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Strange FruitBy Angel Garcia-Cruz I chose two leaves attached to a branch as my central image. As soon as I saw them, they reminded me of hearts. The color of the original leaves were purple/red. I tried to replicate this with Prismacolor Art Stix and a gel pen for the outline. On the acetate, I drew a partial tree trunk and branch with a China Marker. The objects were moved by the wind during the process, which created a layering effect. At the time when I was choosing the materials to use for the cyanotype, I saw all the natural objects and that sparked the memory of Nina Simone's song 'Strange Fruit.' She sang about a humanlike 'fruit' that would grow on a tree. The image of the song that really stuck with me was just picturing a tree growing some sort of human on it. I tried to make a connection to this by using leaves in the shape of a heart because that seems, to me, to be the most important part of the human body. I chose to represent the heart due to its dual representation of anatomical and symbolic significance. Anatomically the heart is the center of all body functions and is most important because it provides life to the rest of your body. Symbolically, the heart is the center of all emotions, such as love and passion. This, to me, seemed to be an important aspect of the work that I wanted the viewer to be able to experience in their own way.
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