Knitting and Roses

Since I have no canvas anymore until I can get my hands on a car and get some new I use the time drafting the remaining spheres. What is left? Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Fixed Stars and the Empyrean Heaven. I have a clear picture in mind for all but the Fixed Stars. Even though Saturn has been very tricky my train ride to work once again proved very inspiring.

But I don’t want to reveal too much before I have something on paper. So, let’s talk about two spheres that made it already into my sketch pad – Empyrean Heaven and Jupiter:

Obviously, I was inspired by the Heavenly Rose mentioned in Dante’s Paradiso. The rose appears here not only in its natural shape with the portraits inserted. It also appears once again in its stylised form in the labyrinth. I used the same motive but much smaller in the first picture of the series in the upper left-hand corner.

Oh yes, I combined the Dante inspired motive with an idea of JKR’s Harry Potter series. As we are on the ninth and last Sphere of Paradiso we are also on the last level of Hogwarts, the seventh floor. And here is the Headmaster’s office located. One very prominent feature of this ofice are the talking portraits of the former Headmasters. They sit at the wall of the office like the saints sit in the Heavenly Rose. So, it was only logical to bring both ideas in one pic.

And here we move back a bit to Jupiter. I chose Molly Weasley for this sphere as she fits the idea of a strict but just ruler (and she has almost as many children as Jupiter has moons [insert rolling eye smiley]). As the inhabitants become less human in their shape as we ascent through the spheres of Paradiso I rather use an idea about her than her picture. And as ruling is very similar to knitting (you tie in threads/ people into the position they best fit your plans) her fondness of knitting inspired me to this sketch.

I need to thank the best hand model of the world for providing me with some photos of knitting – my friend Chan. You can see what her hands create on her blog Chan Knits . I hope she doesn’t mind me linking this to her page.

Tags: art, Dante, drafts, Empyrean Heaven, Heavenly Rose, Hogwarts, Jupiter, Knitting