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Description
Um.. was a "prop" of sorts for my IBH1 English presentation, on the book Chronicle of a Death Foretold which was written by Gabriel García Márquez. I had to discuss surrealism in the book, and show it through an abstract art piece.

Most of the time, when it comes to reading Latino/Chicano literature, people automatically assume that it's going to use magic realism. However, in this book, there wasn't much, rather just dreams, people mistaking what they see, or just sixth sense; in comparison to Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. Because of this, I chose to do it in a slightly surreal/abstract style, although making it realistic enough so that things could still be made out; mimicking the small presence of surrealism in the book.

The first, and one of the few significant occurances of magic in the book, is in the dream that Santiago Nasar has at the beginning, where he's flying through almond trees in a tinfoil airplane, and there are birds. This is an omen foreshadowing his death, since trees are a bad sign in their culture.

Another mention of some kind of surrealism in the book would be Santiago Nasar's mother, since it said that she always seemed to know what was going on in everyone's lives before it even happened, even if she never left the house. He said that she would find out all of this, while everyone slept, and I showed this through the female form on the bottom, with a blanket to show that it's night, and the outstretched hand, because of the secret threads of communication. As well, since all of this happens in dreams, I made it black and white, because I dream in black and white (or really, really subdued colors). Santiago Nasar’s foot is shown stepping on the mother’s hand, like she’s holding him up; they’re connected, because “it was from her that he got a sixth sense.”

When looking at the proportions of the piece, I chose to make it narrow because it was the kind of view that we got from reading it, since we didn’t get any of the actual facts, rather just personal statements and opinions from each of the characters. The fact that it’s so narrow makes it so that we can’t see what goes beyond it, anything else is possible, we don’t know what actually happened.

The reason why Márquez put so little surrealism in the novel was so that his story would be believable, and we’d be able to understand what was going on better. It’s easy for us to imagine a small town, where everyone is so involved and interested in everyone else’s life. A town where the bishop makes a stop every month, but doesn’t even get off the boat, but Santiago Nasar still stops by because he’s so interested in the church pomp. People do things for the sake of doing them, rather than the actual act. Superficiality, like how the Vicario brothers go and kill him because of “honor” that was expected of them. Thus, since the image is about a dream, which is almost like the opposite of superficiality, since dreams are our innermost, deepest thoughts occurring in our subconscious, and the lack of them helps make the superficiality of the characters more obvious.

I used a few stock photos to draw off of for this piece:
- tinderstockGT04 by tinderstock [link]
- angel boy III by fiori-di-ofelia [link]
- Expired Turtle Dove 3 by dead-stock [link]

Media: black ink gel pen on watercolor paper
Size: 6.375 x 19.5 inches

Description
Um.. was a "prop" of sorts for my IBH1 English presentation, on the book Chronicle of a Death Foretold which was written by Gabriel García Márquez. I had to discuss surrealism in the book, and show it through an abstract art piece.

Most of the time, when it comes to reading Latino/Chicano literature, people automatically assume that it's going to use magic realism. However, in this book, there wasn't much, rather just dreams, people mistaking what they see, or just sixth sense; in comparison to Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. Because of this, I chose to do it in a slightly surreal/abstract style, although making it realistic enough so that things could still be made out; mimicking the small presence of surrealism in the book.

The first, and one of the few significant occurances of magic in the book, is in the dream that Santiago Nasar has at the beginning, where he's flying through almond trees in a tinfoil airplane, and there are birds. This is an omen foreshadowing his death, since trees are a bad sign in their culture.

Another mention of some kind of surrealism in the book would be Santiago Nasar's mother, since it said that she always seemed to know what was going on in everyone's lives before it even happened, even if she never left the house. He said that she would find out all of this, while everyone slept, and I showed this through the female form on the bottom, with a blanket to show that it's night, and the outstretched hand, because of the secret threads of communication. As well, since all of this happens in dreams, I made it black and white, because I dream in black and white (or really, really subdued colors). Santiago Nasar’s foot is shown stepping on the mother’s hand, like she’s holding him up; they’re connected, because “it was from her that he got a sixth sense.”

When looking at the proportions of the piece, I chose to make it narrow because it was the kind of view that we got from reading it, since we didn’t get any of the actual facts, rather just personal statements and opinions from each of the characters. The fact that it’s so narrow makes it so that we can’t see what goes beyond it, anything else is possible, we don’t know what actually happened.

The reason why Márquez put so little surrealism in the novel was so that his story would be believable, and we’d be able to understand what was going on better. It’s easy for us to imagine a small town, where everyone is so involved and interested in everyone else’s life. A town where the bishop makes a stop every month, but doesn’t even get off the boat, but Santiago Nasar still stops by because he’s so interested in the church pomp. People do things for the sake of doing them, rather than the actual act. Superficiality, like how the Vicario brothers go and kill him because of “honor” that was expected of them. Thus, since the image is about a dream, which is almost like the opposite of superficiality, since dreams are our innermost, deepest thoughts occurring in our subconscious, and the lack of them helps make the superficiality of the characters more obvious.

I used a few stock photos to draw off of for this piece:
- tinderstockGT04 by tinderstock [link]
- angel boy III by fiori-di-ofelia [link]
- Expired Turtle Dove 3 by dead-stock [link]

Media: black ink gel pen on watercolor paper
Size: 6.375 x 19.5 inches