Here's a piece I just finished after working on it piecemeal for awhile. For ten free "Ellis bucks" does anyone get the title "Tyger! Tyger! Burning Bright"? Certainly some of my learned compatriots in TAG know the answer. I sure as hell don't.
The Spade bikini area was objectionable. Other than that I'm blown away. Beautiful piece. Are you scanning these and doing photoshop extras of texture?. I'm looking under her neck and the noise in the dark areas of her hair. Nice and subtle. I think the Tiger line is something Shemp Howard said in a Stooge short.
Ah! What a beautiful piece of visual poetry Scott! As for interpreting the artwork, I will now demonstrate my incredible powers of B.S.'ing that got me through writing many an essay in high school English class. I'll do anything for Ellis bucks.
You meant this piece to be full of symbols showing the duality of men's feelings towards women.
The connection between women and tigers is fairly obvious. In William Blake's poem, the tiger is presented as both beautiful and fearsome, and this is how you feel towards the woman in the picture.
"Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
... Did he who made the Lamb make thee?"
As one critic put it, ""The Tyger" is about having your reason overwhelmed at once by the beauty and the horror of the natural world."
Also in the famous story of "The Lady and the Tiger" the story ends with the unanswered question "Does the Lady or the Tiger emerge from behind the door?" and it is symbolic of being presented with an unsolvable conundrum. And as we all know, women present an unsolvable conundrum to men.
Other symbols of ambivalence towards women include the Black Widow, (a symbol for female predation certainly) and the shark, the crows and the octopus, symbols of predation, death and grasping entanglement.
The tattoo of the rabbit with the knife through it is a reference to Elmer Fudd's war cry, "Kill da Wabbit! Kill da Wabbit!" And rabbits as we know represent fertility, which is why rabbits bring eggs (another symbol of fertility) on Easter (Resurrection) in Spring (the season of Rebirth.
And Bugs, if you will recall, would sometimes dress in drag to fool Elmer. Like Garth in Wayne's World, I actually did find him very attractive.
Your most clever symbol however is the spade bikini. This is a play on words, "spade" being a homonym for "spayed" which refers to the surgical removal of the ovaries from a female. But not only that, a spade, as in "a shovel" is what we dig into the earth with to make it fertile. Veeeery clever Scott! Again, birth mixed with death of fertility.
You are deep, my friend, much deeper than any of your friends know.
I'm sure I've missed some things. There are other symbols, such as the Ankh and such that I won't interpret; I've said enough, except to say that I think the cheese, besides referring to "cheesecake" also refers to "The Cheese Stands Alone".
Please send the ten Ellis bucks ASAP. There is some Ellis merchandise I wish to purchase.
Where's Scott? He has to tell me if I've won the ten Ellis bucks or not. Don't desert us Scott. Speak to us of your work and post another cool drawing.
Very cool drawing, Scott. I don't have any pithy things to add, but you did a great job. I still have your Ghost/Hellboy crossover around my house somewhere. I liked your work on that a lot.
Wow Tom. I thought I was an artist, I didn't know I was an artiste. Just to make everyone think I'm cool... I meant everything that Tom pointed out... yeah, everything. The dichotomy of spades and fertility and cheese and all that. Actually, the message I was trying to send was "hot Asian chicks look great in chaps." Apparently my sub-conscious had something else in mind entirely. But Tom, although you gave a fine essay on the symbolic subtext and an expose on my subtle, non-linear views towards women, I still have to give the 10 Ellis bucks to Rick for being first to identify the William Blake reference. Congratulations Ricky! Pick up a new Goodson Beanie just added to the catalog. Every Beanie is guaranteed to have a screw loose in the propeller casing. Tom don't worry. For all your fine work I've decided to award you a new 2008 Dodge Durango mid-size special edition mini-van, complete with an eerie life-size man-doll of Jeff Ranjo permanently attached to the backseat, along with three full bags of garbage from an inner-city orphanage. Oh, and you also have to supply your own tires. (Sorry Rick. Next time put a little more into your responses and you'll get the big prize.) Ellis, no extra photoshopping done on the drawing. I just scanned the image into the computer.
Um, a William Blake poem?
ReplyDeleteThe Spade bikini area was objectionable. Other than that I'm blown away. Beautiful piece. Are you scanning these and doing photoshop extras of texture?. I'm looking under her neck and the noise in the dark areas of her hair. Nice and subtle. I think the Tiger line is something Shemp Howard said in a Stooge short.
