[New Piece] Blue Woman, A Tribute, Part Two & Fin

"Blue Woman, A Tribute" • 12.5"X6" • graphite pencil, watercolor

About a month ago now I got to see two phenomenal artists and their bands perform at the Regency Theatre in San Francisco. Part one of this diptych was a tribute to Wovenhand, and I have a whole story about getting to meet David Eugene Edwards here. I think the execution on this one was better - each piece is an experiment of course, but I already had one done before starting hers. This idea started brewing while I was at the show; I had just met DEE and I was all aflutter as I tried to settle in to watch Chelsea Wolfe's set. I really was just as excited about seeing her in concert - I love her new album, Abyss, and had been looking forward to hearing some of it live.

"Blue Woman" detail

 Now, I have less of an obsession with her work than I do DEE's, but when I heard they would be touring together I was thrilled! It seemed like the perfect match-up... Wovenhand with its zealous gospel lyrics and Chelsea Wolfe with her pagan gothic lullabies, both wrapped in dark, smouldering music. My husband introduced me to both of these musicians. I was immediately drawn to Wolfe's "Moses," when I first heard it a few years ago and it remains my favorite song of hers. I really enjoy her sound, but her lyrics are what make her so intriguing to me... "Moses" is desolate, empty, beseeching, but so full of deep longing. And her new album is even more intense... one of my absolute favorite lyrics, from "Simple Death," is

"Sometimes I don't know
If I'll find the answer
Or if I've ever asked the question."

"Blue Woman" with rough edges, "upside down"

She was great live. The show was executed perfectly - even the venue got the lights just right. It seemed to me that DEE was always bathed in red, and she in blue, hence the coloring of these two pieces. They seem to me perfect complements to each other, the lost and found, both equal in their capacity for creating glory-filled work. While DEE's work keeps me grounded in my reality in Christ, Chelsea is with me when I wander. I chose the surface of the water for her in contrast to a vast sky for DEE; when I do sink, I go far, but I'm never alone.

It's musicians like these that make me wish I had any musical ability or talent whatsoever. What they can communicate in their work seems to far exceed what I can in a single image, or even a body of images. But I do hope this small tribute to what I appreciate about them will do some amount of justice to what I feel.

Now then, I need to track down Sargent House's address so I can get these to them! Is it weird to get fan art of yourself? What would you do with it? Would it just get lost in a pile somewhere? I'm tempted to keep them all to myself, but the same fate would befall them in my own piles, and it seems like a better fate to be lost in the piles of the people they were intended for, anyway.

"Red Man, Blue Woman: A Tribute"

♥ Ciara