What if a watercolour painting can tell a tale of a forbidden bargain?
So many times I’ve wondered why we separate the arts, when they coexist in our small universe, together? We can tell a story with words, we can tell a story using the universal visual language of imagery or sounds. And here lies the magic.
Today’s story will be about a bargain. A forbidden one. I wish it was my story but it’s not. It’s written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and its name is Faust. He was a doctor, an alchemist, a man of science but he reached a moment of his life that he felt there was nothing more to achieve. Like he was at the limit point of the knowledge. Let’s just say he wanted more. He feels empty, alienated from the world and the unhappy thoughts push him into the idea to take his own life.
And you probably wonder what I’ve got to do with Faust and his bargain. Like many people I’ve wondered what is the cost of success and what is success anyway? Do you literally have to sell your soul to the devil to make your dreams come true? And more and more thinking about it, reading about it askes way too many questions than giving answers to them. But it fires up the imagination of the artist in me, gives me some crumbs to think about before sleep.
And one day while watching one of my favourite booktubers, her name is Dakota Warren, I found out she’s created an online space for artists and writers, called nowhere girl collective. And guess what the December prompt was?
>Faustian Bargain<
And one long forgotten door got unlocked in my mind. My ideas ran free on the three different pieces of paper (Hopefully the other two are still usable) and formed my idea of the faustian bargain.
But what is that bargain about anyway? To want more from life?
It’s so human to want more, especially these days when everyone shows you there’s a possibility to achieve it, but at what cost? Well that I wanted to imply into my art piece- a human. And took the artistic decision to be a female figure.
A troubled soul, with an almost blank expression as someone caught her heart in his hands and there’s no way back. But who is that, holding her heart, her emotions, her free will?
The devil himself, Mephistopheles.
If some of you wonder what happened to Faust and my art piece, you can learn in the video!
And after all everything was about freedom and free will. Free will to make decisions, to feel responsible for them and to be able to live in harmony with these decisions.