#art interpretation

Frida Kahlo, 1945

This is one of my favorite paintings.

At the center, is an abandoned baby. His face resembles Diego Rivera, and he has the third eye of wisdom, a frequent symbol used in Fridas art. Above is a developing fetus, with two seemingly damaged ovaries on either side. On both sides is a representation of cellular division and egg fertilization. Above that is the life giving sun. On either sides of the sun are various gods. On the right are gods from the old world, and on the left are gods from the new world. Below the gods is the hands of death. A barrier between the mortals and immortals. Below are various visionaries, holy men, and evil men. Underneath them are The People. The workers, fathers, mothers, artists, etc. on the left is an Aztec man carving a stone. On the right is an Aztec woman holding and nursing her baby. The sun is reaching out to them with life giving solar energy and wisdom. The hands of the sun rays are a symbol used by Akhenaten during his reign. At the very bottom is two shells, suggesting penetration from the right to the left.

Interestingly, this isn’t necessarily a reflection of her views of the world. This painting was a commission by Don Jose Domingo Lavin. He asked her to read “Moses” by Sigmund Freud, and told her to create a painting based on her immediate impression. In a way, I feel like I can see criticism of the opinions in the book, showing a rigid hierarchy. “Intellectuals” are closer to god, while the “common people” are at the bottom. In fact, they appear to be in hell, with flames engulfing them.

The book claims that Moses was a missionary from Egypt, trying to convert the Jews to monotheism under Akhenaten. He claims that the tribe couldn’t understand “intellectual spirituality” so they killed him. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems to paint monotheism and the conversion of indigenous people in a somewhat positive light. Frida kahlo felt very deeply for the prehispanic cultures of Mexico, and the atrocities committed against them in the name of god, so I can only imagine what she felt about the opinions in that book. I think it says a lot that hitler is included among the “intellectuals” in the painting. And among the people at the bottom are apes and monkeys. Too simple to understand euro-centric “intellectualism”.

'The Sun Bride', alternatively named 'Ophelia in Gold'.

Here Loyalty is depicted moments before the challenge for Apollo's suit set by her mother Athena. The artist adds a long cape made from the pelt of wolves to show both the hopes for lasting growth as wolves are known to become the dogs which embody faithfulness and foreshadow the tragic outcome as Apollo's hopes for marriage will die just like the wolves used to cover his would be bride.

While the Athenide wearing gold before the audience is generally seen as an act of defiance as she declares herself not to share the fate of her sister Rhodes as the sun's consort, some sources state this was instead a sign of favor towards Apollo since truth and loyalty lead to a prosperous marriage. As Apollo lost the challenge and no statement of Perseleia refusing any marriage offer apart from Hercules is preserved, historians can only speculate as to whom the Athenide wished for a husband if she desired one at all. Aristotle was among those who sponsored the rhetoric the Athenide's closeness to Phoebus Apollo was to be held as an example of intelectual kinship overcoming short lived sexual pleasure in exchange for longer lasting friendship that will nourish the spirit with virtue and respect as can be surmised by his quote “Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies” seen in Nicomachean Ethics, book VIII.

What you did is absolutely perfect, healer!reader is designed so that anyone can imagine her physical appearance however they prefer. There’s no fixed or given look for her in the story, aside from a few set traits that might be mentioned here and there (but only as small details).

The patients seeing her as an angel, a beacon of hope for their lives… Even without thinking too deeply about it, you can interpret the image in a way where it’s implied they’re patients before healer!reader uses her powers on them (making it so that, from this poor girl’s perspective, the patients stop being individuals and instead become nothing more than wounds she must heal over and over and over again…).

And yes, what you said about healer!reader is true, she doesn’t see herself as a good person. Being a good person is what she wants to be… believing that being a tool for Masashi is the best way to achieve it.

It’s correct to say that Masashi gives healer!reader all kinds of outfits for when she’s working. Healer!reader herself is completely fed up with all the nurse uniforms she’s had to wear just because of this man’s whims 💔 My girl especially hates it when Masashi gets her too many elaborate outfits and accessories.

