poemimage

The visual & the poetic.

Tag: Druid

The pen – the book – the plan.

So far in January I have used the pen & the book to keep track of the hours I put into my current B&W work – on a long roll of Fabriano mid-weight paper.

3rd section

Working on the floor like an iguana I am almost 1/3rd through the roll of paper working with black & white gouache, B&W ink, water-soluble graphite pencils, and drawing pens.

4th section almost complete

At first I thought this might be Boudicea, Queen of the Icenis. I considered developing a metaphor based on her famed history & Celtic roots. Then I started thinking ‘more of a shapeshifter than Boudicea.’ My main impetus is not to illustrate an idea or theme but to watch images (in relationship) develop organically and interpret the meaning. Some images are planned and some are spontaneous.

Detail 4th section
Detail 3rd section
The pen and the book to keep track of the plan. Writing hours worked after they are done.

I will shift into a different ‘feeling’ of depiction soon. Around the 1/3rd mark.

1st section
2nd section – my phone camera is disappointing.

This work will mirror (in part) & dovetail with my previous subject matter on the ‘long blue roll’ of Fabriano mid-weight paper (same height and length).

S. McCabe, Druidica Blue: Deja Vu (Cave Art of the New Psyche) 2022, 5’H X 35’L
Detail 2nd section
Detail 2nd section

So it seems I will have a two-part work on two rolls of paper.

Detail 2nd section

Now it seems the plan is for the work to become a diptych. I think this fits the criteria for a diptych.

Detail between sections 1 & 2

My goal is to reintroduce images from the ‘original’ (first) ‘mostly blues’ roll of paper into the B&W (second) roll of paper and develop the themes manifesting my investigations over the last few years.

S. McCabe, Druidica Blue: Deja Vu (Cave Art of the New Psyche) 2022, 5’H X 35’L
Detail

My plan will take a few months longer as I complete part two of this two-part work (a mere 2/3rds of the current roll of paper to complete).

Detail

Info about the overall project:

In 2022 I completed a long painting/drawing on Italian mid-weight paper titled ‘Druidica Blue: Deja Vu (Cave Art of the New Psyche).

Section 7 (of 11) from the 5′ X 35′ work:

In 2023 I began working on a long roll of paper using B&W in painting/drawing. I posted about beginning this:

A detail of the B&W work in progress with the working title: ‘On the Day Boudicea Rode at Midnight.’

Detail 1st section

In my computer floating freely I found a digital file of (shall we say) cartoonish ‘Druid-monk’ images. He’s working beneath a light bulb (of course) and creating an icon of spirals. One is a cauldron-spiral. Perhaps I was thinking of manuscript illumination.

Then I found an ink drawing/collage from my (rather dark) 2011 exhibition at Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts in Toronto.

After combining them in Photoshop I was going to call the series ‘Temptation at the Manuscript Factory’ – humour inspired by a miniature I’d created many moons ago for an art gallery and gallery owner (both gone) who annually held an International Exhibition of Miniature Art. Instead I worked with a line from my unpublished poem Celtlandia Has Fallen.

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Celtlandia Has Fallen is a sort of a quest poem, inspired by ancestral yearnings. There is something in the DNA stirring. In the Continuous Vegetal Style I served her. I don’t remember this, but in the poem ‘I’ do.

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