star-crossed love.
inspired by shakespeare’s romeo & juliet.
star-crossed love.
inspired by shakespeare’s romeo and juliet.
from the faerie tale feet series by hallie m. bertling (a.k.a. hal-the-gal!)
original gouache, ink, watercolour, and painted paper collage on watercolour paper, 10 x 14,” framed to 18 x 22”
shakespeare was writing romeo & juliet the same time he was writing a midsummer night’s dream. one tragic. one comic. but two pairs of star-crossed lovers. (ovid’s pyramus & thisbe was one of the ancient inspirations for r+j, but more on that later!)
for years, i’ve been developing this painting in my head. the cosmic significance of “star-crossed.” were they defying the stars, or was their story predetermined by Fate? there comes in the idea of living life by “the card you were dealt,” and recognizing the pattern of a whole lot of emphasized opposites and motifs in this tale— time/youth ; day/night ; light/darkness ; earth/heavens ; wedding/death ; and most of all, perhaps: love/hate.
i wanted my composition to be a spin on a playing card. right side up or upside down, male or female, two lovers with a universe between them. (& yes, i actually used italy’s summer constellations for the sky that sets the stage for their painted piece! i wasn’t able to account for earth’s shifting orbit since 1592 when the play was first performed, but i hope i get credit for trying.)
have a look at my painting process below, then i’ll tell you what all the story iconography around the border (and the gleaming gold outlines around our two main characters) represent from the original tale!
coming in november 2020 is greenville’s open studios. it’s the annual tradition to create a 12x12” piece to hang in the metropolitan art council galleries to give everyone a preview of whose studios around town they might like to visit. well, 2020 is different (#understatement), but we still each got to create a 12x12” piece to showcase virtual.
i took the opportunity to practice my full romeo & juliet piece— experimenting with the solid gouache background, those italian summer constellations, juliet’s dress, and those collaged stars made of painted pages from a copy of r+j i found at my local used book store. :)
so here’s my 8x8” “test patch” (i rawwwther love how it turned out, don’t you?) framed to a perfect 12” square. it will be in the virtual MAC 12x12” show on their website for the month of november. and is currently still available for collecting! juliet’s summer sky, original mixed media piece in a handmade wooden frame, $230. email me!
as i do all of my story research (full list of resources below!), i make notes in my mini*moleskine journal about what symbols and shapes might best tell the tale and could be used to reference significant characters. so here is the finished drawing, with all of the story iconography i decided on, plus our feet of romeo and juliet, so you can step into the story for yourself, imagining the full lifetime’s worth of emotions they each experience in just a matter of days!
i secured my arches cold press watercolour paper to a board with tape, and also taped the edges so i’d get a clean crisp line on the edges when our painting was done. here i’m using a piece of graphite transfer paper, retracing all my drawing lines so it transfers my image down to the watercolour paper.
as you can see, pressing down with an (ink-less!) pen recreate my drawing on my clean watercolour paper.
once my drawing was transferred, i mixed up that luminous night sky color with some gouache. i also mixed up a brown-is sepia color and put a wash of paint down over the border icons.
i built up a some contrast and definition in the border story iconography with more layers of brown paint washes. and here, you can see i’m painting the teeny tiny vines around the border. (symbolic of the rope ladder juliet had nurse bring so romeo could climb up, but also the more traditional garden vines he used to ascend to her balcony!)
once the vines were painted with an opaque gouache, i added that summer sky! pages from romeo & juliet were painted in gold, and i used an exacto knife to cut out those bigger stars. the stars are made with sakura gelly roll pens, and the soft blue lines connecting the bits of constellations are actually just the blue graphite paper when i re-traced the sky over the painted background.
once i painted both romeo & juliet’s figures in layers of transparent gouache, i also added a gold glow around them— to symbolize the pure gold statues (lying in repose on top of their tombs) their parents insisted on to memorialize their children’s untimely and tragic deaths- even as the families tried to outdo each other instead of uniting over their loss caused by their own hatred and feuding. and here, my final step: i’m adding a black india ink outline to make the figures pop a bit more from all the background detail. is is their story, after all!
here are the tttttteeeeeny tinier opaque gouache leaves i painted on the vines! ;D yes, i DO in fact paint under a magnifying lamp. yes, it’s very satisfying. :)
here’s the finished painting. original currently available. acid-free matting and white wooden frame, total size 18 x 22.” email me to collect it!
full confession: i looooove shakespeare. (and all the authorship controversy, but i won’t get started on that.) ;D
so i indulged myself for the research on this, my first full-sized shakespeare faerie tale feet piece!
i watched multiple ballets (& behind the scenes and rehearsals with the dancers, of course!) on youtube. i watched old black and white versions of the play and multiple movie versions from the past 60 years. i re-read the brilliant marjorie garber’s essays on the tale. and of course, re-read the play a few times and listened to the folger’s audiobook recording while painting… and read a few YA retellings across various cultures as well. it was all delectable (and almost-full list of resources below!)
