Our visit to Dendera had been amazing...even if the interior had been too dark for me to get any good photos . We'd walked around admiring the carving on the exterior of the building & had expelled our last sigh of "Wow!". As we headed towards the exit there was one last surprise, this beautiful Hathor Head. Once upon a time it would have stood atop a column, but now it graced the ground, so that we could get a close up look at her.
At some stage in her history someone had smashed her nose off, but to me, this did not detract from her beauty. Throughout our month in Egypt & the MANY Hathor likenesses I took photos of, this would prove to be my favourite.
I'm embarrassed to confess that, so struck have I been by the face, it has only been relatively recently that I noticed that there are more Hathor faces on this column, the two others in this photo are in profile!
After my initial sketch of what I saw in the photo, I decided that I wanted to make my piece symetrical, so the easiest way to do that was to draw up half a design to my satisfaction & then trace it onto the other side. Before doing that though, I'd need to work out what I wanted to include in my design. In the 'hair' I'd noticed that some of the carvers chisel marks were still visible, so I decided I'd like to use them to add some textural interest. As I was working, I wrote down colour possibilities & asked myself questions like; would I keep it flat & 2-dimensional or would I giver her some sculpted shadows & form?
I finally liked the look of my half-Hathor, so pulled out an A4 sheet & folded it in half ready to transfer my design onto one half & copy onto the other.
Arghhh! It didn't take long to realize that this was going to be a problem!! It was not physically possible to get all the details that I wanted into half an A4 & produce that design in contemporary reverse applique!! What was I going to do???
Looking at my preliminary drawing, I noticed that the half I'd designed formed a portrait orientation...perhaps I'd stick to half a Hathor on my A4?
I was so engrossed in working this design up, that I let my coffee go cold!
Here's how the cutting back went...
The final result & I'm reasonably happy with it.
I'm very pleased with the choice of fabrics particularly the multi shade gold & blue that form the hair. I'm also glad I listened to my instincts & didn't cut her lips back to gold. Keeping them blue works well & gives a sense of balance.
Unfortunately I had a glitch with one of my fabrics, which means there isnt as much variation in the profile face as I would have liked, & overall, that didn't work well! I'm pleased with the main face though & if I were working this up as a 'real' piece of art, then I'd add some beading.
I couldn't help it....I had to give Hathor the app treatment!!! Here is what I created using the Layout app on my phone.
What fun this art project has been. Next week I'll be revisiting a different location in Egypt & look forward to seeing what inspires my creativity there.
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