Thoughts of a handmaid

When coming up with this artwork, I didn’t really know what specific scene to include. There are so many powerful and inspirational scenes within The Handmaid’s Tale, none of which was what I was looking for. I wanted something that more so called me as I was drawing each line to make out the picture. That’s when I finally came up with the artwork that you see. I realized that I want to show a picture that contrasts what is seen on the outside of a handmaid versus what they are actually thinking while going through everything. I know you might be asking, well, what does any of it mean? So starting with the pregnant crying handmaid. I would say that this handmaid is Janine and represents how she is pregnant but is sad that she knows that she has to eventually give up her baby once she gives birth, and is not okay with the circumstances. In some way, even though this is specifically Janine, this could also be a representation for all the handmaids, showing the harsh things that they have to go through and live with.
In the artwork, the handmaid is saying, “We’ve been sent good weather.” Even though they are saying this, a person could see the storm clouds that I made, so why is she saying that we have been sent good weather if there isn’t any? Well, this goes into the metaphor aspect of my art because it’s supposed to represent how they have to hide and censor their own feelings just to survive in this world. It shows how the handmaids are forced to put on this smile that is truly not there just to make the leaders of their society happy and make them move on. It’s just not fair that these women are forced to be humiliated and just used as birthing objects for other people, and not by choice. So it just shows that even though they might seem happy on the outside, there’s really a storm going on in their head. Other than the storm clouds, there are other clouds with things in them. One you could see, it seems like it became a popular saying in the book, “Nolite te bastardes caborundorum.” This saying means “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.” I added this because I added a scene of June being in her bedroom, touching the carving of this saying on the floor in her closet. I just thought that this was important because it seems like the only thing that helps her stay sane. It helps her want to keep fighting or try to find a solution to all the madness. Even though at the time she didn’t know what it meant, she just knew it was a message left by someone who was in the same position as her. She felt like her struggles were relatable at that point. Lastly, the last quote I pulled was “when we think of the past, it’s the beautiful things we pick out…” I chose to add this because if you can see under it, there are black figures of what used to be her family. I just think it’s a way to show how the lie they knew of before was all behind them before, and is just a dream for them now. It’s no longer their usual or reality. This brings me into my whole reasoning of doing this, which was to just overall show their struggle. Show what they think in this very moment of living. Just letting viewers realize how deep this book actually could go.