but, what you probably scrolled down for was all the story iconography you can find in that border. so here’s what i included from the original tale:
rapiers (what the young men use to duel in the streets, unlike the older generation’s long swords)
blindfolded cupid (“alas, that love, whose view is muffled still…” I.1.165; but also one of helena’s famous lines from a midsummer night’s dream, written simultaneously as romeo & juliet, “and therefore is young cupid painted blind.” ) and many other references to cupid (I.4, II.5.8)
the “all-seeing sun” (romeo’s lament for rosalind, I.2.93), but also the “all-cheering sun” (montague’s not understanding his son’s gloomy mood on such a bright morning) and the “garish sun” as juliet thinks romeo will shine brighter as more lovable stars (III.2.25)
his & hers masks from the capulet’s party where romeo & juliet first meet (I.1.225) and “the mask of night” (II.2.85) that hides juliet’s blush from her forward suitor
glove (“oh, that i were a glove upon that hand that i might touch that cheek!” II.2.24-25)
rose (“that which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet.” II.2. 43-44), and as the bud of love
moon (“swear not by the moon, th’ inconstant moon that monthly changes in her circle orb, lest that thy love prove likewise variable.” II.2. 109-111), but also as a symbol for the goddess diana, as chaste as rosaline (romeo’s first heart-crushing object of his affection)
the lark (or is it the nightingale? III.5.2)
the rope (both for the rope ladder juliet has her nurse fetch to allow romeo access to her chambers on their wedding night; in opposition to the “knot knit up tomorrow morning” as juliet’s father moves up her wedding date to paris, IV.2.24)
dagger (romeo threatens to kill himself as he awaits news of juliet hearing he’s killed her cousin tybalt, III.3. 108; but also, juliet’s final act as romeo has not left her any poison on his dying lips V.3.170)
juliet’s sleeping potion (nice plan, friar, but work on your message delivery, eh??)
rosemary, for remembrance, thrown on juliet’s (sleeping) corpse, although it was used back then in both marriage and funeral arrangements (IV.4.108)
flower (capulet’s lament for his daughter, IV.4.66)
the apothecary’s poison bottle sold illegally to romeo (V.1. 77)
and the golden glow around the figures is to represent the pure gold statues their parents will put on top of their tombs
and in the starry sky:
“…take him and cut him out in little stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night…” (so i went a little literal there.) ;)
and yes, those are the summer constellations visible in italy, since this play happens in july just before juliet’s 14th birthday, although i wasn’t quite capable of doing the calculations for how the sky has shifted since 1595 when it was first performed; forgive me? :)
and the vine border again for the rope ladder and the orchard wall climbed by romeo to juliet’s infamous balcony
i love this play for its full-flung lifetime of emotional ranges of our two title characters. even as i cringe when romeo doesn’t get the note (“she’s just sleeping!!!” even more than i cringe when flotsam and jetsam overturn eric’s boat when he’s about to kiss ariel; or when peter pettigrew turns back into a rat and escapes the whomping willow; but i guess it’s even more tragic here. even if every time i read it or see it, i hope the story goes a different way.) each director’s or author’s or actor’s telling of romeo & juliet can never seem to encapsulate all of shakespeare’s details, either. it was only a few years ago that i ever saw romeo slay paris on stage as they were both at juliet’s tomb; and it was in this research frenzy that i first noticed romeo bringing a crowbar (!) to free juliet from her tomb- or open the mausoleum? it’s unclear, and i couldn’t find any visual adaptation!
one could also argue that juliet is one of history’s first feminists. not only does she propose to romeo, but she defies her father’s arranged marriage to the county paris .
there are so many cries for peace (the translation of benvolio’s name, btw) in this play, even as opposites pull us. (i’m especially enamored of romeo & friar laurence’s exchange in act II, scene three. they each vie for the sides of youth/age ; haste/patience ; danger/precautions… but they’re both working in their own ways for peace.) and by the end of it, the capulets and montagues still don't get it, and only the elder generation remains. (tybalt, paris, romeo, juliet, mercutio,… all slain…!)
there are so many metaphors (foreshadowing!) for love as death and poison itself. and yet romeo’s friends point out that true love is not in pining, but romeo has become himself when true love (juliet) has appeared. “now art thou sociable. now art thou romeo; now art thou what thou art!” (II.4.82-83)
“juliet’s summer sky,” my 12x12” mixed-media test patch before my final piece with both star-crossed lovers!
shakespeare’s references:
shakespeare’s own source material for this play was “the tragicall historye of romeus & juliet” a long poem by arthur brooke; in french, “the lovers halquadrich & burglipha of families phorhiach & humodrum,” by adrien sevin; and the classical version by ovid, “pyramus & thisbe,” which is the play the actors put on in “a midsummer night’s dream” which shakespeare was writing at the same time as romeo & juliet! oy!
shakespeare’s published versions include “an excellent conceited tragedy of romeo & juliet,” 1597; “the most excellent & lamentable tragedy of romeo & juliet,” 1599; he was working on it as early as 1592 and it was probably first performed on stage in 1595.
works i referenced:
romeo and juliet, by william shakespeare, mario digani editor, barnes & noble shakespeare, 2007
shakespeare after all, by marjorie garber, anchor books, 2004
shakespeare and modern culture, by marjorie garber, anchor books, 2008
the shakespeare miscellany, by david crystal & ben crystal, the overlook press, 2005
the works of charles and mary lamb, black’s readers service company, 1932
ballets watched:
roberto bolle & misty coplead at la scala, 2016
the royal opera house/the royal ballet london rehearsing kenneth macmillan’s choreography to the sergei prokofiev score
snippets of the new york city ballet at lincoln center, too
ya retellings read:
ronit & jamil, by pamela laskin, katherine tegen books, 2017
if you come softly, jaqueline woodson, 1998
street love, walter dean myers, 2007
when you were mine, rebecca serle, simon pulse, 2012
serious moonlight, jenn bennett, simon pulse, 2019
movies watched:
romeo & juliet, franco zeffirelli, 1968 (one of the first to cast teenagers; the enviable stage roles were often taken by adults actors of great renown in their 30’s, 50’s and above!)
romeo + juliet, baz luhrmann, 1996
romeo + juliet, julian fellowes and carlo carlei, 2013
west side story, robert wise and jerome robbins, 1961
contact me to collect the original framed “star-crossed love.” mixed media painting, or “juliet’s summer sky.”