https://i.imgur.com/z15XjsM.jpg

The second painting transitions to the moment Shug Avery introduced pleasure to Celie. It was the first time in awhile that Celie felt emotion, specifically happiness. The painting introduces color to Celie’s life. It depicts a blur of a woman, which is Celie when she is in the realm of pleasure, walking amongst a colorful forest. Every tree is different, they encompass different colors to represent the rollercoaster of emotions Celie starts to experience. As Celie experienced something out of her usual routine, I did too. For this painting, I tried to use a different style of painting called knife painting. I used a knife to lay out the different color of leaves on each tree, which adds texture into the painting. I wanted to show that Celie is changing her ways, maybe unnoticeably, but definitely subconsciously.

https://i.imgur.com/xvdy4na.jpg

The third painting jumps into the part of the book where Shug reveals Mr. has been hiding Nettie’s letters from her. The painting specifically encompasses the letter where Nettie describes New York City. As I read this chapter, I tried to imagine witnessing the integration of both African Americans and white people for the first time. The scene stood out to me because it was a big shift in what Celie was used to. She was never exposed to the daily events Nettie saw, instead she was trapped inside a house in the deep South playing along with the forced ideas of racism, and sexism. The details in this letter exposed Celie to a life she probably never imagined, which is why I decided to paint New York. I wanted to put the audience into the lense of what Celie was visualizing. The painting dies down from the color expressed in the previous painting. It has splashes of yellow, orange, and red, but other than that, it is black and gray. I put a sunset over the building of New York to express that Celie is no longer emotionless, she has more determination and has built some source of happiness for herself. The orange road is red at the end to express the anger that is developing in Celie as she starts realizing that all these years Nettie hasn’t forgotten about her, it was Mr. who took away the one person who meant the world to her. In smaller detail, I added blurry cars on the road as a reference to the idea of cars mentioned in the book. There are also two silhouettes on the road, which are supposed to depict Nettie and Celie, as Celie visualizes them being together.

https://i.imgur.com/twk7FLi.jpg

The final painting is supposed to put the last line in the book into a visual. The quote “And I see they think me and Nettie and Shug and Albert and Samuel and Harpo and Sofia and Jack and Odessa real old and don't know much what going on. But I don't think us feel old at all. And us so happy. Matter of fact, I think this the youngest us ever felt” depicts how Celie has grown to become happier than she ever imagined she can be. I wanted to put the image of the first scene we got to see in the movie to the last part of the book. She is reflecting back, and stating that this is the youngest she ever felt, which made me visualize her and Nettie running around the field when they were younger. The book ended with a lighter mood, which is why the colors in the last painting are light and calmer than the rest.

https://i.imgur.com/SqfjLog.jpg

For my creative project, I used acrylic paint to create four different canvases of Celie’s world. Since the book used letters to narrate through Celie’s life, I decided to apply the descriptive language in the novel to build a visual of certain scenes in the book. The four paintings have an order to them, as they show how exposure had a major impact on Celie through the years.

The first painting presents the idea of Celie’s emotionless world. Alice Walker starts off the novel diving straight into the trauma Celie faced during her childhood, one of which was getting pregnant from being raped by her father at the age of 14. I wanted to express what Celie has to walk up to every day while living with dominating men, such as Pa and Mr (Albert). Celie’s daily struggle is the reason the first painting is only in black and white. It is supposed to depict a sunrise to which Celie wakes up to a void she can’t fill by the things around her. Even the beautiful aspects of life, such as nature, are darkened because Celie got so used to feeling used, she no longer expresses any feelings and doesn’t find any wonders in the world.

Why is he so emotional when it comes to Shug? What happened between them? Mr._ never cares for any one else, he only cares if his orders are followed. He usually has control over everyone else, but this is the one time someone has control over him. What is so special about Shug?