Monday, January 5, 2015

30 Paintings in 30 Days: Neruda (Day 5)

Keeping with my theme of literary canvases, I chose another poem to inspire me today.  I admit, "inspire" might seem like an oddly upbeat word since the poem I chose is a mildly creepy sonnet meditating on the lover's death, but it captivated me all the same!

If you die, Neruda entreats his beloved:

"Matilde, my love, leave your lips half-open
. . .
I will die kissing your crazy cold mouth,
caressing the lost fruit buds of your body."

Hey, I warned you: Mildly creepy, but also beautiful.




Posted by at
Labels:

3 comments:

  1. JasonDJanuary 5, 2015 at 6:10 PM

    I love the contrast in this piece, the cold gray of the corpse with the vibrant palette of the living plant within her, and I love that the purple of the background is aligned with the world of the dead while the same purple is the living flowered heart within her. I love how the living tree is unexpectedly stiff like the branches in a scarecrow, while the lifeless is given curvy movement, not only in the shapes of her body and face but in her swooping hair. This sense of motion (and life) is further given to the dead body by the action lines radiating from the right side of her head, and I believe you used that same reddish color in the heart of the flower and the shadows of the wooden limbs, but it seems more vibrant in the realm of the dead--in short, this piece is a lovely clashing of opposites that echoes Neruda's torn feelings of love and death and life in his creepily moving poem. Love it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnnDJanuary 5, 2015 at 6:18 PM

      Damn, Jason. You just outdid yourself! I love your analysis! I wish I had been working all the angles of the death/life contrasts you identified!

      Delete
  2. Cindy D.January 5, 2015 at 8:31 PM

    Wonderfully spookily striking! Love the colors, and the face!

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)