In both a metaphoric and compositional sense my work has become more and more concerned with defining and demarcating one visual element from the next. At the outset of making this print, Black Wings, Red Fields, these simple constructs were my main aim, so the impetus was to separate the abstracted flying-bird forms from the colour below using contoured white margins. Similarly, that ground also became divided up into fields of red. The result is perhaps reminiscent of a flag design or perhaps even something militaristic, but in developing the image, I began to think more and more about the migration of birds, particularly birds of prey, making their journeys across the Mediterranean islands where they are forced to fly the gauntlet of human hunters. As a metaphor it becomes sadly topical, as we are currently only too aware of their many human counterparts also striving to cross the same borders.
Soon to be showing in Gallery Pangolin’s Sculptor’s Prints & Drawings 2016 show. Click HERE for details.
Sculptor’s Prints & Drawings
– Part of IMPRESS ’16 Printmaking Festival
20th February – 1st April