Image Description Part II

An image from a picture book, A diamond of 10 power, by Ichirou Senoo

In the process of searching for an image that grabbed my attention and stopped me from moving into other pictures, I found a picture book called A diamond of 10 power by Ichirou Senoo. The book consists of many pages of paintings that tell stories without any words. Ichirou’s imaginations are not direct but they can be understood with the help of readers’ own creative imaginations. The effect of the paintings on the reader is warm, calm, and comforting. I chose the image that most infatuated me from a large selection of paintings. As I looked into the image more, I was able to see beyond the surface and that stirred my imagination. I wanted to describe what I had imagined and observe other readers’ reactions to my ekphrasis. The poetic approach that I used to illustrate the painting seems adequate after having done the image reconstruction workshop, however, it also showed me that there are various appropriate ways to illustrate art.

The painting I chose by Ichirou Senoo is representational; it consists of fathomable objects in rich colors, creating a perception of deep space. I attempted to describe these objects considering iconographical, interpretational, and compositional aspects. I tried to explain the white spots or the circles on the picture as I interpreted them; I do not know what they represent but I used my imagination. This is shown in my ekphrasis where I said, “Thousands and millions of wee white lights that resemble featherweight soap bubbles, diamonds of the first water, or even lights as faint as the glow of fireflies are floating all around the space.” I continued the description of these white spots, by saying in paragraphs three and four: “Here, dusky red and blue lights seem to become raspberries and blueberries enclosing the aperture.” The title of the picture book could lead one to assume that the white spots are diamonds but I did not limit my interpretation to the title alone. This strategy plays a part in the aforementioned iconographic descriptions.

I also attempted to tell the story by coming out with the possible theme, happiness. I interpreted the two children as they had journeyed through the tickets of thorn and discovered the land of imagination that was filled with happiness. These can be found in the fifth paragraph “Two children already had passed through the thorn thickets and they are now standing on the edge of a hill not far from each other.” Moreover, two blue birds from a fairy tale was indicated here to underline the theme further: “Two blue birds, which might symbolize happiness, are flying over the thorn thickets behind each child…. led the children to find their way out.” I have seen the painting as the fairy tale for grown ups which is being something like a drizzling rain for those with dry hearts.

The intriguing looks of the painting are not just limited to the contents but they are also extended further to the compositional aspects. Even though the vanishing point is in the center of the picture plane, which can be very boring to the viewer, the artist succeeded on creating the inviting enough, well balanced painting by mirroring approximately the right side to the left side of the frame. I pointed out this in the last paragraph as “Moreover, the image may even be folded in half to match left to right or vice versa. The image is perfectly balanced by first placing rainbows on each left and right sides, then children below these rainbow roots, and eventually, the blue birds behind the each child.” Because of this compositional fact, I think it is best for the viewer to stand in front of the center of the painting when one really wants to get involved in the moment shown.

After reading the delineations by Philostratus, Gertrude Stein, and Matt McGarraghy, I used the poetic approach to describe Ichirou Senoo’s painting. From reading these descriptions beforehand, I saw them as quite narrative poems. I illustrated Ichirou Senno’s painting in such a poetic way since I felt this was the decent way and not only because these other descriptions were delineated in such a way. In Andrians by Philostratus, there are sundry depictions of an unseen painting that aids me to picture in my head. Such one among several is “The river lies on a couch of grape-clusters, pouring out its stream, a river undiluted and of agitated appearance; thyrsi grow about it like reeds about bodies of water… some are drunken and dancing.” Matt McGarraghy also approached to his description of the painting, The Glass Day, in a similar way. Here, for example, he illustrated the pregnant girl as “She is like a kangaroo with a joey but the pouch is sealed,” and the cliff and its reflection as “Why climb the cliff when you can be at one with it all at once by jumping into the reflection which is so clear. So clear that, if held upside down, one would soon not realize it save the blood rushing to the head.” Matt described the painting in so touching and enjoyable ways and I tried to do mine with such an overture to create the pleasant, imaginative picture in the reader’s heads.

I also tried simultaneously to give some spatial information thus it would not be so hard to position the contents in the reverse ekphrasis, whereas, the placement seems somewhat ambiguous in Matt McGarraghy’s image description. The reverse ekphrasis on Matt’s work by Emy Kanashiro clearly shows such lacks of compositional aids. On the other hand, the plate illustration of the Infant Joy by the Blake Archive team presents structural representations. The Information on the way some of objects are placed in the corners of the painting, in relation to the rest of other objects, is given pretty clearly. To remark such example would be “The greater stem curves left—between the grass and the text—and then up the left margin.” Although I focused more on the poetic description of the painting, I sought correspondently to give some aforesaid structural information.

During an image reconstruction workshop, I read other image descriptions by classmates and that experience made me to realize that not everyone took the poetic approach. Rather, some of them use more analytical approach considering historical background of the period of the work that was created. When I read Jill Pichoki’s image description, I could envision more than just a possible visionary image. In a historical view, I was able to imagine what would it been at the time of the photograph was taken. Furthermore, it told me to see beyond such as the relationship between the subjects of the photograph and the photographer who was not shown in the picture. By talking about this fact, Jill extends her description to the outside of the picture plane, the detail I thought most fascinating. She talks emotions of three main characters, father, mother, and daughter, as friendly in relation to the photographer who possibly could be seen as an outsider to them. It was very pleasing and made me to realize that there are many other ways to describe art.

An image reconstructed from my description of Ichirou Senoo’s painting resembles the original painting to quite a degree. The placement of the main objects is nearly correct and the resultant atmosphere or emotional response created is similar. Nevertheless, there are still some differences such as the way the blue birds face each other and the way the children both stand in the left side of the frame. Moreover, unlike the original painting, an image that seems to represent the sun is right above the vanishing point in between two rainbows. The colors do not get darker around the edge creating a black frame, as they do in Senoo’s painting. The reconstructed image, the reverse ekphrasis, reveals that my original description was not very clear about illustrating the states and the contours of things. For example, my description was not detailed enough to show the conspicuous postures of the blue birds. To give a better understanding to the viewer, appending technical information would have been good, such as the bush strokes, the directions of them and how these affect the painting as a whole. I also should have mentioned the medium that was used to create the painting.