Mused and Drank Sweet Wine
18 x 24
Wood panel, rice paper, acrylic, charcoal, house paint
Black Frame
Inspired by The Madness of King Goll, W.B. Yeats (excerpt)
I sat and mused and drank sweet wine;
A herdsman came from inland valleys,
Crying, the pirates drove his swine
To fill their dark-beaked hollow galleys.
I called my battle-breaking men
And my loud brazen battle-cars
From rolling vale and rivery glen;
And under the blinking of the stars
Fell on the pirates by the deep,
And hurled them in the gulph of sleep:
These hands won many a torque of gold.
They will not hush, the leaves a-flutter round me, the beech leaves old.
Gyres Run On
6 x 8
Wood panel, rice paper, acrylic, house paint, charcoal
Black Frame
Inspired by Under Ben Bulben, W.B. Yeats (excerpt)
Gyres run on;
When that greater dream had gone
Calvert and Wilson, Blake and Claude
Prepared a rest for the people of God,
Palmer's phrase, but after that
Confusion fell upon our thought.
A Golden Bough
5 x 7
Wood panel, rice paper, charcoal, acrylic, house paint
Inspired by Sailing to Byzantium by W.B. Yeats (excerpt)
Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.
Artifice of Eternity
6 x 8
Wood panel, rice paper, acrylic, charcoal, house paint
Inspired by Sailing to Byzantium by W.B. Yeats (excerpt)
O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.
The Wild Fowl of the Air
6 x 8
Wood panel, rice paper, charcoal, acrylic, house paint
Wood frame
Inspired by The Madness of King Goll, W.B. Yeats (excerpt)
I SAT on cushioned otter-skin:
My word was law from Ith to Emain,
And shook at Inver Amergin
The hearts of the world-troubling seamen,
And drove tumult and war away
From girl and boy and man and beast;
The fields grew fatter day by day,
The wild fowl of the air increased;
And every ancient Ollave said,
While he bent down his fading head.
"He drives away the Northern cold.'
They will not hush, the leaves a-flutter round me, the beech leaves old.
Of Hammered Gold
5 x 7
Wood panel, rice paper, charcoal, acrylic, house paint
Black frame
From Sailing to Byzantium by W.B. Yeats (excerpt)
Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.
The Indifferent Beak
6 x 6, framed/matted with glass
Wood panel, rice paper, acrylic, house paint, charcoal
Surprise element - patterns created with bubble wrap and bottom of a painted flip-flop
Inspired by Leda and the Swan, William Butler Yeats, excerpt:
Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?
Spiritus Mundi
36 x 18
Wood panel, rice paper, charcoal, pastel, acrylic, house paint
Black wood frame
In W.B. Yeats's "The Second Coming," the Spiritus Mundi refers to a universal, spiritual world that is the source of collective symbols and memories, akin to Carl Jung's concept of the collective unconscious. It's a vast, spiritual realm where universal images and symbols originate, representing a collective psychic memory of humanity. Yeats believed this Spiritus Mundi inspired and informed poets and writers.
A Terrible Beauty is Born
6 x 6, framed/matted with glass
Wood panel, rice paper, acrylic, house paint, charcoal
Inspired by Easter 1916, William Butler Yeats, excerpt:
I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.
I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,
And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or a gibe
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley is worn:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
Brute Blood of the Air
5 x 5, framed/matted with glass
Wood panel, rice paper, acrylic, charcoal, house paint
Surprise element - pattern created from the bottom of a painted flip-flop
Inspired by Leda and the Swan, William Butler Yeats, excerpt:
Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?
The Feathered Glory
6 x 6, framed/matted with glass
Wood panel, rice paper, acrylic, house paint
Black frame
Surprise element - pattern created with bubble wrap
Inspired by Leda and the Swan, William Butler Yeats, excerpt:
How can those terrified vague fingers push
The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?
And how can body, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?