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Home  News December 2008 15th
| Seeking Suggestions for Kabuki: Reflections #12 |
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| From David Mack: |
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Kabuki: Reflections #12 is in the new Marvel catalog - what would you like to see?
I'm putting all kinds of goodies in this. Lots of figure drawings, off the cuff sketches... new paintings...
Let me know what kind of things you would like included... |
| Thoughts on The Electric Ant Artwork & PKD Stories |
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| David Mack recently noted that "[t]he art coming in for [The Electric Ant] is incredible." Also, Mr. Mack added: |
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And Electric Ant is a short story that served as a basis for the ideas that later went into the novel for Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. [Philip K.] Dick did a lot of short stories, and often his novels were places to more fully explore an idea from an earlier short story.
I recommend reading his books of short stories too. |
| Circle Imagery and Metaphors in Kabuki |
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| From David Mack: |
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Well, structurally in the story, there are a couple layers of circle imagery. The title of the first volume of Kabuki: Circle of Blood is a visual play on the flag of Japan. But the wording is also a play on "Circle of Family". So I started with these ideas of circles of family and circles of nationalism. In Kabuki's family, there are two sides that make here and that she feels pull from. Her father's side (who is Japanese) and her mother (who is indiginous Ainu). I found a way to use a circle icon for each side. The Sun represents her father's side, and the Japanese Nationalism side (the Sun is the actual circle on the Japanese flag). And Kabuki's mother's side is represented by the moon imagery (also a circle, even when it is a crescent).
Throughout the book there are visual plays on the circle imagery that these circles of nationalism and family become icons for. There are the red circles of her eyes- the red contacts she sees through - Red circle on eye whit white around it - like the flag - so she begins by literally seeing through the lens of her nationalism. Later, Dove takes these off of her so that she may see through her own eyes.
The dragon on her back is coming out of a red circle. The flag-sun image becomes a red egg.
Kabuki's mother grew up on a farm and used a farm sickle. Kabuki's weapon is remade in her mother's image. It is a crescent moon shape. A broken circle.
Ultimately, the polarizing circle imagery of sun and moon are resolved at the end in the visual motif off an "eclipse". You could view this as the mother's side gaining dominance over the father's side, or revolution beating nationalism, or perhaps more specifically, the unification of the two polarizing sides.
The structure of the story, is also told in a circle.
There is a broken circle, then it is a complete circle. |
| David Mack Mentioned During Interview |
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| From CarmineMag.com: |
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Carmine Magazine: What drives you to create? Also, what inspires you and your work?
Melody Pilotte: I love to try and recreate what I see. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, so I have lots of visuals, both organic and gritty urban scenery. Also, if I couldn’t create visually, I would probably lose my mind. I am inspired by a great many things. Mostly from reading and learning, but also stuff I am interested in: tattoo and Catholic tattoo iconography, indigenous culture, the female body, the Autumnal season, etc. Also, other artists totally inspire me: Daena M. Ortego, David Mack – they’re like my painting heroes – Pollack, Kristen Allen, CLAMP, Herb Leonhard, Su Davis – they’re all truly amazing. |
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