Thursday, January 26, 2017
Not exactly sure why, but I’m being drawn to the writing of Dylan Thomas. I think, from time-to-time, I’ll post an excerpt or two. Everyone seems to be familiar with his poems “And death shall have no dominion” and “Do not go gentle into that good night“, so I thought I’d post something from his drama “Under Milk Wood“:
“Now behind the eyes and secrets of the dreamers in the streets rocked to sleep by the sea, see the titbits and topsyturvies, bobs and buttontops, bags and bones, ash and rind and dandruff and nailparings, saliva and snowflakes and moulted feathers of dreams, the wrecks and sprats and shells and fishbones, whale-juice and moonshine and small salt fry dished up by the hidden sea.”
― Dylan Thomas
I know my husband will kill me because he thinks I always want to copy him (and in this respect, he might be right), but I’ve been giving very serious thought about getting two full sleeve tattoos; one arm depicting the Northwest Coast aboriginal myth about “Raven steals the sun” and the other arm depicting an octopus. Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be much as far as myths surrounding the octopus in aboriginal lore; the only real story I could uncover has to do with a parable called “the devil-fish’s daughter”.
I am going to design these tattoos to be an amalgamation of Haida-inspired form lines using the primary- and secondary-color scheme of red and black, and meld those design elements with modern interpretations of the same subjects in a modern interpretation and in a muted sepia tone. My idea is to have two separate, but complimentary drawings be superimposed on each other. I want to create something bold, intricate and balanced. This will be a long-term design project, not to mention expensive since a good tattoo artist charges anywhere from $150 and up per hour.
I’m drawing inspiration from one of my all-time favorite books “The Transforming Image” by Bill McLennan and Karen Duffek and the art work of Susan Point, a Salish artist whose minimalist interpretation of the art form I find appealing.
