Gordon Ramsay as a lion by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #illustration #Inkscape #creativecommons
Where to start? When I asked for suggestions for this project, my very good friend and ideological brother Tim McGee asked me to illustrate one of his favorite William Butler Yeats poems, The Second Coming, which I’ve included below. He said that it is mindful of summer solstice for him, and I had hoped to have it for him by the solstice, but I had some trouble determining exactly how to illustrate it. The passage of concrete ideas in the last part of the poem speaks a bit about why I’ve used this imagery, but I have no reason other than pure snark for using Gordon Ramsay‘s likeness. I love his shows, a guilty pleasure, and he surely comes off as though he believes he is the second coming. He’s got the look that Yeats talks about, too, I believe. I hope Tim liked it, and as usual, I hope I offended no one.
“TURNING and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? ”– The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats on http://www.online-literature.com/yeats/780/
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Excellent interpretation. While not a fan of Gordon or his shows (they make me too anxious), I think the face you chose perfectly embodies the phrase “A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun.” Plus, you chose my favorite complementary-color combo. Thanks, John.
Thanks, Tim! Anxious is a good word for the way he makes viewers feel. 🙂 I hoped you would like my choice for that line. Hard to go wrong with Blue-Orange.