This piece was created for the EBSQ Ripped-Off Show, 2005.
This is my interpretation of John Borrero's "Redemption". His work is awe inspiring and beautiful in it's unique complexity. Though the work I chose for inspiration is wonderful in it's simplicity. The Redemption girl (I call her Lucy Jane)turned out differently than I had envisioned but then, she already has a life and a form given to her by her original creator. I just fleshed her out a bit and she "lived" for me.
Thank you so much John!
SHE danced, near nude, to tom-tom beat,
With swaying arms and flying feet,
’Mid swirling spangles, gauze and lace,
Her all was dancing—save her face.
A conscience, dumb to brooding fears,
Companioned hearing deaf to cheers;
A body, marshalled by the will,
Kept dancing while a heart stood still:
And eyes obsessed with vacant stare,
Looked over heads to empty air,
As though they sought to find therein
Redemption for a maiden sin.
’Twas thus, amid force driven grace,
We found the lost look on her face;
And then, to us, did it occur
That, though we saw—we saw not her
By: James Weldon Johnson
