aesthetics (wide as they are) so much. Which isn't a dis (see above paragraph). But it looks like you're still on the Journey... perhaps I should go chack your recent gallery, just to see where your wanderings have taken you.
Varied as a True Artist may be there is usualy something (altho that something is often hard to define) that holds true for nearly all that individuals work. In yours it is what, for want of a better phrase, might be called a sort of Spooky Alice vibe (if you know what I mean?). And that Something is a Something which is as apparent in this piece as it is in your avi pic, altho the mode of manifestation is as different as chalk & cheese.
Of course this is, I pressume, an original piece but comparisons to the work of Artists / Illustrators such as Beardsley, Kay Neilsen, Jane Ray & Jan Pienkowski inevitably spring to mind. Any influence, or pure coincidence?
Anyway... sterling stuff, jolly good, absolutely spiffing, pip pip & other such archaic English superlativesthsat robably make no sense what-so-ever in Polish. But hey, when it comes to making sense WTF, eh? As a latter day Surrealist I suspect you understand that perfectly well...
A 
I had
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Whoa!
You really do like writing.
I add my stuff to groups strictly for recognition. I don't feel any spiritual need to get united with other deviants nor anything like this. Groups are to expand my audience and quoting Lady Gaga: "I want the Fame".
Yes, I remember you.
No, I'm no innovator.
No, I wasn't inspired by other's work.
Yes, my recent pieces are different than what I used to do- it's schoolwork.
Thank you.
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Nah, I dislike it actually. It's limiting.
Oh me oh my Miss Malgorzata, why ever would you want Fame ? It will eat you alive & spit you out as a souless travesty of what you once were. I've seen it happen to some of those dearest to me (altho in those cases it was Music Industry related) including the dearest & most loved of all. I feel ashamed at my part in helping her attain that success now, not to mention somewhat embittered at the way she used the status that my moral & artistic support afforded her to destroy me & my just (at long last) starting to blossom artistic career. Fame is a fucking Monster, like Money.
You do? Well I'm honoured then *tips tophat*
Oh yes you are!
See! (I refer you to the above remark)
Surely you're not still at school? I thought you would be about 20 or so by now. Or do you have a magic painting in the attic, like Dorian Grey?
You are most welcome. I still haven't checked your recent works actually... 
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Well I'm in love with Lady Gaga and I'm not sorry! Some refer my adoration for her as a sort of betrayal of being goth or something. I don't care.
Too bad, I want it both.
But it's not like I want to walk red carpets and pose in spotlights.. altough that could be actually fun.. Anyway by fame I rather mend combination of big audience and success
How could I forget? I don't think I've ever received longer and more precised comments than yours- thanks.
Pfffft.
I still am (at Fine Arts Academy studying Graphics) and I'm not going to get my master's degree before the age of 25. I also had a kind of gap year at different university and my education issue is getting more and more complicated (and longer lasting) because of new career I've chosen (and unfortunately it's not connected with graphics).
No rush.
Fish pie..? You mean pie with fish? Ummm... bon apetit.
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Oh well that's fair enough then. They do? I mean, I was only joking but ppl seriously say that to you? What Gothic Fascists they are! You do the right thing not to care.
Well it's your life, you're choice. I can respect that if not the pursuit of fame & fortune, which almost inevitably means climbing into bed with The Mainstream. The worst thing is when other ppl make choices about your life for you. I was determined that would never happen to me, I laughed in the faces of those who pressumed to tell me what to do-think-say & have always sought to set free those who were oppressed by such would-be fascists of Free Will. But beacause of this in secret my free will & my life were hijacked & ruined... via the use & abuse of True Love over a period of 2 miserable decades by certain deeply fucking sick 'respectable' members of the Mainstream.
*eh-heh* Well, I'm against the increasing dumbing down of our Culture, and the way that the digital Revolution (which was supposed to be a Liberating, Empowerment of the Individual thing) has been quietly but carefully misappropriated to make ppl increasingly shallow & superficial & easily fooled. Fuck the System, as my old Dad used to say.
Oh I'm soooo sorry for insisting that you're an Innovator
Ah I see (I think)... so when you say 'school' you mean in the American sense, ie that you're a Student of some sort... in this case a University student? So what's the new, non-Graphics career/study path, if I might ask?
Right, I think my pie (yes a pie with fish!) will be cooked... I'm off to scoff it...
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They arent's actually gothic people but still, their subculture issue about me is none of my concern.
Slow down, it's not some show business! Yes, there might be certain likeness but not that much. Fame&fortune isn't only for whores who sold their minds, souls, bodies, talent, dignity and everything else. I'm hoping not to depend on "influental" people, hopefully it's not this kind of industry. For now I'm doing pretty fine with my selfpromotion only, am I not?
Yep, it's not a university (altough I've spent a year on one of them), it's an Academy of Fine Arts but I'd rather call it school for short.
