Journal Entry for Sketch #2
March 23rd: 4 Days After Start of U.S./Iraq War
March 23rd: 4 Days After Start of U.S./Iraq War
0 Dead Day 1
2 Dead From Day 2, Both buried at RosecransThis is my second visit to the cemetery. I am still trying to find ways to locate those who died in war.
Next: Journal Entry for Sketch #3
0 thoughts on “Rosecrans 2: The Splintered Self of First Blood”
A determined young asian man dressed in a feathered bird-beak helmet tranfixes an equally young, but fearful, Frankenstein-ish monster by very calmly holding up the sky while it rains and floods. The young man seems to understand himself and the water and to be listening to and observing attentively the monster. “I Know My True Name” “The Rain Will Not Harm You” In another view, perhaps he is calling down the rain to wash away the monster. “Purification of Fear” or “Cleansing Fear”
I also wonder if this piece is talking about the fear we bring to people when we wage war on their country in order to give them what we think is a better life?
I a also curious about the meaning of the flag in the background with the snake on it?
I don’t think it’s a flag. I see the triangle as representing the monster’s focus on the young man’s hand. Perhaps his look of surprise indicates that he has finally seen the “snake in the grass”: the lies about bringing people a better life through war.
The young man could be seeing the fear you speak of in the figure on the left and choosing to comfort with one arm around him and the other holding back the flood…? Hmmmm
I see this piece as depicting a religious war, “Christian Curse”, which I think is amazingly appropriate. Bush has created the 21st Century Crusades in his determination to conquer the world with ‘Christianity’.
The creature looks shocked and frightened, not as evil but as a child being struck by a parent. A new awareness that the parent is not perfect and in fact is malevolent, a betrayal. Much like the people of this country and the Middle East, Bush is the parent. The ‘rain’ is the blood shed and the tears of the betrayed children.
“Of Giants & Lilliputians…”
The beach head has been reached in this one
“FIRST CONTACT” or “FIRST BLOOD”
“The Transformation of the Splintered Psyche”
This piece captures the mental transformation that a soldier must go through in order to prepare himself for the horror of war. His psyche slinters itself off and is characterized as grotesque and monsterlike. Perhaps being in war creates monsters of men.
“21st Century David Slaying Goliath”or”His Story Repeats.”
These title suggestions were submitted in writing by persons attending the Rosecrans Exhibit at the Louden Community Center in Santa Cruz, CA:
Who! Why! How Many More!
Petrified
“Lost Warrior” It is hard to tell if this is a warrior battling a giant or a warrior-priest worshipping his deity. from behind the warrior emerges what appears to be a brick road going off into infinity, maybe a symbol of of a long journey. the path seems to be crossed by the snake pennant which could be the dangers that we all face as we walk the road of life. Once again in the background appears raindrops or perhaps sperm once again suggesting life. These things combined seem to suggest how confusing, dangerous and great life can be.
The Quallipilluit is ready to snatch a child through a crack in the ice but at the last minute is astounded that the child is holding up a slab which traps and diverts the acid and radioactive rain of the last times.
The world is to be reconstituted by the Quallipilluit and its prey – a human child.
Note: The Quallipilluit is an Inuit figure which lives under the ice and will drag children down through cracks in the ice in the winter. It is usually female, with a siren like voice and sharled seaweed like hair. They sing to the children to get them to venture out onto the ice. When the children get near a crack – the Quallipilluit will grab the child and take it to the cold depths. Likely it is an old story instilled in children by parents trying to teach a respect for the ice in the winter – a dangerous place!
This time I read all the comments first before making my own. I love Delana’s take on the young man. I disagree with all the views on the “monster.” I see no life in it. It’s a machine. It’s the industrial/military complex that has bedeviled us for so long. Somehow, it has just “run down” in this piece. Surprised, the youth holds up the sky to get a better look.
The uncoiled snake, for me, represents an energy that’s just sick & tired of fighting, of always being tightly coiled & battle-ready. It’s going to take one last look backwards but then it just wants out, wants to uncoil and relax and sleep for months.
Even the rain seems surprised and lingers on the way down, drawing out each drop. For both youth and rain, after so many, many dreadful centuries, they’re witnessing an exhausted serpent and a broken-down machine.
My suggested title:
“It That All It Was?”