A Recipe for Goth Art

This assignment was one of my favorites. After a lecture on goth art each student was given a a small package wrapped in black tissue paper. Inside each package was a black cup filled with little objects, all of which had to be incorporated into our got drawing assignment. The incorporation could be very subtle, for example, a marble could be drawn into the piece or simply rolled in ink across the paper. A bone could be used as a stamp or a scratching device. So the challenge was there, but it was manageable. My cup contained a black candle, a marble, a piece of patterned velvet, a vertebrae, a fortune card with the word "Malice" on the back with an image of a creepy little guy and a snake, and a thumbtack. I decided to go with the word "malice" to create this piece. I was inspired by this drawing by Aubrey Beardsley. The woman looks so evil to me.

I borrowed her look of indifference and replaced her cello with a pair of scissors, poised to cut a snake. I patterned the snake with the pattern on the velvet. I used the bone as a stamp around the border and dripped black wax around the border as well. The black string was used as a cattail stem. The thumbtack poked a hole in her hair where I stuck a black feather to add an element of kitsch, another subculture we were learning about at the time.