I always look for a hook within the original narrative that captures my imagination and where there is a particular character that I feel empathy and interest with. Studying Bram Stoker’s plot it was Mina, John Hawker’s fiancée that I chose to base this piece on.
She was bitten by Dracula and pursued by ‘the three sisters’, Dracula's wives with the battle to protect Mina from them and only released from her curse when Dracula was killed. What I have created here is an intense and powerful image of Mina stood looking at something out of view, surrounded by darkness and tiny details depicting Dracula and blood but with an open window of hope in the background.
Her face is abstract, showing 2 sides to her (more on this later) and at the point where her curse is being lifted suggesting that she and those who have fought to save her have won. That in itself is a perfect representation of darkness and light, despair and hope that drives my work yet I do like to conceive a secondary narrative that then makes the piece much more appealing outside of those the fan base for the film itself. I have created another concept for ’the three sisters’ that is more generic, they represent alcohol, nicotine and narcotics - each vampires in themselves as they can suck the life blood out of the individual that they get their fangs into and can only be banished for good when a significant shard of light is shone onto them, in this case hope.
So the character that you see then becomes someone that many more can relate to for so many a reason where they are looking at a female who is stalked by her own Dracula - her demons that she fights daily when the darkness replaces light. Exit light, enter night. The title, which is scrawled onto the wall behind her 'I'll Take My Leave Of You’ is subtle but when seen makes this piece whole-heartedly positive as it shows her determination to beat her curse. Curse itself is a pivotal word here, it suggests that the demons that she battles were not let in by choice but from being cursed, from a life event that inflicted these wounds that struggle to heal. And it is that combined with her determination to win out that generates so much empathy towards the woman within the picture.