Poetry/Art/Creativity
Illustration is about finding the Poetics of a Written Prose
In response to Dancing Elephants prompt 6 of 52
Beauty in the dark of night
When the world rests,
I travel through my mind’s abyss
looking for a hidden guest,
I find her in the hiding deep,
Where my heart breathes,
I lie beside her unafraid,
Where my being sleeps,
In the warmth of my
core’s nest, cocooned in dreams
Black is my colour
Where I reside in peace.
Now that it is winter and I enter a phase of acute autoimmune-induced inflammation, brain fog, and mood swings amongst many other nagging symptoms, prompt 6 of 52 , Celebrate the colors of joy in your life. by Dr. Preeti Singh directly spoke to me.
Because, when nothing works for me (not even words) then Colours make a silent entry in my life and I try and make most of it.
As I did last winter for ShabdAaweg Review, a literary publication, an off-shoot of a Medium Pub, Literary Impulse.
I illustrated four prose, which I found to be great reads and was lucky to be a part of this creative endeavour.
And here I share my process of creating these Art works with you.
The Script:
Row the boat of life
Oars dipped in ripples gay,
Shines of light sparkle,
But with shades it often plays,
Visitors we are on this spinning sphere,
The grass will one day turn hay,
A little of laughter, a little of tears,
Life is all but Gray.
It is a charming tale of two teenagers growing up under the same roof, but separated by a wide abyss. One the home-owner’s daughter and a canny observer, and other the house helps’s son Goja, who lives in a world of his own, built on the lure of silver screen — Elizabeth Khan (Editor)
As I read the piece, the illustration slowly unfolded.
In minutes I knew how I should be approaching it.
The protagonist, Goja’s life had two distinct phases, his life as a dreamer, and when reality struck — he was diagnosed with a terminal illness.
The writer, Mehreen Ahmed, uses subtle bodily changes that Chemotherapy, harsh medication brings about to a body and uses them as metaphor to juxtapose the ideas of reality vs imagination, and the eternal belief that the soul lives long after the body dies.
And souls like Goja’s — vibrant, dreamy, optimistic yet in touch with reality are made immortal by the pen that writes the tale.
The poetics of this piece involved in showcasing the gray of life where you have some and lose some, but the real charisma lies in accepting it with aplomb.
I used the change in Goja’s hair as the image metaphor to signify the two phases, of dreamy Goja (on left) looking like a silver screen idol of the 70s-80s, whose hairstyle became a rage, and diminishing, curly hair when reality struck.
I was obviously influenced by Picasso (awe fully though)where I had to place the reality-shocked Goja looking at a loony Goja, for the obvious, stark impact of the contrast, he experienced. I deliberately avoided gloomy colours as this story speaks of the triumph of the human spirit.
I used some distressed art to give the frame a vintage look as the piece was dated.
If you want to read the prose, please find it here- The Script- A tale from dhaka
2. HomeWork :
Bells jingle, reindeers sleigh,
O! Holy night brace,
Hymns they sing, at time-o-tick,
Carol, could well be a name,
Hope boxed, a gift far away,
Mother a star shining bright,
A slash of red cannot not missed
In the world cold and the snow white.
It’s about a moment. Example of thousand lives. It is about innocence and its sudden transformations— Nachi Keta( Editor)
I was in a fix, when this prose was passed on to me to illustrate.
The author, EFS Byrne did a fantastic job of penning a nuanced tale of a little girl, waiting for her mother to return for Christmas, a father unable to tell her that she wouldn’t and tends her with lies, when in the background the TV roars of ‘Fake News’.
The poetics of the prose involved a frame which will have everything in order in an uninvolved way(fake), missing the imperative (human) warmth. Like the way a child would miss her mother.
I decided to showcase the basic instruments of Christmas like a tree, socks, red poinsettia, and other festive accessories, keeping the background black/white( graphite drawing) without using any ‘warm’ colour like yellow/ orange to give the illustration a ‘cold’ look, by placing a blank photo stand on the mantle.