Seriously, even more so because Masashi somehow manages to make the nurse outfits heavily inspired by the 90s (1900–1999) while still giving them a more youthful or “childlike” look to suit healer!reader’s tastes. (My girl didn’t hold back when breaking Masashi’s heart by harshly criticizing his fashion sense in some very unfavorable situations 😔 Next time, someone please just punch this man).

I think she wouldn’t dislike the clothes as much if Masashi didn’t get distracted by her whenever healer!reader actually felt like wearing them. This poor girl finds that incredibly irritating.

Don’t worry, I can see the red perfectly (fatigue isn’t going to stop me 😼). It makes me think of how healer!reader also isn’t being rough or harsh in her grip on patients, but because of the pain caused by her own power… no matter how gentle she tries to be, her ability ends up betraying her.

And yes! Healer!reader’s powers work almost exactly like Yosano’s (BSD). She really doesn’t need to physically touch her patients; she just uses her ability to do all the work and heal them in an instant.

Like I mentioned before, her powers work through the use of a needle and threads (as if the patients were nothing more than rag dolls). The more severe the initial injury, the greater the equivalent pain will be.

It’s fitting to say healer!reader always reassures her patients before using her powers. She always says the same promise: It will be quick. And it’s true, the healing process takes only a few short seconds.

The people in the background who wish to be seen are also interesting to analyze. People in such a terrible state that even if they knew about the pain, they would accept any method? After all, that pain is something they’ll only experience once in their lives. Maybe they’re all so used to the pain of being healed in this way, just like she is, making her feel unsettled when she sees that empty yet desperate gaze in their eyes. (Is that really how others saw her?)

Or the fact that healer!reader is shown as an angel while her “blessings” are behind her like monstrosities that must remain hidden, I love everything about this drawing.

When I first saw this, I couldn’t help but think healer!reader is simply an angel who destroys everything she touches. Giving a false sense of hope only to quickly turn it into a horrible despair.

Maybe she even sees herself that way; such a good power in capable hands, yet in hers, it only brings pain and suffering to those she was supposed to save.

If I forgot any detail, then I’m sorry 😭 it’s two in the morning, but when I saw this I really tried to stay strong to reply. This art is just too good, I’m so thankful for all the amazing art my wonderful readers have sent me 😭❤️❤️❤️

Oh my god😭😭 thank yew so much for the kind words i really did try to draw smt ud enjoy recieving🙏

I dont even know what to add you really said everything

Im really reallyy glad to see that you agree with my analysis of your work and that the details added in the drawing inspired you enough to write this comment ^-^ when i recieved this ask i was about to sleep but reading it made me giddy and i was giggling and jumping (litterally) around so much i wasnt even tired anymore😭😭

Your final interpretation (the angel that destroys everything she touches one) reminds me of the term angel of death used in medical fields to describe criminal (specifically ones intentionally harming or killing people) that are employed as a medic of any type and hurting the ones under their care

Healer!reader may not be intentionally causing agony but she is aware that it happens when she uses her ability and still do so anyway..

Lots of thoughts can be thought🤞

TY AGAIN FOR ALL THE NICE WORDS AHHH

For the past few days, one of the lead artists for Project: Eden's Garden has returned to release the remaining "Imitation" Art Pieces that were initially released in March 2023. The intent of the pieces was to depict the characters in vague, and rather abstract ways. The first artbook only featured 9 characters. All of which were the female members of Project: Eden's Garden Cast. Just recently the second Artbook, which now features all 16 students and Cara was featured, and in light of the full Imitation book's release. I will be discussing, analyzing and comparing Damon and Diana's pieces and their answer to 'What are you?' as both books question this for every single entry. In both books, Diana answers with 'A change', and in the complete book, Damon interestingly answers with 'A hope'.

