The Wolf speaks...?

All along, I've left it to audiences to decide for themselves...does he speak?  Somehow, I imagine him, even when he's a man, as silent, speaking with eyes and expression, touch and gesture only, and it being enough.  It was enough for me.

But yesterday, in the car on the way into town (and luckily, Beloved was driving, or it might have been a bit awkward!) a poem in His voice came to me (or at least, the first stirrings of a poem), and I had to dig out notebook and pencil, and very messily scribble it down as the car bumped its way along South Coast Hwy.  I'm not sure it's entirely a poem in the Wolf's voice though, perhaps more like a poor translation?  For how could English ever encompass the inner thoughts of a Wolf?  Or of a man who is Wolf more often than man?  But then today a few more little snippets floated in.  So I wonder if there might be a book of poems from Wolf to Girl, in the new The Wolf Bride.  They seem to be following a simple pattern, short, single thoughts.  I'm probably a very poor translator, being a woman who does not actually 'speak' Wolf, but I'll do my best.  Who knows, they may not go anywhere, but I'm enjoying them right at the moment.

Some snippets from my journal...in no particular logical order...

25 August 2017

THOUGHTS ON COLOUR SIGNIFICANCE 

White:  Obvious for all the snow references, but also because in practical terms, white is a good colour to showcase artwork against.  Easier to make/get white stuff.  Old sheets, white paper etc.  I'm in two minds about the idea of leaves and roses made out of scraps of text.  I love making stuff like that, but: 

 a) I don't have much time  

b)  Do I need to spell it out all the time?  If I just have scraps of torn text/paper, which will rustle and can picked up and thrown, they will 'read' as leaves if I'm speaking about leaves, they don't need to be 'leaf' shaped.

 The idea of the rose is significant, it plays an important part in the original story (though it's an illogical part), and I wanted to include it in my story, using it a bit differently, and I have, and I'm pleased with how I've incorporated it, I think it works.  But do I need to actually have 'roses' in any obvious form in the Visual component?  I like the idea, but at the same time wonder it it's a bit 'naff'!

White is also innocence.  White/snow also prefigures death, or possible/almost death, in my story.  White is a kind of silencing blanket, like snow.  When spring/new life comes, greenness and sound (birds, streams) break through.

1 September 2017

-  Remembered from old TV series "Robin of Sherwood", and apparently a historical fact, that a 'wolfshead' was another name for an outlaw.  Presumably both had a price on their heads, and both could be killed with impunity.   

-  Thinking of a smaller painting, same style as large, for "The World Has Changed".  I'm thinking of her as a kind of witch figure, a mad old woman everyone is afraid of.  Thinking again of the idea of a mask, something she wears for a kind of shamanic shift into 'wolf mind'.  Is she looking through it in the painting, or holding/carrying it?  It is her link to her lost love, and also to the wild, non-human world.  A way of seeing the world through wolf/non-human eyes.  A different point of view, a different kind of consciousness.  A mask like this would not be strictly representational, may be more about essence/feeling when it is worn, rather than what it looks like on the outside.  She can't see what it looks like when she's wearing it, it's how it makes her feel that's important.

The odd inconveniences of 'the company of beasts'!

And some gratuitous photos of the culprit!

Fables is coming along as well, though I'm still at the first draft stage of each story, so I have WAY too much material at the moment, and need to seriously cull.  I've been fiddling around with music too, so here's a little of it.  I've always wanted to set Keats' poem La Belle Dame Sans Merci to music, but it never seemed to quite come together.  Ah, but then I got the bouzouki, and suddenly something started to emerge.  I don't think it's there yet, still need to do some fiddling...maybe it needs a bridge to break it up a bit, I'm not sure, but it's a start.  At the moment I'm planning on it appearing in Fables (in the 'dangerous faeries' section), but it may have to be discarded depending on how the culling process shapes up.  Of course, I won't be able to play more than one instrument...or sing a harmony with myself, in a live performance (if only THAT were possible!), but it's always fun to have a bit of a play in Garage Band.

Fables Notebook