Welcome to Thursday Coffee Hour. This is an open topic thread so help yourself to the goodies and sit a spell and let us know what is new in your life. I have a couple of leads on where to promote my art so I’ve been updating all my old art on my website with new models and textures. I want everything to look as good as possible. I did a series in 2006 called the Guardian series where I tied everything together with the same dragon and rainbows. I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could do a series that was artistic and symbolic and united together. It wasn’t easy to do but the more I got into it the more I enjoyed creating it. The dragon was really a pretty clunky model and could not be posed. So I just finished updating the whole series. These are the Guardians of the Concepts. These were the most challenging of the whole series to do because I was taking abstract concepts and trying to make them into a concrete picture. See previous diaries for the Guardians of Time, Elements, and Seasons. I’ve included my comments on the pictures from my website.
Guardian of Childhood
(Childhood should be a magical time in our life.)
Guardian of Courage
(This one was inspired by one of my favorite songs The Impossible Dream from Man of La Mancha and the courage it took for Don Quixote to cling to his sense of honor in the face of ridicule.)
Guardian of Dreams
(I wanted symbols of things I actually dream about including the fantasy of castles and unicorns. It also encompasses my love of space and the belief in love itself. The dragon has a helper in this one with the Native American dream catcher.)
Guardian of Freedom
(The great painter Norman Rockwell did a series of four pictures called the four freedoms. They are freedom of religion, freedom from want, freedom of speech, and freedom from fear. This is my tribute to his art and to the principles this country was founded on.)
Guardian of Health
(One of the most important things we can do for ourselves is take care of our health. If you don’t have your health you can’t enjoy life to its fullest.)
Guardian of Knowledge
(I really liked the way the dragon is coming out of the book. It is my favorite of the series.)
Guardian of Peace
(This picture taught me not to doubt myself. I wanted to do a picture for peace but doubted it could be done. Instead I realized I had the olive branch, dove, and a symbol of the Buddhist religion and their emphasis on peace.)
Guardian of Treasure
(There is many kind of treasure in addition to jewels and pearls and things like that. There is the treasure in love of family and friends, the love and loyalty of a pet. There is the love of a child. There is the beauty in music, and great craftsmanship. There is the beauty of nature and the abundance of its harvest. There is beauty in the arts and in good books.)