ReplyDeleteAh! What a beautiful piece of visual poetry Scott! As for interpreting the artwork, I will now demonstrate my incredible powers of B.S.'ing that got me through writing many an essay in high school English class. I'll do anything for Ellis bucks.
ReplyDeleteYou meant this piece to be full of symbols showing the duality of men's feelings towards women.
The connection between women and tigers is fairly obvious. In William Blake's poem, the tiger is presented as both beautiful and fearsome, and this is how you feel towards the woman in the picture.
"Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
... Did he who made the Lamb make thee?"
As one critic put it, ""The Tyger" is about having your reason overwhelmed at once by the beauty and the horror of the natural world."
Also in the famous story of "The Lady and the Tiger" the story ends with the unanswered question "Does the Lady or the Tiger emerge from behind the door?" and it is symbolic of being presented with an unsolvable conundrum. And as we all know, women present an unsolvable conundrum to men.
Other symbols of ambivalence towards women include the Black Widow, (a symbol for female predation certainly) and the shark, the crows and the octopus, symbols of predation, death and grasping entanglement.
The tattoo of the rabbit with the knife through it is a reference to Elmer Fudd's war cry, "Kill da Wabbit! Kill da Wabbit!" And rabbits as we know represent fertility, which is why rabbits bring eggs (another symbol of fertility) on Easter (Resurrection) in Spring (the season of Rebirth.
And Bugs, if you will recall, would sometimes dress in drag to fool Elmer. Like Garth in Wayne's World, I actually did find him very attractive.
Your most clever symbol however is the spade bikini. This is a play on words, "spade" being a homonym for "spayed" which refers to the surgical removal of the ovaries from a female. But not only that, a spade, as in "a shovel" is what we dig into the earth with to make it fertile. Veeeery clever Scott! Again, birth mixed with death of fertility.
You are deep, my friend, much deeper than any of your friends know.
I'm sure I've missed some things. There are other symbols, such as the Ankh and such that I won't interpret; I've said enough, except to say that I think the cheese, besides referring to "cheesecake" also refers to "The Cheese Stands Alone".
Please send the ten Ellis bucks ASAP. There is some Ellis merchandise I wish to purchase.
That was worth at least ten bucks. I thought Scott just posed as semi smart.
ReplyDeleteWasn't it the last panel of Ellis'short story in "Zonzen?" I recall a tiger at a bar....or what Tom said.
ReplyDeleteThat's right! Good call, Jeff!
ReplyDeleteTht's right! I've been ripped off!
ReplyDeleteWhere's Scott? He has to tell me if I've won the ten Ellis bucks or not. Don't desert us Scott. Speak to us of your work and post another cool drawing.
ReplyDeleteJust the sound of the wind and the tumbleweeds and a whistle in the distance ... "Too de toodle dooooo ... Wah WAH waaaaaaaah"
ReplyDelete(theme: The Good, The Bad, And The Buncake... played on the ocarina).
;-)
Very cool drawing, Scott. I don't have any pithy things to add, but you did a great job. I still have your Ghost/Hellboy crossover around my house somewhere. I liked your work on that a lot.
ReplyDeleteWow Tom. I thought I was an artist, I didn't know I was an artiste. Just to make everyone think I'm cool... I meant everything that Tom pointed out... yeah, everything. The dichotomy of spades and fertility and cheese and all that.
ReplyDeleteActually, the message I was trying to send was "hot Asian chicks look great in chaps." Apparently my sub-conscious had something else in mind entirely.
But Tom, although you gave a fine essay on the symbolic subtext and an expose on my subtle, non-linear views towards women, I still have to give the 10 Ellis bucks to Rick for being first to identify the William Blake reference. Congratulations Ricky! Pick up a new Goodson Beanie just added to the catalog. Every Beanie is guaranteed to have a screw loose in the propeller casing.
Tom don't worry. For all your fine work I've decided to award you a new 2008 Dodge Durango mid-size special edition mini-van, complete with an eerie life-size man-doll of Jeff Ranjo permanently attached to the backseat, along with three full bags of garbage from an inner-city orphanage. Oh, and you also have to supply your own tires.
(Sorry Rick. Next time put a little more into your responses and you'll get the big prize.)
Ellis, no extra photoshopping done on the drawing. I just scanned the image into the computer.
Darn, I almost said that, I swear! "Hot Asian chicks look great in chaps," was my second guess.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I missed out on the inflatable Jeff doll I know in my heart of hearts that I'm a winner!
ReplyDeleteI am, really! My Mommy told me so all the time!