In the morning, whilst waiting for New Jersey to open -- or at least for a fix-a-flat place near Trenton to open, I pulled out my trusty Penguin edition of Moby Dick and made some new sketches. Whenever I mention this series, people ask "Are you going to do a panel for each chapter?" And I mention that "there are 136 chapters" and that's usually the end of that. But I've been in the "why not?" mode for a while, so I thought: why not 136 (or so) images? what's the problem? You're only a month behind on your self-imposed one-a-day project... So I'll see. I thought I'd continue reading and noting and see what I see.
Meanwhile, here's the first batch, with the panel title, the source chapter, and a quotation from the text set after the image. These are all 12 inches square. The BW2R is part of the series (for the last chapter: Epilogue) and is approximately 30 in. x 60 in.
(photos by Dana Buckley)
Ahab from Chapter 28, Ahab
Threading its way out from among his grey hairs, and continuing right down one side of his tawny scorched face and neck, till it disappeared in his clothing, you saw a slender rod-like mark, lividly whitish. It resembled that perpendicular seam sometimes made in the straight, lofty trunk of a great tree, when the upper lightning tearingly darts down it, and without wrenching a single twig, peels and grooves out the bark from top to bottom, ere running off into the soil, leaving the tree still greenly alive, but branded. (page 134)
Baleen
from Chapter 75, The Right Whale's Head
In old times, there seem to have prevailed the most curious fancies concerning these blinds. One voyager in Purchas calls them the wondrous “whiskers” inside of the whale’s mouth; another, “hog’s bristles;” a third old gentleman in Hackluyt uses the following elegant language: “There are about two hundred and fifty fins growing on each side of his upper chop, which arch over his tongue on each side of his mouth.” (page 365-66)
Duodecimofrom Chapter 32, Cetology
First: According to magnitude I divide the whales into three primary BOOKS (subdivisible into CHAPTERS), and these shall comprehend them all, both large and small. (page 148)
Sharksfrom Chapter 67, Cutting In
You would have thought we were offering up ten thousand red oxen to the sea gods. (page 130)
The Pequodfrom Chapter 16, The Ship
All round, her unpanelled, open bulwarks were garnished like one continuous jaw, with the long sharp teeth of the sperm whale, inserted there for pins. To fasten her old hempen thews and tendons to. (page 78)
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16 comments:
these are beautiful, when can i touch them?
soon, my friend. January, and the end of the term, comes on apace.
So sorry about your flat tire, but look what was born from it!
These are wonderful, Melanie! And I can see the story in them. How original. Beautiful work. The colors are dark and moody. Love it.
These precede the flat tire incident, but the flat tire was the occasion to press on (as it were...) with the project.
Thar she blows! What a brilliant project, and what fascinating images you are bringing up from the deep. To also do them as stiching work like enhanced collage just amazes me. Great stuff!
I love the story and have seen some great films re-telling it (fave is 1956 version with Gregory Peck) but in the reading of it only got as far as the detailed descriptions of all the different types of whale. Your project might just tempt me to go back to it. Three cheers - the sun's over the yard-arm!
David, I have to confess that I'd been trying and failing to read MD since the 1970s. I usually got less far than you before ceding it as a hopeless task. A couple of years ago, one of my favorite undergraduates said it was her favorite book and there's nothing like a little professional shame to motivate a gal. It was EXTREMELY ROUGH GOING in places -- heavens! there are chapters no more than 3 pages long that are so packed with metaphysics that they took well over an hour to read and absorb -- but so very worth it in the end. It really is an astonishing work.
Well now I must put it on my reading list. Stunning, stunning work! Truly! The Baleen artpiece is both literal, and also like entering an abstracted celestial body and universe. Maybe I'm sounding too artsy farsty, but I LOVE these! I understand the excitement of working within a great narrative and why not 136? Can't wait to see more. Beautiful work Melanie!
ellen,
omigosh, thanks so much for your kind words. I was very shy about showing these -- although, oviously, I've gained confidence. I needed to put it aside for a while, I think, to see if the fascination held. It has and I'm excited to be thinking and plannign for it again. I still don;t know about doing the whole raft of 136, but I'll see how it goes.
The book is stupendous. The first time I read it through, I got to with about 80 pages of the end and almost gave it up again, but persevered and am so glad I did. The cetology chapters were wearing me down, as they wear many people down, but upon rereading and reareading, I see how necessary they are. And from a purely lit-crit standpoint, it's amazing how experimental and 'modern' the book is -- but that's a tale for another time.
Wonderful, to turn such a deep and dark novel into deep and dark journal quilts. I'll bet that thinking about how to portray parts of it in fabric helped you enjoy it more, because you could feel the currents of symbolism moving under the surface.
Viewing these caught my breath. I can hardly imagine my response if I were to see them in person.
What a marvelous impetuous for a series. How about creating an album in Picasa where all your blog photos are stored by blogger. Those albums, or even slide shows, can be posted in your side bar. It's easy to add new work to either and we, your readers, can watch this series grow.
Said it before my friend but it bears repeating....your concept of illustrating a classic novel is a stroke of genius on many levels - not the least of which is the art work that resulted.
136 total? Go, go, go....
I had a quick look just after we came home and thought: too much to take in;I'll save this for later...
Well, now is later and I am, as they say in Liverpool, gob-smacked. I love the story of Moby Dick and can see how you are "working" some elements.Melville makes us work hard and, in these pieces, a little work on the viewer's part can reveal so much. Great stuff, Melanie!
These are amazing! What fabulous interpretations of what is sometime a daunting piece of literature. Personally, I think I like "Baleen" best. Bravo. Can't wait to see more.
Amazing series! Sharks, a brilliant piece, appeals to me the most.
Thanks, vivien and robyn.
Vivien, it is a tough book. But I just had some online conversation about it and realized that I feel that I'm a better person for having read it. And not just for the literary pretension factor or because it's tough to get through, but because of something in the book itself. I'll have to try to figure out what that is as I go through it again.
Robyn, I have a special fondness for Sharks since it was the first piece I did and it's the one that launched the series. I had no idea it would be a series, but sometimes things just happen.
Wot Nellie said. Slideshow.
Capturing the imagery from something like Moby Dick is a wonderful idea and you are chillingly good at it. I have read it twice (maybe because I rush through so many turgid bits to get them over with that I forget them altogether?) - can't say it is my favourite, but it is remarkable - and your interpretations are moving.
Once one starts to think of literature as fabric, the mind boggles at what you might do with something like Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian...
I am fascinated.
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