
Prompt:
Ya’aburnee — Arabic — Both morbid and beautiful at once, this incantatory word means “You bury me,” a declaration of one’s hope that they’ll die before another person because of how difficult it would be to live without them.
Yesterday we had our final critique for digital drawing and this is what I came up with to close out the term. Now, conceptually speaking, I’ll admit I was struggling to build a concrete interpretation of the prompt. In fact, I really didn’t have it set until I got to class. As I look back on the process as I type this, I thought too much about what I wanted to say multiple times.
It doesn’t matter now because I figured it out. What’s pictured, to me, is that moment where the hope of the person saying “bury me” manifests. When I first read the prompt, I thought of someone sacrificing themselves for another. In essence, taking away their life to give life to another. Also, I forgot to mention that there are versions of the definitions of the word where the subjects in questions are lovers. This is key. The skeleton hand is handing over a rose to someone as it begins to decay and fade away, in an act of professing love and giving life to another as death starts to consume it.
In terms of technicality, I went with a different approach this time around. I actually drew the images on paper first and then scanned them in with my phone. It’s the first drawing where the black outlines of the images are visible. Not to mention how rough they are compared to the past drawings. Either way, I’m still proud of how this turned out. The detail on the skeleton was probably the best happy accident I could have asked for. By no means did I plan for the hand to look like that and I’m glad I didn’t. As I’m looking at it now, it might be my favorite one out of them all.
Feels good to create.
Peace,
J