First Christmas
by Tallima

About the Image
It's Christmas, but a lover has recently passed away. Two stockings still hang over the fire. Their beautiful family photo hangs on the wall above the mantle, but its pale and colorless image no longer communicates the love and life that it once held.

Our living person sits near a tree near her* lover's gift, left before his passing. She stares blankly forward, ignoring the world around her. But in her periphery, she cannot help but notice her lover's ashes resting on the mantle.

Light absorbs into her like a black hole. She casts a deep shadow from the fire, but her depression is so intense that the light radiated from the flickering flames halts before her. When we reach our deepest depression, light often has a difficult time reaching us.

But on the left side of the image, we see a haunting shadow of her lover, still sitting near her for Christmas. He casts his own brilliant white light -- the only light that can wash over his lonely lover. And even though she does not know it, that light sustains her for now.

And so it's a lonely first Christmas. But he'll get her through it.

*note: the character is androgynous. You could easily substitute the lover and the living with any gender of your choosing, which assist the viewer in internalizing the image.

About Making It
I'm no great artist. I like to putz around, but that's about it. And I've never made anything with paper. But tonight was art night with the kids and they were making a big Christmas Story mural with cut-outs and stories. So I decided to join in and make a memorable scene.

The first thing I made was the fireplace. I knew that it would be the center. Then I made the wall and the floor, the tree and the present. And then I tried to make a girl. That was tough. And it's still not great. :)

I took my children's two flashlights: a bumblebee and a Thomas the tank engine. I wrapped the bumblebee in plastic wrap that I colored red (though it looks distinctly purple) three times to give it a good, consistent color (it was a blueish-white LED). And Thomas' light became the light of the deceased, held just out of scene.

To create the sudden cut-off of the flame, I placed a piece of paper between the wall and the bumblebee flashlight. With the camera on a 2-second delay, I really had to move fast. I used my wife's tripod to keep the camera steady.

I finished well after the kids went to bed.

After I finished, I looked at Lumino City again. I have an all new respect for those guys. My hat off to you!


UPDATE:

I added two new pictures. One is simply a focus on the main subject's focus of her depression: the cylindrical urn containing what she believes to be the remains of her spouse (I say this b/c he's truly the spiritual brilliance in the room with her in the first image: sad fire.

And another picture that illustrates what she feels. The flames lash out at her while she sits in the depth of darkness. I enjoyed this lighting especially b/c without the light from the left of the image, the drawn shadow is exactly as it would be felt: just a shadow of a lover next to her.

I hope you enjoy!

I'd like to ask whether I'm allowed to use a printed image as a background.
My paper house is ready, I just don't know what to put behind it :D

Good question. I'm also working on my scene and want to use my chimney as a background. Is that allowed?

OK, so here's my submission, let's call it: "GOG crew on their way to party" :o)

Making-Of:

I only had a pencil and a white paper sheet and a few post-its, no glue at hand so it's was pretty low on budget and crafting ^o^

I took a screenshot of Jazzpunk and then replicated/drawed the characters on paper then cut them out. I made a "GOG" sign just to rank up in the top-three, lol. Then I googled the nightclubs in Warsaw and found the Klub Dekada and thought it was a cool name so I made the front of the building. I took a few colored post-it, cut them and sticked them on my chimney.

I used paper clips to make characters and sign stand up and a block of wood for the building front. For the lightning, I took my bedroom lamp which is red-lit and the Philips LivingColors which I set up to green light. I shot the scene with a reflex (Canon EOS 550D) because it's better for low-lit scenes like this to avoid noise and darkness.

First pic is my submission for the contest. Second pic is the setup of the scene (on my cleared working desk)

Looks very nice! Great job!

Looking great. How did you make the "vegetables/fruits" lying in th stands?

Thank you :)

Thanks :)
I just tore small pieces of papers, and crumpled them between my fingers.

+1 to every entry! I could not find the motivation to make one myself but I'm following and enjoying all the entries.

What a a lovely setup, everything about it is cool down to the smallest details (Snowy the dog! :D), makes me want to play this as a point & click adventure. The reddish lighting on the photo gives the scenery a kind of Alpenrot (=Alpine red) feeling, as in when the sun sets here in the Alps and everything turns pinkish red. The mountain in the background looks similar to the one I can see from my window, classic pointy "epic Skyrim" mountain shape.
And the little paper cabbage, genius! This grocery store reminds me of that one little Ma & Pa grocery store in my part of the town that still resists the supremacy of the "evil" large supermarket chains. The middle-aged lady who works there is just as round as the one you made, only she has a blue apron instead of a red one :)
These small stores are getting rarer and rarer here, most of them can't survive unless they have an angle the larger stores don't have. The store I know has the advantage that they can order stuff directly from small suppliers and offer good prices for very fresh produce. Larger stores can't do that, they get supplied in a less flexible more standard way which results in a lot of redundant stuff that never gets sold. Thanks to dedicated customers, that one small store can survive. Even if it's due to the fact that they sell fruit at cheaper prices than the supermarket and consequently rich people (who are hilariously stingy) shop at the small store, too.

Is there a significance to the number 34?

Thank you :) I gave +1 to the other entries as well :D
The truth about the reddish lightning is... that it's not intentional It's just the mixture of a light bulb right above the setup, and the crappy camera of my phone.

The 34 is just random.

<nevermind>

Excellent work, by the way. So far, really good competition. :)

I have just finished my paper installation of a small place I call Nighter Town.

As soon as I found this thread and learned about the contest, an idea of a small paper town at night popped into my head. It took some time to figure out, how I could do all this and eventually I started working.

Everything you see is made out of paper and glue. I remembered having a book called Origami. I learned a few things from it and used in this installation. Houses are folded as origami. Then I had to glue additional layer of roof to give it colour. The fountain has it's own story. At first, it used to be a flower, a daffodil. But then I cut the petals off and the water poured out. I also wanted very much to make a GOG sign. It took some drawing on my computer screen, cutting paper with a needle, but I got it done.

Lighting was important for me. I tried to represent a night, but I still needed somehow to light the surroundings. Used a flashlight above the town. And candles beneath the houses. I must say though, all the houses almost burned down in the end.


To tell story short, it's a winter night in a town. Some snow has fallen but the sky became clear and stars started shining. It's calm here, everything and everyone is asleep.

I know that only first three pictures will be judged, the fourth - background sky - is just out of curiosity. The whole installation might not be very good and I wish the pictures had a better quality. But I must say that I had lots of fun. And this "small project" let me put my mind off all the everyday work. I am happy.

Ooh, nice work everyone!

It looks great, and I admire your patience ;)

I like the lightning setup, it was worth a possible fire ;)