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ursulav — Madonna with Goldfinches
Published: 2011-09-24 02:46:40 +0000 UTC; Views: 13275; Favourites: 436; Downloads: 129
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The full title is "Madonna with Parsnip and Goldfinches" and at 12 x 24, it's a big one (at least by my standards!) I was raised Catholic, and though I abandoned that long ago, I can only assume that the guilt is still in full force, or I wouldn't have spent the days and days required to get the colored pencil texture in her robes done...Original is for sale, send a note for pricing and availability. Prints available at Red Wombat Studio: [link]
I have this dream that someday I will be done with the art for the latest Dragonbreath book--book seven!--and then the notion of doing art at all will not make me want to throw myself screaming over the moon.
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Comments: 60
That is one smug looking parsnip. I wonder what it is plotting.
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Of COURSE the guilt is still in full effect; Mary is the master of Jewish Mother Guilt and the ORIGINATOR and Master of Catholic Mother Guilt. You're twice doomed.
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Oh, admit it, if nothing else you will ask for the last rites on your death bed. For all my troubles with my faith, I sooner or later am brought right back. I cannot read Chesterton and NOT believe... but anyway, I have oftern thought doves were overrated, just fancy pidgens. Why cant other, prettyer birds be held sacred? Further more, sould not food plants be a better representative of compassion then merely decorative plants such as roses?
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Hey, just a note to find out if you'd gotten my last e-mail, a week or so ago I think.
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You can leave the religion, but the guilt stays *forever*. (sez the Baptist preacher's kid) :-P
On the other hand, those robes look fantastic.
Also her face! ... and everything else, too.
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I don't know what it is, but something about that woman's face is just amazing. I love its curves. So sublime.
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Gotta love that Catholic guilt. I'm pretty sure they've brainwashed us and we've repressed the memories. All that's left is the gut wrenching feeling you get when you tell a joke about Catholism or mock the dogma, even light-heartedly.
Great work. I love the parsnip! You always make me feel like I'm walking into a dream. You're like...Lewis Carroll only with phalloi and badgers.
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could you really throw yourself off the moon though? What with the gravity and all..hehe
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Hey, I visited the Red Wombat site and dropped you a line about getting a print. Let me know when you get it.
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Oh, wow. That is lovely! Like, buy it for my mom lovely XD
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I like that you made Mary a middle eastern women, rather than the typical imagery of her as a Caucasian.
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the time you spent on this really payed off, it's got the perfect blend of statuesque majesty and whimsy.
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Yeah, the guilt never fades completely, but it's good for building discipline. And some of it turns into genuine compassion! It's all good in the end.
Once again, you show the world how colored pencils should be used.
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annnd finally a middle eastern looking madonna. <3
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Ske look suspicious of the intentions of the goldfinches for the parsnip... o.O
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wonderful - I guess that guilt can be a force for good ! colors are great and the birds just pop - the robe and the background make such a soothing environment - and this is great PR for the parsnip
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Goodness. I love the way the finches pop out of the image. Whatever technique you used on them worked super well
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I love the expression in her face - just a little judgmental maybe.
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They must have gone for the parsnip before...
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A very cunning looking Mary! I love the texture in the background and especially in the cloth. It looks like the same type of texture Bernini creates when he carves into the cloth parts of his sculptures. I might have added a little more value into the background, possibly lighter around her head and gradually get darker towards the edges. It seems a little flat at the moment compared to her.
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You REALLY like parsnips. I should try one some time. I always assumed they tasted like radish, and that is far too much of anything that tastes like a radish.
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Actually a parsnip is much more like a tough carrot. Quite tasty cooked.
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Catholic should never be about guilt.. it is sad that is might be. I think that history has a key part to play in your art though, and I love your art, and your descriptions.
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My favorite part is the goldfinch furthest down her arm, but I love the contrasting energies as well.
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Nicely done. The parsnip is a clever touch, that lends a little more down-to-earth practicality to a figure usually portrayed as more ethereal. I prefer my gods and goddesses represented as something reachable.
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lol why is stopping to think how your actions affect others a bad thing? That "Catholic guilt" keeps me from being half the jack*** I'd be if I weren't Catholic! I need it a little more than most people though. ^^
Man, I wish I could apply that to textures like you did here. Beautiful lines, composition, sweet subject... but oh, those textures! The time investment in the robe was worth it. (Well. To the viewer, at least.)
