The three parts of the triptych: a. Literal meaning of the poem b. The "deeper" more figurative meaning c. Your own painting on "inner peace"
Here is the email that the Chinese student sent: Dear foreign teacher , Good afternoon!My name is Peace. I am a student whose English teacher is Juanita. I will appreciate it if you could read my poem seriously. The following is my essay .
Whale , We I have a dream I want to live under the water There is my friend there, Anny Anny is a whale Who lives alone Who is the same as me While I am doing my work She is swimming over my head We can't touch each other But we can have eye contact That gives me inner peace
Sometimes ever Sometimes never Whale , we Will we ?
I'm looking forward to your reply. Thank you! Sincerely, Peace
Triptych: #1 Literal interpretation of poem #2 "Deeper meaning" of poem #3 Artist's personal interpretation of "Inner Peace"
Student 5: The first depiction was the literal depiction of the poem. I used a darker background to emphasize the whale and the floating feeling in the clouds. The whale looks as if it is floating through coral and peach colored clouds. I made the whale float over the city the way that the whale floats through her thoughts in the poem in a peaceful state. It combines the idea of living under water but also the reality of the city landscape.
s is the image I used to describe the deeper meaning of the poem. I used two whales looking into each other’s eyes almost as if they are separated by a glass wall. I used the distance in deep blue to portray the distance surrounding the question, “will we?”
The last watercolor painting is my own depiction of peace. Cool waters swirl around the warm starfish as if it were in a tide pool. I used salt on the starfish to add texture of the bumpy surface of a real starfish. This is peaceful to me because of the swirling motion that goes on around the starfish while the sea creature remains still.
Student 6: The first picture I did was to be a literal representation of this poem. The lines “While I am doing my work She is swimming over my head” is what I took inspiration from. My picture is drawn in oil pastels and it is supposed to be a thought bubble of the whale swimming because if a thought bubble is hovering overhead while she works, then in a literal and figurative sense the whale is swimming above her. I will admit this picture is not my best work, but I wanted to try out something different and new, so that is why I used the oil pastels. I thought the picture as a whole did represent what I was aiming for in terms of the poem, butt I think I could’ve executed it much better and leaves me much room for improvement. Overall, the literal representation of this poem seemed peculiar, but I think it made for an interesting and different work.
The second picture I did was the deeper meaning of the poem. To me, the poem really emphasizes that not all intimacy and friendship has to be physical and tangible. Saying they “can’t touch each other” creates a sense that they have a connection much deeper than physicalities, and that their eye contact gives her inner peace makes for a very personal and ambiguous piece up for interpretation. For my illustration of this, I used oil pastels again, and I think this one turned out much better than my first one. I wanted to focus on the whale’s eye because eye contact was the main focus of this one, and within the eye I drew two people together to symbolize that there connection isn’t necessarily physical, but emotional, or isn’t just on the surface, but deep within them.
The third picture I drew was my own idea of inner peace. This one was my favorite to do because it was specific to me. I used watercolor pencils to draw a blooming sunflower. Sunflowers are very close to my heart because that was my grandma’s favorite flower. Whenever I feel I need comfort or solace, my grandma was there for me, and a sunflower just symbolizes to me that not only has she found peace, but it brings me peace to remember all the good times I had with her and she had so much faith in me no matter what. The sunflower may seem insignificant, but the reason I have always loved creating works of flowers and nature is because my grandma has always inspired me to embrace my surroundings and the beauty of the world.