Tag Archives: Desdemona

Desdemona

"Desdemona, Bride of Othello", colored pencil by Kerry McFalll, costume by Corey Jay

I should be doing laundry, paying attention to an upcoming exhibit, any number of other necessary things – but ultimately, this is the most necessary thing at the moment.  To draw.  Every drawing is one step closer to where I want to be, which is where I don’t have to erase holes through the page to get the mouth right.  But the hair flames, the gown floats, the coat feels like velvet and satin, so I’m getting closer.  I salute the actress, Allison Ocha Lawrence, who smiled the smile of confusion and arched her eyebrows with, “Oh, really?!” so well, who clenched her lovely fist with subtlety and conviction, who played the Beauty to the Beast without the happy ending.  I can only imagine what life would be like with that glorious head of hair.  And I salute the costume designer, and her vision, and I am so proud of her.  SO proud.

Thunder in Paradise

Just when you think you’re going to get away for a sunny weekend – BAM! Thunder and Lightning… and cold wind, and gray cloudy skies.  Dang. It was as if we had brought along our own personal storm clouds… Birds of Paradise plants were everywhere, and they all seemed to be looking skyward as if to say, “Dude!  Is that rain!?”  But all was not lost – we had a fabulous time with Corey and her friends, and I got in lots of sketching time:

The main purpose for the trip of course was to marvel at Corey’s costuming of Othello.  This was her Senior Thesis Project.  The Moor was intimidating in his fur-collared cloak, featuring epaulettes of eagle claws and green leather scales, Desdemona was luminous in burgundy silk and velvet, Iago oozed just the right amount of slime in his Nazi Youth-colored military garb – breathtaking all the way around.  Unfortunately, even the lovely costumes didn’t keep everyone from getting killed in the end – those tragedies always leave me wondering if we couldn’t just once have a Do Over for the plot of the final chapter.  Hopefully I’ll be able to capture some more of the costumes and characters soon.