INSPIRATION - DOLLYWOOD

Dollywood is Dolly Parton's own theme park, in Knoxville, Tennessee. It attracts 3 million people a year and is famous for it's rides and live entertainment. The park opened in 1961, but was taken over by Dolly Parton in 1986.

There are large, impressive, colourful signs all over the park. They are multi-layered and large signs reminiscent of vintage neon fabricated signs famous all over America.

The 3rd picture is the concept art for Dollywood's new attraction coming in 2025. It has these huge imposing colourful butterflies on the building, with a gigantic butterfly seemingly made from glitter or sequin panels at the opening of the building.

Dollywood is of course a play on words of Hollywood.

The famous Hollywood sign, made from large fabricated corrugated steel. It is extremely simple in design but famous the world over, with tourists hiking and travelling miles to see it.

ACRYLIC PRICE

@luluqstudio on Instagram is a small business selling personalised laser cut party supplies, from cake toppers to gifts. She uses beautiful candy and pastel colours, even glitter to make her creations. They are intricately designed and made, with individual elements slotting perfectly together to make stunning cohesive pieces.

When looking at using these materials in my own projects, I looked at suppliers to see the cost of coloured acrylic.

Price comparison based off A3 coloured sheet of Perspex brand acrylic Baby Pink 4522

Crafty Pig

£10.76

Acrylic Craft

£11.54

Fred Aldous Ltd

£6.59

All prices subject to VAT 20% plus postage

Fred Aldous seems the best site to buy from, however this is just for one sheet of A3 and I would need bigger than that, plus several other colours. I think a great alternative would be to use a cheaper wood and paint it in my candy colours.

THE HAPPINESS PARADOX

RESEARCH

I have been researching themes of duality and came across 'The Happiness Paradox' - the notion that happiness itself can only be achieved by feeling and acknowledging sadness. Getting bad in order to feel better again. Reaching 'Rock Bottom' to achieve higher mental awareness 'Cloud 9'

Paradox meaning -

Similar to duality and irony, a paradox is an oxymoron, a thing that combines two opposites.

These things often run in tandem, parallel, one cannot exist without the other.

I have found multiple articles and academic papers online that speak about this theory.

TO CONCLUDE

Happiness cannot exist without sadness. However we are taught to repress sadness and strive for happiness, in turn making it harder to achieve.

There is such shame and embarrassment around sadness, depression. Stemming from a stiff upper lip society where we’re taught to get on with life and not dwell on feelings. We’re taught from early childhood to ignore or pretend, by our parent’s, they were taught by their parents with roots all the way back through generations. We are growing out of it, by talking about it we are breaking the cycle

and generational curses, making poor mental health normal and part of life itself, opening doors for future generations to solve their problems and ultimately find ACTUAL happiness.