Sensing

This print brings together a number of ideas that arose while I was working on other projects. Some I have already used; others I just slipped into my pocket with my car keys. They all came tumbling out when someone suggested Five Senses for the name of the upcoming Rugby Artists and Makers exhibition. So here they are brought together in a sensual game of consequences.

So many artists and ideas came into play here. Touch comes from Harold Speed’s book, The Practice and Science of Drawing – the notion that outline comes from the act of touching – it’s an idea I’ve wanted to draw for some time, and it sneaks in here. The hearing woman is based on a figure from an old life drawing by an unknown artist. The whispering man and the seeing woman started out as the couple in Nolde’s Mann und junges Madchen. The sensuous pomegranate eater has been in my pocket since I did the Song of Solomon prints, and if I ever do a full set of those he will reappear. The model for the pomegranate eater is by the way a small classical bust of Hermes I keep for these purposes. The woman smelling the flower is of course Anna Bloom, pretty much directly lifted from my Rote Blume print. Finally the pregnant belly with the eye comes from Shiko Munakata. The navel eye appears frequently in his work; I’m guessing it’s Bhuddist, but For me it feeds sufficiently into that Room for a Life thing and maybe that Gut Feeling thing to place the viewer in a slightly uncomfortable place.

Finally, I recently bought a print by Maria Beine-Hager of a puppeteer and puppets that was done as simple line work in white on black. So provided the overall feel of what I wanted to do. As I was working on this I was reminded of an article by Eric Gill in the Woodcut Annual for 1927. He suggested that it was relatively simple to make intaglio prints from small wood engraving blocks. I am minded to try making intaglio prints from this block. If it works out I will no doubt post again.