The View From Ophelia

There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do dead men’s fingers call them:
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;
As one incapable of her own distress…

Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 7

 

Okay, so when I said I would be back in a few days, I was off by a couple of months. The intervening time should have been spent writing diligently with hours spent creating important deeply felt artwork in support of those words.

That didn’t happen.

I have been tied, not unwillingly, to household duties and outdoor pursuits that didn’t necessarily have anything to do with furthering Bodhairim. Also, I was uninspired and didn’t want to. And forcing it when the feeling isn’t there leads to bad art and horrific poetry.

So here at the other end of the summer and floundering with my project, I was suddenly struck by off-project inspiration. I haven’t abandoned Bodhairim, but it’s a challenging and sometimes monstrous task and sometimes the child I don’t want to deal with. I know I’ll get back to it soon, but I’m just not ready to continue on yet. Sometimes artists need their playtime too.

Over the last week, my mind has twisted around a phrase that was stuck in my head and the idea of Hamlet’s Ophelia. I’m not going to go into a long dissertation about her character, but she sort of got into my blood and I feel like I get her, and that started blooming images in my head that I wanted to play with outside my head. I won’t provide more for explanation other than the title and you can run wild with your own interpretation.

So there I deviated down that path and I ended up spending a lot of time taking pictures underwater. Being knee deep in summertime, this is not a bad way to spend your time…