Illustrated poemLiterature | Typography | Imaging
This project was created under mixed feelings. To me this was one of the most enjoyable and relaxed projects and I am really happy with the result. However, creating the final product felt really grim. I was cutting death notices from newspapers and crafting tiny clothes from them which gave quite an odd feeling. But enough about my feelings, on to the project. The poem I chose was one by John O'Mill, aka Johan van der Meulen. O'Mill was an English teacher and often used his student's mistakes in his poems. These poems can be found in e.g. Lyrical Laria (1956) and Literary larycook (1977). These poems with 'steenkolenengels' often had a humorous theme and no real message. He also wrote Dutch poems which were also meant to be funny most of the time but had a more serious background. Most of his poems are relatively short. The poem I chose goes as follows: Kat uit de boom 's Ochtends bij 't opstaan, maar vóór de dagelijkse plichten, lees ik de krant, d'overlijdensberichten, en zie ik mijn naam daar dan niet bij staan dan pas en niet eerder kleed ik me aan. I thought the poem contained a funny paradox, since you can't be reading your own death notice of course. It drew my attention and I decided to use it for this project. I made the illustrations entirely out of death notices. They form the background and the laundry line. I placed the clothes in the illustration to show how the author has to get 'through' the newspaper's notices before he can go dress himself. The fact that the clothes are the same as the background makes them more subtle than when I'd have chosen a different type of paper. As my teacher advised, I put the notices in a frame with a dark border. This fits with the death notices since they are also lined with black. I wrote the poem on the glass, which makes it float in front of the image a little. Instead of writing the author's name underneath, I incorporated this in the background. If you look closely, you can find the poet's own death note right below the poem. I liked this little extra touch and since it is not that obvious it feels like you know a secret about the poem once you see it or are told about it. |