Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 1
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 2 Welcome to our new Myths and Legends exhibition. Oxford Printmakers has a history of doing some wonderfully intriguing projects. 2016 saw us working on a fascinating and funded project with the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics. Sixteen artists worked with researchers to produce a body of work entitled Experimental Design. The work went on show at a number of locations including The Wellcome Trust Centre for Human genetics in Oxford, Fusion Arts , Magdalen College School Arts Festival and the JR Hospital. During 2019 we did the Cambrian Explosion First Animals/First Imprints exhibition looking at life on earth 540 million years ago. This project was funded by the OUMNH and is still being ’active’. Twenty three artists produced images, working with three researchers and is currently on tour in Leicestershire, and will probably feature at the Lady Jane Grey Chapel, as part of the newly developed Charnwood Forest area geopark project. This followed on with Species in 2021, which was shown for Oxford Open Doors. Thirty three artists produced thirty nine images for Oxford Open Doors. The project was a two fold beast, one set of work was framed, another set was unframed and the remaining ten (each artist produced at least twelve prints in the edition) went into a boxed set exchange project. This year we are proud to present our in-house show: Myths and Legends, which is a topic that grabs many if not all imaginations. Twenty seven artists have produced thirty one prints. What are myths & legends? A legend is a traditional or historical story about people, places, and events of ancient times while a myth is also a traditional story of how certain customs came into being. A myth is closely linked to religion while a legend is not. A legend is a story of real people with super powers while a myth is a story of gods and divine beings. The word “legend” comes from the Old French word “legende” while the word “myth” comes from the Greek word “mythos.” http://www.differencebetween.net/language/words-language/difference-between-legend-andmyth/ With thanks to all of our members who helped make this happen one way or another, either making the actual prints, or helping facilitate the show by working behind the scenes. Lockdown recovery has been a strong part of our recent life, and absorbing projects such as these help us keep afloat. Oxford Printmakers was set up in 1977 by ex Ruskin School of Art students and staff, two of whom are still active members. Lottery money received in the late 1990s has helped improve our studio facilities enormously. We have about 112 members and hold regular courses. We exhibit about two –three times a year, including Oxfordshire Artweeks We that hope you enjoy this new exhibition.
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 3 ARTIST TITLE PROCESS PAGE Gabriella Bailey Outside the City Gate drypoint 4 Juliet Bankes The Owl of Minerva collagraph 5 Catriona Brodribb Selkies etching 6 Catriona Brodribb Old Wayland Forges Metal screenprint 7 Isabel Carmona Pandora’s pithos collagraph & type 8 Jackie Conway Myth & Legends etching & aquatint 9 Chris Corser Missed the Boat linocut 10 Charlie Davies Halcyon Days etching 11 Charlie Davies Stars Align etching 12 Claire Drinkwater Wayland’s Smithy collagraph & etching 13 Claire Drinkwater White Horse Tales three etchings 14 Kat Foxhall The Horse and the Hunter etching 15 Neus Grandia Lupine etching & chine collé 16 Andrea Hewes Nature Unites -The Legend of the Hawthorn screenprint 17 Vanessa Howe Labyrinths two plate etching 18 Rahima Kenner Green Man, Rosslyn, etching 19 Anne Marie Lepretre Apollo linocut 20 Sally Levell Romanesque Boss, Iffley Church, collagraph & woodcut, 21 Sally Levell Wayland’s Smithy Forge, collagraph & woodcut, 22 Jenny Lines Inuit Sedna etching & aquatint 23 Sharda Mistry Dragon etching 24 Karen Morecroft Abraxos linocut 25 Roxy Mulcahy Toothworms photopolymer etching 26 Swee Har Newell Hereward the Wake linocut 27 Gill Salway Oedipus and the Sphinx etching 28 Morna Rhys The Deep Dark Gorge etching 29 Ann Spencer Dragon Hill screenprint 30 Nik Stanbridge The End of Time, Novi Travnik two plate linocut 31 Richard Stephens Marilyn screenprint 32 Caroline Tyack Milpreve etching & embossing 33 Lizzie Wheeler Wings of a Phoenix linocut 34 ……………………………………….
