Folktales of Prudence

Influenced by the composition of Titian’s ‘Allegory of Prudence’ (c.1550-65) - this ballpoint pen self portrait drawn on collaged pages from ‘Folktales and Fables of West Africa’ (1953) depicts my interpretation of the three metamorphoses outlined in Friedrich Nietzche’s text ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra’ (1883). 
Nietzche suggests that the truly free and enlightened spirit is that of ‘the child’; this work depicts the metamorphosis of wisdom from the camel, to the lion and ultimately to the child (which in this artwork is represented by my niece). Above them I have depicted my teenage self, myself as I am now and an imagined aged image of myself. Directly drawing onto the collaged pages of text from ‘Folktales and Fables of West Africa’ acts as a further means of contextualising my familial heritage and background within this multifaceted self portrait. 
 
840X893mm