Why folk songs and old songs?

Good music makes me shiver and undoubtedly gives me goose bumps. The power of music to evoke emotion is captivating -music alone can cause a person to laugh hysterically or fall on their knees sobbing. I'm excited to create work for this class that will capture the pulse and energy on the folk songs which we as a class experience together. 


In our first project, we were asked to depict, in some way, the first song that we remember. What "first" meant was up to our interpretation. A sad, but unfortunate fact is that I can hardly recall the first decade of my life. Small bits and pieces flush back to my memory occasionally when I smell a familiar scent, or visit a special place. The one song I can remember from my childhood is the first song I danced to in ballet class when I was five-years-old. It was a song sung in Mandarin. The name and artist are unknown to me, but the lyrics for some peculiar reason, have remained in my mental rolodex. Perhaps -this is the power of music. 

The song, a nursery fable, tells of a fox whom attempts to persuade a rabbit to let him in the rabbit's home. The rabbit, to our joy, refuses to let him in as the rabbit mother is not home. Pen on paper, 2013 Below is my visual interpretation of this song. 


The background pattern of this piece was inspired by a previous self-portrait print I created.