by Shannon Hilson

Created on: July 15, 2008

Her name announced itself with the clarity of a bell in my head - Justine. I think some tangent my mind was running on in the background thought of it as a portmanteau of the words "just" and "pristine", the two qualities I most wanted her to have as my perfect holder of the Office of Justice. I created her to wear it well and live up to it in as many ways as a two-dimensional figure in a painting possibly could.

She is wearing just enough bone-white cloth to preserve her modesty and her impartiality. No jewels. No ornaments. Her hair is long, free, and plain. No fiery reds or sunny blondes would do. Justine's hair is brown as the earth she stands on, yet lovely as the principle she represents. Behind her blindfold, I know her eyes are cool, grey, and steady, conveying a commitment to duty and purpose to those who would look into them. She carefully and delicately holds a perfectly balanced scale in one hand, yet firmly grips a sword in her other hand with authority, ready to defend the one with the other without hesitation should the situation demand it.

The doves wandered out of a line I heard in a W.H. Auden poem ever so long ago that spoke of a funeral - a funeral so somber and critical that it was suggested it might be appropriate to go round and "put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves", among other things. The idea of "public doves" intrigued me and stayed with me over the years, remaining vivid even after I had forgotten the rest of the poem. Somewhere in the creation process, the public doves of Auden's poem surfaced from the depths of my memory and became the Public Doves of my world, and they represent all that justice exists in order to protect - peace, freedom, harmony, and the people. They wear no crepe bows, because they know that no matter what may happen out there in the world, they're safe in the Halls of Justice.

Justine was not created in an attempt to portray the concept of justice as I see it. This is the Justice that would reign in my Utopia. This is Justice as I feel she should be. Were she meant to be Justice as I sometimes worry she may be, she would look much different. Among other differences, I fear she'd appear far less sure of herself and the ideals she defends. I rather think she might have done away with the blindfold at some point as well. As for the Public Doves? Well... let's just say their crepe bows could quite possibly be firmly fixed in place.

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