Break from Reason

I was very apprehensive about taking this class because I was not too fond of Blake after reading some of his works in Romanticism. However, I believe I was intimidated by the difficulty of reading his works. Therefore, I decided I hadn’t given him enough of a chance after only reading his works once. I was pleasantly surprised to find that after reading his works the second time around I was able to comprehend the material to a much larger extent. However, I can’t take all the credit. This was probably because we had talked about the works in Romanticism, therefore I already had a general sense of what was going on. This enabled me to perform a closer reading of the material since I didn’t have to struggle through figuring out the plot.

Then, right when I thought I had Blake all figured out we started reading material that was new to me. I quickly found out that I was right back at square one. This just reinforced the idea that you can’t just read through his works once and expect to understand right away. You have to struggle through it a few times, and then all of a sudden things start to fall into place.

Besides just understanding the poems better, I feel I gained a much better understanding of Blake’s artwork that accompanied them. Not only do I have a better appreciation for all of the time and hard work that he put into them, but I feel I am starting to be able to make connections between the images and the text after our research on the engravings in the microcomputer lab. I feel like this has increased my understanding of his work immensely. This is one aspect of his work we didn’t focus too much on in Romanticism, so I was glad to get a chance to explore his engraving further since they were such an important part of his work. In reality, they are just as important as his poems. To disregard his engravings would not be doing justice to the true magnitude of his work.

In addition to studying Blake’s engravings more we were able to create our own engravings. I felt this was a wonderful way for us to gain a better appreciation for all of the time and hard work it takes to create the image you are attempting to portray. Since I have virtually no artistic talent I chose to make an engraving of Edvard Munch’s "The Scream." I chose this piece of work because it is a piece I have always admired and I felt it embodied Blakean themes. Even though I borrowed a previously existing image I still had to work at achieving the desired textures and colors I envisioned for my final print. This proved to be difficult as I had to experiment with different etching techniques, printing techniques, and finally with painting the finished product. However, I found the experience to be very enlightening and rewarding. It was a really fun way to learn more about Blake’s works.

Overall, I am very glad that I decided to take this class because I feel it has been a very positive experience. I figured if nothing else I would at least gain a better appreciation for his talent as an amazing artist, but to tell you the truth I am even starting to like Blake. Who would have guessed? Maybe I am starting to like him and his work better because I need a little break from all the reason in my life.