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The first two lines came to me as a voice in my head in a half-dream state as I was drifting off to sleep. Somewhat startling. The last six lines came to me the next day as I was on the stepper reading a book about reading poetry, a chapter about transition poems and death poems.
So don’t freak out. Because we’re all dying in that Sylvia Plath kind of way. And yes, her poem, “Edge”, was one of the ones in that chapter. A perfect if incredibly sad and poignant death poem. You can find it on the Poetry Foundation.
The ambiguity of the last two lines is purposeful.
This illustration played on a similar photo for the Lughnasa 2012 essay. I used one of the pictures I’d taken then to build this illustration. The ink bottle and pen were constructed from the photo, then shifted to better balance the image. I used a lot of effects in this one, 3D, bevels, gradients, blurs, etc., to give depth to the image. The text for the poem lies on the paper and there is a small “Easter egg” in the ink drop. The trick in this image was to use gradients and highlights to give the glass of the ink bottle “transparency”, that is, show the light reflected from the inside of the bottle as well as the outer surface. Those are reflections we all know about but rarely think about unless you are trying to draw glass.
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ReplyDeleteNotes and asides:
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The first two lines came to me as a voice in my head in a half-dream state as I was drifting off to sleep. Somewhat startling. The last six lines came to me the next day as I was on the stepper reading a book about reading poetry, a chapter about transition poems and death poems.
So don’t freak out. Because we’re all dying in that Sylvia Plath kind of way. And yes, her poem, “Edge”, was one of the ones in that chapter. A perfect if incredibly sad and poignant death poem. You can find it on the Poetry Foundation.
The ambiguity of the last two lines is purposeful.
Picture notes:
ReplyDeleteThis illustration played on a similar photo for the Lughnasa 2012 essay. I used one of the pictures I’d taken then to build this illustration. The ink bottle and pen were constructed from the photo, then shifted to better balance the image. I used a lot of effects in this one, 3D, bevels, gradients, blurs, etc., to give depth to the image. The text for the poem lies on the paper and there is a small “Easter egg” in the ink drop. The trick in this image was to use gradients and highlights to give the glass of the ink bottle “transparency”, that is, show the light reflected from the inside of the bottle as well as the outer surface. Those are reflections we all know about but rarely think about unless you are trying to draw glass.
Love it, and the Easter Egg, too!
ReplyDelete