Banks of the Ohio

For the song, Banks of the Ohio, I wanted to capture how Willie, the main character in the song, sees his lover. It is fascinating to see how common place violent acts such as murder are. I imagine Appalachia, being such an isolated place, witnessed a lot more passion driven actions.

He is infatuated with her in his own way but when she rejects his marriage proposal, he goes blind with rage and kills her. In my drawing I show a romanticized face of a woman "bleeding" into the darkness. The black stripes are slashing away at her face, in the same way that I imagine Willie to be slashing away at her body.

The black stripes are also representing the fading of both her memory and also his rage and passion after the act. I imagine a lot of regret after he killed her and wanting to take back his actions, but he cannot stop the inevitability of ending her existence.