The New Year carried on fairly seamlessly from the old with a few days merriment interrupting work on a series of tiny woodcuts for a set of Antidote tarot/playing cards - something I have long wanted to do - the shape and size of cards which fit in the hand is so appealing; it will still be a partial set by Feb 2nd and in no way conventional but I can return to the project at times of stress... a nice small size to chip away at in comparison with my large woodcuts.... I will add images to this post as they get finished next week - lots of cutting is done, now the printing and colouring and time of reckoning....
Charlie had marketed her new exhibition at St Anne's as an antidote to the
'pink fluffy tide of commercialised emotion and obligatory romance that engulfs us in February...a refuge for the jaded and curious where the experience of the human heart could be explored in all its complex, ambiguous and frequently dark glory...'
who could resist..
especially with some charitable link-ups working with the lonely and dispossessed...
new thoughts for The Antidote included a large new Punch and Judy woodcut, and I got quite obsessed with
Virtus Combusta when I saw it at the wonderful Mantegna Bellini exhibition at the National Gallery before Christmas, so I have made a few responses to that engraving in various forms:
a British Library label reads...
The subject is an allegory on the hold of ignorance on humanity. At top right the fat naked woman seated on a globe representing ignorance reigns. She is served by the blindfolded figure of fate and emaciated Avarice. At left a sightless woman accompanied by a satyr symbolising Lust, and Error, a man with asses ears, stumbles towards a chasm. Below figures have fallen into the pit. One is being rescued by Hermes, the God of Knowledge, demonstrating that Humanity can be saved....
or as the NG label has it
- humanity stumbles towards an abyss guided by Lust, Folly and Deceit: ignorance watches from her throne beside burning laurels...
seemed apposite...and mildly hopeful according to the BM which is what we need...
Meanwhile this will be the year my book comes out with Thames and Hudson -
Voyaging Out:British Women Artists from the Suffragettes to the Sixties; still a few months to go however but hopefully more time for artwork now.
I will be at BABE in Bristol at the Arnolfini 30-31 March - a book fair I always enjoy, and hopefully will have some more playing cards done as well as other new stuff....
James Simpson and I enjoyed the Michael Marks Poetry Pamphlet Awards at the British Library in December and looking at, and listening to, the different exhibits; James is now publishing poems with the Hedgehog Press, including some poems he did for parvenu press in order to give them a wider audience. We are also looking forward to working with Incline Press in the near future.
I am also still cutting new designs for paper toy theatres for the Pollocks Toy Theatre Museum project - someone told me there had been an article in the press about it but I haven't yet managed to track it down... The great excitement before Christmas was acquiring an old wooden toy theatre to play with and try out my designs on ( for sale in the street in L The Centre of the Cosmos) and also going to a performance at the Art Workers Guild by Joe Gladwyn and meeting enthusiasts who told me about the annual European festival in Kiel - preetzerpapiertheatertreffen - where an interesting variety of contemporary takes on performance take place with 21st century graphics...thank you Sarah Peasgood for all the information, it was great meeting you and I loved your Wilton Music Hall turns on paper....
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