The theme for my static image is derived from the film Forrest Gump. What I am trying to portray in my image is the theme of freedom and escaping calamity. I portray this by depicting a bird soaring away from a city in ruins, but leaving a feather floating down in it’s wake. The image also bears the quote from the film that reinforces the depiction: “Dear God, make me a bird. So I can fly far. Far, far away from here.”
The bird is symbolic for freedom, so I placed it to the right of the image, flying away from the burning city. The bird represents Jenny, who when she was young prayed for God to turn her into a bird to escape her abusive father. The bird is soaring upwards into the heavens and moving on to the spiritual world and leaving reality behind, which I use to symbolise Jenny’s death.
The feather represents Forrest, who gets left behind by Jenny several times, and indefinitely after her death. Forrest then has to float around—feather-like through life, completely oblivious to all the destruction going on in the world.
The city in ruins is metaphorical for all the pain and suffering that goes on in the world, whether it be physical or emotional. There are buildings and trees on fire as well as a mushroom cloud, which represent things like the Vietnam War and Jenny’s abusive father.
I chose black as my background because it represents all the darkness and emptiness of the metaphorical city. It represents the suffocation that Jenny felt when she was living with her father.
The quote “Dear God, make me a bird. So I can fly far. Far, far away from here.” is spoken by Jenny while her father is chasing after her while she is in her corn field. She wanted to escape her father, and all the pain that he caused, so she prayed for God to turn her into a bird so she can fly away. I chose white for the colour of the writing because it is God-like and it pierces through the darkness. I also placed it above everything else to symbolise it being a prayer from the heavens.
