Looking at narrative poetry as a genre of storytelling for inspiration in print media and editorial illustration.  Narrative poetry is a poem that tells a story, short or long, revealing a series of events and may take the form of a novel in the form of verse, using poetic structure like rhyme, rhythm and meter.  Narrative poetry has a plot that may be simple or complex. Some common narrative poems include epics, ballads and idylls.

PROJECT:

Select one narrative poem to interpret visually from Odes to Common Things, (bilingual edition) by Pablo Neruda, Bulfinch 1994

Using the object in the poem as a starting point, develop a story either by capturing its essense or exploring tangential ideas.

Design a triptych (3-panel format), depicting the story in words and images or a combination of both.

Size of each panel: 10″ x 10″ square, Full color, Medium: open

Finished project may be presented flat, or folded in accordion format, horizontal/vertical or whatever is appropriate to the subject.

I chose Ode to A Violin in California, which has become Ode to A Banjo and A Fiddle in Tennessee and Kildare.

1853, Flag Pond and Erwin.
The Smoky Mountains,
The Tennessee Mountains.
This is half of the place I’m from, Mountain Folk, Hillbillies.
My people knew the wood and waterfalls, moonshine and music.
A fiddle or a banjo was as regular in the arms of women as where their babes.
My Great Great Grandmother Runion played the banjo,
The surname Runion comes from the Irish name O’Ruanaidhin
I’ve heard of how good she was.

I have her banjo, here, in an apartment in New York,
far from the creek on Tinker Hill.
The banjo can’t be played now.  No one’s played it since her,
it was put away when she pasted.  Kept – but not kept up.

The head is torn and the bridge is loose,
the stings are worn and a peg is missing.
But it is still her banjo, a tie to my mother’s side, to a half of my past
my roots in this world.

Naas in Kildare to Charleston South Carolina,
Ireland to The United State only a generation ago.
My father’s side, the other half of me.
The Kelly Clan.
An old family, a long of line fiddle players.
My Gran could play the devil down.
It was in her blood.

My blood
But not in my blood.
I have the Irish eye but not the ear.
I have the heart of the mountain, but not it’s song.
I can live with that.

These are the works in progress.  I’m still just felling things out.  I have to consider text pretty carefully for this.  It all somewhat tentative right now. I included some sketches of thoughts on composing these three 10″x10″s.  I believe I’ll go with a trifold, like the old timey photo frames.  We’ll see.  All the photo’s btw are from my own photo album.  They are my family.

_______

_______

I’m also trying to work out my relationship to music and my families.  The fact that I have a good eye, but not the musical ear.  It might also be important to also somehow show that I did not know my father’s family growing up because my parents divorced when I was so young and the circumstances of the divorce kept me from know that half of my family.  Either way, here is some of the type I’m working with and a few quick concept sketches for the middle panel.

I now have all the elements and this and a clear idea for what I’m getting at and what I’m trying to say with this piece.  My next step s construction.  Like building the house, I have all the materials and my blueprint laid out, now construction begins.

_______

In my final iteration of the narrative I decided to concentrate on the music in my family and my relationship to the musical women in my family in particular. I started learning the violin when I was 5. I never did get as good as the my matriarchs, but I make up for it in other ways.

At first I thought of incorporating quotes that informed the history in the narrative.  The voice of Mark Twain speaks especially well for my Great Grandmother.  However, after studying the effect of these quotes, I decide to reveal more of a personal experience by using my own voice and not obscuring the story or history .

I created a few of artifacts that I later decided not to use.

I considered different approaches to the 10″ x 10″ layout. I decided to present it with 8″ x 8″ images and let the placement on the larger square speak to the relationship I had with these women.