Thursday, October 27, 2016

Paisley Flexes Its Muscles

My father is starting cardio rehab, and I asked if he'd like me to watercolor a paisley body part for his recovery. 
He requested a bicep.
Ta-da:


Those red circles and stripes represent skeletal muscle (cross-section and outside views); 
the ochre-and-lavender spiral is the humerus bone; 
the dashes around the edge are striated muscle where it attaches to tendon; other bits are far-abstracted neurons-n-stuff.  

I look up image sources, but I don't plan the pattern out beforehand.
Halfway through, I noticed it started looking like something by Scottish artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868–1928). 

He was from Glasgow, and while the "paisley" pattern originates in the east (Persia, India...), in the west it's named after the textile-producing town of Paisley, near Glasgow, where "from roughly 1800 to 1850, using Jacquard looms, the women of Paisley adapted the traditional design primarily by weaving woollen shawls" 
Here's one of the original Paisley designs on paper, based on the Kashmir cypress cone, from here.


5 comments:

ArtSparker said...

Wonderful!

The Crow said...

Your paisley is beautiful. Something about it makes me think "Golden Mean."

The shape is meditative, like walking a maze or labyrinth. Wonder what might happen if your father were to trace its shape and designs within with his finger, as if letting his mind walk through the restorative nature of meditation. My therapist and I were talking about the healing and calming effect of drumming (listening to music in general), about playing the rhythms of your heartbeat until you've lost yourself (then found your center again).

I like the idea of creativity as a healing force.

The Crow said...

PS: Victorian fractals!

Fresca said...

SPARKER: Thanks!

CROW: And thank you, too! I'm glad you like it---and I love the idea of it being a finger labyrinth. Not my father's sort of thing, but definitely mine. And Victorian fractals---fun idea!

OOoh---drumming, yes! I heard a drummer explain that "drum-drum-drum is" the first sound we ever hear: the sound of our mother's heartbeat.
Powerful.

I do experience creativity as a healing force, without doubt.

bink said...

I see what you mean about it being related to the CR Mackintosh piece. I definitely see the muscle and fibers in his piece now in comparison with yours.

I still love seeing a Van Gogh landscape in yours.