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Isn't guilt when you have already done something bad? I don't understand how you can feel guilty before you've done anything...
Maybe it's a catholic thing, that I'll never understand lol
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Well, there are sins of omission. "For what I have done and for what I have failed to do," and all. But if you're stopping to think about other people (instead of *just* yourself) ahead of time and you're not screwing anyone over, there's no cause to feel guilty!
When I think of being Catholic, I think of the art, the music, the family, the traditions, and a sense of wonder that maybe there really is a Creator of the Universe who thinks people are the best things He's ever made. Usually the people who focus on the "guilt" are either a) not Catholic, b) screwed over by someone who used a power structure to control others (and people will do that with religion, sex, government, clubs, DA, anything!) or c) stuck in a bad spot in their life that's going to need some maneuvering to get out of. Any way you look at it, they need hugs.
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A goldfinch flew into my window this morning. 
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Cool, I like goldfinch! They eat thistle. They're yellow. They're cute.
Erm, I do have a question regarding catholicism though...
In a discussion about religions and stuff, I once said that I didn't have the same references/cultural background as many people, because I didn't have judeo-christian education. And someone replied "That's good, so you don't have guilt issues". Then I read your comment about guilt.
What's with christianity and guilt? Is it encouraged in this religion? Guilt for what?
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According to the Old Testement humanity was stained with sin when Adam and Eve were tossed out of Eden for doing what God said not to. So all of us, as their descendants were stained with that sin and there's nothing we can do to remove it. Well, until Jesus Christ came along and died on a cross to remove our sins. Now all we have to do is accept that version of salvation, regularaly confess our sins, and we can go to heaven.
Understanding Christianty helps if know that in the time when it arose and became popular the world was in massive upheaval, with the aincient, stable civilizations being uprooted, then the civilizations that uprooted them being uprooted, and then the whole thing being run down by hoades of screaming barbarians. People thought they were in the End Times, nothing could every be better in this life, God was punishing us, so we needed to repent so we could have bliss in the afterlife.
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ok... still looks weird to me lol 
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A bit, we're kinda told since we're kids that we have to constantly ask for forgiveness because we sin all the time. The whole 'No one is perfect' thing, with added hellfire if you don't repent.
I'm not Christian BTW, I was raised one though.
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wow... is it normal if I find it very negative? I wonder why so many people are christian if it promote such thoughts...
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LOL it would be kind of negative if that was all there was to it, huh?
It's like coloring line art. Recognizing your sins and shortcomings is like the shadows. They're only really effective next to the highlights of accepting forgiveness (which involves acknowledging "There's a few bad things about me, but I have all these good things about me!") and then your main color layer of being proactive about being a helpful member of all your social circles (family, neighborhood, parish, nation, world).
"Sin" is spiritual poetry for "harming others", so it's definitely a good thing to work on being less of a jerk and being better at taking care of others! If all you're doing with your Catholic religious practice is thinking about the stuff you did wrong, you're having an incomplete thought, lol.
It's a traditional cultural "quality control" process. 
NOTE: Don't be a Catholic unless you wanna. Just because I love it doesn't mean anyone else has to.
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Mostly it's because they were raised in that environment so that's what they go with. That and a lot of people convert for various reasons; fear, genuine belief, massive life changing event. But a lot of Christians are Christians because that's what they were raised as and indoctrinated into while they were still impressionable. It sticks really well.
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Based on the people I know as an ex-Catholic christian myself: Either they get become the people who promote the feel-good stuff (Jesus loves you for who you are! Just ask his forgiveness and he will accept you no matter what!) and try their best to ignore the hellfire... OR they become holier-than-thou (we're both sinners... But I repented and you didn't, so now Jesus will save ME and not YOU, therefore I am justified in treating you however I want). There are a lot of very nice Christians, but some of the mean ones make me wonder how they've gone so long without bombing some buildings (women's clinics notwithstanding).
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I guess in your world vegeterians are considered eviler than the carnivorous people?
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These pseudo-religious images of yours are lovely.
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It's beautiful! But what is the significance of the finches and parsnip?
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The pencil work on the robes is amazing - well worth the effort!
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The robe is stunning, and the time you spent on the texture was definitely worth it!
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I like her expression, it's very enigmatic. The effort you put into the robe's shading and texture really shows, too.
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