Writing, Reading, Reflection

After looking through Somerset Home, I remember I have an antique mirror that I can alter. The magazine shows how to alter a mirror and since mirrors are always something I’ve written about, this is what I’m going to do:

I’m taking one of my favorite poems by Christina Rossetti, “In An Artist’s Studio” and combining it with the “Mirror, Mirror on the wall” concept, which I studied in college. There are some great feminist articles about this in No Man’s Land, which is one of my favorite books on literary criticism, and the words found there in tandem with the Rossetti poem will be awesome!  I can’t wait to get started on it!

Here is the poem:

In an Artist’s Studio
Christina Rossetti

One face looks out from all his canvasses,
One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans;
We found her hidden just behind those screens,
That mirror gave back all her loveliness.
A queen in opal or in ruby dress,
A nameless girl in freshest summer greens,
A saint, an angel; — every canvass means
The same one meaning, neither more nor less.
He feeds upon her face by day and night,
And she with true kind eyes looks back on him
Fair as the moon and joyful as the light:
Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim;
Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright;
Not as she is, but as she fills his dream.

If you are unfamiliar with the poem, it’s written during the Victorian period about Rossetti’s brother, Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s work. He often used Elizabeth Siddal as his model and created some of my most favorite Pre-Raphaelite paintings with her as the focal point. C. Rossetti was an early feminist writer and was always questioning the role of women. In her poem, she questions the reality of Elizabeth vs. her brother’s vision of her. It’s one of the best poems on objectification of women.

The idea of the mirror and how it reflects who we are, who we want to be for others is a strong one in so many pieces of literature written by both men and women. Thus, it will make a fitting altered piece of art, I think! Plus, the title to the poem, “In An Artist’s Studio” is fitting since I’ll be creating something for my own studio. In addition, so many of the women in my family are reflected in my art work repeatedly, so there is definitely a double meaning to this project. I’m so excited. Can you tell?