INTRODUCTION

“A poet writes always of his personal life; in his finest work out of its tragedy, whatever it be, remorse, lost love, or mere loneliness; he never speaks directly as to someone at the breakfast table, there is always a phantasmagoria…Even when the poet seems most himself, when he is Raleigh and gives potentates the lie, or Shelley ‘a nerve o’er which do creep the else unfelt oppressions of this earth,’ or Byron ‘and the soul wears out the breast’ as ‘the sword outwears its sheath,’ he is never the bundle of accident and incoherence that sits down to breakfast; he has been reborn as an idea, something intended, complete.”

–From ‘A General Introduction for my Work’, W.B.Yeats.

The panels are expressive, with concentrated moods. It contains biographical ephemera, humorous fragments?, some serious social commentary and a dose of spirituality. It is drawing on on realist, expressionist as well as Byzantine traditions. You could say it is a mix-up of colour and image; a kaleidoscopic collage.

The collage is packed full of detail. Swirls of red and yellow encaustic wax, with blue & sap green. Dammar crystals ground.

When did it begin?

The project was planned on Thursday 10th February 2011, and I became  enthusiastic about using encaustic wax with collage.