It is the story of a bird flying from the dense forest to the peak of its dreams, modeled on the life of Bertha Hanson, an important Swedish artist. The story begins with a little girl in a blue dress walking barefoot in a tree, and then she hears her father calling for her to do housework. In her hand was a bird made of blue clay, and she wanted to become a bird that could fly freely.
In the picture, we see that the branches are airtight and almost block everything outside. Bertha was the little bird trapped in the dense forest, looking at the sky split by the branches as on the cover.
This is the story of Sweden that happened about a hundred years ago. At that time, the necessity of maintaining the farm required the efforts of the whole family. Women's situation is difficult, and their fate is just a repetition, going back and forth in the strange circle of fate. There is a poem in Haizi's "Doors Closed and Closed": "Washing the dirty socks of generations", which tells such a fate. The fate of Bertha is naturally the same, born to be a "housewife". This is also the only way out for all girls in the future. Women are trapped in generations of marriages, and they become silent group portraits, with no personality and only endless housework.
Bertha wondered, "What do all the things in the world look like?" "Isn't it like the teacher draws the dotted line and they fill in the color?" It was impossible for families to support a girl's dreams, and schools at the time did not allow it. It can be said that the outline of the carrot presented on each student's paper is a symbol of the fate of everyone in this small village.
When did Bertha begin to accept herself as unique? It was probably Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam" painted in the Sistine Chapel. In that painting, Adam and God's fingers touch each other, and in this psychic process, God gives Adam a body and soul. Adam is a symbol of masculinity, and when Bertha saw the painting, she "felt the trembling of her fingertips as if she were electrocuted." When she wanted to copy it, she felt strongly that she had been chosen to be created, and she replaced her image with Adam's. This is the awakening of identity as the daughter of Eve.
Such a feeling of being chosen strongly underpinned Bertha's persistence. In the painting, we can see that Bertha cuts out an advertising painting from an old newspaper to give a new image to the characters on the painting. At the same time, I am also waiting for my own transformation, before the miracle comes, "I can only remain silent, and bury the desire deep in my heart."
In this world, there are often many more restrictions on girls than boys. Becoming a painter and being a female painter is full of obstacles and prejudices. Luckily, Bertha had her own hobbies, loved to draw, and had her own unique ideas, but her sister, not only had to replace her mother's housework, but also had to undergo a similar death arrangement. But in the end, after she launched the "Pea Soup Coup", she was finally able to spread her wings and fly into the distance. And the characters on those pictures suddenly have a life, as if they are blessing and saying goodbye to her. The big tree is no longer dense and towering, and the sky and the distance occupy a large space in the picture.