I'll trawl the internet for hours on end to find that one little thing I need for a specific project. I agonise over writing. I once decided to create a world and wanted a fairly realistic map - so I mapped out everything from prevailing weather zones to climate areas to tectonic plates to ocean currents.
| © WCD - Beautiful Eve |
Sometimes, though, I want to make something that's allowed to be NQR. The above image is called Beautiful Eve; more correctly it's Beautiful Eve in the Wilds of Eden, but that's way too long to keep typing.
The entire point to Beautiful Eve is to get out an idea I've had in my head for some time. I'm fascinated by the Book of Genesis in the version of the Bible I'm familiar with (which is probably either the King james or the Good News Bible, I dunno, really), despite not being Christian. I made many small pieces of 'art' when I was in University and the urge to continue this hasn't really faded per se, I've just been doing other things.
I'm also fascinated with things such as behavioural evolution theory and, frankly, I don't really get why people seem so damn down on it. I've seen it denigrated, belittled and even dismissively and unfavourably compared to 'real science', often by people who aren't scientists of any kind. In any case a book I've read recently spawned a gaggle of ideas for images; this adaptation of one scene from Eve's story is only one of them.
Note that I'm not out to insult anyone. It's just a picture.
But here's a short quote from the book in question (not the Bible, the other one), that had an influence on this image:
"Turns out, the Garden of Eden wasn't really a garden at all. It was anything but a garden: jungle, forest, wild seashore, open savannah, windblown tundra. Adam and Eve weren't kicked out of a garden. They were kicked into one."This quote comes from Sex At Dawn by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jétha, subtitled 'the prehistoric origins of modern sexuality'. It continues to point out that a garden is cultivated, controlled, dominated land, and the Garden of Eden portrayed in the Bible is anything but. It's also well accepted that land cultivation - agriculture - occurred well after the Original Lovers got booted out of paradise, so when you think about it the concept of Eden being any kind of garden is a bit... well, let's just say it's likely a poetic use of the term 'garden'.
The image of a beautiful Eve, about to bite into a juicy apple, is one that's haunted my mind for some time. I doubt this is the last time I'll portray the scene. I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out, though. I see her as fresh-faced and wide-eyed, innocent of the cruelties and callous attitudes we modern humans take for granted, yet a confident and sexually aware young woman in control of her own quite appealing body.
This Eve is no child, nor any kind of fool, yet she has next to none of the stresses and concerns of our time. She doesn't need money; everything she needs can be found easily. There's no need for modesty when sexuality is as natural as the wind and rain. This is a strong Eve, a bold and curious Eve, nobody's slave or possession.
She's also, as you can see, not white. Black, in fact, though I'm told these days 'black' is a bad (or at least inaccurate) term for people of dark skin. I wouldn't know. In any case she's not Caucasian, as it seems reasonably conclusive that us white folk (is it still okay to call us 'white' even though we're a kind of light pink?) didn't exist until well after Homo sapiens left the African continent. Combining evolution with creation? Yup. As noted above I'm fascinated with both.
All in all, though, I needed to get the image out and after catching myself half a dozen times shaking my head over some tiny detail or other - the pose of a little finger, perhaps, or the distance of a tree from a fern - I decided I'd stop obsessing and just get it done.
So I did, set it to render and had a bath. Two hours later, one picture of Eve in the wilds of Eden!
I hope you enjoy.
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