Works in progress

Work on Lysithea has stalled, as not only did I drop her beautiful box, but I also found myself pondering on how best to present the poem inside the box.  A visit to the Paperchase on Tottenham Court Road, with my good friend Richard, soon put me back on track! 

Merwood Website

I was working on my Merwood website with Tim this weekend.  It's looking fantastic!  Hoping to go live in the near future :) 

Thanks Tim!

Lysithea poem

Here's the second poem.  This will accompany the carving in her box.

Lysithea

A box without a lock, lost.

Liminal,

My feet on the sand

Caressed by the waves.

Walking between 

The feathers, fish bones and driftwood,

Stones send stabs of pain through my feet.

Searching the rocks,

Frantic, 

The cliffs raging above me,

I look to the sea.

A box without a lock, lost.

Liminal,

Between the land and the sea,

Sand beneath my feet,

Waves meet my outstretched hands.

Oceanid

I've been working on a few poems with Lysithea as my muse.  Here's my first stab at poetry for, hmm, over 9 years!

Oceanid

Golden brown skin,

Now pallid.

Her voice,

A single silver thread,

Winding around dark rocks.

Searching,

Through seaweed forests,

And dead coral,

Alone.

Based on the idea of the 3000 Oceanids of Greek mythology (Lysithea being one).  Each Oceanid was associated with either a spring, lake, river, sea, flower, or cloud.  Once together and happy, now scattered and broken.   The idea of dead coral came from my memories of snorkelling off the coast of the Dominican Republic, where there are many small coral reefs, slowly dying out through fishing methods and pollution.

Guest blog

Wow!  I'm really excited to finally have some of my work out there, and stoked that there are people who want to know more about what I do.  Big thanks to Nicole Bates who invited me to write a guest blog for her site.  I'm this Wednesday's featured artistic outlet.

And big thanks go to Brenda Gratwicke who introduced us both.

Lysithea

Photos of my new lady, Lysithea.  She's finished, and I'm now working on her presentation box.  Part of the inspiration for the story behind her name, is J.M.Waterhouse's evocative artwork, 'A Mermaid', and then following the art trail, Tennyson's poem, 'The Mermaid'.  I'm planning to to a bit more research on Waterhouse and the locations he used for his seascapes, which evoke so many memories of my own seaside walks.

Lysithea; 24.5cm High. 

Lysithea, detail.

Date with the early evening light

Determined to take a few photographs of one of the beaches I go to collect driftwood, and other objects left by the sea, I ended up reaching the beach off of Rock a Nore in Hastings after the sun had set.  I had lost the light, but I persevered with my camera and ended up taking one or two OK shots, capturing the atmosphere of the early evening.

Looking over towards Fairlight.

Rock a Nore beach, catching the fading light.

Along the beach I started to see bits of driftwood, a fantastic surprise, as Hastings beach is not that good for driftwood.  So in the fading light I took photographs of these pieces, and collected them as I went.  To begin with I could see the wood clearly, but as I was retreating to my car, the light had faded so much I didn't have a clue what I was picking up!  At least, I knew it was wood ;)  This really added to the experience of searching for wood to carve...it was exciting to open up my bag the next day to see what I had picked up!

Now the fun of looking for the wood, and becoming more aware of the beach surrounding, becomes part of the process of creating the finished piece.