He wrote "The Sanctuary," a book about a young woman who was raped, yet he walked away when told an off-colored joke.
"William Faulkner was a man of great polarities," said Dr. Grant Lund, a drawing and printmaking professor at Southeast Missouri State University.
Land is trying to capture the essence of Faulkner's psyche in a mural he designed and started painting in Kent Library's third-floor hall last week. The mural will be completed before July 26, and dedicated as part of the Faulkner Centennial Celebration at Southeast Sept. 7 at 4:30 p.m.
An excerpt from Faulkner's Nobel Peace Prize for Literature acceptance speech made in December 1950, will be inscribed on the wall opposite the mural.
For every artist exists a different definition of what art is. To Lund, art is a relationship.
In his mural, he attempts to create a relationship, or a balance, between opposites. One such opposite exists between the mural's representation of the realistic and the imaginary.
The mural depicts Faulkner's head superimposed on a divided background. The left half of the background is Faulkner's home, Rowan Oaks, in Oxford County, Miss. The right is a map of Yoknapatawpha County, Faulkner's imaginary setting for many of the characters he used in his novels.
The contrast between real and fantasy is definitive of the contrasts in Faulkner's emotional and psychological expressions in his own life. He was a man of deep, internal brooding and was often critical of society, Lund said. At the same time he was a compassionate individual.
Lund uses more than 100 colors to illustrate this aspect of Faulkner's life. A deep brown surrounds the eyes to show internal agony and despair. The cubism-like areas making up his cheek with shades of dark greens, deep purples and blues also show the brooding side of Faulkner. The warmer colors, highlighting the background and his face, emphasize his sensitive side, Lund said.
In many of his novels Faulkner used the viewpoint of numerous characters rather than having a single narrator. In life, Faulkner was known for looking at things from many angles, said Bob Hamblin, director of the Center for Faulkner Studies.
What impresses Hamblin the most about Lund's mural is the way it mirrors Faulkner's life and his belief in shifting viewpoints.
"Depending on where you stand, you can enjoy the imagery from many viewpoints," Hamblin said. "You can focus on the fragments of color while coming up the steps or the entire mural in its harmonious whole."
"This mural's not only Faulkner the man, it's Faulkner the work," he said.
This was exactly Lund's intent when he started the project, to give both the form and content a life of their own.
"When you can get the two relationships of form and content spread apart and they still work, then there is a tremendous synergetic energy present that makes the work great," he said.
The shapes, lines and colors can be admired for their artistic qualities while Faulkner fans can appreciate the subject matter.
This is not the first time Lund has created a mural. He designed the Andrew Jackson mural in Jackson, although he did not paint it. The Faulkner mural is the first mural he will execute himself.
Since he is the painter he didn't have to use the flat, simplified patterns necessary in the Jackson mural. He allowed himself to create a more stylistic and complex design.
"This is the best work of art that has been inspired by Faulkner," Hamblin said.
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