If you're a kid of the 1990's you'll now doubt have seen the 1992 The Muppet Christmas Carol at least every Xmas throughout your entire childhood 😂. It was written in our contracts at birth after all. We had to watch and be amazed at all things Jim Henson or lose our classification as "best generation ever" 😂. Growing up, some people (kids and adults alike) would read The Christmas Carol book written by Charles Dickens and be just as amazed by the beautiful prose therein. For me, however, I wasn't a fan of "holiday stories" simply because they were boring to me (still kinda are😂)😂. I also hadn't known then that it was even a book (same is true for other films from the 90's like Jurassic Park😂.). And, after having done a little digging on the 1992 film, according to The Observer , The Muppet Christmas Carol was "the first Muppet project released after Jim Henson’s passing, was directed by Henson’s son, Brian Henson" (Penne, The Observer).
Now, you may be asking, what in Michelangelo's David does The Muppet Christmas Carol and the Henson's have to do with MMP? Well I'm glad you asked! First, I do plan on making a MMP of Jim Henson one day😂. Next, there's a scene in The Muppet Christmas Carol that helped to inspire this abstract illustration. Just as with the other abstract illustrations I made for this challenge, the events of Covid-19 were main inspirations throughout, but they each have their little extra inspirations too. Below is the scene/song from The Muppet Christmas Carol that came to mind while designing this piece.
Marley and Marley from The Muppet Christmas Carol
We all feel burdned by these invisible weights, these invisible chains, that weigh us down and bind us to things/places/people that we wish we could be free of. We all have chains we wish to be free of. Listening to Statler and Waldorf (the Marley brothers) sing about how they formed their chains through their misdeeds in life, and watching as the chains and locks weigh them down, choke them and eventually drag them back to the underworld - the entire scene is a perfect representation of how we all feel, especially as we get older and attempt adulthood. Be we children or adults, we feel the weight of the world around us, feel the pressures of responsibilities and obligations set atop our shoulders by those we know and do not.
Before I tackled this piece digitally, I tried to make it traditionally, however it was a little more difficult as I didn't have the exact colors to match for the challenge😂. So the mood didn't feel exactly right. So, I took a photograph of the traditional piece, then digitized it using Clip Studio Paint (CSP).
For the traditional mock up I used graphite pencils, pastels, charcoal, ink, markers and watercolors. The model is actually a reference to a character I made for a storyboard project, The Cards We Play, that was dubbed DNA Man. He was meant to represent both sides of the coin, so to speak. Where, no matter the issue, both sides suffer the exact same invisible chains that weigh and bind us and, therefore, makes us all the same. I did find it a tad bit more intimidating to do abstract traditionally, just because I was worried about messing up and wasting materials 😂. But I'm always like that with traditional art, no matter the style, simply because art supplies be expensive!!😭😂
Below is the digitized version, which of COURSE looks way better than my traditional attempt😂. I was happy to have been able to find a chain link brush through CSP's platform, because I really wasn't looking forward to making chain links like before😂. They'd look just as bad as the first time for sure!😂
Well MMP Fans, those were my Freedom Chains. Hopefully you're not "captive/bound/[or] double-ironed/[and] exhausted by the weight" (Marley and Marley) of your own chains. I hope you liked this intricate abstract work of digital art! Whether it's good or not, I'll never know, mostly because I still don't know what is good abstract art and what isn't.😂 I recommend giving abstract a try, if you haven't already, especially if your mental health is being, well, MeNtAl 😂. If you do decide to give abstract a try, tag me on social media so I can see YOUR creations! And please feel free to let me know YOUR thoughts on these Freedom Chains. If you would like to challenge me, please check out my Contact Me page, or, if you'd like to purchase one of my works or a work of your own design, check out my Commission page.
Till next time MMP Fans!