Portfolio > Crankies

panorama, scroll, painting, crankie, art
Pretty Polly's paint dries
acrylic on butcher paper
18" tall and many feet long
2018

This shows a new scroll in the making. "Pretty Polly" is draped around my workroom as her paint dries.

The scroll tells the centuries old ballad of Polly, once titled "The Gosport Tragedy" or "The Cruel Ships Carpenter," detailing the consequences of a young girl's foolish choice. No doubt the ballad was an electrifying teaching tool in the 1700's, but even now it remains an unusually singable song that still strikes the heart.

This crankie was s an experiment to test the notion that two senses, the eyes and the ears, made a ballad more powerful than just the ears alone. I couldn't imagine anything can add to the power of this song but I gave a test as soon as the paint was dry.
You can watch the result on YouTube. "Delia Robinson Crankie, Pretty Polly."