Untitled

I've been thinking about doing a picture like this one for some time now, and when I got started it didn't take me more than a couple of hours to finish. The result isn't exactly what I had in mind, as I wanted the shell to mutate into an old smiling man with a beard and not a screaming woman, but I guess it's close enough.

The inspiration for this picture I got partly from a dream (a really weird one!) and partly from some equally weird new age video that I watched by accident on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oSePXRbW9o). The video itself is kind of wacky until about 3 minutes into it, but I guess it's worth a look ( if you're as spaced out as I am you might even enjoy it!).

So, what am I trying to express with this screaming woman/seashell? Well, I actually wanted to make a picture that would make people smile - I wanted it to express joy and a feeling of unity with nature (or something equally cheesy), and not weirdness and agony as it does now. But sadly I still seem to be quite uncapable of doing any such thing.

As a sidenote I'd like to mention that I've become quite interseted in Throatsining lateley (especially throatsinging from Tuva), which may also have been something of an inspiration for this picture. Here are some of the songs I listened to while making it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLF7Fl4SXh8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNAKH4KdRY0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYqrWRiS204
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAd9UhhS61E
Enjoy!