Mourning Joy (Part 2 - complete)

My "Mourning Joy" painting was done as part of the process to produce a CD single cover design for consideration in a "Florence + the Machine" fund raiser for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Here is the final painting (the CD single cover design is a processed digital work). The painting continue a little beyond this and then around the box canvas sides.

Mourning Joy by Kevin Bramhill

In this challenge, Florence + The Machine have selected the track 'Only If For A Night' and are inviting creatives to interpret the song, however they please...

 

To understand this painting it helps to see the song lyrics. The painting is inspired by MY interpretation of those works. Here are some of them:

And I had a dream
About my old school
And she was there all pink and gold and glittering
I threw my arms around her legs
Came to weeping, Came to weeping

Then I heard your voice as clear as day,
And you told me I should concentrate,
It was all so strange,
And so surreal,
That a ghost should be so practical.

Only if for a night
And the only solution was to stand and fight,
And my body was bruised and
I was set alight,
But you came over me like some holy rite,
And although I was burning,
You're the only light
Only if for a night

The grass was so green against my new clothes,
And I did cartwheels in your honor, dancing on tiptoes
My own secret ceremonials before the service began,
In the graveyard, doing handstands.
...

---

My understanding of this is the feeling of joy that can come after the sorrow from loss. In the case that we hear about this comes about in a dream.

 

In my case it came some time after revisiting a grave. A while later I felt a return of the sadness but shortly after I felt touched and the mourning was swept away to be replaced by a feeling of calm, peace, joy. It felt like the spirit ushering me on in my life (which was a very powerful feeling for me, not known for being in touch with such things). 

 

It is by drawing on this experience and working it into the picture in my mind from the song that this image was formed.