Little worlds

I have always been immersed in stories of fantasy, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien including The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings which were some of the first novels I read. I embraced them and they led me to become very familiar with that genre. In my search for personal expression I find myself once again being drawn to the works of Tolkien. In a 1939 lecture entitled On Fairy-Stories, he discussed fantasy and fairy tales providing validations for the importance of the fantasy genre. He also identified three values required for Fantasy: Recovery, Escape, and Consolation. He defined these in a literary convention. I am translating them into a visual one. This paper discusses how I came to the decision to synthesize the literary convention of Fantasy with the Visual arts. It posits how experience is an essential part of this synthesis. How the replacement of a monetary value with the value of a gift allows the experience to transcend from the exhibition space to the home. It discusses the importance I place on the atypical viewer of fine arts and why I made this body of work specifically for them.
This paper discusses how I used the formal elements of design to create an aesthetically pleasing sculpture that continually reinforces the conceptual basis of fantasy as a visual art and how it works together to create a new and engaging environment; a microcosm of a second world where the mind can wander. It is how I combine my two intense interests – fantasy art in concept and fine art in construction.