Example Artists Statement (641 Words)

Visions of Savagery: An Artists Statement

Context & Theme Description
In William Goldings classic novel, Lord of the Flies, the book begins
with a seeming tragedy turned childrens paradise. As the boys airplane
crashes onto a deserted island, there is initial panic but also an attitude of
adventure that sweeps through the group. As Ralph announces early on,
Until the grown-ups come and fetch us, well have fun! (p. 3). Ralph, Jack,
Piggy and the rest of crew enjoy the challenge of establishing an adult-like
world on the island but without the actual adult world to supervise them.
Eventually this commitment to imitating the society they were raised in
fades, along with any hope of rescue. With this fading, the boys experience
a disturbing loss of innocence. Through his precise and insightful
characterization, Golding shows how the boys transform from innocents who
stand on their head (p. 4) as a show of rebellious spirit to a group of bloodthristy savages who become obsessed with hunting for the sport of it and
destroying all remnants of their civilized selves. This spirit, of course, comes
to a fever pitch when the group accidently kills Simon during a ritualized reenactment of a hunt for the beast. In one of the latter scenes in the novel,
Jack is described as the leader of a group of boys who have become
downright evil: A great log had been dragged into the center of the lawn
and Jack, painted and garlanded, sat there like an idolPower lay in the
brown swell of his forearms: authority sat on his shoulder and chattered in
his ear like an ape (p. 63). Goldings point seems to be that the
transformation depicted by the end of the novel is a disturbing
transformation that all humans are capable of. The fact that he uses children
as a tool in achieving this point deepens the contrast even further. While
children are supposed to represent innocence, wonder, and imagination
Golding shows us that they too are capable of human natures deepest
darkest evils.
Explanation of the Art
My image addresses Goldings theme about the potential destruction
of innocence visually. I chose to use the image of the pigs head, the
symbolic lord of the flies that is impaled and planted by Jack and his crew
of hunters, and who is central to Simons hallucination scene. Simon, of
course, is the picture of innocence in the novel. He is drawn to nature,
quietude and simple pleasures. The dead boy underneath the lord of the
flies is supposed to be Simon and therefore innocence itself. While Simon is
literally killed by the boys towards the end of the novel, more symbolically he
is destroyedpresumably as we all would be without the confines of civilized
societyby the dark things lurking within human nature itself. In my image
the disgusting, cryptic and evil symbol of destruction for destructions sake
(the pigs head) is supposed to contrast visually with the beautiful, peaceful
and serene dead boy below it. This contrast is meant to be disturbing. I
included a few subtle details in my image to emphasize the thematic point.
First, I included what I would describe as a fairy dusting falling throughout
the image to reference the child-like innocence that is so fragile and

Example Artists Statement (641 Words)

temporary in the world. I also chose to keep the image starkly colorless,
aside from the blood found on the lord of the flies, which is dripping onto
Simons left shoulder. I intentionally smudged out the right side of the pigs
face to suggest that it is often difficult to identify or explain the darker,
crueler aspects of human nature in the world. However, the contrasting
images found in my painting hopefully underline an important idea from
Golding that these contrasting ideas do simultaneously exist in all of us. To
deny that possibility is dangerous in and of itself.