Backtrack: Voices

Voices is one of those words in the English language that has a few different meanings. A voice is something that many people have. It is what we speak and sing with. A voice is also similar to an opinion in that those with a voice in politics have a say in politics. Someone can give voice to their thoughts and actors can do a voice over.

The challenge was to just see what kind of art you could come up with using the word voices as your inspiration. Voices could inspire in you the desire to show the actual voices of people like word balloons or with an expression of color. You could give voice to the down trodden or to animals. You could create the voice of inanimate objects or imaginary creatures. In poetry I have heard of an down a couple of Voice Poems in which you assume the personality of an object or creature such as a rocking horse, or a Popple, or a Kangaroo and write your poem in that voice.

There are many things you can do with a voice, and when I tackled this exercise, I decided I wanted to use the phrase "Raise up thy Voice". Raise up thy Voice inspires in me visions of people singing or praying or praising. People raise up their voices when they speak out or laugh. I wanted to express a solitary individual in prayer, and I wanted to do it symbolically.

In my artwork I wanted man or mankind to be expressed as a single reflective sphere. The sphere is for man as a whole individual. Mankind is a single unit that is contained within itself. Man in a perfect form might be a sphere so that we have no hard edges. I wanted it to reflect in order to express the idea that we take on the characteristics of those around us. We adapt in some small part, even if only on the surface, a façade to fit in. Whether it is with clothing, speech, or similar activity we act like a unit.

The second part of my artwork was the water rippling reflection below the figure. This is my incorporation of water into the mixture. Water is the life of man. We are mostly water and without water we would die. It is also the reflection of how we see the world around us. We view the outside world with ourselves in mind. We see ourselves and our actions in the world around us as a reflection of ourselves and our actions. With leads me to the third part of my art the action with is the voice. The voice the flattest part of the image. The voice exists in its own dimension of sound. It emanates upward like a pleading prayer to a greater power.

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