copyright Patricia Roshaven

Hello fellow artists,

As a photographer, I've been thinking about what it means to take a photograph.  Sunsets, pets, friends, children, mountain scenes are all wonderful, and maybe I'm too serious about life in general, but I like to have a deeper meaning to what I do.   At the same time, everything around us has a deeper meaning! 

For example, trees have been a part of human life since we first walked the earth, so now have deep primal meaning.  Forests symbolize safety, have been a source of wood and fuel for our homes and have been hiding places for dangerous animals and human enemies.  Christ was nailed to a cross made of wood. 

Mountains symbolize stability, eternity, stillness or have some other meaning, based on your personal life history.  What does the above photo mean to you?  Symbols also vary by culture and time period.  For example, "blog" has meaning in the early 21st century, but isn't in my 1993 dictionary.

If you would like to know more about your photographs, you could start to look at the symbols you find there.  Or, if you would like to say something specific, determine which symbols will make your statement for you, and then compose your picture.  Of course, this works for paintings too.

I think symbols affect us significantly.  

For more about  symbolism, see Online Symbolism Dictionary from the University of Michigan and my Symbolism Information Page.

Hello fellow artists,

To me, a farmhouse brings back memories of family holiday gatherings, wonderful smells coming from the kitchen, hugs from an endless number of open arms, dozens of cousins to play with and if I'm lucky, a ride on a tractor. Good memories!

Over the years, farms have gone from families to corporations, but the concept of farm has been promoted in the American consciousness as a place of abundance, growth and a place to nurture family. Those who have never spent time on a farm and others who have been displaced from their farms may characterize the farm differently.

This farm is awash in fog, which could provide a feel of early morning protection -- or symbolize the uncertainty of the place of the small farm in today's mechanized world. Will the sunlight bring healing and warmth or shed unwanted light on problems needing attention?

How you interpret this picture depends on your life story. Knowing the language of images will give you greater control over your art work, increase your ability to explain your art work to others and enrich your understanding of your culture.

copyright Patricia Roshaven

Technorati Tags: family farm, fog, symbolism, art tutorial

Hello fellow artists,

Do you like to interpret images? There are numerous interpretations of the symbolism of spiders. Which will you choose for this picture?

Knowing the language of images will give you greater control over your art work, increase your ability to explain your art work to others and enrich your understanding of your culture.

From Wikipedia: "The spider symbolizes patience for its hunting with web traps, and mischief and malice for its poison and the slow death this causes. It symbolises possessiveness for its spinning its prey into a ball and taking it to its burrow (for burrowing species)."

From Crystalinks, which has summarized the symbolism of spiders from around the world --

"They symbolize fate, female energy, creative energy, wisdom, creativity, new life, entanglement, caution, divine inspiration, starting a project, becoming pregnant, being industrious, warning signals, illusions.

A lot of the symbolism associated with Spider can be seen in her form. Her body is made up roughly of a figure eight which, laid on it's side, is the symbol for infinity. Infinity is like the wheel of life, constantly flowing in a continuous cycle from one circle to the other. She is also associated with death and rebirth, not only with the shape of her body but with the eating of the male after mating. She is both a feminine and lunar energy. Her constant building of new webs have been tied by some to the waxing and waning of the moon. The glistening web also has very strong symbology, signifying the tapestry of the universe and the infinite possibilities of creation.

Native Americans: she is a grandmother figure whom is a link between the past and the future and who brought people the gift of fire. Some tribes believed the spider was the weaver who created the world and saw her as a symbol of creative female energy.

India: Spider is sacred to Maya who was known as the 'weaver of illusion.'

Greece: it was sacred to Athena who was a goddess of wisdom and a moon goddess

Egypt: spider represented Neith, the Divine Mother and also a moon goddess.

It is also believed the first true alphabet was formed from the patterns and angles in Spiders web which has her considered the teacher of language and writing. This makes her a strong guide for those who use symbols and writing in performing magic."

For more about interpreting symbols in art, see this blog's Symbolism Information Package.

Spider Web Morning

copyright Patricia Roshaven

Technorati Tags: spider symbolism, symbols, art tutorial

Hello fellow artists,

This is another in a series of interpretations of symbolism in art. The photo below was taken a few days ago on a very cold and windy mountain top.

In spite of the cold, cold, day, these bushy grasses are infused with sunlight. I think this picture has "sex" written all over it -- warm, bushy grass. A great hill to play on.

For more about interpreting symbols in art, see this blog's Symbolism Information Package.

Warm Grassy Hill

copyright Patricia Roshaven

Technorati Tags: symbolism, sexuality, art tutorial

Hello fellow artists,

Since visual literacy and symbolism have been the topic the last week or so, today's entry is an interpretation of one of my photos. This was taken last winter at Connemara, the home of Carl Sandburg in Flat Rock, NC.

Interpretations vary for this picture, but one set of interpretations could be --
-- calm lake -- peace of mind
-- winter lake -- peaceful but feeling cold and isolated
-- snow -- symbol of purity, but there isn't much snow, so it could mean hoped for purity
-- mixture of barren trees and fluffy pines -- barren trees seem obvious symbols, and fluffy pines seem to be more friendly, since they keep their needles year around
-- branches in the water -- since they are at odd angles and seem to be groping to be released from the water, I'd say they are thoughts trying to come forth, and having a hard time of it -- but notice that there is snow on these branches
-- It's a misty day, giving a feeling of intimacy to the entire scene, which remains cold in spite of the mist.

For more about how to interpret symbols, see my Symbolism Information Package and Dream Moods. How would you interpret this photo?

Winter Lake

copyright Patricia Roshaven

Technorati Tags: symbolism, winter lake, art tutorial

Hello fellow artists,

The development of language has everything to do with visual art because language depicts what we see. Storytelling was highly respected and probably began because a group of people wanted to entertain each other; explain to each other what the world meant; and to share stories of meaningful traditions, heroes, events, and religious experiences. From these simple times came the incredible richness of stories, art, song, music and dance that we have today.

Considered to be the oldest known story, Gilgamesh, was told for centuries, and written around 1200 B.C. in the Akkadian cuneiform script on 12 clay tablets. Gilgamesh was a king, from approximately 2700 B.C. in Babylonia, now Iraq. Gilgamesh was considered to be 2/3 god and 1/3 man and he, of course, accomplished more than a mere human could, thus producing legends and myths that continue to this day.

"In addition to its very human themes of friendship, courage, the problem of death, and the meaning of life, it is also an initiatory tale about the quest for enlightenment, the revelation of divine mysteries, the duality of man, and the evolutionary unfoldment of our spiritual nature....Calling across nearly 5,000 years, it is a potent reminder of the timelessness and relevance of the ancient spiritual path. " --from The Epic of Gilgamesh: A Spiritual Biography, by W. T. S. Thackara.

Gilgamesh tells in moving, symbolic terms what it means to be human. This same tale has been told with variations hundreds of times over and is still of great interest because we have not yet found out how to be devine or how to be fully human. If you choose to accept it, the mission of the artist is to clarify this journey for your generation.

See Gilgameshfor another version of this story, with visuals.

Technorati Tags: Gilgamesh, heroes, spiritual journey, art tutorial, symbolism, storytelling, oral tradition