anyway some of my thinking in the scene between and Paine and Blake and around the French Revolution was 'be careful what you wish for'.....
I thought I would explain further about Virtus Combusta - mentioned yesterday in relation to my Theatre and Perfidious Albion: it is the name of a really wonderful engraving by one of the first Renaissance master print-makers Mantegna, which I saw in the big exhibition at the National Gallery a year or so ago, and obsessed me for a while . It seemed so relevant to the chaos 2019, and equally so now really...
here is the text again from yesterday
Humanity stumbles towards the Abyss, guided by Lust, Folly and Deceit; Ignorance watches from his throne, set upon a globe, surrounded by burning laurels and the ashes of civilisation, served by the emaciated figures of Avarice and Fate. Hermes, messenger of the Gods , tries to intervene.....
these were the first little copies I made of it...
small drypoints freely drawn and with colour wash behind them.....
and then more freely this larger one: A4 rather than A3 sort of size...
I then made woodcuts even more freely, which I cut again small for the theatre, while I used the larger ones to make a series of prints. It was these larger A2 size ones, on very 3-dimensional and wonderful Khadi paper, that I was going to bring to the FPBA Fair in a specially made solander box, to keep them all together in a series.....
the woodcuts were printed over collaged bits of of ephemera and photocopies of newspaper pages (so they would be more archivally sound ) hand painted before printing...
if you are interested in such things here are a couple of the prepared pages before the woodcuts went on....
And here are the potential set, probably not in the right order unfortunately....
....and sadly without their titles written on ( and they were rather good titles too )
but there is a Covid reason for this, as they are all in my studio which I can not currently get to...
My studio is in a rented space in a Music and Comedy club, currently closed; I do have a key which may or may not now work and it is complicated getting down the High Street on narrow pavements for those of us isolating strictly, which is currently all of us I believe...
so I am lucky all my presses are at home and most of the things I need are to hand. I am probably not allowed to send off for a shipment of 10a scalpel blades by post - I usually top up with stuff at the Oxford fair , where there are bookbinding suppliers and lovely JPP John Purcell Paper. So now is a good time to use up all the off-cuts and stacks of paper under beds and in piles ... along with the out of date kidney beans, horseradish sauce and last years Christmas pudding - such Easter treats in store.....
My artist son in London can't get to his studio either - its a group complex with shared facilities and all the admin staff are away isolating, and its a longish way to travel currently...so he is stuck in small flat; which is very frustrating with all the time otherwise to work; artists usually prioritise space in their studios and have a small home. My partner's studio and workshop are both even further down the High Street than mine. Artists often have high metabolic rates, we do anyway and need constant food so he is down every two hours making toast in MY STUDIO - aka the kitchen....
'Etching ' on foil backed tetra packs is all the rage now I gather but all I have a rather small packs of chopped tomatoes - largish cartons of oatmilk are good I believe, but it is a case of any milk, and no fussing about organic at the moment....and I seem to spend inordinate amounts of time on the whatsapp group watching to see if anyone has won the jackpot for an Ocado slot in a months time.....
more tomorrow on the Map of Lost Cuckoos.....
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