I still have in my mind the idea of updating my blog more often. With my website incoming, I would love to leave my blog for more personal stuff about my work and ideas, so let's see if this time is the good one, and this can happen properly!
Recently, I had to do a presentation of Magic Mirror as final project for an entrepreneurs course that I've been attending during the past month. I have to say that it helped me a lot to clarify my ideas and put some order in my thoughts and work priorities, plus it gave me a new insight and momentum to re-take Magic Mirror with new ideas and energy. I had to talk in front of the other students about what is this doll thing I do, about the origin of the whole project and it's further development.
And I thought, it could be a great idea for a blog post, to talk you about the thoughts and facts behind Magic Mirror, and the why's and the who's of it all. Just in case someone is terribly bored and wants to read a bit of dolly disgression XD.
So let's start on the beginning: why Magic Mirror?
If you ever have wondered about my logo, and the name of the project; well, of course, it has a story behind it:
The two M's stand not only for Magic Mirror, but also for Marta Mora, which are my name and surname. I always liked the graphism and the symmetry of the M letter. Also, mirrors are really special for me since I'm a child. I find them alluring and terrifying. I could stare at my reflection and the world behind it for hours, trying to catch glipmses of anything strange. I was convinced that one day, I would see the girl in the mirror moving on her own, or something out of place crossing behind her. I had amazing dreams and terrible nightmares about it, believe me!
In many cultures and mythologies, mirrors are windows to another world, the parallel one where everything is the same but reversed; a darker reflection of ourselves, where nothing is as we remember. As Alice herself crossed the Mirror in the second part of her tale, or the Evil Queen in Snowhite lived enslaved to the perfection of her own image, mirrors are objects of wonder and magic, and a perpetual source of stories and legends. The mirror of the Preste Juan, Vasilisa's Silver Plate, The Reflecting Pond... there is something inherently magical about seeing yourself. I could talk about for hours, but I want to keep this moderately short, so let's keep going ; )
So, Magic Mirror entered my mind naturally as a good name for a project where I project and reflect myself, as I do with my dolls. Because BJD's have always been for me a surface where I also, somehow, see myself projected. My inner ideals of beauty, my aesthetic preferences, and the ideas that I could had in my mind in every stage of these eleven years of passion, first as a collector and owner, and later on, as a maker. And as much as they reflect me, they also reflect their owners. I absolutely adore to see my dolls being played with, being customized and becoming little mirrors displaying the inner self of those who purchased them. It is such a hard to explain feeling, to see my creations supporting the ideas of others, transmutating into small homunculi carrying someone's dreams. Is pure magic. And sometimes, moves me to tears, I fool you not.
Fairytales and Celtic mythology will be another blog entry soon; but if you have been following me for a while, I guess that by now you'll have noticed the strong influcence that lies beneath my whole work related to that. I decided to inspire and decorate in ancient north-european imaginery and designs, fascinated since a child with the intrincate viking and celtic patterns and knot-designs. Then, when I had to decide about the colors, my choices were obvious. I wanted something pale, shiny, positive, summery, and something colder, darker and wintery, to express both sides of the mirror. We will talk further about the meaning of opposite colors and how it's related to me, but I will drop you a little spoiler: In european mythologies, Fairies, specially celtic-inspired ones have two courts: The Summer Court, whom would reign from Beltane (2nd of May) to Samhain (1st of November), and the Winter Court. Those are also called Seelie and Unseelie fairies, corresponding to all that is opposite and complementary in nature. Light and Shadow, Thunder and Earth, Male and Female, Winter and Summer, Good and Evil. Both sides of ourselves, two sides of a coin, and perpetually cycling, as nature does.
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| Morrigan and Brigid, Goddesses of Light and Shadow |
So that's why my two M's reflect each other, are a positive and a negative, and represent the dual nature of fairies, the two sides of the mirror. I tend to work with pale purple, since it's my favourite color and reminds me about my childhood with my grand father, walking the large fields of spanish lavanders at the mountains near Madrid; or the fragant bunches of lilacs that my granny would bring home when they were in season. White and Lilac are for me the colors of spring and light. For the same reason, I choosed dark green and black for the winter's colors, reminding me of the dark pine trees, the holly leaves of the vernal season, and the nightsky. So you will notice, if you inspect my work closely, that these motifs appear a lot in everything I do, and belong to my imaginery and iconography (which I think that gives me enough for another blog entry, talking about the designs I choose and why!)
...“But that is another story and shall be told another time.”
Michael Ende
Thank you very much for your time, and I hope you enjoyed reading! Now you know me and my dolls a bit more.
Until we meet again!
Nany
