Visual Interpretation Montage

Medium: Painted with Gouache/Ink

For my final assignment in my Creative Illustration class, we were assigned to take a song, a movie, or a novel, and create a visual interpretation of it. On top of that we had to link the imagery together to create a montage. My montage evolved around the song “Off the Wall” By Marcio Novelli. I chose this song because when I listen to it my imaginations wonders off and I visualize what the lyrics are portraying. With the lyrics “Thoughts haunt through hours of shadows, pulling me down again”, I thought of these dark shadows pulling this person down and with every bit of strength failing to escape from them. Then with “Found a place inside my dreaming, painted so black on white”, this gave me the idea of doing the whole piece in black and white, except for the the man, to portray a dream like state. A feeling of unreality. A feeling of not belonging. Then with “ Like sex, fear, love, old fashioned movies; such woeful plight!”, I decided to have a old film reel falling down the page. This gave me an opportunity to show depth which overall made the imagery more appealing. Then I wanted to show that the film on the reel presents snap shots of a man lifting his head from his shaking hands which I took from the lyrics “Lift my head up from my shaking hands; I tremble where I stand”, but this also shows the “Woeful plight” that the “old fashion movies” demonstrate, which led me to burn the end of the reel. The smoke from the burning reel gave me an opportunity to link the dark shadows with it. “Tear these pictures off the wall” made me visualize a brick wall with old polaroid pictures flying through the air after being torn off the wall, these pictures link through the flow that the imagery has achieved. The tape on the lips of the man symbolizes the bitter taste of the tears being held in, he can't escape from them, which came from the lyrics "Wiping tears from off your face, Has never held such bitter taste". With the heartache and suffering that this song delivers, I find myself relating to these emotions, and these emotions I have found has always dragged along humiliation, which is why the man is naked. This could also show that sometimes what you view on the exterior of a person, it may not be what is really going on beneath those clothes, on the inside. This overall image shows a state of distress. With these emotions being emphasized, it creates an unsettling feeling for the views. This was something I wanted to achieve.

Here are the Lyrics to the song:

"Off the wall" by Marcio Novelli

Thoughts haunt through hours of shadows, pulling me down again
This darkness tears at me and swallows me whole again

Found a place inside my dreaming, painted so black on white
Like sex, fear, love, old fashioned movies; such woeful plight!

Tear these pictures off the wall
Everything is over now
Wiping tears from off your face
Has never held such bitter taste

Lift my head up from my shaking hands; I tremble where I stand
Don’t leave just yet, I don’t trust myself alone!
This is not what I had planned

We all fall…

Tear these pictures off the wall
Everything is over now
Wiping tears from off your face
Has never held such bitter taste
Tear these pictures off the wall
Everything is over now

Thoughts haunt through hours of shadows, pulling me down

We all fall without anything at all
We all fall without anything at all
We all fall without anyone at all
We all fall without anything at all

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