Hand-Held Harpy I - multimedia

Description

I cut this 4" by 4" (10.2 cm by 10.2 cm) linoleum block of a tiny harpy, a composite creature, half-woman, half-bird, to make a series of planned multimedia pieces. This is the first in the series. The block here has been printed on three Japanese washi papers (in gold on white with gold flecks and on cream and in black on irridescent green). The tail is embellished with an actual peacock feather (for those who worry about animal products, I gathered the feather myself from off the ground of the poultry pen on a farm on which I previously lived) and glass beads.

I wanted to reclaim the idea of a harpy as a beautiful, rather than horrific creature. A simple way to do so is to play with scale.

Sometimes the siren is depicted as half-woman, half-bird, rather than half-fish, so some may know this creature as a siren. The siren is also seen as a threat. This creature is small, beautiful, yet proud. She never ate anyone, nor made any ships smash into jagged rocks.
________________________________________________
Dans la mythologie, les hapies sont des divinités de la dévastation et de la vengeance divine. Aussi, le terme est souvent utilisé métaphoriquement pour désigner une méchante femme. Je me demande pourquois! Une créature composé d'une demi oiseau et une demi femme devrait être belle et charmante. Donc, je la réinvente. Ici l'harpie est mignonne, tenu à main.

C'est un pièce multimédia qui inclu des gravures sur papier kozo japonais, des perles et une plume de paon. L'image de l'harpie est 4 pouce carré (10,2 cm carré).

Added on Nov 01, 2009