Wednesday, September 14, 2011

How To Talk to a Wolf Woman About Your Best Piece of Art Work

Art Seminar is a most interesting class, I must say. Our Professor Jerry Ropson has a vivid imagination and greatly encourages his students to use their own imagination in a creative and unlimited way. One such example of this is the written journal assignment he gave last class. We are to write an approximately 500 word description of what we would tell an alien, wolf man or some one else about a work of art we'd created that we consider to be one of our best expressions, why we liked it and how we made it. This was to be told to this being who knew absolutely nothing about art and had never actually seen art before.


Presently I am very involved in reading Women That Run With The Wolves, by Clarissa Pinkola Estes and the myth of the Wolf Woman figures predominately in this book. So I thought it would be appropriate for me to attempt to describe my work to the Wolf Woman. I may very well be simply talking to myself, and I am uncertain as to how I will to go about this exercise, regardless here is my attempt.


I have to take into careful consideration that I am trying to communicate with a Wolf Woman.
I would have to make her feel both welcome and comfortable and immediately offer my couch to lay upon and something good for her to eat, perhaps some old leftovers that resembled a science project or several disgusting items like mice, moles, voles, and vermin that I would have prepared a head of time.

Wolf Woman is very intelligent but not the same as human intelligence. She has a inner sight that is other worldly and one that I am not completely able to understand or perceive yet, and so all I can do is attempt to explain my art to her in mostly a visual and non verbal manner, with a few verbal sounds as she does not speak with words.


Firstly I would show her my egg tempera painting. It is a portrait, one that is my interpretation of what I think she might look like. I have depicted her standing outside of her cave where she dwells, which will look familiar to her I hope. I could provide a mirror for her to see her own image  however I suspect this would  frighten and alarm her. I am not certain she will recognize the portrait I have painted of her.


Then I would show her an egg, which I would have to keep in my hands in case she decided to eat it. Next I would show her a blank piece of wood, much like the piece of wood,  the completed painting had been produced on, followed by brushes, powdered pigment, water and vinegar in small containers to mix the paint in. I would then proceed to crack open the egg discarding the white and keeping the yolk, placing the yolk on a paper towel, rolling it around some, getting rid of all the little egg white blobs left on the yolk. The sack of the yolk I then remove, placing it in a small glass container to be mixed with powdered  pigment, droplets of water and a few drops of vinegar for preservation. An equal amount of egg yolk is mixed with powered pigment. Egg tempera is rather like drawing with paint with much mark making. 

I then would begin to paint another portrait of  Wolf Woman.
After the painting is completed, I would make a pot of tea and offer Wolf Woman a bowl of milk, with honey,and also offer her the painting.















No comments: