Here are a few more of these illustrations of Blake's "Proverbs of Hell". So far, I have made about forty... I know this may seem prolific, but, as regular visitors will spot, this has largely been an exercise in recycling collages that have not yet found a permanent place. It seems Blake may have permeated my sensibility deeply enough for there to be a Blakey-ness about much of what I have done.
Full marks to anyone spotting the wise man and in particular his tree in that last one. In keeping with the Blakean concept of "shewing the two contrary states of the human soul" (the subtitle of Songs of Innocence and of Experience) my intention is to create two versions of each of the "proverbs" that I choose to illustrate. These may be contrary, complementary, or merely reinforce each other, as in the example below. And, yes, another damn'd thick book [1] may be on its way.
1. "Another damn'd thick book! Always, scribble, scribble, scribble! Eh, Mr. Gibbon?" (Attributed to Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, 1781, upon receiving the second – or third, or possibly both – volume of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire from the author).
7 comments:
Tricky (impossible for me) to read the proverb on Image #3, Mr. C. On other images you have either set the proverb outside of the image or created an additional band within the image to present legible text. Can't you do that for #3?
Another rich seam of creativity. Darwin's proverb - excellent.
DM,
Really? It seems legible to me, esp. when clicked on and viewed in the "slide show" presentation. There's a bit of variation in how the proverbs are presented, to stop it getting too mechanical, and I quite liked that one. It says, "He whose face gives no light shall never become a star".
Mike
Yes, even in the full size mode, ironically I couldn't decipher the section overlapping the stars. You have them consigned to memory, of course, and running through your DNA.
DM,
You may be right -- easy to read when you already know what it says (like my signature). Noted!
Mike
Agreed, the "e" and the "r" of never are problematic to decipher. A different color for the text?
Great images. I especially like the tie dyed effect on W.B.'s vest. He was out there. At some point, I'm sure he looked like the 20 year old that he was when he was 20. He didn't always look like an Old Codger, despite what we have been led to believe.
Kent,
I'm amazed you can see his vest through that waistcoat...
Actually, that is Darwin, as DM suggests, not Blake (who AFAIK never had a beard). The twiggy thing sticking out of the sand is his "tree of life", as sketched in one of his notebooks.
Mike
Duh...Still like the tie dyed effect, whoever he is, on whatever the layer below the outermost is called. Words. Words. Words.
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