By Amy
Fry
My problem in choosing a final project lay in the fact that I could only have one final project. I found after leaving this class the creative juices were always flowing. My best inspiration was to make a music video with a Creedence Clearwater Revival accompaniment featuring Emily, Daisy and Isabel, but alas that idea presented itself too late in the semester to do it justice. So, I decided to stick with the original idea, which was to create a portrait of Dickinson that incorporated poems I liked and felt represented the different facets of her psyche. I wanted to take Henry James' idea of what makes a portrait and turn that approach upon Emily. A portrait for him was not the painting of the outer appearance of a person, but rather their inner spirit, good and bad. My intent was to choose poems that were reflections of Emily's soul.
Believe it or not, I did not realize, at least not consciously, the shadow of the cover of our text, until my husband offered to copy the more accurate one for me. I decided to stick with the one that I felt best expressed my feelings, and that was the shadow I had created. I wanted a stark palette, so I chose a white and black format. I did not want to detract anything from Emily's poetry. Emily's poetry is beautiful and in need of no adornment. I stitched up her mouth because I cannot imagine the oppression she lived with on a daily basis. The inability to speak her thought and feelings must have been suffocating.
As far as the outfit, well. . . it's a tribute to how I feel Dickinson would dress if she were alive today. I think her motto would be "Screw Off." I might be wrong, but I do not think so.
