Exceptionalism Art Journal Spread

 

I think I'm done fiddling with this art journal spread. Here it is with the two things I used to help "blend" the collage elements and text: Inktense colored pencils and water soluble graphite pencil, two things I don't play with often enough. I'd been thinking a lot lately about the idea of "exceptionalism", and that while most would envy someone thought to be exceptional in some way, the person who is seen as exceptional often experiences an isolation not to be envied and difficult to break out of. Speaking from experience here although what I've noted people have thought exceptional about me is really not that exceptional.

And then I ran across an article in Smithsonian Magazine about Brunhilde of Wagner's Valkyrie fame and her sister-in-law Fredegund who were not just Norse legend but actual queens ("The Medieval Queens Whose Daring, Murderous Reigns Were Quickly Forgotten" January 2022 issue). As I read through their history and drank in that fabulous opening illustration, I had my beginnings of a spread on exceptionalism using two very strong women as examples. "A queen had to dodge assassins, and employ some of her own, while combating the open misogyny of her advisers and nobles—the early medieval equivalent of doing it all backwards and in heels." And ruling through a male relative. The yellow you see around Brunhild is Inktense pencil.

With Randy Newman's "It's Lonely At The Top" lyrics playing in my head, I built upon this idea of the exceptional being placed on a pedestal, either being adored or hated. Fredegund was in such a precarious position at the top; her predecessor was strangled after catching Fredegund,a slave girl, in bed with the King and going off in a huff. Ahh, palace life. By now strains of another song about popularity were coming to mind. These I inked in various open places on the spread.

I added these disapproving and one approving heads and used the water soluble graphite to outline them and then a damp paint brush to spread the graphite into a dark background cloud. "Some of them want to use you. Some of them want to be used by you."

A final touch - adding some small characters along the paths - the "little people" who take little notice of those above as they simply try to eke out an existence and hope the rulers don't do anything rash to upset it.

Either way, always a separation that is difficult to close. As for our queens after they died, "With their accomplishments cut from official histories, the queens took root in legends and myths," a different kind of exceptionalism but no less lonely I suspect. Do read the article; it is full of interesting twists and turns. 

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