Allison Davis

  Untitled Digital Painting But one of Turner’s favorite reds may well have been cinnabar— which he used in its manufactured form, vermilion, and which Pliny described as the result of an epic struggle by an elephant and a dragon. These two troublemakers were always fighting, Pliny recounted, and the battle eventually ended with the dragon—evidently a rather snaky one—wrapping its coils around its heavy enemy. But as the elephant fell it crushed the dragon with its weight and they both died. The merging of their blood made cinnabar. Finlay, Victoria. Color (p. 178). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.  This short tale was entirely new to me when I read it. It created a vivid image in my mind, and as someone who loves folklore and fairytales, I was drawn to creating an illustration for this story. Untitled Acrylic paint on body, photographed T he British tend to think of woad as a war paint—a symbol of the fierceness of Ancient Britons before the Romans conquered the...

  This piece, entitled All Six, consists of six pairs of fabric slippers. Each one represents a member of my immediate family. My youngest sibling is in high school and he has the shoe size of an adult man. I chose to depict our shoes as child sized, since I still cling to the image of my siblings as small kids, no matter how old we get. Downtown Saint Augustine is the landscape for this piece as it's a place full of fond memories of my family coming to visit me during my time at Flagler. While we never came to Saint Augustine as children, that childlike image of us, as we explored the city with our parents for the first time is one I hold dear. While this is my personal connection to the work, I also wanted to create a certain level of anonymity with the empty shoes, that could represent anyone from tourists roaming through the city, to a loved one you once walked with, but now only have memories of. The bottom of each shoe and closeup of stitching. My Mom walking on the fort. My ...

Seraph is a decorative textile mask made to resemble descriptions of Biblical angels, specifically seraphim. These angels had six wings and hundreds of eyes all over their bodies. What would be a horror to behold in reality became imagery that I found comforting. Their etherial holiness and otherworldly androgyny is what draws me most to biblical angels. They're beautiful horrors I wish I could embody, which is why I chose to create a wearable piece. Early concept sketches This was my first try creating a wing with wire in it, so the final wings could be posed. Depiction of biblical Cherub (left) and Seraph (right). Both served as inspiration with the eyes and wings.

  Near the famous cedars, high up on the slopes of Mount Lebanon, I picked up two Belgian hitchhikers. “We’ll get our luggage,” they said, and went inside their hotel to emerge with dozens of cases, and what looked like a huge hatbox. We filled the car. Alain was a butterfly collector looking for the rare Mount Lebanon Blue butterfly, and his wife Christina—now hidden under the bags—was there because he had promised her that they would stay in hotels rather than tents. Butterfly collectors were peculiar people, Alain said: “We like to camp in nature, wash in mountain streams and wake up early, just to see one specimen that is not dissimilar to another specimen.” Christina concurred with an element of resignation. “I don’t like to go: it’s boring and they drink too much,” she said. Finlay, Victoria. Color (p. 379). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

Madder Darker shade left overnight, while lighter shade was only about half an hour. The stitching on the darker one didn't do anything when dyeing which was a disappointment but the color is gorgeous. Onion Skins  Both left overnight. The shibori fold on the left was made using paper airplane folds on fabric. Marigold The stitching done on the plain yellow didn't have an effect, but it did create a lovely texture. The pattern on the lighter yellow was made by wrapping and bunching the fabric around a PVC pipe. Indigo The top left one is indigo over turmeric. The original turmeric came out mostly white and disappointing, but the indigo overlaid made an interesting water kind of effect. Logwood There's another dye used for the pinks but I can't remember what the name is. I'll have to go back and add that in. These were all made using different folding techniques and two were wrapped around a PVC pipe. I wish I could get that interesting pattern from the PVC consisten...

  The British tend to think of woad as a war paint—a symbol of the fierceness of Ancient Britons before the Romans conquered the country nearly two thousand years ago. Finlay, Victoria. Color (p. 340).  some historians have suggested that Caractacus may not have needed to paint himself from a fermenting woad vat because he was already permanently painted.  (p. 343).  (black on pale skin tends to go blue), (p. 344)

 Feeling uninspired with my initial landscape concepts, I've revisited the idea in hopes of coming up with something more inspiring.      The Oldest House Museum is the site of the longest continually lived on plot of land in town and has a rich history. Because of the number of structures built and destroyed at the site over the years, what is now the home's backyard used to have an outhouse, a different shaped fence, and possibly other structures that no longer exist. I think it would be interesting to plot out with fabric where these former structures stood. It would take a lot of yardage but I could sew shorter pieces together to get the length and shapes I'd need. It would take some communicating with the Oldest House Museum team and getting their permission but if they'd allow it, I'd like to pursue this idea.      Another concept relates to creating pieces referring to each of the homes residents at one time. The oldest permanent structure on th...

  After a few seconds in my hand the bits I had touched were bruised—after being pressed in my Spanish pocket dictionary for more than a year the whole flower is now almost diaphanous. “It’s like the wedding gown of a prostitute,” a Spaniard once said, and I don’t disagree. Finlay, Victoria. Color (pp. 247-248). Random House Publishing Group.

  Ancient Egyptians used it to dye mummy wrappings and to turn their ceremonial ointments an oily orange. They valued it so much that they put garlands of safflowers entwined with willow leaves in their relatives’ tombs, to comfort them after death. Finlay, Victoria. Color (pp. 193-194). finding that if he fed pigeons on madder their bones would become red in a spread that was consistent with the theory that it was the calcium which was holding the color. Finlay, Victoria. Color (p. 204). If a mouse enters the hive then the bees will kill it. But because its body is too large for little insects to shift, and because they don’t want it to stink up their home, they mummify it in propolis. Finlay, Victoria. Color (pp. 208-209). Throughout the chapter, the themes of death and preservation kept catching my attention. The death of cochineal beetles discussed in the red chapter directly resulted in the presence of red pigment. Unlike cochineal, the materials to produce orange aren't the d...

But one of Turner’s favorite reds may well have been cinnabar— which he used in its manufactured form, vermilion, and which Pliny described as the result of an epic struggle by an elephant and a dragon. These two troublemakers were always fighting, Pliny recounted, and the battle eventually ended with the dragon—evidently a rather snaky one—wrapping its coils around its heavy enemy. But as the elephant fell it crushed the dragon with its weight and they both died. The merging of their blood made cinnabar. Finlay, Victoria. Color (p. 178). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.   

  Olivia Rampaige Natalie Hall Amanda Louise Spayd The Map Is Not The Territory Charmed Kate Clark Eldritch and its origins. The word eldritch is associated with things that are non human or otherworldly. Sometimes charming, sometimes horrifying, but always surreal. The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows  is a website and  YouTube  channel, created by John Koenig, that coins and defines  neologisms  for emotions that do not have a descriptive term. Anemoia - n. nostalgia for a time you’ve never known Rigor Samsa  -  n. a kind of psychological exoskeleton that can protect you from pain and contain your anxieties, but always ends up cracking under pressure or hollowed out by time—and will keep growing back again and again Ambedo -  n. a kind of melancholic trance in which you become completely absorbed in vivid sensory details Onism -  n. the frustration of being stuck in just one body, that inhabits only one place...

  Claire Brooks Czech Marionettes Yumi Okita Beth Hart Samantha Hensley Ancient Dunes Nature Trail Sue Schoeller Janet Echelman The parking lot behind the Saint Augustine Belk's