A letter from the designer
When I first took on this project, I knew that I wanted to create art that could work for Disney but also stand on its own. After a lot of thought, research, and sketching, I decided that I had to create something with the Cathedral of Notre Dame as the focus.
The cathedral has three rose windows, and I chose to center my design around the rose on the north facade. Completed in 1255, this window became a pattern that others, such as the rose on the south transept of Notre Dame and the roses at St. Denis. Instead of using an image, I wanted to create artwork based on the original masterpiece. I used many of the patterns and colors from the window, but I made major changes when it came to the circular sections. The original featured a scene of Mary and the baby Jesus in the center, and to give the DIsney connection, I replaced the main characters of the Bible with Quasimodo, the main character from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Although saints are important to the Cathedral — they fill the other circular motifs in the window as well as cover the outside in the form of statues — I replaced them in the inner circle with music notes to highlight the fact that my art was made for a piece of music. I included the five staves used in music and the treble clef, which is used for instrumental or vocal parts with the highest ranges. In the outer circle, I replaced the saints again, this time with the Fleur de Lis. This stylized lily is a heraldic symbol used frequently by the French crown. This royal symbol also has some religious influence, with one legend saying that the lily was formed from Eve’s tears as she left Eden. On the inside, I arranged the lyrics to look like panes of stained glass. Most records don’t created art with the lyrics — they are usually overlaid on art or just slapped on a page — so I incorporated the liner notes into my design concept from the beginning. |