I want to be.. a fashion designer! I'm only dissapointed I got enlightened so late (I wish it took place the previous year).
Whatever the culture-culinary differences are and whatever they write in cookbooks- putting fish into pie is a very weird idea.
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Quite so.
Re "Fame &fortune isn't only for whores who sold their minds, souls, bodies, talent, dignity and everything else"...
...Yeah, yeah, that's what they all say at the outset. That's what my Lady Love said... now she is a souless zombie who provides musical tailored corporate entertainment & having sold me down the river for 30 pieces of silver was sold to the highest bidder... by her own mad hateslug Mother... like a peice of whoremeat. Admitedly that is not the atypical way of things, it's a scenario so weird it makes fish pie seem sensible.
But hey let's not argue over it endlessly. You go your way, I hope it works out well for you, I really do. And yes, you are indeed doing pretty fine so far with you're own self promotion.
Oh but 'Academy of Fine Arts' sounds so much Grander!
A Fashion Designer? How splendid! *phew* The way you said "unfortunately it's nothing to do with Graphics" I did have a creeping fear you were going to say something like 'an accountant' or 'an IT consultant' or some such. What bought about this state of Enlightenment?
Imaginative Cat that I am, even I can't even imagine what Empatia Couture might look like. But it will be interesting to find out. I bet it will be as weird as fish pie, purrrrhaps even weirder.
Talking of which:
Dude, fish pie is actually not that weird! Perhaps it comes with living on a bloody big island with lots of coastline (and therefore lots of fish). Correct my geography if I am mistaken here, but I believe Poland is landlocked... or has only a small portion of coastline? Perhaps that is why fish pie seems strange to you. Usually it must be said, fish pie is not topped with you're atypical pastry crust affair, but rather with mashed potato (as mine was). Altho there is Star-Gazey-Pie : a famous pastry crust fish pie from the tiny fishing village of Mousehole in Mounts Bay, Cornwall (where I spent several happy years of childhood) in which the heads & tails of the various different fish used poke up thru the crust, as if the fish were gazing at the stars (hence the name). That is a bit weird.
Altho...what's wrong with weird? And hey (diddle didle the Cat and the fiddle)... they don't come much weirder than you!
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Sorry to hear that but I'm not going to go that track. Besides the term 'souless zombie' would fit me even now so I guess there's not much to lose.
No, no, no, no, nooo! Somehow there is no way for me to see myself sitting in an office and doing paperwork.
The state of enlightment came in very tragic circumstances; after Alexander McQueen died.
I pity that I haven't realized it before I chose my major; working with textiles which in the end are supposed to be more or less wearable is completely different than designing infront of a computer or making efforts with printing press. I'm a bit scared actually.
I'd never call myself 'empatia' again and 'empatia couture' sounds like one big no-no (I'd rather shorten my real name); it'd look WEIRD of course, kinda gothic and like it's McQueens influenced altough that's not 100% true, I'm also afraid if I'm going to avoid comparisions.
Poland isn't landlocked and in fact I live 7 months a year by the seaside and also go there every vacations several times since forever.
Still, the idea of fish pie is weird.
Lately I hear that all the time (really) but personally I prefer the word 'extraordinary'
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Quite so, it has always seemed like a world of institutionalised insanity to me... judging by ppl I know who have gone down that plughole. Kato did a rather cool video short Dr Steel on the subject of taking the piss out of the office 9 -5
[link]
As well as being a film maker Kato's main line is as a fashion designer. I don't know if you know her work, if not (and if you like Steampunk style) you might like it.
[link]
Personaly I think what she does is brilliant, def one of my fav contemp designers (particularly now John Galliano seems to have lost his magic touch).
So how do you mean about Alexander McQueen - like the media retrospectivewhen he died made you aware of his work for the first time or such? I'm not very familiar with his stuff, to be honest.
Yes that is quite a leap I suppose. Good luck with it! Altho you'll need a lot of luck to avoid comparisons with someone or being slotted into a genre : however original you are & however much you refute such things. Most ppl (in the street & in the media alike)seem to have a pathological need to label everything & everyone. *sighs wearily* I suppose you could always walk around wearing at-shirt that reads "I'm not a jar of jam : don't label me!" Failing that just throw a fish pie in their face & run off (works for me every time).
Ah, my mistake. That sounds splendid, the seaside is great (as long as it's not over crowded / over commercialised). There's something magical about the place where Earth & Sea & Sky meet. I'm hoping to spend some time living in near the sea on my travels... which start in about 4 or 5 days, so I must go. I've got a house & a life secretly poisoned to pack up or burn & tears to shed alone.
*chortles* Well, I think we can let you have "extraordinary". It wasn't meant as a dis btw. Where I come from... 'Weird' is a compliment. Or at least it was.It seems everyone round here has got the Zombie Plague these days. It no use saying "Where's your will to be Weird" to them. They look at you blankly & go "Eeeuurgh", in that way that Zombies have. The circumstancesare fucking outrageous but perhaps it's for the best that I'm leaving this Town. It's a disease.
