My Interpretation

As I have said on the "First Impressions" page, when I first looked at the picture, I thought the woman was being attacked by a host of demons, and I marveled at how calm she seemed to be. She looked sad, but not terrified, as I would have been if I had been in that situation. This made me wonder why she didn't even seem to be reacting.

After I looked at the title of the image, the image made more sense to me. She wasn't being attacked by the demons; they weren't even really demons. It was the silence that was surrounding her, personified by howling demons. This is what fascinated me most about this piece of art, the seemingly paradoxical title and image. How can silence howl? Or, maybe more importantly, why would silence howl?

It is plain to see that she is armed to the teeth, with three sheathed swords at her side, one naked blade in her hands, and the hilts of two more sheathed swords slung over her back. I saw two possibilities in this: either she is expecting to meet enough trouble to warrant six swords, or she had picked up the swords somewhere. Again, I saw two possibilities in this: either she is late for a battle and everyone is already dead, or she is preparing herself for a battle. She also holds the sword upright, so she isn't succumbing to fatigue; she still shows strength and determination.

The silence that is screaming at her is either accusatory, in that she missed the battle and she wasn't able to aid her comrades, or to remind her of what she is about to fight for. Perhaps her kinsmen were slain and the silence she hears is the absence of their voices, urging her to avenge them. Another interesting note: If you look closely at the howlers, you can see that they have claws, but none of the claws are reaching out to the warrior; they seem instead to be curled into fists. The silence isn't tearing at her or pushing her, it's devoting all of its energies into howling at her.

Self Evaluation

All pictures copyrighted by Luis Royo.

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