My watercolour paints are ancient, it's amazing they still diffuse colour. Unavoidably, some crumble into bits and slide downwards (the palette is held in a tilted manner) but most are still intact and serving their function well, unlike *coughs* Pentel's poster colours and Omni's acrylic paint (though for the latter I manage to create a rough texture for the mountainous regions.)
I know vis-rep (visual representation) was annoying to many people and does nothing in preparation for the A levels. It's a rather IP assignment to do, with a goal beyond mere academics. (See Loss in Poetry module last year where we could represent a poem in anyway we wanted. I did Cinders by Roger McGough, changed the pronouns and acted the part of the daughter instead of the original persona, the father. I am hardly known to be dramatic but I thoroughly enjoyed it, though settling the props was a horror. I am still forever grateful to Yi Meng who brought the large baby seat. Hmm..I should have recorded it for memory's sake but was too shy, regrets.)
Anyway, exploring the theme of adolescence in Duffy's poetry through colour pencils and watercolour was therapeutic to say the least. Spending stretches of Sunday and Tuesday afternoon (the only afternoons I am really free) commanding the attention of a blank, but slowly filling canvas, ahh...bliss.
It's been a long time. My techniques are rusty, but I'm satisfied with the end product.
Though uploading photos on blogger is a pain, for o ye faithful readers:
The process
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| Initial photograph of Dione, taken outside PT |
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| Sketch |
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| Colouring |
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| My work table |
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| Before painting the sky and "green erotic pond." |
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| Painting the thunderstorm was harddd, had to avoid the lightning (not so successful) |
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| My favourite photograph of my painting |
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| Note the change in colour of the hills (foreground) |
Write up (by Dione, edited by me)
As Duffy allows her speakers to speak for themselves through the use of the dramatic monologue, we have similarly conferred authority upon the female -- the young woman -- by making her the subject of the painting, commanding the attention of the viewer who is asked, through contemplation of her, to understand her. Like Duffy's speakers, our young woman rejects conformity -- standing atop rocks, she tempts danger and looks out toward the unfamiliar landscape with all its intimations of adventure beneath "the heavy, sexy sky". She is an adolescent, on the verge of discovering something new – sexual awakening being an important part of this discovery – as she strains for the apple which is slightly out of reach, even though she "(knows) it (is) dangerous", the red apple being a universal symbol of a forbidden fruit. "Lonely and thrilled", she faces away from the viewer, coming into her own as an individual before what she thinks is her own destiny, just like how Duffy’s speakers are “impatient to be grown”, sure of themselves and refusing to heed their teachers’ counsel until they reach “the day (they’ll) be sorry”.
The subject’s face is not visible to the viewer – young, what she has is raw potential, unshaped; she will soon encounter “the wall (she will) climb”. The rugged mountains in the distance are ominous yet inviting, the brown of the hard earth suggesting the uncompromising future lying in wait for the young woman. She welcomes the mystery, perhaps with a little “insolence” as she strains for the apple. In any case, she has chosen to leave the mementos of her childhood quite literally behind her, paying no attention to the makeshift swing, the teddy bear and the playing net. The boat is her tool now, signifying the autonomy she has over her life and the responsibility she must assume.
Yet this young woman's future is indeterminate; she hasn't reached her destination, but is "On the motorway bridge" -- on another level, the rocks help represent the liminal stage she is in, and the juxtaposition of a toy-littered beach with an apple tree and mountains evokes the possibility another world that her speakers are on the threshold of discovering. The contrast of realism in the photograph with the childlike and dreamlike quality of colour pencils (representing childhood) and watercolour (representing the near future) respectively, brings out Duffy’s surrealistic imagery. A sense of ambiguity is brought out by the murky pond both allowing the subject to gaze into and see herself and obscuring her image. Like the “green, erotic pond”, it evokes the tension and apprehension of a young woman on the cusp of maturity, lacking a distinct identity.
For all the strength of her adventurous spirit, the young woman is vulnerable before the unfamiliar landscape, at once intimate and hostile, and recalls the emotions of the speakers who stood in "air (that) tasted of electricity" or was uncomfortable with the "sticky breath" of the wood on the nape of her neck. She is about to leave the safety of the shore for the unknown, still innocent and seemingly unprepared. She is not dressed for a journey, but has worn what she would on a normal day – the viewer can imagine her standing in the middle of “a long road (that) held no one”, or in “gardens (that) were empty”, reminding of how fragile the speaker who gazed at “an ice-cream van (that) chimed and dwindled away”.
Finally, we wanted to respond to Duffy’s choice of giving voice to her speakers instead of constructing images – while Duffy is concerned about the limitations of representation through language, we have chosen to create images using visual representations themselves, and in so doing hope to have provided a response to Duffy’s treatment of young women in her poetry.
Longest blogpost yet, whee.
(Random note to self: Must see Cai Guo Qiang's wolfs before 31st August)
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