The Tragedy of the Duck: A Senior Surreal Photo by Kevin Van Dyke (2015)

Henry is stuck in an endless loop of sexual desire. It tries to escape through the honeydew melon portal on the left, only to end up returning through the honeydew melon portal on the right and wading through the stream towards the leftmost honeydew melon portal once more. He never gets a break. He is lost in an eternal sea of alluring duck butts, isolated from them on a single board upon which flows a lonesome cosmic stream flowing the tormented duck back around again and again, never ceasing. Like a wet dream from which this duck cannot wake. The duck butts are all starting to look the same… Are they turning into dolphins? The weird lighting seems to give them dolphin faces. The duck can't take it anymore. Where do you go when there is nowhere to go? Is insanity death? Will I be here, among this ceaseless, monotonous sea of duck butts forever? Maybe if I lose my attraction to these duck butts I will leave this abyss. Perhaps if I continue drifting through this honeydew melon portal forever, it will one day relay me to somewhere else. Anywhere else.

The duck in the middle, Henry, has a look of boredom like no other. I chose to make everything but the honeydew melon portals black and white, which fit because the endless loop in which Henry is stuck is very dull. The honeydew melon portals seem to be the only opportunity there is for escape, which is why leaving them their original blue-green seemed appropriate, as they are colors of hope, yet also calming colors. This portal is mean in a peaceful way, not all up in your face. To show repetition and monotony, I used the same picture of a duck butt, slightly altered each time, for the background. I felt there needed to be something concrete separating Henry from his horror, more than the fluid stream, so I put a cutting board there because a cutting board is a home for honeydew melon portals, so Henry knows he is on their turf, and is also an intimidating place to be for a duck.