Week 13 Inspiration

This particular source is not particularly relevant to any of my work this week, but something I think applies to all of the portraits I have done.  I was exposed to her work before even beginning this body of work and hadn't really thought about the similarity of her work to mine in the importance of narrative. I had kind of forgotten about her work until her latest photo was released this week.
Kristy Mitchell creates fantastical and powerful female characters for her spectacular staged photoshoots.  She has a background in costume design, and creates her models' larger-than-life costumes, wigs, and props from scratch.  Each final photo is the result of months of work on one costume, one set up, one story, and one long photoshoot. In each photo, Mitchell tells a story inspired by the fairytales her late mother read to her as a child.  The project, which has spanned 5 years now, began as a memorial for her mother.

Here are some pieces from this large series that I am particularly drawn to:

"Gammelyn's Daughter A Waking Dream"

"The Queen's Armada"

"The Last Dance Of The Flowers"

"I'll Wait For You In The Shadows Of Summer"

Because I'm working more on the gourd I started this week, I'm also looking at how portraits are typically represented in traditional Inca art.  Mine will probably better reflect my own figure drawing style, but references are helpful.

Mariano Flores Kananga (Quechua, ca. 1850-1949), carved gourd ca. 1925

I have also been painting the tartan into my larger painting this week and have been thinking about how it sits, how it's woven, and what it would be like for the tartan I designed to actually be produced.  This got me wondering about the process of making one, and a scene for a new painting started to form in my head.  The scene would be very detailed, and right now that's actually quite a painful thought, but the origin story behind the image greatly appeals to me.  Of course, this work would have to be independent, as there's no way I could complete this during this semester.  But even with the work I have been doing with other materials, I still find comfort in figurative oil painting.
Here are some images I found that are helping me solidify the scene I'm seeing in my head:

A loom at DC Dagliesh, one of the big names in modern tartan weaving