Comets keep making an appearance in my work. I thought it would be fun to see how my treatment of them has changed over the years.
I began making work featuring comets in 1997-8, when I made a piece titled “Prayerbook for a Comet”. The work was purchased by a private collector in 1998. Unfortunately my hard-drive failed at the time, and no photos from that time survived, so I have no records of it. However, I remember it well; consisting of around 12 A5-sized monotypes arranged on a board to look like book pages, it was presented behind glass in a large frame. I had depicted every day objects such as crockery, plants and utensils interspersed with quotes taken from the writings of Marcus Aurelius (Roman Emperor, 08.04.161 - 17.04.180). The objects represented offerings from Earth to a comet which threatened destruction of life as we know it, and a reminder of how mundane things become suddenly precious when teetering on the brink of extinction.
It's a pity I don't have any records of this early work, as it would have been so interesting to compare work from 20 years ago to today's. The collage above shows details of comets as they have appeared in my work since 2008, arranged in chronological order:
2008 2008 2012 2013
2013 2013 2015 2015
2015 2015 2015 2016
2016 2019 2019 2019
On a related note, I will be glad when Mercury comes out of retrograde next week. I usually view superstitions surrounding astrological events with interest purely from a cultural and folk-lore point of view, not really believing they could have much physical effect on life on Earth. However, since Mercury went into retrograde on July 8 I have experienced so many technological failures and hiccups. My iPad charger cable broke, my vape broke, Airdrop works one minute and the next refuses to see my devices, my phone suddenly drained itself of charge whilst being charged, I can't type the simplest of words without typos, the oven broke - the list goes on. I will leave it up to you to decide: Is it me, or is it Mercury?
Thanks for visiting, see you on the other side of retrograde next week!
It's a pity I don't have any records of this early work, as it would have been so interesting to compare work from 20 years ago to today's. The collage above shows details of comets as they have appeared in my work since 2008, arranged in chronological order:
2008 2008 2012 2013
2013 2013 2015 2015
2015 2015 2015 2016
2016 2019 2019 2019
On a related note, I will be glad when Mercury comes out of retrograde next week. I usually view superstitions surrounding astrological events with interest purely from a cultural and folk-lore point of view, not really believing they could have much physical effect on life on Earth. However, since Mercury went into retrograde on July 8 I have experienced so many technological failures and hiccups. My iPad charger cable broke, my vape broke, Airdrop works one minute and the next refuses to see my devices, my phone suddenly drained itself of charge whilst being charged, I can't type the simplest of words without typos, the oven broke - the list goes on. I will leave it up to you to decide: Is it me, or is it Mercury?
Thanks for visiting, see you on the other side of retrograde next week!
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