BLUE skies.  Blue waters.  Blue eyes.  The blues.  These are what many think of when they think of the color blue.  I think of blue lips, blue skin, corpses and drowning, which naturally makes me think of the fair Ophelia, one of the most lachrymose and tragic of all of Shakespeare’s characters and one for whom I have always felt a kinship and profound sympathy, and not just because we have equally questionable taste in men. *insert eye roll here*

And yes,  I have seen a therapist, and yes I have a clean bill of mental health (save my anxiety, which is negligible).  Hard to believe, but 100% true.

I KNOW images of Ophelia have been done to death (no pun intended…give me some credit…my puns are better than that), from Waterhouse to Millais to countless others, but I really wanted to do something that felt more modern, more true to me and my vision and break away from the more traditional and iconic representations of the tragic heroine while also making more personal and more intimate.  I hope I accomplished my goal.

THE DEATH of Ophelia is one of Shakespeare’s most tragic.  Driven mad by Hamlet, and her love for him, she escapes her immense pain by drowning herself.

“’Tis in my memory lock’d,
And you yourself shall keep the key of it.”

“There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Pray you, love,
remember. And there is pansies, that’s for thoughts.

There’s fennel for you, and columbines. There’s rue for you,
and here’s some for me. We may call it herb of grace o’ Sundays…”

– Ophelia

AND with that I give you this week’s Project 52, inspired by one of the greatest heartbreaks and psychotic breaks in all of literature and theater.

12/52
Theme: Blue
Title:  “Pray you love, remember.  And there is pansies, that’s for thoughts.”

I WILL END with this beautiful and perfect description of Ophelia by okayophelia, which I was fortunate enough to stumble across (and which is officially on my list of daily reads…I should really share that with you guys.  I’ll put a list together for you ASAP).

“She is not someone you understand. she is someone you watch, someone you use,
someone you mourn. she is made for love but love is not made for her.
everything about her runs deeper than in you; her madness is truer, her mind
brighter and better broken, and her anguish is in her bones, not her blood.
you will never forgive her for dying, but she will always be dead forever, and
your horror means nothing to her anymore. That, more than anything is why you
still dream about her and her flowers thrown like curses. She has made
herself no longer yours to dream of, choking on her water, crawling through
her weeds, living beneath the world; her body inviolate and violable no more,
there in her resting place where no man rules.”

YEAH.  I told you it was beautiful…painfully beautiful.  Thank you, okayophelia, for such a beautiful and heartbreaking rendering of a character far more complex than she is often portrayed or given credit.

*I would like to note that creating this image was intensely personal and has actually turned out to cause a large amount of internal conflict concerning the interplay of my personal values and my art. I won’t go into the details but I will say that this is not the only version of this image I created and that I am very torn between the two.  I am trying to sort through this with a dear friend whose opinions and insights I deeply value.  Hopefully I can, with a little help from my friend, wade through these new issues and find a resolution (or at least a happy medium) that my heart and my art can both live with in contentment.

Kisses & Chaos,
Alli Woods Frederick

image  ::  “pray you love, remember. And there is pansies, that’s for thoughts.” © 2014 alli woods frederick.  all rights reserved.  those words means it’s mine, all mine and you aren’t allowed to post it, crop it, alter it, share it, use it, abuse it or do anything besides look at it without my express written permission.  just because it’s on the internet doesn’t mean it’s free for people to steal…and yes it’s stealing to post it to your tumblr or on your blog without my permission.  this is how I earn my living and you don’t mess with someone’s livelihood.  that’s a horrible thing to do.  so if you are a blogger, publisher, or any other “er” or “ist” and would like to feature my work then email me and ask first.  steal it, use it or abuse it and I will hunt you down and I will not be nice.  don’t make me sic my flying monkeys on you.  they are brutal.  for realsies.  thanks bunches in advance for respecting my copyright.  muwha!  ::