Death is the Road to Awe

Literal Interpretation:

The first iteration of drawings based on the movie The Fountain is a rather literal diagrammatic representation of the instrumentation used in the song Death is the Road to Awe. This charcoal composition acts as a representation of the song outlined by the songs instrumentation. Different articulations of charcoal are used to represent each instrument as the varying instruments are introduced over the duration of the song. It is constructed with an orientation from left to right, from up to down, in correlation to the way in which music is properly read. At the beginning of the drawing, shorter dense lines represent the introductory piano. Whereas, the transition into bolder shaded lines represent the bass portion of the string quartet that is introduced next. As the song progresses the original orientation evolves to one that continues from left to right but now explores the limits of its verticality. The integration of an ascending vertical composition was used to represent the journey that Death is the Road to Awe takes the user through. Certain portions of this journey are repeated, intersected, and have moments of parallel meaning and this drawing is intended to show these types of paths.

Figurative Interpretation:

               In contrast to the first iteration, the second acts as a figurative interpretation of the song Death is the Road to Awe. The second drawing is created with a blue oilbar and is a figurative interpretation of the movie The Fountain, the significance of the song Death is the Road to Awe, and the relationship between the two. As the song Death is the Road to Awe played in the background the interpretation of The Fountain came to life through a vertical composition. Bold strokes of oil were orientated on the left side of the page to represent the character Tommy in the film. His idea of mortality was rigid and limited to his understanding of science. Quite opposite to the idea that his wife had developed. Her perception of death was quite fluid and light as death was fast approaching her. The light pen strokes are used on the right side of the page to represent her ethereal spirit. The centrally located core acts as the intersection of the two concepts and generates a middle ground at which the two exist. At the top of the page there are a few faint pen strokes that represent the afterlife or parallel universe that Izzi believes she will meet with death. At the bottom of the page bold short lines represent death as it is perceived by Tommy – a level of Earth that dead bodies are buried into. Again, the centrally located core helps to solidify the relationship between the two main characters, their understandings of death, and the common ground that the two of them meet at.