13 Facts - Crowns Series
My Crowns series is on display at Muggswigz from July-August 2022. Here are 13 Interesting Facts about the series.
1) THE CROWN CHAKRA - This series was initially intended to be a celebration of Crown adornment in regards to its impact to our Crown Chakra. The Crown Chakra is the energy center right above our heads that connects us to a Higher Power. I believe that eccentric hair, makeup and head decorations sets an intention for the ways we want to connect to God or our Higher Selves. However, while looking for subjects I noticed an interesting trend - Most of the people I could find with eccentric crown adornment also happened to be people who had served as muses for me in some way. Leading me to Fact #2.
2) AKRON MUSES - Once I noticed this connection I decided to make each subject an overall creative from the Akron/Canton area who has inspired me in some way. Since the series developed this dual purpose, the content of each label became just as important to me as the painting. The series was now officially about acknowledging the Muses within my community and also celebrating their Crown adornment. Hence the reason I used the hashtag #AkronJewels to promote the series.
3) MULTIPOTENTIALITES - The curating process for choosing subjects helped me realize that when it comes to Muses I definitely have a type – Multipotentialites. A Multipotentialite is a person who has many different interests and creative pursuits in life. It was not intentional but it turns out that this concept applies to each subject in the series. All of them are creative in multiple ways and live out their creativity as a lifestyle as opposed to just a hobby or even a career.
4) BASQUIAT CROWN - Once I decided to incorporate my Inspirations, it seemed only right to pay reverence to one of the most iconic trail blazers of the modern art world Jean Michel Basquiat. Basquiat was an abstract painter of the 80’s who used symbolism in his work. One of those symbols was his Crown motif which he used to mark a figure as an inspiration or great. This symbol fit too perfectly to NOT use in the series. His crown motif can be found in each piece symbolizing the same message that he used it for.
5) FIRST THEMED SHOW - While on the smaller end, this is my first Solo Show that I’ve created that had a unified theme. I recently employed the use of a unified theme for my 3 pieces in the Homegrown show which highlighted 5 Akron artists and our stories growing up in the city. (You can read my article about that theme here). The process from that work inspired me so much that I made it a personal goal to only work in batches or series going forward. Something magical happens when you spend a significant amount of time reflecting on one concept or theme. You hone in on what your goals are as an artist and why your art is a passion for you. I believe that does something special for the work.
6) SIX DAYS - The entire series, all 13 pieces, were completed in just SIX days preceding the installation. This wouldn’t be TOO crazy if I hadn’t also worked 40 hours at my day job within this same 6 days. I know. Yikes. For this I shall crown myself the Procrastination Queen. In my defense however, I HAD been planning and curating for the project for months. I suppose I wanted to make sure I had a very well thought out exhibit. It was about so much more than just paint on canvas so I took a while to get to that part.
7) 3 HOURS - Each piece took less than 3 hours to create. As I was working, this speed was surprising me but when I really thought about it, it made sense. My average size canvas is typically 24”x30” and 12 of 13 of these pieces are only 16”x20” - about half the size.
8) LABOR OF LOVE - I do not recommend attempting this kind of workload as doing so myself led to a physical injury. My day job is mostly sedentary and (since I waited until the last minute to finish) I was painting for 3-6 hours daily after that. This led to a total sit-down time of anywhere from 10-14 hours a day – NOT good for your body! I started to notice that by the end of each day my ankles were swelling, a little more each proceeding day. By the Thursday night before installation, my ankles were at their worse in extreme pain and felt lots of pressure. Fortunately, I got plenty of rest and feet elevation the following days which fixed it. But this was the first time I ever thought about the physical strain on your body for sedentary work. Movement and rest are both so important for circulation!
9) VAMPIRES – While working on art I usually aim to be intentional about what other things I am consuming as I think the energy of the background stimuli can makes its way into the art. I typically listen to ASMR for relaxation, jazz or music from the 70s-90s preferably on my actual record player - The logic being the loving/relaxing vibration of these things will shine through in the art. In this case however, I wanted to finish “The Originals” before it was taken off Netflix on June 30th. So, during the course of creating the entire series I listened to sounds of vampires, bone breaking, swift running and heightened senses. I keep looking at the series trying to identify if anything vampire-like came through in the art. I couldn’t see anything specific but let me know in the comments if you can see any influences.
10) REGRETS/CHANGES – The only thing I would do different for the series is to be more forward thinking about what colors I chose for the backgrounds. In my planning I was not thinking about how a unified HUE between the pieces would matter. For example, two colors might work well next to each other if they are of complimentary hues but clash if they are not. If one piece has a yellow-orange background, it will look different if it is placed next to a piece with a yellow-green background versus a piece blue-green background. (See wheel below). Since I was not thinking about this at all, I repainted some backgrounds several times to create more unity. By the end, there was still a little inconsistency that I think would have been more balanced had I planned better. This is one of the biggest take-aways that I will think about for my upcoming Solo show “The Equinox” in the Fall.
11) FAVORITE – It is nearly impossible to call a Favorite. But only by a SMALL increment, I would say that “Feddie” is my favorite. Which was surprising since of all the reference photos I used, his was actually the blurriest. I believe this made me depend on both the picture as well as my knowledge or understanding of light. Leaning on my own understanding led to a really awesome sense of dimension in the final piece. Nonetheless, I still insist that the series as a whole is my favorite. The pieces all stand out better as a group than any one does individually. Especially with the complimentary words written with each piece. It truly needs to be experienced in person and together to really feel the vision I intended.
12) SYNCHRONICITY – When I was initially planning this series I intended to have an official opening and display it at my art gallery in Barberton. However, a moment of synchronicity inspired me to display the series at the Akron Muggswigz location. I was brainstorming for the series when I suddenly drew a blank. I was literally in the middle of asking the Universe for a sign when I heard a ding for an email alert. Coincidentally, It was an email from Muggswigz asking me if I wanted to display art again this year at any of their locations. Although this was not in my initial vision, I took it as a sign that it was destined for the series to debut in this setting. After it being on display for a couple of days, I truly believe this was the best move.
13) THE NUMBER 13 – The choice to create 13 pieces for the series was intentional. Many people view the number 13 as an unlucky number but that is truly a misunderstanding of its symbolism. The number 13 technically symbolizes death, which is the part that society has largely taken to be a bad thing, but it also symbolizes spiritual rebirth and graduation to a higher dimension. One example of this is The Last Supper (both the painting OR the story). The Last Supper highlights 13 people – Jesus Christ and his 12 disciples. This would be the last meal before the ultimate death of Jesus but that would directly be followed by his resurrection – nicely summarizing the symbology of 13. 13 has other connections to the divine as well as a symbol for positive changes. Since this series is about Crown adornment and how that connects us to ascension, having 13 pieces seemed appropiate.
Thank you so much for reading! Comment any thoughts you have about the series below and/or share if
you found this interesting!
Sylvia Sykes
Creator of SylviaPaints