Consolation Through Collage

P

Puddle Boots

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Greetings. A little over three years ago, I was listening to the song "consolation" and the lyric 「諦めず手を伸ばす」(Without giving up, I extend a hand) jumped out at me. I decided to illustrate to significance it had for me in that moment by creating a collage. Since then, I've been working very slowly, creating a few new collages every year, and finally today I finished the project, doubling back to illustrate "al fine." It's been an incredibly rewarding project, musically, artistically, and linguistically, as I had the chance to closely read, translate, and interpret the lyrics I'd heard so many times, and then design and produce an image to capture the meaning I'd found. There are a few things I'd change about some of these collages, but for the moment I'm going to leave them as-is. I'll also be curious to hear any feedback you have to offer. I'm also thinking about starting another, similar project with a different YK album, but have not yet decided which, so if you have one you'd particularly like to see interpreted this, let me know.

I'm trying to get the images attached to the post, but it might take me a few tries to get it right... There will be ten in this post and two in the next, because there's a limit on how many you can attach at once.
PuddlesAlFine.JPG
PuddlesConsolation.jpg
PuddlesFesta.jpg
PuddlesDoor.jpg
PuddlesMirai.jpg
PuddlesHanataba.jpg
PuddlesSignal.jpg
PuddlesObbligato.jpg
PuddlesShigemi.jpg
PuddlesManten.jpg
 
Good job, really cool stuff.

I'd love to see your interpretations of Red Moon or After Eden, actually. Probably the latter more so.
 
This is awesome!!! There is a lot of interesting things going on in every collage; each one is a treat to both the eye and mind. Kudos to you, @Puddle Boots, you really deserve it :goodjob:
 
That is some very impressive craftsmanship. Your collages would not look out of place in Madoka Magica or any of Gekidan Inu Curry's works.
 
Yeah, I suppose, especially to a crowd of YK fans, my artistic influences are very obvious~ I started out doing collage by creating my own "witches' labyrinths" several years back. The main difference now is that I'm usually not trying to create anything disturbing anymore, and I no longer use magazine cut outs.
 
Ahh, I love this! So much! Like so much work was obviously put into it, with the lyrics, the concepts and the art itself. It's just so inspiring. LOVE IT :love::love::love:
 
Wow! AWESOME work! Congrats! @Puddle Boots
Please join us in the next Yuki's Birthday gift project, surely she'll be impressed with what you do as well. :dote:
 
Thanks so much for all your nice words! I'm really pleased to finally share my art with people who understand the music it's based off of. Non-YK fans generally react to it a bit differently.

@juchanx3 I participated in the birthday gift project in 2014, the year we sent in pictures of ourselves performing Kajiura's music. In that book you can see the collage for 'consolation' (track 2). I've wanted to contribute more collages to the project, but haven't thought it would fit the theme for the past few years. I didn't think about doing a manga panel for this year because I think of manga as being necessarily drawn, and I'm not very good at drawing... But I'd really like to be able to show this to her~~
 
OK, I just had an idea for another collection: what if I made a wall calendar? I would take YK songs with lyrics that reference months of the year and illustrate each and make a calendar. The problem is, I'm not sure if all the months will be represented. Off the top of my head, this is what I can come up with: (Parentheses indicate that the month only implied, not actually mentioned by name.)

January: Yasashii yoake
February: (Haru wo Matsu)
March: March
April:
May: Gogatsu no Mahou; Samidare ga Sugita Koro ni (also since the rain is over, this one could be interpreted as June)
June: Red Moon
July: (Natsu no Ringo)
August: Natsu no Asa
September: Kugatsu
October:
November:
December: (Seiya); (Winter); (Winter Story)

It's kind of... lacking. And I'm planning to do some more serious searching once I get the time, but if you all can think of some more, please let me know. Also, what do you think about the calendar idea as a whole?
 
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I think this is a great idea!! In terms of months, I can't think of anything except possibly Seiya for December. Though December isn't mentioned in the song itself, the song is representative of the whole winter season as a whole imo
 
There's also Saeko Chiba's Winter story, and Deb Lyon's Winter from Fiction.
July, Natsu no ringo mebbe.


Btw, your collages look great. I didn't see the threat when you first made it last year. You should try tweeting or PMing them to Kajiura, I'm sure she would like then.
 
@Kowz You can PM Kajiura directly just like that...!?? Maybe it's time I got a Twitter account... That might be too much of a temptation though. I did print out copies of nine collages and put three each in Wakana, Keiko, and Hikaru's gift boxes at the 10th Anniversary Live. If I remember correctly, Mirai, Hikarifuru, and [something?] for Wakana, Consolation, to the beginning, and [something?] for Keiko, and Hanataba and Kiichigo no Shigemi ni and [something?] (why can't I remember this?) for Hikaru.

I'll add the suggestions to the list above.

@yuki.n No, unfortunately. Some of the sheet music I used was cut up bits of print outs of the Vaccaj Vocal Method (which I recommend if you're interested in singing) and to the beginning is made of my extra copy of "Take, O take those lips away" a beautiful art song by Amy Beach. The rest, however, is from a stack of old Japanese sheet music paper that my mother bought online and gave me as a birthday present... I would have liked to be more selective, but honestly if I got my hands on the sheet music for Consolation, I'd never let go of it long enough to make copies.
And I'm going to have to say Natsu no Asa can't be August, because of the line "umareta bakari no natsu"— a summer that has just been born. It could be June, though.
 
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And I'm going to have to say Natsu no Asa can't be August, because of the line "umareta bakari no natsu"— a summer that has just been born. It could be June, though.
It does say August right as the first word though, that's why I mentioned it. Your pick, though.
 
Wow, you are so right about that. I simply didn't notice. It can definitely be August then.
 
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