Some dark images

Merlin's Cave 1
A drawing, a painting, and an intaglio print melded together in photoshop. Spooky for Halloween, huh?
'Merlin' by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thy trivial harp will never please
Or fill my craving ear;
Its chords should ring as blows the breeze,
Free, peremptory, clear.
No jingling serenader's art,
Nor tinkle of piano strings,
Can make the wild blood start
In its mystic springs.
The kingly bard
Must smile the chords rudely and hard,
As with hammer or with mace;
That they may render back
Artful thunder, which conveys
Secrets of the solar track,
Sparks of the supersolar blaze Note.
Merlin's blows are strokes of fate,
Chiming with the forest tone,
When boughs buffet boughs in the wood;
Chiming with the gasp and moan
Of the ice-imprisoned hood;
With the pulse of manly hearts;
With the voice of orators;
With the din of city arts;
With the cannonade of wars;
With the marches of the brave;
And prayers of might from martyrs' cave.



I put a charcoal drawing and a pencil drawing together, but did a lot in photoshop. Frankly I think this final composition is a stronger artwork than either of the two originals. I call this "of two minds." You could think of it as someone who is treacherous and "two-faced," or you could imagine someone with multiple-personality-disorder. Or you could just interpret it your own way. I thought it would be fun to do make something scary for Halloween. Boo!