(This post was first published March 25, 2017)
This new piece began as a simple homage to the Chinese New Year (the year of the Fire Rooster), but through the creative process it became much more meaningful than that. I didn't set out to create an inspirational design, but given all that I've been feeling during the particularly hideous election year that wrapped up in November of 2016, it was an inevitable evolution and a cathartic experience at the same time.
My final art is in part an homage to the tenacious spirit of the rooster in the face of adversity. It features a night scene with the central figure of a rooster in mid-crow. He is defiantly poised on a rock in a dark landscape rife with dangers. Above, stars in the sky are echoed in the space between the moon and the ground, suggesting the gleaming eyes of night predators as they float downward in pairs. Lurking in the foreground bushes, we see a hungry fox exposed in his deception, poised to pounce should the opportunity arise. The rooster has no recourse in the dark but to put his faith in his song—to keep confidently crowing—demanding the return of the sunlight.
“Firesong”, 2017, by Joanna West Moser
Around the perimeter of the scene are these original words I composed to embody what I was feeling:
Crow, though the dark night is long—your firesong will yet bring the dawn.
These words advocate tenacity for any passionate voice in the face of symbolic darkness. The word "firesong" is symbolic of three specific things: 1. It refers to the inner voice, the fire-in-the-belly, the synthesis of passionate cause and individual voice, 2. It's a subtle nod to the Fire Rooster of the Chinese New Year and, 3. It's a personal reference to my own love of kennings, compound expressions common in Old English and Norse poetry which metaphorically illustrate a thing or concept (see item 1 above).
In a time of unsettling divisiveness and fierce partisanship we're seeing every possible iteration of human frailty and ugliness. In all our battles—big or small—sometimes we need a reminder to hold fast to our goals and convictions, defy the night, and crow.
This piece is available in my Etsy shop.
Closeup of “Firesong”, 2017, by Joanna West Moser