Beloved

This is an assignment for school I had to make to go along with the book "Beloved" by Toni Morrison.

The symbolism used in the image includes a tree on someone’s back, and hands grabbing the person from in front. The tree represents problems and suffering that can come about in one’s life, and how they can grow and scar them for life. The tree that was found on Sethe was revealed in chapter one. I think that “trees of pain” can be found on anyone, though. It isn’t exclusive to just Sethe, and that is why I used myself as the model because I think everyone has problems that will never go away. The black hands represent Paul D’s sexual lust for Sethe: how he had dreams of rape, had sex with calves, and how they had ten minutes of sex in the same chapter. It particularity pertains to the scene where Paul D kisses Sethe's scars right before he chases away the ghost. This artwork itself is post-modernism because I made the image first, and then looked into the book to see how I could interpret and relate the image to the novel with specific, fitting details. I'm happy with the result; it turned out better than I thought it would.

The image is in black and white to match the dark mood represented in the novel. I crossed my arms and then took three separate shots of my hands grabbing onto my lower, middle, and upper back, overlapped the images, and made my hands black. The background was erased and replaced with a photo I took at my cousin's house of a clover field. The tree on my back was taken in my backyard, and the picture of me was taken in my room using a tripod and timer.