Fantasy Dome

With these two pieces I drew inspiration from the works of Rodnew Matthews, who created digital 3D fantasy works with post-apocalyptic themes and someone who’s work I really appreciated when I was younger. The first piece is a display of shading technique showing a civilization living in massive cliffs above the abyss with exotic plants in the foreground. The hand incorporated in the center of the structure is an anti-fascist symbol designed by visual artist John Heartfield for the Communist Party of Germany. It was originally a photo of a worker's hand to show the power of 5 fingers working together to defeat the enemy, inspired by an album cover of a band I like. In this work it is the showcased potential and beauty of humanity’s ingenuity that falls under this symbol. This piece inspires hope and prosperity. The model itself, made with an initial hemisphere shaped around a balloon with clay, plaster and wire mesh forming the protuberances around the center, is a further expansion of this idea to take the concept from a 2D to 3D view of the dome as the centerpiece of my work. Additionally, I took the concept of the "worker's hand" a step further to not only represent the pinnacle of human accomplishments and internal potential we each carry within ourselves, but also a darker side to that with a spider-like shape forming that outlines the constraints of such a world. It mainly carries the message of advocating for anti-regime and suppression that is often associated with massive projects and megastructures throughout humanity's history as both a reminder about past mistakes and propagate a better way onward.