Brand New set in progress.......

No pics today but there were a lot the last few posts...
the new project is developing apace, a fourth tarot pack , as the poet James Simpson (that regular readers will know I work with a lot) discovered that his set of Blind Tiger Sonnets that he had been wanting me to work with for some time were actually 22 in number - so how could I resist......

and I finally found a way in, and with dealing with the Tiger - as our work is mainly ecologically based and coming from the Down-land which we both live among and love deeply, so that the Tiger , with or without his Blake-ean associations has to be carefully accommodated....
and my way in was by basing the set of images around the idea of the circus....
the Fool has become a Clown, combining his two aspects, his immense wise sadness and his buffoonery and stupidity....
and if the first three sets dealt with the elements of Earth ( Trees) Air ( covid pestilence) and Water (Flooding), then this last set - crying out for completion, is Fire ....the fiery colours of the Tiger, the rings of fire, the firing of people through cannons, and animals and clowns jumping through burning rings etc etc
there is also room for the equivalence with what is happening to our forests, sawing in half, burning, setting on fire and the fleeing of wildlife, as animals flee from burning circus tents when previously lit by live flame and hot lights  and sparks.....so lots to think about.
The idea took hold very quickly like wildfire and I have completed 22 drawings in 3-4 days and am now starting cutting the blocks - there may be more than one block to an image this time and they will look possibly very different from previous sets; colour and type of colour will be of paramount importance.... we are both very excited.....

the drawings are still in a fragile creative state so I won't be showing them as before - yet anyway - and will try and have some prints or cuts at last to show by the end of next week for blogging....

although lockdown is easing I absolutely have no desire to break out from my lovely creative bubble and sit on a hot beach or go shopping  and mingle with crowds - the occasional walk in a dark deserted wood nearby - is is the furthest I am wandering these hot light June evenings;
James and I communicate via the telephone and emails and this blog (but I did email him the new set of drawings for comment without you this time ) - currently he is now writing poems to the sets of tree images particularly, so we are working in tandem in opposite ways, I am imaging to his words and he is wording to my images; we like doing this and I am looking forward to him sending me some of his results......

eventually we may be able to share some of all this with you... keep checking ...
I will try and blog once a week but the midsummer weeks are vital for long sessions and need to be utilised to the utmost..... and oh dear , the evenings are already drawing in folks.... carpe diem.....

2 More Complete Sets

Ship of Fools -

Fool Gets Sick

Complete Set - Kindness of Trees

Gosh - 10 days since I last posted - sorry - I was doing boring printing all the time, well a bit boring for you , not so much for me although arduous.
I also re-cut and printed one of the original flood ones too and tinkered around, and finding I didn't have complete sets for some images and having to reprint another one.....
anyway here is the complete set of Trees - just in time for Midsummer....
in no particular order of course because designed to be moved around...

I will try and post up the complete sets of the other two titles over the weekend - have had to do a lot of tidying and cleaning to find a space to lay them all out on the floor - but tidying is always cathartic before starting a new project and clearing the decks of old ones - tho there is plenty of repetitive work left to do cutting and glue-ing, not to mention printing books not yet proofed......
but I will start the new project while I am excited about it and save the other work for therapeutic days in between creative frenzy.....,
lordy - nearly the end of June already.....time marching on....

Ibis

This phoenix-y sort of ibis tree is the last card of the Fool gets Sick set - I printed it today have sorted the cards into the 2 sets of 22
Ship of Fools... in no particular order, because they are designed to be moved around....

and Fool gets Sick - likewise, with roughs in place a couple of days ago before I editioned properly....

This is probably a good point to stop blogging daily and I will be printing the third Kindness of Trees set for the next week or so, mainly the same images but with a couple of additions or colour changes maybe...I will post up a complete set of those soon..
and then of course I will have to cut and glue the backs and show them as cards...
and I still have the bigger book to prints of Fool gets Sick and possibly find a better title,....

so keep an eye out for further info after or during my printing marathon over the next week or longer... thanks to those who stayed the course so far.....

Hope

More night-time shots; I suppose these are hopeful sort of prints....

Rabbits out of Hats......

Rather a dark pic as I worked late on a wet and dark evening - trying to get finished ; trolley pic one, a curious denizen of the forest, and we need to bring a rabbit out of a hat..... the magician card editioned at last....

resting on laurels

Trees have Eyes

Today's offerings - Trees have Eyes, and bandaged too they watch us in despair...
the third image was originally called queuing....

...a couple of days ago there was a dead baby crow lying on a grave when I went for my walk, rather poignant - on its back, it was fully feathered but small ; the next day it had gone - something had been at it already and today there was no sign of it dragged anywhere else...
the rats are starving in their nests we are told, resorting to cannibalism , as the normal food rubbish we leave around from takeaways and restaurant bins is severely depleted....part of our strange symbiosis....
I expect the seagulls are peckish too....

print progress

slow but steady......

Iced bun time again...

I am in full flood again, in more ways than one, edition-ing new images for all three packs , these two new ones on the right to go with the Ship of Fools pack,
Fool nearly up to his neck in trouble;
 and hands raised - in supplication - around the globe at the injustices of this world
( if that all sounds familiar raise your hands and voices too).....

I was listening to the brilliant Jane Goodall on radio4 yesterday in The Life Scientific, such a gentle and modest person and so incisively clear and articulate as to the biological and social reasons for the covid pandemic and what we are doing to ourselves and the planet and in allowing such inequality in the world - then I heard she was speaking shortly to the World Health Association - I hope they listened....

I was laying out today's printing to dry carefully - seeing each wet print didn't touch the next - and suddenly realised that in my subconscious I was absent-mindedly addressing a silent dictate on social distancing....weird how quickly these things have become part of us and our vocabulary.....

a sad day as it was dull and rainy- excellent for the ground and the land, but sad for my extremely aged mother who had been planning a socially distanced lunch in her garden for her birthday; and sad for another member of my family's big wedding anniversary - surprise weekend abroad 'postponed', no meal out; and for me to hear that my oldest grandson is now apparently unrecognisable, having suddenly done the growth spurt and his new deep voice stabilised - when will I meet up with him again and witness this transformation in the flesh?

The Falconer

I found this block, untested, on the back of another - the Falconer - from way back when I started off these cards and used colours already mixed which seemed just right;
but who is the predator and who the prey.....

I sent this image to my sister-in-law - we exchange images as communication during lock-down and she sends me pictures of her amazing garden - she asked what the story was....
I must say I use my intuition as to the images in my 'tarot' pack and am beholden to no particular system, but I can usually find arguments for inclusion afterwards - I knew there used to be The Falconer as a card in very early packs which was enough to set me off...
 but I checked further today and found he was replaced by The Papesse, and is related also to Mercury the messenger ( an old favourite character of mine) - and also Horus the Egyptian God of the Sky, son of Isis ad Osiris; Horus = God on High, and falcon-headed he is fierce and merciless; he avenged his father's murder
and so stands for the defeat of a false philosophy and the triumph of a true one....
so - great! I knew he needed to be in my wood.... bring on the triumph of the true...

I have always felt a great attraction to falcons and birds of prey particularly, and I did a huge installation many years back called The Falcon Bride - see my archive website....

glorious 1st June

Spent time cutting and re-cutting and playing with my Tree of Eyes - probably works best more emblematic tho may use  the bark close-up as a part of packaging maybe, for tree set....

and I'll print off some Blemmyae tomorrow - I think he'll work fine in the forest.....