Chinthe
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A chinthe is a leogryph that are placed at the entrances to protect pagodas and temples in several southeast Asia countries.The chinthe is a symbol to represent royalty and always comes in pairs. In Myanmar (Burma), there are many of them and are very grand sculptures. Inspired by art nouveau, I mixed it with Burmese culture to create this project.
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Meaning/Descriptions
Chinthe was a project to get me to learn more about my culture. When I went back to Burma, I always saw these sculptures and never knew what they were. So this was the perfect time to learn. I did some research, and found the backstory and what they symbolize. I found another symbol, which is the lotus. The lotus symbolizes purity of the body, speech, and mind. Right when I saw these two things, I knew I wanted to pair the two, since they are major symbols in my country and in my religon (Buddhism) and it adds on to the flowery theme of art nouveau.
InspirationsMy inspirations include Burmese culture and the art nouveau movement. The chinthe and lotus come from Burmese culture, and the structure of the project inspired by the art nouveau movement. The borders, and the use of ellipses were inspired by Alphonse Mucha who's work revolves around art nouveau. A specific painting, I was inspired by was The Arts, Painting by Mucha. I liked the way Mucha set the ellipses behind his subject, and the little icons in the open space. It looks complex, but it is neat and I replicated that with the lotuses in the ellipses.
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ProcessAfter my research, I found a picture of a chinthe showing it's side, and a clipart of a lotus. From there, I opened a new canvas and put the chinte to the left of the center. Then I put a lotus in the corner at a 45 degree angle. The stem of the lotus was open, so I used that as a starting point for my border. Using the brush tool, I drew a straight line from one of the lotus's stem too the bottom of the canvas while pressing "shift." In photoshop, this is a shortcut that you can use to make a perfectly straight line. I drew two line, horizontal and vertical. Then I took that layer, copied it, and flipped the copy to get the other side of the border. Once I had the border, I cleaned up the ends of the lines, and erased the lines that showed through the petals. I copied and flipped the chinthe to the right side, so that they're facing eacgh other. Next, I made an oval using the ellipse tool. The ellipse reaches to all four sides of the border. I made a copy of that ellipse and made it smaller, but it still starts from the bottom of the border. I took the color away from the chinthes so that it wouldn't be distracting and the viewer focuses more on the overall shape. Finally, I took copis of the lotus and started to place them within the empty space of the two ellipses. Similiar to how it is in The Arts, Painting. I started from one side, and working down to the bottom, To get the other side, I just duplicated them by pressing "alt" and moving them to the other side. Photoshop has guildines so my lotus are all lined up. I flipped them and cleaned up anything else that needed minor fixes.
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Conclusion/Reflection
I like the mix between two different things, and even if it doesn't have that meaningful of a meaning, I'm happy with the integration. I am able to show two cultures, one that is well-known, and another that many people don't know about. And hopefully, this will cause the viewer to look up what a chinthe is and learn more about my country. If I could do this again, I might add color, and more of the flowery stems and etc. The stems would be asymmetric, which is how a lot of art nouveau work shows. I could also add a border to this piece since the background of the project blends in with the baskground of my website page.
ACT Questions
1) Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
Due to the art nouveau inspiration, it caused me to use a lot of flowers to add the sense of life. The use of ellipes was also an inspiration. And there's a direct relationship with the burmese culture, since I am using their symbols.
2) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Art nouveau uses a mix of geometric and organic elements and this was was able to influence advertisments and many other types of media. Art nouveau was modernizing the world and it is now seen as a predecessor of modernism.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
While researching my inspiration a generalization that I discovered was that Burmese people value nature a lot more than others in different countries.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea of my inspirational research was related to art nouveau characterstics and the theme is focused around purity since both the lotus and chinthe represent purity in some type of way.
5) What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
Through my research I concluded that art nouveau uses designs to create complexity but it's all unified so that it looks good. Sometimes being complex isn't good, but with art nouveau, the subject still stands out.
Due to the art nouveau inspiration, it caused me to use a lot of flowers to add the sense of life. The use of ellipes was also an inspiration. And there's a direct relationship with the burmese culture, since I am using their symbols.
2) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Art nouveau uses a mix of geometric and organic elements and this was was able to influence advertisments and many other types of media. Art nouveau was modernizing the world and it is now seen as a predecessor of modernism.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
While researching my inspiration a generalization that I discovered was that Burmese people value nature a lot more than others in different countries.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea of my inspirational research was related to art nouveau characterstics and the theme is focused around purity since both the lotus and chinthe represent purity in some type of way.
5) What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
Through my research I concluded that art nouveau uses designs to create complexity but it's all unified so that it looks good. Sometimes being complex isn't good, but with art nouveau, the subject still stands out.