Kezia

This is my final major project for my fine art course, it is a series of A3 illustrations based on the story of the concept album ‘Kezia’, released in 2005 by Canadian metal band ‘Protest the Hero’. Here is an extract from and interview with the singer Rody Walker in 2006 to explain the concept in further detail (taken from Wikipedia):

“There are two ways to explain the concept behind “Kezia”: the literal meaning of it and the deeper meaning behind it. The simple explanation is that you have three characters on the album who all describe a certain situation from their point of view, which is the execution of a woman. We chose a priest, a prison guard who’s also the executioner and the woman in question, Kezia. They all have three songs to tell their story. In the first song they paint a general picture, the second track explains how the character feels connected to Kezia and the third one is their view on the shooting of Kezia. The last song on the album brings us as a band into the picture, although the lyrics are written in the form of Kezia’s last words. The deeper meaning of the concept is the gradual downfall of our society. We tried to make the lyrics timeless, so the story could be situated in any time period. There are also political and social critical messages in it. Not that we bluntly say that we hate Tony Blair or George Bush, but more in general comments on the fact that religion and power are getting more in-twined every day. The album is also about the responsibility that everyone has as a member of our society. It’s your civil duty to act when you need to.”

I have created one drawing for each song on the album, with the exception of the last song ‘A Plateful of Our Dead’ which I have split into two parts. The story of the album has intrigued me for many years and I’ve always wanted to represent it visually somehow so I used my FMP as my opportunity for doing so. My goal for this project was to be able to utilise different visual styles and techniques to illustrate the various themes present within ‘Kezia’, such as religion, war, and feminism, while being able to maintain a consistent visual style across all of the drawings, allowing them to tie together a singular concept. I used different symbols and visual metaphors within my drawings to portray the social commentary and story content of ‘Kezia’ visually.