Light at the End of the Tunnel -Tribute to Aretha Franklin

by Aberjhani

Title

Light at the End of the Tunnel -Tribute to Aretha Franklin

Artist

Aberjhani

Medium

Mixed Media - Photography - Digital Painting

Description

Amazing... how grace
rained joy and miracles through
the skies of your heart.
--Aberjhani (from Haiku-Elegy for a Queen)

Like millions around the world who are currently mourning the death and celebrating the life of the iconic singer Aretha Franklin, I grew up listening to her music and have been paying my tributes to her for the past week. "Light at the End of the Tunnel..." is one of them and another is an experimental poem titled "Haiku-Elegy for a Queen," from which the above quote is taken.

Poetry aficionados fond of traditional haiku might take me to task for stretching my application of the genre but I have always been more of a cutting-edge kind of writer than a strict formalist. That inclination might also have something to do with my preferences when it comes to visual art styles as well. I like the precision of certain kinds of photography, mixed media, and painting as much as I enjoy the uninhibited creative potential of abstract art. This particular work is more mixed media consisting of urban sculpture, photography, layered oil and texture effects, and digitally-constructed framing and matting.

The great Aretha Franklin had been very much on my mind ever since first learning almost a decade ago (in 2010) that she was battling pancreatic cancer, said to kill about 44,300 people every year. This art print dedicated to Franklin had been in the works for some weeks and developed as a tribute to her while listening for hours to her jazz, rhythm and blues, gospel, pop, and soul music spanning decades. The more I listened to her music and simultaneously worked on the art, the more I saw it as a representation of her life's journey and the many lives she touched while undertaking it.

I have my own interpretations of how the different-colored angled lines stretching into the distance, the flowering grass on the left side of the print, and the triangle of light on the right represent various aspects of Franklin's life and her role in world history. However, I will leave it to viewers to provide their own interpretations to how these might apply not only to Aretha's Franklin's life but possibly to their own.

Aberjhani

Uploaded

August 21st, 2018

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