Starling: In The Dark
Understanding Light & Shadow In Our Work and Our Life
Don't Be Afraid...
Explore the artist and topics covered in the show by looking through the notes here. You will also find the weekly Spotify playlist and the link to get some Starling swag to support the show at the end of the information provide.
Let me know what you are discovering in the dark!
This Week's Quote:
“The eye is always caught by light, but shadows have more to say.”
- Gregory Maguire in Mirror Mirror
The American novelist Gregory Maguire has been listening to what shadows have to has to say and made a career of interpreting their stories. Best known for his novel turned Broadway musical, Wicked, Maguire has given humanity to some of literature's most notorious villains. His work is a great example of seeing the whole story, by allowing ourselves to take notice of what is in those dark shadows. By hearing the other side of the story, we get to know motivations that we would have never known in someone had not been willing to listen.
Pliny The Elder
Paintings Inspired by The Myth...
Joseph Benoit Suvee, Invention of Art of Drawing, 1793
Jean Baptiste Regnault, Origin of Painting, 1785
David Allan, Origin of Painting, 1775
Notice The Use of Shadows...
Saint Peter Healing the Sick with his Shadow
Chiaroscuro & Tenebrism
Examples of Work By Carravagio:
David with the Head of Goliath
Conversion on the Way to Damascus
Judith Beheading Holofernes
Shadow in Film:
Silhouettes
Examples of Kara Walkers Silhouettes
African/American , 1998
Exodus of Confederates from Atlanta
The Emancipation Approximation (Scene from)
Recommended Practices:
- Welcome the darkening of the light with some quiet reflection. This is a good time to enjoy meditation and moments of silence in the dark. Either in the morning or as night falls, don’t rush to turn on lights and push the dark away. Let it linger and see what insights it might offer you. Listen to what the shadows have to say.
- Does being in the dark make you uncomfortable? Why or why not? What are you projecting into that darkness? It is your own unconscious projections that scare you in the shadows. Being aware of what scares you is an important part of overcoming fears.
- Maybe see how long you can sit in the dark and see what makes you feel you need the light this week.
- Maybe write a story about what you have projected into the dark, or draw it, or make a song about it.
- Work on some shading. Notice how light and shadow create form by drawing some things, and getting those really dark parts shaded. Maybe consider working with high contrast. Look at the works of Carrivagio and other artists that use chiaroscuro and tenebrism for inspiration. Perhaps using light and shadow to create a new work.
- If you are not a visual artist play with contrasts in your artform that allows you to find power in knowing different ends of the spectrum.
- Cast some shadows and work with them. Here you could create silhouettes of people you love or set up objects and look at what shadows they create. Trace shadows and see where that leads you. Play with the light source and how that changes the shape and shade of the shadow.
- Create a shadow puppet theater. Using your hands or cut paper create a story with shadows.
- Sit with ideas you don’t like, allow them to expose your own bias. Through looking at ideas that make us angry or uncomfortable we can start to see where we are needing to grow as well.
- Literally creating in the dark is an interesting way to get new ideas and to develop other senses a bit. Turn off the lights, draw without being able to see what you are doing and let the movement guide you. When you see it in the light it might give you new styles or ideas to consider.
- Take some black and white photos that notice the patterns of shadows, create film clips that notice shadows.
- Anything you can do that invites an understanding of how what we see as opposites makes a whole seems relevant for practice this week. Notice how we understand everything through its relationship to it’s opposite. Consider that about yourself…