Hope is already one of the existing themes in Eden's Garden's main figure of inspiration, Danganronpa. Yet the way hope is being handled and regarded is different to how it was done in the past. Hope and Change are two words that are often seen as synonymous. Yet are not. They're separate concepts that often intertwine with each other, hope is defined as the feeling and/ or desire of a certain outcome or expectation. Most of the time hope is used with a positive connotation. Especially when a person may want a desirable outcome. Damon's hope can be interpreted that in his journey of becoming the Ultimate Debater, he desires a better life. He wants to stand among Ultimates as reward for working so hard to support him and more so his family. However, what we know of Damon now, is that he's become hardened from his experiences. From how the world has affected him, Damon puts on a cynical, unfriendly attitude around others. He seems to have little hope, if at all. This answer seems to be contradictory on the surface. However, it is reflective of Damon. In his art, we are met with him in his current state. Bleached hair, dressed in the clothes he has most likely worn to debates, and for the game. He is looking at his younger self, who is dressed in a simple outfit. Crouching and petting a cat. This implies that Damon was originally not very well off. His family was impoverished yet in the time Damon sees his younger self, his younger self is happy.

As far as what we've seen in the first chapter, though Free Time Events, Damon supports his family through debate competitions. His earnings directly go to support his family so they'd not worry financially. Eloise and Ingrid's Free Time events touch on this. Putting the piece of art and the answer together, it can be interpreted that Damon, despite enduring so much hopes that things do and will get better. He hangs onto his talent not just that it "defines" him, but also that becoming an ultimate and graduating from Eden's Garden Academy will set him up for a better life and future success.

In the previous and recent artbook, Diana's answer was 'A change'. Change can mean multiple things, especially for a character like Diana. What we know of her, as of now, is that her character is the complete opposite of Damon's stand offish, cynical personality. She is bubbly, social, and kind to everyone around her. In the prologue she was introduced by showing herself comforting Kai, who was notably upset for not recognizing who he was. She only speaks when rushing to the defense of others and when she was spoken to, in the case when Damon asks for her name and talent. Only so much was revealed about Diana, except that she is willingly going out of her way to look after the well beings of others and tries to handle stressful situations by calming the others around her. Later into chapter 1, we still get little revealed about her, so much as that Damon noticed that she openly frets about others, as shown when she rushed to his defense in the beginning of the chapter, and asked of his well being the night before the game tournament. In free time events, Diana struggles to speak about herself. This is noted after Damon attempts to get to know her better. And in the trial, Diana struggles to speak about herself when it came to being accused for Wolfgang's murder. She presents herself as someone who is hopeful by the end of the chapter, although her hope was done in an attempt to emulate Wolfgang, and not a full representation of *herself* as a character. Some theorize that Diana's personality maybe faked or some sort of act. But it's also not likely to be the case, as Diana appears to be a take on the running trend of the character with a beauty of fashioned related talent that has another secret to them. Diana's imitation depicts her, standing in front of a mirror and drawing a heart on a fogged portion of the glass. She, is a reflection of her past self. Likely from Diana's days as a student in high school. But something is amiss.

Despite essentialist conceptions that a cultural artifact is a fixed 'thing in itself,' and that if it isn't grasped, the problem lies with us, approaches like those of Eco or Sontag in the last century understand them as something that carries meaning, but which we contribute to through interpretation. Some authors are unclear due to their choices or limitations in conveying meaning. And then there's David Lynch, who consciously leaves things unexplained so that we are the ones who fit the pieces together, because he understands that his films are not so much a mystery to decipher as an enveloping, mysterious atmosphere containing sequenced events that, as one of my favorite podcasters once said, 'are Lego pieces, and we have to build a movie,' perhaps better than he ever imagined.

A pesar de concepciones esencialistas respecto a que el artefacto cultural es 'algo en si' fijo, y si no se capta el problema somos nosotros, enfoques como los de Eco o Sontag el siglo pasado las entienden como algo que porta pero nosotros ponemos de nuestro parte interpretando. Hay autores poco claros por sus elecciones o limitaciones al trasmitir. Y luego está David Lynch, que a conciencia deja cosas por explicar para que seamos nosotros quienes encajemos las piezas porque entiende que sus películas no son tanto un misterio a descifrar como una atmósfera envolvente misteriosa que contiene unos hechos secuenciados que, como decía una vez uno de mis podcaster de cabecera 'son piezas de lego y nos toca armarnos una peli', quizás mejor de la que él nunca pensó.