Bring 'Em Back Alive or A Magnum Rock Opus, 78 x 50", ink on paper, 2009.For this project, I was interested in the idea of translating an idea from another medium into drawing. A classmate of mine had previously done it with the poem Kubla Kahn, so I figured that literature was out, since it had been done already. Naturally, I moved to music.
I chose Audioslave's Bring 'Em Back Alive because that song has ALWAYS made me think of an epic situation (although I'm saving that one for something else!) and I liked the allusions to the story of Icarus in the lyrics. I modified the story slightly, going along with the lyrics - instead of falling into the ocean, Icarus falls into a crowd and they bury him alive.
I was thinking of the old, old, OLD wall drawings and paintings we studied in art history, where an entire narrative (or large chunk) would be handled in a single panel. Kind of Surreal, with the playing of space. So I looked at the anticipation of flight to the fall.
Part of what I liked about this was that it reflected my views on society: it's a few who dare to step out and try, but if you fail there's never a shortage of people who criticize you for it. I avoided the whole allusion of Icarus being a model for the artist because that's WAY too overdone. Artists tend to evangelize themselves way too often for my liking.
