Imagination

My latest SVG. I have this unwritten challenge for myself of posting something every few days on my blogs, but this past week has been one of those times when I have worked on several things, but haven't cared for the overall finished images, enough to post, until this one (being that I am my worst critic). The great thing about SVG is that instead of trashing those images I can reuse elements I do like from each composition, so it is never really a waste of time or effort. Too, I learn something new each time I create.

I used Ruth St. Denis (1879-1968) as a model for my Imagination Fairy, who was a brunette... I cannot help but be partial to auburn haired fairies 'smile'. The background is transparent for my t-shirt design, but shown on a black background here, the wings have some transparency as well. Ruth was a dancer who founded modern dance and one of the first dance departments in an American university at Adelphi University, and saw the spirituality in dance. Nothing is coincidental... Louise Brooks, silent film star and another subject of my SVG designs, studied at the Denishawn School of Dance, a company started by Ruth and her husband Ted Shawn.

The dance of the future will no longer be concerned with meaningless dexterities of the body.... Remembering that man is indeed the microcosm, the universe in miniature, the Divine Dance of the future should be able to convey with its slightest gestures some significance of the universe.... As we rise higher in the understanding of ourselves, the national and racial dissonances will be forgotten in the universal rhythms of Truth and Love. We shall sense our unity with all peoples who are moving to that exalted rhythm. — Wisdom Comes Dancing: Selected Writings of Ruth St. Denis on Dance, Spirituality and the Body (PeaceWorks Publications, 2001)

I came across photos of Ruth on NYPL's Digital Gallery, looking for Javanese Legong dancers, old black and white and sepia tone photos of dancers being perfect subjects for life drawing, and was blown away by the beautiful photos of Ruth in exotic and mystical poses of Radha and Kuan Yin, etc., and her and her husband Ted Shawn in Javanese costume. Nifty eye candy for an artist! She was a fabulous dancer, iconoclast, and a beautiful soul.