For my final project in my Painting 2 course, students were required to create a painting based off of Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. As I was reading the play, I was particularly drawn to Ophelia’s character. I felt that the female character’s in this play, Ophelia’s included, had been victimized/marginalized. I became aware of how often and for how long writer’s have been creating female characters, many of which lack personality and depth, only to have them killed to further the plot of the male characters.

When I considered the injustice I felt had been committed upon Ophelia’s character, I decided that rather than simply portraying a scene from the play in my painting, I would create an alternative ending - one that was also partly inspired by the ending of Quentin Tarantino’s film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. In my painting, instead of Ophelia killing herself, her character enacts revenge upon Hamlet and Polonius due to their negligence and selfishness. 

Painting 2 Final: Narrative Painting (36 x 24 inches, oil on canvas, 2023)