Week 13-14: Sea Shanties

Sea shanties are sailors songs that they sang while hard at work at sea.

When I think of sailors, I think of these musty colors, a raw canvas color, tans, browns, and muted blues and greens. These colors remind me of something used, something that has been worn down, but is still vibrant in its own way. Water damage, perhaps. I went for quite a literal translation of the sea shanties, as I do appreciate the structure of a ship on top of wild, uncontrollable and loose waters. As for the glass, I really enjoy the image of a ship in a bottle or a message in a bottle. These are both images that come to mind when I heard the songs. A ship in a bottle often contains the ship in its entirety, but I allowed the ship to extend past the glass because I feel as though such a powerful ship cannot be defined by physical limits.

Project 6: Down By the Salley Gardens

Lyrics:

Oh down by the Salley Gardens, my love and I did meet.
She passed the Salley Gardens, with little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree,
But I being young and foolish, with her I did not agree.

In a field down by the river, my love and I did stand
An on my leaning shoulder, she placed her snow-white hand.
She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree,
But I being young and foolish, and now I am full of tears.

Oh down by the Salley Gardens, my love and I did meet.
She passed the Salley Gardens, with little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree,
But I being young and foolish, with her I did not agree.


I find it very interesting that this ballad, like all other folk songs, traveled by mouth and therefore deviated from the original source. The original source is William Butler Yeats' poem with the same title. However, upon further research, I found that Yeats had based his writings on what he remembered from another song that an old lady sang in a village. Yeats had originally named his poem: "An Old Song Re-Sung." But this begs the question of where that old lady got it from -- had she written it? Or had she learned it from her father, friend, just by chance? This got me thinking about if ideas are ever really new -- when ideas come to us, inspiration for that had probably come from something else. There must be a source, but how do we know exactly what that source is? In today's world, especially, we are already surrounded by so many types of media, technologies, sounds and sights; how do we know if an idea is truly ours? Our "new" ideas are a combination of what we already know and our current worldview, facts and pre-existing ideas lightly filtered through our own minds. Intellectual property and intellectual copyright is very hard to pinpoint and justify, if it can be pinpointed at all.

I appreciated that the reading (Mike Yates on Cecil Sharp) created a sort of a timeline or diary, if you will; I found it much easier to understand the course of events. It is very impressive that Cecil took on such a big project, almost by himself, getting sponsorships, getting sick, yet still continuing on his mission. Just the passion behind that is monumental, but his contribution to American music is even greater. One of the lines that caught my attention was: "the cult of singing traditional songs is far more alive than it is in England." In today's context, cult immediately brings up cult films and cult TV shows with strong fan bases and followings. Cult is a strong word, but also fitting for the tight group of musicians from the Appalachians who preserved these traditional songs. I also thought the age gap between the English versus American singers was interesting -- in England, the singers were elderly, while American singers could have been as young as 15. Perhaps this was one of the reasons that the tradition was more "alive" in America.

Project 3: My Desire

Lyrics:

It's my desire to do some good thing every day.
It's my desire to help the fallen by the way.
Oh, it's my desire to bring back those who've gone astray.
It's my desire, oh, to be like the Lord.

It's my desire to bring someone drunk to the fold.
It's my desire to shelter someone from the cold.
It's my desire to do thy will, Lord, as I am told.
It's my desire, oh, Lord, to be like my Lord.

Yes, It's my desire, to see His face when life is done.
It's my desire to meet the Father, yes and the Son.
It's my desire to hear Him say, "My Child, well done."
It's my desire, oh, Hallelujah, to be like the Lord.

I chose the song "My Desire" by Delois Barrett Campbell, and upon hearing it, I imagined the performer standing in front of a stained glass window. For this project, I decided to expand my color palette and to see if I could still create a unified piece by using virtually every color of the rainbow. Still using a 6x8" canvas board, I wanted to try to illustrate something that was much bigger than its physical size. 

I contemplated filling in the two large circles outlined in green with either more colors or perhaps a human portrait or figure (perhaps Paul Walker or my mother, people I look up to who have embodied the seemingly perfect "good" that I want to be). In the end, I decided against it because I felt that would go with the lyrics more -- no matter how many good deeds you perform, there's always a desire to do something greater. At whatever stage, there are still so many pieces of one's life that haven't been filled in yet. There's always something more that can be done, to make your or perhaps someone else's life more colorful. 

Project 2: You Are My Sunshine

Lyrics:

The other night, dear, as I lay sleeping
I dreamed I held you in my arms
When I awoke, dear, I was mistaken,
And I hung my head and cried.

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are gray
You'll never know, dear, how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away.

I'll always love you and make you happy
If you will only say the same
But if you leave me and love another
You'll regret it all someday.

You told me once, dear, you really loved me
And no one could come between
But now you've left me to love another
You have shattered all of my dreams.

For this project, I worked with oil color on canvas board (6x8"). I wanted to experiment more with color, so I only used French Ultramarine, Cadmium Red and Cadmium Yellow. With this piece, I wanted to convey emotion, both with the subject and the colors. It's called "You Were My Sunshine."
My jumping off point was the emotion I got from listening to the song -- a longing, a sadness. I took lyrics that hit me the hardest, and illustrated them through a single figure. Originally, I wanted to utilize a monochrome palette, using only shades of indigo to convey that sadness. However, I thought it would be more dynamic if I added the yellow to represent the sunshine. I wanted to show that the sunshine was fading, and it was only touching him on the slightest of spots. The sunshine does not reach where his heart or his face are, and I think that could show that his sunshine has gone away and shattered all his dreams.