Saturday, March 30, 2013

10 Biblical disasters to stroke Egypt


This Passover I had a VERY special opportunity to single handed design,illustrate and style an entire exhibit in a Biblical theme of 10 disasters to stroke Egypt
This is my first attempt on setting an art show  which I created all by myself.
 I have been a "part of" exhibits before,but never  till now have created from scratch and set one up  ,so I was extremely excited when I got this offer

I had a very strict budget to work with and the success of the exhibit was depending on my ability to design a great idea and work it to be absolutely great and suit all ages ,genders and religions

I opened my Bible  (one I have since 6th grade -true vintage piece lol ) on Exodus Chapter 7  and sourced all the  disasters to stroke Egypt ...
Then I sketched my ideas and wrote the supplies required to make the whole thing happen
From now on,I had about two weeks to bring my ideas to life

Here is my process-

First stroke to hit Egypt was the BLOOD stroke
I decided to draw a HUGE poster on a foam board and underneath to make a visual display of the Nile full of blood and dead fishes
Actual Biblical references to the Blood Strike were hang above and beneath the illustration


17 thus saith the LORD: In this thou shalt know that I am the LORD--behold, I will smite with the rod that is in my hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.
18 And the fish that are in the river shall die, and the river shall become foul; and the Egyptians shall loathe to drink water from the river.' {S}


Placed some rocks,broken palm branches and evergreen plants that are typical to the area around the blood pool 
Decided to put one of the palm branches in the pool.
In addition, I felt like some" blood"  is needed on the branch itself  [DRAMA]

The pool display has an actual  water coloured with red dye  that continuously flow through a little waterfall down the broken palm branch to the blood pool over and over again
In the bloody pool I had drop some dead fishes (not real ones,of course -I wouldn't want to stink my exhibit :D)...Made them out of paper and laminated them  with the help of my XYRON Creatopia Machine loaded with the Laminate cartridge 
You see only one in the photo,but there are several of them in there :)
I have to say that "blood" display is one of my favourites  ...But let continue to the next strike-

FROGS




And the LORD spoke unto Moses: 'Go in unto Pharaoh, and say unto him: Thus saith the LORD: Let My people go, that they may serve Me.

27 And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs.

28 And the river shall swarm with frogs, which shall go up and come into thy house, and into thy bed-chamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneading-troughs.

29 And the frogs shall come up both upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants.'
This display is the one that attracts the most attention from the visitors!!!

Not because of the extra special styling of the display (well YES because of the styling of course :D)...But the real reason is the sound I've incorporated in the design!!!

I found this great You Tube video that plays sounds of frogs at nigh...Together with the 50+ frogs I scattered around ,the sound made all the difference

Just imagine this sound

 with my setting here-
 It's hard to see,but all these little dots are tiny frogs :)
I do wish I could find bigger frogs...BUT these were the only ones available locally and for my limited budget
The funny thing with this display is people that freeze near the display and start looking for the frogs lol

Next display is the LICE
LOVE...LOVE ...LOVE this one
I drew this one on foam board as well,but this time I cut the figurines off of it

The Egyptian silhouette is standing about 5 cm further then the sphinx 
On the floor are giant louses ,rocks and send

on the rock is the Biblical reference -
13 And they did so; and Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and there were gnats upon man, and upon beast; all the dust of the earth became gnats throughout all the land of Egypt.

Next came the vicious PREDATOR ANIMALS
This strike was drawn and cut off of foam board like the louse one
 The mean alligator 
 The terrified Egyptian




 The display is built from rocks,sand ,Gomma Papyrus plant, my illustrations and LOTS of snakes and scorpions -all to represent the Biblical reference :
17 Else, if thou wilt not let My people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses; and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are.

And now is my second favourite strike-
The HOUSE HOLD ANIMAL PLAGUE
 behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which are in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the herds, and upon the flocks; there shall be a very grievous murrain.

I drew a dead donkey which I fell in love with :D
I don't know why,but he is my absolute FAV illustration from all which I have done for the exhibit 
Drawn and cut off of foam board

my ass looks like a super hero lolol



Exhibit styled with-straw bale, loose straw ,send ,rope and my poor dead donkey illustration


After all the poor animals had die ,God stroke Egypt with  SMALL POCKS
I design this display around a mask my hubby brought from Italy...
It was a blank white mask that for some reason scared me (it looked like Jason to me)
It was laying around my house without any use,until now
This strike was the perfect reason to finally decorate the white scary mask with even scarier look :D

Customizing the mask----







 8 And the LORD said unto Moses and unto Aaron: 'Take to you handfuls of soot of the furnace, and let Moses throw it heavenward in the sight of Pharaoh.
9 And it shall become small dust over all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.'



And when this horrible diseases didn't help,God stroke Egypt with HEAL RAIN
I went with a pretty straight forward approach for this display

18 Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the day it was founded even until now.
19 Now therefore send, hasten in thy cattle and all that thou hast in the field; for every man and beast that shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die.'

Weather disaster didn't helped either,so next came the LOCUST

 Can you spot the locust ??? Well it's there :)
14 And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the borders of Egypt; very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.
15 For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left; and there remained not any green thing, either tree or herb of the field, through all the land of Egypt.


Yet nothing helped ... so God stroke Egypt in the 9th time with ABSOLUTE DARKNESS

This is my vision for the 'thick darkness' as it described in the Bible
And the LORD said unto Moses: 'Stretch out thy hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.'
When nothing helped ,came the most deadly stroke of all-THE DEATH OF ALL EGYPT"S FIRST BORN BOYS
 and all the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the first-born of the maid-servant that is behind the mill; and all the first-born of cattle.
6 And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there hath been none like it, nor shall be like it any more.

I didn't want to visualize this strike to much...I rather decided to build two door frames-one with blood to represent Hebrew household and one door with Egyptian God of death to represent the death in the house...

7 And they shall take of the blood, and put it on the two side-posts and on the lintel, upon the houses wherein they shall eat it.
12 For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD.
13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.


This strike is finalizes my Passover Art Exhibit -hope you liked seeing my journey :)

14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial, and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever. (Exodus)

Happy Passover my friends!!!
bear_hugs

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