#wakeupmoxxi

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Building on my research of Berlin Wall I decided to delve into those that rebelled and the growing Punk scene of Gemrany during the 70s and 80s before the fall of the wall.

An excerpt from an article on the Punk scene in Germany from the 1980′s:

Burning Down the Haus, a new book by journalist Tim Mohr, details how a small group of East German teens kick-started a movement that contributed to the fall of the Berlin Wall. The 1970s were oppressive years in the German Democratic Republic; there was no space, literal or philosophical, to live outside the system, let alone criticize it. Upon hearing The Clash and the Sex Pistols via forbidden British military-radio broadcasts, a handful of young people began to embrace the punk mentality, dressing differently, and shaking the foundations upon which authority had been built. And despite the best efforts of the East German secret police, aka the Stasi, the movement grew throughout the 1980s, as punks developed their own little world, disconnected from society. Punk was the soundtrack to the million-person demonstration on November 4, 1989. A few days later, the Wall came down.

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revised palette idea

slight monochromatic attempt, purple/pink, blue/green

break the mould

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The Berlin Wall

I took the idea from the Bourgeois refering to those within the walls of the city and found Berlin Wall to be an interesting concept of the separation of the East and West of Berlin, the poverty and wealth that was forced between them and more interestingly those that escaped, destroyed, or passed through the wall. This has given me multiple story ideas for a character who chooses to fight against their authorities and is either sneaking between these boundaries or working to pull them down.

[wakeupmoxxi]

Birds and Words Bird: Banded Kingfisher Word: Bourgeois Idiom: As the Crow flies

Brief description:

The Banded Kingfisher is found in South East Asia, commonly Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Malaysia, and extinct in Singapore. These birds are identified by their bright red beaks and short crests, their feathers are black with blue bands (or rufios in the females).

The Bourgeois refers to the middle class, originating in France as a term to refer to those within the walls of the city as the social middle to upper classes.  In English the word refers to a social class oriented to economic materialism and hedonism.

Bourgeois also reminded me instantly of the artist Louise Bourgeois, living from 1911 to 2010, she used unusual almost grotesque imagery in her works and always pushed the boundary with her abstract work, she once said “Art is not about art. Art is about life, and that sums it up.”

“As the Crow flies” refers to the most direct route between two points, or a “Beeline”. The origins of this idiom comes from sailors who would release a crow onboard if they were lost at sea to find land, crows are unfavourable of the water and will fly straight for the nearest land (or return if none was found). However crows themselves fly in anything but straight lines.

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Final Concept art - Moxxi

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Composition tests, finding something dramatic but not too isolating to focus on the character (and make it obvious what in the frame IS my character) as well as providing context to the surroundings without too much detail. I decided on the final 3 as conveying the message clearly and still highlighting the character.

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Experimenting with wall appearance, if the surroundings of the wall act as appendages and how the “graffiti” face works on the wall

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shape exploration

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ELe

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Faces and surrounding art

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iterations

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graffiti iterations

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character ideas

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Berlin Graffiti studies

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A mixed media page of art styles, varying from graffiti to sculpture studies and movement/colour.