Lament

The Art Blog at Episcopal Cafe

Lament: The Stations and other Images of the Cross:
A Lenten Exhibition of Woodcut Prints
by Margaret Adams Parker.

Read an introduction to this exhibit HERE.

Seen above: "to have seen what I have seen" by Margaret Adams Parker, 2006, woodcut over collagraph with Solarplate etchings, 23 x 17 inches. This print is based on the experiences of the artist’s son during his medical school rotation in the psychiatry ward in a VA hospital. Most of his patients were Vietnam veterans, although a few had served in Iraq; however, their common problem was their inability to block out their memories of war.

The title is taken from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It is a fragment of Ophelia’s lament as she observes Hamlet’s feigned madness: “O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown…O woe is me/ to have seen what I have seen…” Ironically, while Hamlet is sane, Ophelia herself goes mad.