The TV was introduced to establish the concept of ‘Fake News’ and give the readers an idea of what they are about to experience.
Pyre flame was painted yellow to impart a shock element in the drawing.
Find the illustration and the piece here: Homework — A children’s tale.
He Did Not Stop In Time(HDNSIT):
Blooming sun greets the sky,
Waving to the passing breeze,
In the field loved by earth,
Attended by humming bees,
Life in a bottle, summoning death
Breathes in air free,
Nurturing ways grow bud of hope,
Sunflowers — they moment seize!
Bonnie Carlson has shared that time of her life, when she was vulnerable and needed love of family and friends. It’s a tale of survival — Priyanka Srivastava (Editor)
HDNSIT, is a memoir, Bonnie Carlson writes on her fight with alcoholism and how she found her way back to life, but her friend Kevin couldn’t. As the reading progressed, I realised, in all the well-knitted events documented threadbare, was an underlying story of survival and not, which was largely prompted by the presence of love, care, and attention of family and loved ones or the absence of it. Though the author succeeded in defeating her nemesis ably supported by her family, her friend Kevin succumbed to the addiction.
The poetics of the writing lay in identifying the factors of survival in a real way.
I divided the paper into two zones--one lighted one dark, and put some sunflowers in a Jack Daniel’s bottle, which denoted the addicts.
It took me a whole day and several attempts to get near to the original bottle I was using to draw.
I used sunflowers to imply the characters, as I strongly believe anybody falling in the clutch of any ‘addition’ are soft souls, just like flowers.
The flowers which are in the lighted zone bloom but others on the darker zone wither, signifying anyone treated with love, affection and attention will see light and grow!
If you are inclined to read, find the piece here: He didn’t Stop in time.
Dreaming Freud-A Review on Interpretation of Dreams:
The kingdom rides, the fort sings,
Winglet clamour in haste,
The moon peeps, the leaves sleep,
The quiet of the night laced,
Walk along the babbling river
Halted by demons mean,
Negatives scroll, eyes drumroll —
Ushering dreams blue-n-green.
Featured in the ‘Sameeksha’ section, This prose was a detailed review of interpretation of dream by Frank Moone, where the reader is treated to a bewildering morass of dream like propositions, seemingly substantial, but likely to dissolve, shift and reform themselves from sentence to sentence.
The poetics lay in having a frame which is dream-like with snippets of structures traditionally used to depict dream, which should not emulate anything done before.
It felt great to illustrate a prose on dream interpretation and I decided to go digital.
I used seven forms of geometrical shapes (as far as I remember), including the EEG spikes on base colours of green/blue.
You can find the piece here: Dreaming-freud-a-review-of-interpretation-of-dreams
In Conclusion:
Illustrations are often more than just paintings, as you tell a story through images, colours, forms and abstracts. It takes deep reading of the story, to bring out the nuances that are implied but may not be explicit, and make your frame speak to the reader in a way, he/she is intrigued to dip his/her fingers in the written-pie.
It is challenging to the mind, body and creative instincts that reside in the artist and getting it right has aways brought joy to my most-of-the-times tired self.
And wrapping my head around creating images that will speak to the readers is a calming experience, when your brain is in mess and knots.
Try out colour therapy and feel of paint in your hands to strike away any mental health issues emanating from chronic illness or otherwise and convert your bad days into good ones — just feel the colours of joy!
Note: You may relate to the poems better, if you read the prose.
*Interestingly, this painting was used as an illustration for a prose written by William J Spirdione, which you can read it here — This-small-garden.
Thank you Dr. Gabriella Korosi Dr. Preeti Singh Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles Sharing Randomly and DancingElephantPress for this wonderful exercise of 52-weeks-prompt and giving Art its rightful place.
Thank you everyone for stopping by, engaging and encouraging.
