¡Inspiration
"Irish myths and legends" was a difficult theme for me being a foreigner unfamiliar with Irish culture. I discussed the theme with various people and came up with ideas such as featuring a legendary Irish musician or a character in Celtic mythology but none inspired me until I came across the legend of "Tristan and Isolde", a romantic tragedy predating "Romeo and Juliet". The Cornish knight Tristan defeats the Irish knight Morholt and goes to Ireland to bring back the Irish princess Iseult as a trophy bride for his uncle King Mark. Iseult, in attempt to avenge her knight and resist marrying King Mark tries to poison Tristan and herself; however, the poison was in fact a love potion and the two become helplessly entrapped in adulterous love against their will. I was inspired to portray this cruelty of heartless yet uncontrollable passion as Iseult ingests the poison.