roya/l/ife

✧ Watching: Kitchen Nightmares (US) ✧

Listening to “Tedium” by DJ Shadow ♫

So I finished my first art piece of 2013 today. This is for Subversive Style class, the first and last class that I am taking for the second time. This first project was also present last year, except I really didn't know what I was doing and I ended up making something that left me feeling really disappointed. So this second time around, I felt like I had to prove myself. Basically it's a tattoo design and it has to have some sort of bearing towards yourself.

I don't know if I've publicly said it other than on my personal Facebook, but my grandmother on my mom's side passed away in October. The remainder of 2012 was pretty much a struggle for me to find the motivation to finish. Earlier last year I lost another grandmother on my dad's side, and I stumbled upon an obituary in the basement during the time between October and the end of 2012. Let's just say I felt a strong emotional connection to the both of them.

Actually I haven't drawn anything relating to my Ghanaian heritage since high school. So I felt even more compelled to go back to that and more than anything, I felt like making a piece based around my grandmother would help me through this tough time. It's gotten easier with the obvious distraction of senior year of college.

Basically my motivation with this tattoo design was to combine my love for fashion (those sunglasses and those patterns in the background — my mom is really fashionable too, so there's that as well), my grandmother (sitting pose — my family has several pictures of her sitting in a chair like this — that and apparently we're "royalty", hence the title), and my Ghanaian heritage (border lines harking back to symbols, textile pattern based on cloth my family actually has here, and eggs).

One symbol, among the many I don't know, that I actually remember is the egg, which means life. With each day that I live, I appreciate it more: life. So if I'd have at least one tattoo, it would be something like this. I've never been to Ghana, so it's been pretty depressing to be far away from half of my family for pretty much 99% of my life. Especially when you're surrounded by people who can easily see both sides of their family: that makes it especially painful. So having a tattoo would bring me that much closer to family "back home".

And wow, I am so sorry for going on and on and on about personal things. But this piece is 100% personal. And I have a feeling I'll cry just thinking of explaining it for critique on Wednesday, goodness gracious.