Three Blind Mice
Three blind mice! Three blind mice!
See how they run! See how they run!
They all ran after the farmer’s wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife.
Did you ever see such a thing in your life
As three blind mice?
Research
I began my research process on the Origin of the nursery rhyme. Even when reading the rhyme as it is, there is a sense of darkness and gore. The Origin justifies this idea.
The nursery rhyme dates back to the story of a trio of Protestant bishops plotting against the Queen Mary “Bloody Mary” Tudor, ultimately fails and were subsequently blazed by the order of the Queen.
Thus, the overall theme is Dark/ Disturbing/ Gory/ Sinister/ Creepy.
Inspiration
My inspiration is based on the Da-Da Movement photo collages.
4 Final Selected Artwork
Three blind mice! Three blind mice!
The artwork is a minimalistic interpretation on how we as human beings perceive mice as. It depicts the three blind mice scampering away. I used the idea of mice looking very similar to each other, from the eyes of a human being. Thus I added the same head to all three mice. I made use of the infamous character of Peter Pettigrew from the Harry Potter series as he is the epitome of the Mouse character.
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See how they run! See how they run!
The artwork compromises of 3 different individuals running. The idea follows the first artwork of imposing a different head to the body. This time round, the idea is reversed as the mouse head is added to the human body. Also, each individual, a small kid/ an athlete/ a gentleman , is holding onto a walking stick. The walking sticks are reinterpretated into a candy stick for the kid, a javelin for the athlete and a Japanese toothpick for the gentleman. The ‘X’ letter depicts blindness of the characters. Lastly I played with the shape of an eye forming the border of the artwork, to signify the running individuals reflected in the retina of an eye.
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They all ran after the farmer’s wife,
This artwork is based on the origin of the Nursery Rhyme, and I perceived the three blind mice as courageously facing the farmer’s wife, who is not phased by their confrontation. For this artwork, I played with the use of juxtaposing animal head (Cat) on a human body; and human head on an animal’s body (Mouse). The three blind mice are seen leaping towards the farmer’s wife. I made use of the moustache of a man as a whisker of a mouse and a tail. The Farmer’s wife is purring and breathing fire out of her mouth, having a haughty expression. I also inverted the background colour and play with the negative film effect.
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Who cut off their tails with a carving knife.
For this artwork, I played with the dark, sadistic notion with gory effects. I made the background off-centre to give more dynamism to the artwork. Again, the idea of juxtaposing from the previous artwork, is inverted. The blind mice are seen having their tails cut out, with blood spilling all over. The farmer’s wife is in a Cat’s body and leaping out with a knife that is dripping blood.
Process
I began my process by sourcing for magazines for cut-outs, but I wasn’t able to really get inspired by the diversity of the majority images. I moved on to Photography books and also made use of images from the internet and movie screen caps.
Initial Artworks
“Three blind mice! Three blind mice! See how they run! See how they run!”
“They all ran after the farmer’s wife, who cut off their tails with a carving knife.”
Development
Three blind mice! Three blind mice!
See how they run! See how they run!
They all ran after the farmer’s wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife.
Reflection
I personally love the Nursery Rhyme theme for this assignment. I have always been intrigued by Surrealism and Dadaism, therefore I was pretty happy working on this project.
Initially I wanted to base all my illustrations on purely magazine prints, but the images gathered was not strong enough, which in a sense killed off a lot of working time.
Overall I do feel that my final images do not really convey my intention and ideas as much as I would have liked. However, I am really pleased with the ideation behind each artwork and I am still happy with the final outcome.
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