Mind, Body & Spirit:Depicting People as Animals

Jaquita L.C. Hawthorne

ME• I consider myself a spiritual person.• Being a spiritual person to me is

being connected with all living creatures.

• I got interested in spirit animals in grade school– Research Project– Spiritual Animals

My Spirit Animal?

• Have you ever had a strange encounter with an animal?

• There are different ways to figure out your spirit animal, but you need to have an open mind.– Pay attention to recurrent

appearances of a particular animal in your life

– Consult with a Shaman– Recognize the wisdom and

intelligence of animals

Spirit Animal ?

In the world of spirit animals, animals symbolize:

• Characteristics of our personality• Skills or traits that we have or that we want to gain• A situation or emotions• Spirit animals can also offer guidance and

understanding– A phase of ourselves that needs to be explored more– Situations or environments in our everyday life that has

a strong emotional impact– A life direction we could consider or reflect on

Artists frequently use animals as subject matter in their art. Through time animals have appeared in paintings, sculptures, and prints. Animals are also symbolic. Many cultures through the ages have observed specific animals as in place of gods, power, the supernatural, and in the cases of Native Americans, used in names.

Thesis

The concept of spiritual animals inspires me to focus my creative work on them. In particular, I am thinking through the problem of how to portray friends using animal metaphors. I hope that my project will help viewers to identify animal traits like I do within my figure drawings, while showing the beauty of the human body transforming into that animal. The viewer may also see different animal traits within each pose.

My Roots

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Native Italian African

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Mainly Blood Tribe

Native Culture

I am proud of my native heritage. Knowing my family history helps me to understand myself, and I thus decided to focus my research this semester on Native culture generally and spirit animals specifically. Native homes, plants, weather, and animals are very important to Native peoples. Even though Natives hunt and kill animals we still see them as spirits. In the past animal skin and hides were used as clothing and drums, and the spirits of the animals lived on in the minds of tribal members who wore them.

Respect For Nature

“Every seed is awakened and so is all animal life. It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being and we therefore yield to our animal neighbors the same right as ourselves, to inhabit this land.” -Sitting Bull

Almost there

I started thinking about my project last summer. I knew I wanted to use skills and techniques that I learned in figure drawing classes. I also knew that I wanted to use my friends as models to show their different personalities.

Figure drawings done as part of coursework at Ripon College.

On the left is a self-portrait by Rembrandt, and on the right is a sketch of Adam for the Sistine Ceiling by Michelangelo.

“For Color Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf”

A Series of 20 Poems written by Ntozake Shange in 1975

– Experimentally choreographed poem. – Focus on issues women of color go through.– Watching the movie by Tyler Perry in 2009 I was

inspired to do my project on it, adapted to issues that female students deal with here on the Ripon College campus.

“Aura Lanterns”• This Idea was like a puzzle

missing pieces.• I loved the idea of using

some of the skills I learned from working on plays at the college.

• I wanted to do a full figure drawing of each one of my friends on each side with their own aura color

• ………..I thought it still needed work

Other Ideas

• A collage of figure drawings in different perspectives.

• Having a model represent different elements.

• “Line of Fate” showing how people are connected.

• Then I thought about Spirit Animals.

Body Painting

Guido Daniele LexKim Joon

Craig Tracy

Models

5 female models They all have different

animals

Rebecca Nieves

Bats are very nurturing, family oriented, highly social, and understanding to members of their group.

Natives acknowledged that the bat was highly sensitive to their surroundings and for that reason was considered a symbol of awareness, dreaming, and vision.

Lindsey Dawson

Natives believe parrots show intelligence, good temperament, and a sense of international relations.

Parrots teach people to value the color, the joy, and the magic in life.

Parrots teach listening to all of nature and awakening to the language within using insight for more open communications.

Final Project

For my project I am considering using the figure drawing skills that I have learned over the years to depict my friends using animal metaphors that I choose for them. My project would thus be on how to depict people in animal form, using figure drawing.

Artists on the Same wave length as me

These artists, from left to right, are Elizeabeth Beals, Ina Woolcott, Zakhar Krylov, and Laura Frisk.