My mask concept starts with my problem in finding masks that correspond with my heritage. Despite quite a few searches, I couldn’t seem to locate any traditional Irish or Celtic masks. While I am only 75% Irish, this would be the heritage I identify most with. Given that I couldn’t find any Irish masks, I turned to another aspect of my identity, my sexuality, for inspiration. In particular, I looked at masks related to bondage and s&m, both being closely tied (no pun intended?) to the queer community.
I found some of these masks to be particularly beautiful. Given that they tend to lack interest in terms of color, or material, they are frequently about the relation of body and shape and nothing more. I enjoy using a wide variety of materials, so I won’t be restricting myself to black and leather/vinyl. With that, my collages present explorations in texture and shape. I have avoided color exploration in my collages because it isn’t going to be the starting point for this project. As far as that goes, I was thinking of utilizing an inspirational trip to Astro Gem Gallery as my basis for color inspiration, and possibly some materials. In particular, I’m imagining a mask based on comparisons of real and fake (fools gold vs. gold and many iterations of it in between).