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And how do you know?
But all in all you're (partially) right. I'm not souless, I'm only heartless.
Oh, and I really liked the voodoo manequin part
I'm not that much into steampunk (altough I'd kill for a pair of titanic ballerina pumps <3 ).
Naa, Galliano (he's such a lovely person, I'd really love to have a friend like him) has his ups and downs but I think he's still in a good form (I really liked his interpretation of woman as a flower).
Among all the still living designers I focus my glance on Gareth Pugh (his 'from zero to hero' story's amazing) and lately iris van herpen.
I became Alexander's fan when I was teenage. He never let me down and I'm quite challenging. It's such a loss..
It's not about labels..
I'm panicly scared of coming up with things which were already designed by someone else and I hate when others create things I was about to create for a long time (I already had such issues with McQueen's and Pugh's stuff). That's frightening, I don't want to copy others work whether it's intentional or not. Maybe it's lack of creativity, common influences or interests, I don't know and I better won't analyze it.
Quite so. Good luck with new place, new beginnings, I really do wish that for you.
Oh, and I've added you on VampireFreaks, hope you don't mind.
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*manifests mysteriously in a miasma of mooonmist... cue heavy reverb FX on feline vocals:* I know many things that are hidden from the eyelets of mortal men, little Malgorzata...
*ahem* enough of this stuff & nonsense. Hmmm, why heartless? At one time, up until not so very long ago, I would have said "Fie upon thee (whatever that may mean) there's nothing to be proud about in being heartless. I may have even wagged an extended catclaw in a gesture of admonishment, which would have been dreadfuly condascending of me. But now I fear I have to say that you probably do right to be frosty & heartless ~ whether by nature or nurture. It is an act of self preservation in this mad, bad & dangerous to know fucked up arsehole of a World. I have gone thru life being a caring, empathetic, humanistic, supportive kinda cat... and have been fucked over by those i have helped & loved most of all for my pains. I have made sacrifices i should never have made :compromising my Free Spirit & Creativity and ending up a maudlin melancholic Moonmog as a result, because I wasn't following My Nature (in the Zen / Taoist sense of the phrase). So rather than be condascending I should like to ask your advice on how to harden my heart & recarve it from Artic Ice...?
*eh-heh* I thought you might! As a neophyte Cat Shaman of the Silver Moon a bit of Hoodoo & Runemagick is creepy creeping back into my life, and hence my words...
Aww, shame. I'm often taken for a Steampunk these days ...altho I never claim to be such... I'm more of a closet Clockpunk really. Sort of. People ask me how to dress 'Steampunky'. They seldom get the sort of answer they were hoping for I fear *mewhahaha*. |They are asking me for definitions, keen to fit in with the latest fad. They have come to the Wrong Place. I untie & dissolve definitions 
My chum Capt Sydeian [link] a sterling fellow & a leading light on the UK Steampunk Scene has actually had t-shirts printed with a dictionary style definition of Steampunk on. He produced one of these rags for the first time when last we met, and with an expression of all earnestness, offered to sell me one at a preferential rate. I paused for a moment while reading the thing, and then suggested that he "fuck off". There was a pregnant pause... and then we both fell about laughing.
Yeah, can't say I've ever met him, but I have got a rather wonderful (and lavishly illustrated) biography of him, and I too get the distinct impression John Galliano is indeed a lovely person, and would be fine & dandy friend to have. I shall have to check "his interpretation of woman as a flower" (any links for me?) that one passed me by. And the other stuff you suggested too, it's always good to finf someone who has an aesthetic that can be trusted... 8/10 times anyway!
I suppose I'm somewhat out of the loop w/ hi-fashion ...sort of inevitable when you & your little black cat are driven out into the forest to live a rough & ready life as Stray-Cat Bushcraft Outlaws (I refer you to my opening remarks... when I say fucked over I MEAN fucked over... I have lost EVERYTHING I have worked for for the last 15 years, everything except Life, Liberty, Catfing & my Cam. Don't get me wrong, I'm not fishing for symphathy here: such a thing is of little use to me. Besides I know you are heartless!
Just tell me how I can be heartless too, Chickabee. Lady Luck ain't with me, I have to make my own luck you see. Resurgam (trans: I will rise again) one way or another.
:angry: Yes I damn well do mind, what the hell are you playing at adding me on VF? *chortles* just kidding... thank you!
*doffs tophat & bows w/ a florid feline flourish*
E. Mooncat Esq.
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Won't be too easy to do linocut based to this 
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yeah, I'd rather trace it and make it vector; thanks
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oh your greatness sorry to insult your originallity, either way, you are great and you can do with me whatever you want
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Exquisite detailing and fantastic contrast. I love the stylization and flow of the imagery. Fabulous visuals.
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