The significance of stripes

 Now that I have started thinking about art in terms of mixed media and am taking collage into consideration, I see things with new eyes. I came across this roll of Christmas paper striped red and cream and thought, Wouldn't that make a wonderful shirt for one of my pieces? Of course, stripes are usually associated with one of two characters: prisoners, or pirates. If I had thought of pirates first, this piece might have been quite different, but prisoner was what came to mind. Initially (because of the state of the world and my own current animosities) I thought of who I would like to PUT in prison, but honestly, I couldn't face reproducing that image, even for the sake of parody. So then I started thinking about people who had been to prison, and been sent there unjustly, and Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde popped into my mind.

Oscar Wilde is best remembered for three things: His plays (my favorite is The Importance of Being Earnest), his book The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his criminal conviction for homosexuality. He was "known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress, and glittering conversational skill," so I imagine he would carry off prison stripes with flair, as here.

Wilde died tragically young, at 46, from meningitis, which it is speculated was caused by an untreated inner ear injury sustained while serving his two-year prison sentence. In 2017, he was among approximately 50,000 men pardoned under the Alan Turing law for homosexual acts that were no longer considered offenses.

After his prison term, he wrote in De Profundis,

To regret one's own experiences is to arrest one's own development. To deny one's own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one's own life. It is no less than a denial of the soul.

Pencil, Daler Rowney inks, watercolor, collage, Uniball pen, white gesso, white gel pen, on 140-lb. Canson watercolor paper, approx. 8.5x11 inches.

NOTE: Upon further reflection, I felt that the original striped eye looked too much like an awning or a circus tent with the vertical stripes, and distracted from the rest of the page. So I gesso'd it out and made the stripes horizontal to go along with the shirt, also knocking down the white to a beige. I think it's an improvement—regrets to anyone who disagrees with me...