This collage is inspired by Emily Dickinson’s poem “A Coffin Is a Small Domain”. I wanted to create a visual representation of the contrast between Dickinson’s ideas of the afterlife, and the more traditional religious idea of a heaven. The art piece is split across the middle, with the upper half representing a traditional heaven and the lower half representing Dickinson’s idea that after death we are just our bodies, in a wooden box in the ground. I chose to represent heaven with bright, vibrant colors and living beings and represented Dickinson’s idea of the afterlife with a bleak color palate. I used images from nature, but instead of living things, we chose things like rocks, ocean, and dead animals. The dark and disturbing nature of this imagery helps to emphasize the often blunt way Dickinson discusses death in her works and the often nihilistic approach that she takes.

Medium: Mixed media