Community Project

Reality and Fantasy are not preferable topics for this particular assignment. Yet, I decided to have a few students compose a free write based on a surrealist image. The very definition of surrealism is realistic images done in a fantastical or unrealistic way.  I chose a Rene Magritte image, and here our the compositions and the student are one heavily involved in arts and English classes.   I simply asked them to write whatever they wanted for however long they wanted but based upon the image.

"I think I've seen this image before but I'm not entirely sure. I enjoy illusions that take multiple glances to notice, like a lot of MC Esher pieces. The broken section of the horse in the center of the painting is the only spot that really seems to scream 'Hey, there's something wrong here!" I really love works like this" ( S.S)

"I've seen this picture before but I've never had to write about it. Its one of those impossible optical illusions because the layers are all messed up. I always see it in sections: a horse section, a sky section, a tree section, etc. Because the layer are impossible, the whole picture never adds up, even though you can tell what it should be: a man riding a horse in the forest." (D.G)

"The Violet Woman,
O My O My,
making her way through forest brush
on a horse of caramel color...

She is gone from sight,
Yet reappears all the same
On her steed she goes without rush
in her jacket of lavender...

Vanished, then here,
have I gone mad or am I tired?
She seems to be one with the forest Brush
on her horse of caramel colour.

With reigns in hands
She descends deeper in the wood,
only with a forest so dense and lush
does she travel on her stallion,
and they draw a certain allure

O my Oh my
She is gone again,
Riding with pride in the forest brush
on her brilliant mount of caramel color" (K.P)

Based on these response, I was surprised the responses I got were mostly literal. The poem though, was a bit more fantastical by actually creating a narrative. All of these make the image interesting in their own right.