Moonstruck

One of my favorite ways to set up a new piece of art is to divide it into panels, as in the one seen here.  The panels can tell part of a story or be organized around a theme.  Some themes are more successful than others.  For “Moonstruck,” the topic is quite obviously the moon and some of my favorite associations with it. 


The left half of the piece tells a very short story about a very special lunatic: the werewolf.  We begin with him locked up in a cell in a deep, dark dungeon.  As the full moon rises, his transformation takes place, and he’s able to escape.  Finally, we see him free in the woods under the light of his beloved moon.  In popular culture, werewolves tend to be unhappy creatures: cursed with a condition dangerous to others that they cannot control.  Iconic werewolves like Larry Talbot from The Wolfman and David Kessler from An American Werewolf in London live short and terrible lives, and even in modern paranormal fiction, they often lose out to brooding bloodsuckers in odd, little love triangles.  I’d like to think they experience moments of joy, too, though.


The crescent-shaped panel is full of hares.  In Chinese, Mexican, and other mythologies, it is believed that the arrangement of darker spots on the moon resemble a seated hare.  How the hare got up there is the subject of much speculation, and the stories from each culture vary.  As far as color choice goes, I chose a sort of psychedelic Easter scheme to brighten up the piece.


Inside the crescent, a beautiful queen is imprisoned.  In many cultures, the moon is regarded as female and the sun as male.  From the earth’s perspective, the sun is the king of the stars, so I make the moon our queen.  In my mind, though, she is trapped and was long ago driven mad by the isolation, thus her love for more terrestrial lunatics.  Her captors have not been kind, either.  Her throne is essentially a torture device, and her wallpaper is a tribute to Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” in which a woman’s husband seeks to drive her mad.  If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. (P.S. Like our werewolf, the queen’s free now, so keep a watchful eye.)


In the top right panel, you may notice someone in a spaceship stealing our moon.  This was, of course, Gru’s great ambition in Despicable Me, but as much I like that movie, I prefer the image of the moon being towed rather than shrunk and stuck in a coffee cup.  Compared to other moons in the solar system, perhaps ours is a little homely, but I wouldn’t mind having it all to myself.


Below the moon-robbers are a pair of moonflowers.  Notable for being quite lovely and for the fact that a teacher once gave me a moonflower seed that I have since lost.  It’s probably just as well; I can only keep cacti and succulents alive.


Finally, in the bottom right-hand corner is a small homage to The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.  I don’t pretend that it is a historically or even literally-accurate depiction of the scene in the book, but I think it’s worth including in my tribute to the moon.  The book is considered one of the first detective novels, and I don’t want to give away the plot by explaining too much, so I’ll merely say that it is worth a read if you like mysteries or 19th century literature.

I do find our moon to be quite a captivating object.  Whether full or just a sliver, it is beautiful.  I’ve spent a lot of time trying to capture a perfect photograph of it, or as good as I can get with an older 4-mega pixel camera.  Clearly, as there are so many myths and literary love letters to it, I’m not the only one who loves our moon.   


To close, here are some lyrics and good advice from the song “Get Out and Get Under the Moon:”



When you’re all alone, any old night, 
And you’re feeling mighty blue, 
Pick up your hat, close up your flat, 
Get out, get under the moon! 


Underneath the bright, silvery light, 
You’ll be feeling better soon, 
Pick up your hat, close up your flat, 
Get out, get under the moon! 


Music by Larry Shay, Lyrics by Charles Tobias and William Jerome (1928)
Thanks to lyricsmania.com and wikipedia