Monday, December 10, 2012

The Painted Ballerina explanation


This piece was done in the style of John Steuart Curry. I liked the exaggerated movement and color in his paintings. I chose this painting because of the depths of colors in his wind around the legs of his subjects. I chose a portrait of a ballerina to accurately display the “girl to woman to wife/czar” feeling that is portrayed in the poem “I am wife” by Emily Dickinson. Dickinson was commenting on how society puts labels on women, and they get stuck somewhere in between their own nature and society’s rules.

I took a photograph as part of a documentary on The Festival Ballet troupe, depicting the struggles and triumphs of a ballet company. I used it as a reference for this illustration. This woman’s face can be interpreted in so many ways, but her thoughts will always be mysterious. Her androgynous pose, angular face, deep-seated in shadow convey the thoughtfully sad emotion in Dickinson’s poem.

Emily Dickinson, “I’m Wife”

I'm "wife" -- I've finished that --
That other state --
I'm Czar -- I'm "Woman" now --
It's safer so --

How odd the Girl's life looks
Behind this soft Eclipse --
I think that Earth feels so
To folks in Heaven -- now --

This being comfort -- then
That other kind -- was pain --
But why compare?
I'm "Wife"! Stop there!



-Kaitlyn Breidenbach

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