John William Waterhouse

(6th April 1849 - 10th February 1917)
He was an English painter who worked in the Pre-Raphaelite style. His work depicted Greek Mythology and Arthurian Legend. His painting are detailed and have a nice sense of colour, either being bold or subtle and delicate. I really like his mythological paintings as they're creative and imaginative.

H.Noato

He is an avant-garde Japanese fashion designer. His style of clothing is classes under Japanese Punk and Gothic Lolita. He has created a dress for the lead singer Amy Lee of Evanescence.

I think his use of layering up fabrics creates a sexual but pretty/feminine image. Also i really like the movement in the garments, which is something i would like to incorporate into my designs.

Aubrey Beardsley

(21st August 1872 - 16th March 1898)
Aubrey Beardsley is an English illustrator and author. He was inspired by Japanese woodcuts and does his illustrations in black ink. He was a leading figure in the aesthetic movement, he also contributes to the development of the Art Nouveau and poster styles.

His designs have influenced the way i am going to create my illustrations, by using the medium ink instead of pencil. His illustration are detailed and unusual but with a direct link to the Japanese culture.

Gothic Revival

The Gothic revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740's in England. The style became popular in the 19th Century were people admired the neo-gothic style and wanted to revive medieval forms. This form was closely related to the Anglo catholic self belief.

Gothic Lolita
Gothic Lolita is a subculture which originated from Harajuku, Japan. Its a combination of the Victorian Gothic period and Lolita. Its a sophisticated movement originating with girls wearing knee length to floor length skirts, corsets, petticoats, blouses and headdresses.

Miwa Yanagi

Miwa Yanagi is a Japanese photographer. He has done a collection named 'fairytale'. They show the more gruesome side to fairytale and the images aren't clear until you look closely and try to depict them. She uses masks and young girls to add a more shocking and horrifying feel to the photographs.

Fairytales

Rapunzel
The tale of Rapunzel written by the Brother Grimm is about a young woman whose life is controlled by selfish adults until she disobeys them and chooses her own fate. Fairy tales are similar to the stories told in the bible in the fact they are there to 'control the masses' and to help people live a morally good life. The idea that shes choosing her own fate links with my album cover, as shes walking away from the dark and choosing her own path through the door to the light.

Red Riding Hood
There are many different interpretations of this story, the main warning being do not talk to strangers.

Ritual
The story could be interpreted as a puberty ritual, the girl leaves home, endures the acts of the tale, she is then transformed into an adult woman from coming out of the wolfs stomach.

Rebirth
The act of the huntsman cutting open the wolf can be interpreted as 'rebirth'. The girl who listened to the wolf is reborn as a new person.

Sexual Awakening
The red clock could be a symbol of the blood from menstruation or a symbol of the hymen. The wolf symbolises a man, seducer or sexual predator. He threatens the girls virginity.

This links to my album as she is going of on her own, so she could be either running away from a 'wolf' or may encounter a 'wolf' on her journey.

The Little Mermaid
I think the moral of this story is about selfless love. The mermaid gives up everything for the Prince. On the other hand it could be to obey your parents because she disobeys her father and if she had listened she wouldn't have had her heart broken and have to kill herself.
The original story was written by Hans Christian Anderson, and is different from the Disney version. The main difference being the ending. There are 2 versions of the ending one being that she throws herself into the sea and becomes a daughter of the air as she shes her lover getting married to another woman so it was either kill her lover or kill herself. The other ending being she sees the prince getting married so she throws herself into the sea and dies by turning to froth.

Doors

Doors have an aesthetic property which creates the impression of what lies beyond them.
Symbolically doors are endowed with a ritual purpose, being granted access through a door can have a special significance. They usually signify the portent of change.

Doors appear quite frequently in dreams, for example a door opening in a dream represent a desire for inner exploration and self discovery or a new desire to open up your feelings. A poem which i recently studied was called Kubla Khan by Sam Taylor Coleridge. The poem was about a dream he had experienced under the influence of opium where he discovers a land and describes whats in the land and the evil within its chasms. The relation to this and a dream is that his dream was disturbed by a knock on the door which woke him up so he could never finish his dream. This poem relates to my project on 'The open door' because he explores a dark, mysterious, savage and holy place which links to religion (religion seems to be creeping up a lot in this project). The enchanted land also refers to almost a fairytale like land the chasm being symbolic of the dark side of the soul.

From what i can gather from my research, there is a link between doors and the supernatural, or a higher being. Doors represent a communication. Also Greek theatre was always closely related to religion, and religion has a connection with doors.