#i hope this answer actually answered your question dfhdjfkg goodness

[rsmrymnt-tea]

Hey!! Since Dola's an artist what do you think her art looks like? What mediums do they prefer? Are there any artists that she really looks up to?

- 🐝

Okay okay! Making this took a long while because I overthought things as usual. And like... I know that almost all of these have statements to the work but I'm coming from a mostly formalistic/aesthetic/vibe place when I give these as pegs for what her work looks like >.<

I didn't include any pictures since it felt a little... odd? To be taking pictures off of the artists' Instagrams and sites + I would absolutely need more than the 10 picture limit >.>;; But links are there!

So like... Dola as an artist has two identities she presents. One is as herself, the other is as a collective (and I guess you could say that these are her two eras since at some point she can't really label her art with her name anymore?)

As herself, she works mostly with painting and illustration, eventually involving embroidery and thread painting in her output. Growing up, she dipped her hands into an assortment of different media due to her family all wanting her to take up their specific craft, but in the end she found herself drawn to the same media her parents use.

(For reference, I picture her father's art to be similar to Alphonse Mucha's—but not his art nouveau work, but much more along the lines of The Slav Epic mixed with Peter Mohrbacher's The Angelarium pieces. Meanwhile her mother's work would be along the lines of what Miriam Shimamura and Ekaterina Koroteva do except imagine the themes to be more supernatural baroque and rococo? Both parents are very influential to her own work.)

At her peak, Dola's art style would be something like... A mix between Nicolai Fechin and Mildred Hankinson? Along with a touch of Zivko Kondic and Lucy Davies, with the embroidery and thread painting aspect coming in for added dimension to the work, giving it something akin to a low relief soft sculpture. Her work would often have a lot of moody lighting to them and more surreal and fantastical subjects, usually set in some darkness or at night. Sometimes they'd be a twist on realism, showing scenes of domestic bliss except its with a demon or angel or some other kind of monster >.> Her time in the Devildom + with demons/angels/sorcerers + working with magic has had an impact on what she likes depicting, though she’s careful not to make anything like… too specific.

At some point though, she realizes that like… she can’t really keep using her name forever and that with magic, she can do a lot more with her art than what she’s already doing. So she creates a pseudonym that makes it sound like she’s a collective of artists when it’s really just her on her own doing a lot of work to make sure her real identity doesn’t get out. Magic and bribery and having some fellow sorcerers integrated into the art world go a long way.

(Though idk what name to give the ‘artist collective’ yet. I keep wanting something relating to the fact that she’s still around long after she should’ve died as a little joke for herself lol)

And I think Dola would take the event of establishing the new art collective/identity as a chance to branch out into trying new things that she hadn't really had the chance to. The most prolific of her work would be sculpture and textile/fiber art, usually in the form of high relief mixed media on canvas/flat base of choice or installation art that can either be purely decorative or be functional.

Thankfully I found things that match the vibe I have in my head for what she does. Works like these from Andrea Silva Guzman, these (x, x, x) works from Kellen Meyer, and at times work like Janet Echelman's and this gorgeous installation that I just found out about by Bruce Munro. I think she explores different media a bit and builds an insane portfolio over the years, but what remains consistent is the organic forms and a bit of... Whimsy? Fantasticality? And I think a touch of her artistry from her earlier years always remains. But she's a lot more secure and relaxed about her work while working with this identity, and it reflects in how much more wondrous everything is I think.

dgsfdjg Does any of this make sense... Kinda have to bash everything together in your head a bit to get the full picture, but overall I think these get the point across >.>

I actually have this idea that at some point, at the end of her 'mortal' life where she's expected to die, she creates this insane exhibit inspired by time in the Devildom as a final project before she retires as herself forever.

Imagine a large dark room, likely a black box theater, the Devildom night sky projected at the ceiling and just enough light to find your way around. There are seven large paintings of each of the brothers' avatars, though they're mixed with high relief scupturing so that each animal looks as though it were coming at you from the painting. And each one is detailed with fiber and other media to make it look like each animal is made of something magical. A few warm lights illuminate each, giving them strong shadows that make them look a little terrifying, to be honest.

I feel like it's a bit better to like... Attempt to draw what the room looks like when I can? It's been on my mind for almost a year honestly + the idea of Dola bringing the brothers into her home studio to collab on a piece that now lives either in Serenity Manor (which I headcanon to not have portals that just lead to rooms in the HoL because that's lame to me dfhgjkdfg) or the House of Lamentation.

sydfugfg anyway so sorry this took almost a whole fucking month to answer holy shit?? Something about it made me so anxious... I think I just took this way too serious for how little it actually shows up in anything I write about her >.> But I guess it makes sense since it's all important to her and informs what her spells look like because I fully believe she would polish off her magic with her personal touch aesthetically lol