My Interpretation of Blake

My interpretation of Blake revolves primarily around commentary on society. There is a lot of sexual repression and repression of the working class in Blake’s work. He is very much into individuality and creating one’s own system by which to live.

Overall I tend to like Blake’s way of thinking as far as rational thought versus creativity – that neither extreme is better and that some sort of happy medium is necessary, but he is weighted a bit more on the side of creativity.

I also think that Blake enjoyed playing with the preconceived notions of his readers. He obviously believed things are not nearly so black as white as some might think and that there is no absolute good and evil or right and wrong. Both sides will have elements of each other. In addition, it seems that part of Blake’s promotion of the individual is that, in addition to not being black and white, concepts such as good and evil are left up to a personal interpretation, therefore suggesting that there is no strict and definitive morality by which people should live.

My explanation of my print

Neither my poem nor print is particularly Blakean, which was my intent. It had occurred to me in the beginning to copy a picture Blake had done, but to me this makes the experience less authentic. After all, Blake did not copy others. So I picked something I enjoy, music, and did that (there are actually many things I enjoy, but being rather inept at most artistic endeavours, my options were somewhat limited).

My hope was that the poem and print would, rather than explain each other, each add something of its own to the overall concept. I think that while the print and poem complement each other, they are each able to stand alone, separate forms merging into an amalgamation of art.