10/03/2015

Inspired By... Birdman



It's again the 10th of the month and time for the "Inspired by" creation! But what is Inspired by? Every month awesome Marsha and I choose a subject to be inspired by. It can be a movie (link)an item (link)a designer (link), a painting (link) or a piece of music (link). Then we make something inspired by that theme or a piece of art and share it with you and each other on the 10th of the month.


We didn't know the source of inspiration for March until the 22nd of February. Or rather didn't know the exact source. What happened on the 22nd then? The 87th Academy Awards. Yes, we decided to be inspired by the winner of the Best Picture award. Well, there was a few buts among the movies as they would be shown in theathers after the March 10th, but most of the movies were ok so we took a gamble. And then the morning of the 23rd came and the first thing I did when I woke up was to check who had won.

I had seen some snippets of the "Birdman" and knew it was about a washed up comic book hero movie actor, but when I went to see the movie I didn't know what to expect excatly. After the opening scene I was captivated as it showed the magic realism the film has. It's a mix of realism and fantasy - really made me think about Gabriel Garcia Marques. The further the film went, the more I realized that we'd have to tame a mammoth in this challenge. If you haven't seen the movie yet and want to be astonished, I highly recommend this one. Here's the link to the official web site (link) and to IMDB (link).

 

The movie hit me hard. Don't you just love when that happens? The movie seems to linger in the air and when you leave the theatre you still seem to watch it or even live in it. After the movie I was heading home in pourring rain (reminded me about a few shots in the film) and the wipers of the bus kept a noise that really resembled drums - a drum beat. I guess it was partly my mind doing tricks at me as a drum beat and drum solos are an essential part of the movie. The feeling lasted the whole evening and my mind was spinning so hard trying to grasp what to do.

The amount of things to be inspired by was immense. There's plenty of subjects to tackle, there were visual things to consider and I found also the continuous shoot of the movie really inspiring. Really powerful! I wonder what caught Marsha's eye and what she did! Here's the link to her post (link)!

I took some notes while I was watching and the first thing I wrote was the quote that is in the dressing room of Riggan (Michael Keaton): "A thing is a thing not what is said of that thing". Next I wrote the macig realism and then green. The color scheme was full of different shades of green ranging from teal to moss and olive green. It was seen on the set, on the wardrobe and props. The colors also had something 70's in them. I guess the main reason for the green is the Birman character as his outfit is dark, emerald green.


Oh boy did the movie give me a great puzzle to solve! I was going through different options in my head as what to do. As the drums were such a big part of the aural scene of the movie I though about making an altered drum. I also thought about doing a page with a series of photos inspired by the continuous take. I pondered about different topics to scrap about but then I started thinking about something Mike (Edvard Norton) states in the movie. Riggan is doing an adaptation of a classic and Mike is accusing him to setting it to the wrong era and sort of doing it wrong. So I went with that idea - taking a classic and doing another version of it.


And there it is - a classic done in a new way! My first idea was inspired by the quote I shared but as I couldn't find a pipe on such a sort notice, I went with Da Vinci instead of Magritte. Yes, the quote made me think about the famous "Ceci n'est pas un pipe" painting, titled "The Treachery of Images". I was going to turn that painting into a dimensional mixed media canvas but like I said, I cound't find a pipe to be glued on to the base on the short notice.

So after I realised the Magritte wasn't going to work, I chose one of the biggest classics. I found a Mona Lisa coloring page from the net and printed two images out. The other one I then cut into pieces to be used as patterns and the other one was to be used as the base. I chose to use magazine clippings as my material and chose the colors from the green scale. First I was thinking of drawing the face myself but when I had traced the lines on top of a flesh colored magazine piece I really didn't like the outlook. I then decided to add the actual printed face which reminded me about a mask. On top I added just a hint of green around the eyes - like the Birdman mask and also a yellow beak.


When I started clipping the pieces out I didn't know what the end result would look like, but I really like how the piece turned out! I rarely do art journal pages other wise that just try something out and this is one of those pages. I think I need to try something similar out another time as well!

Thank you for stopping by today! And another big thanks if you managed to read the whole post! If you didn't click the previous link to Marsha's, here's your change to see what she has created (link)


Materials: Prima Marketing, Design Memory Craft

2 comments:

Marsha Valk said...

Oh yes!!! It's so great to read your notes (You took some during the film?! In the dark?! LOL!)... I didn't write about the film much, but I kind off had the same feeling after watching. And I woke up the next day with the film still on the brain. I loved all the connections in the film and I love that you picked up on the adaptation part. Brilliant! I didn't even think about those things, because for me it just had to be about the inner critic. In hindsight I could have done something with the lettering too... I loved that, and the quote right at the beginning... But the result is what it is and I LOVE your take on this!!!

Riikka Kovasin said...

Yes, I actually scribbled them in the dark - the handwriting is awful but readable :D

Thank you sweet friend <3

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