Finishing up stuff

While I've been home under the weather, I've been able to work on 

some projects that are due soon.

All three feature my calligraphy however the presentation of it is different in each.

The first is a silhouette of ravens

Finished size will be 36" W X 54" L

The name of this piece is 'Moon Sisters'

Some of the lyrics of Sting's 'Sister Moon' song are entwined in the branches & leaves as well as some creating the branches themselves.

What you are looking at is the bottom third of the piece.  

I painted the birds & tree branches so I guess it is considered a 'whole cloth quilt'. I then did the calligraphy in black & white inks.  

Quilting is not finished yet but I'm so happy with how it's coming along!

In this next work, I painted the human figure and added the wing gently wrapping her body.  I enjoy the image of her and it sort of gives a reminiscence of Keats 'Leda & The Swan' which is yet another evocative work of courtship and union. The calligraphy here is of James Joyce's Ulysses.  The last paragraph in the work is given by the wife.  In Joyce's distinctive stream-of-consciousness writing style, the wife is remembering an intimate moment with her lover.  I just used my own printing.  This passage ends the great work in the strong affirmative YES!.  This work is to be mounted on the black foam core board you see behind.  I will hand stitch some in variegated golden threads (thus securing her to the cheesecloth behind).  

 Size is 21"W  X 42" L

 

Lastly, 

Yet another of my favorite Authors,  Edgar Poe. 

Here I have taken the beloved work of 'Anabel Lee' and enscripted it onto fabric

The calligraphy here is varied but very straight and formal.  The fonts range from Gothic to Uncial with a bit of italic & my own handwriting in thrown in for added interest.  There are many layers of text and the fonts vary

depending on the words and passage used.  

The size is approx 15" W X 42" L.

Some old lace and rich purple silk give hints as to the beautiful bride.  There will be hand embroidery stitching in the royal purple & golds to further combine the elements.  The screen squares

emulate the sepulcher of her entombment though I may bind the piece in the rich purple silk.  The poem is  the story of a young couple doomed when the bride is dies suddenly.  Her husband can only mourn her passing in naught but words and tears,  but what fantastic words they are!  If you haven't read it, I suggest gooliephooing it.  You won't regret it.

 

In his work, Poe outdoes himself in my layman's opinion.  There could be a dozen ways you can describe a beloveds entombment or interment as it were, but how many leave you feeling that the author chose each separate word to create specific visions in your mind? Let alone the aural sensation of the sea's sound and tactile impressions of it's coldness and vastness.  The hard as iron stone work thus barring the soft human flesh from admittance or passage to that place beyond.

EPoe was truly a genius in so many ways and sadly slandered so much in his death many still believe him to have been mad and a drunk.  Both are false.    Many don't know that the style of detecting novels that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle made so sensational with his character Sherlock Holmes have their roots in EPoe's 

 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue' 

As you can tell, these three and nearly all my calligraphy works use great literature in them.  (maybe I'm hoping it will make the quilt great too LOL!) 

It's just that is what really moves me, incredible works written by the great masters of our times.  

Next up will be some Oscar Wilde.  

*sigh*