Personal Cave

Caves weigh heavily on human spirituality. The first art—the first human response to nature—began in cave painting and scultpure. Thus in my experience, caves are the incubators of the creative impulse; they are wombs of humanity. This projection is a personal cave. It fits at my desk, where my creative work occurs. Though not visible in the projection, there are dark background cave formations that help to extend the space. The work is a reminder of the origin, purpose, and function of the creator in the world. In addition, this work is meant to accentuate the space. My desk is under a lofted bed, so I work in a sort of figurative,shallow, forced cave. Though I find the space confining and lonely, painting it as a cave gives it the significance it can’t generate by its self. There is also a sense of weight in the piece, as the sitter must be perfectly still to accurately bear the weight of the cave formation as time passes. In subtext, I wanted to add an element of burden, eternity, and waiting to the cave.

This project gave taught me the value of Keystone. The tool was invaluable for positioning the image, as I had a technical difficulty with the frame displaying a white border. Box2d was an interesting experience, if a little difficult to transition into. Visually I want to deepen this project with a visible background and add cave paintings to reinforce content. I want to make it dynamically sense the sitter, so that the water drops can react to a person in motion.