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 4 GABRIELLA BAILEY: Outside the City Gates, drypoint, 15 x 14 cms, edition of 20, £160 ‘My drypoint Outside the City Gate echoes the story of Daphnis and Chloe, a Greek pastoral romance set on the island of Lesbos. It tells of two children brought up by goatherds and shepherds in the lush and verdant meadows outside the city of Mitylene. Daphnis and Chloe live a rustic and bucolic life, tending to their flocks of goats and sheep, away from urban society. Throughout the story their incipient love grows but, since they do not understand how to express their desire, their fraught emotions are continually tested. Finally they marry and my drypoint recalls this nuptial scene: the marriage of Chloe, adorned in her wedding dress, to Daphnis, the goatherd. By now they have discovered that their respective birth parents are noble city-dwellers, yet having been reunited with them, the two lovers decide to return to the countryside for their pastoral wedding. “Daphnis and Chloe were kissing. The goats were grazing nearby as if they too wanted to join the festivities. This was not unpleasant for the folks from the city. Daphnis called some of his goats by name and gave them a green leaf. Grabbing some by the horns, he kissed them.” I was attracted to this myth with its imagery of the pastoral life and its tender love story. As with all myths, the story of Daphnis and Chloe offers an archetypal underpinning for a personal image, and it provides an ancient precedent for the longings of many people today for a more bucolic way of life.’
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 5 JULIET BANKES: The Owl of Minerva flies only at Dusk, collagraph,19 x 12 cms, edition of 12, £60 ‘Minerva is the Roman goddess of wisdom. Minerva’s symbol became the owl, which today continues to represent wisdom, as well as knowledge, culture and discernment. She was born when her father, Jupiter, swallowed her mother, Metis. He did this because of a prophecy that his child would one day defeat him. The quote refers to the German philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, who stated that we come to understand a way of life just as it passes away.’
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 6 CATRIONA BRODRIBB: Selkies, etching, 20 x 20 cms, edition of 20, £90 ‘My mother is a MacKay and according to her, the MacKays are descended from seals. The MacKays in question come from the Northern coast of Scotland (Sutherland) and like many coastal Scots & Irish communities, seals and seal people form a strong part of their (folk) belief system. I imagine that back in the day, sailing was more the norm than other means of transport, so one seafaring culture would come across another and stories and tales would probably move around. It can be no coincidence that the Inuit also have their Sedna figure. Thomas MacKay in the Scotsman (3.8.2022) writes: Selkies (Gaelic: maighdeann-mhara) ‘Selkies are seal creatures that reside in the sea yet can adopt human forms if they shed their seal coats on land. They are described as very attractive in human form and were known to intermarry with humans in coastline towns and villages. However, their loyalty is to the sea and they tend to return quickly, unless the human has been able to hide their seal coat which is needed for retransformation. Even if a Selkie forms a loving family on the land, they will always return to the sea if they get the chance.’ Thomas MacKay. ‘In Scottish folklore a man finds a female naked Selkie on the seashore, so he steals her sealskin and she becomes his wife. Throughout her captivity, she longs to return to her true home in the sea and always gazes longingly at the ocean. She may appear to settle into her human life and may even have children with her human husband, as soon as she can find her Selkie skin, she will immediately flee and return to the sea. In some versions of the story, the Selkie revisits her human family on land once every year, but in most versions of the tale, she is never seen again by them. One version of the legend states that although the Selkie wife was never seen again in human form, her children would sometimes witness a large seal approaching them and greeting them wistfully.’ In creating the print I tried using fish scales for a texture but that didn’t work, so I used a fine netting instead to reference the seal skin. The creatures here could be seals, or seal people.’
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 7 CATRIONA BRODRIBB: Old Wayland Forges Metal, screenprint, 25 x 25 cms, edition of 28, £120 ‘Wayland’s Smithy is a Neolithic Burial tomb (Cotswold group?) of trapezoid shape, just set back from the ancient Ridgeway track and was built in two stages. The location is about a mile west of White Horse Hill above Uffington. Its date is around 3,700 BCE. It was first excavated in 1919 &1920, and again in 1963 and some skeletal material was found. ‘The remains of 14 people – 11 men, two women and a child – were discovered in this first structure when it was excavated in 1963. Radiocarbon dating has shown that the first burials were probably placed there in 3590–3555 BC, and the last in 3580–3550 BC. The barrow was therefore used for no more than 15 years, less than a single generation. It is possible that the barrow was used for an even shorter period, perhaps just a year.’ Historic England. Wayland was the saxon name for Wolund or Volundr the Scandinavian god of metal work and blacksmithing. His mother was said to be a mermaid and his father the giant god Wade. In history he is said to have been captured and tortured, and thus disfigured by Swedish King Nithuthr. He gained revenge by killing the king’s sons and sexually assaulting the king’s daughter, and then flying to England, where he set up his smithy on the ridgeway. He is never seen, due to his disfigurement. The story goes that if your horse needs shoeing, you leave it there with some silver and by morning it is shod. An older story ties in with the roman Vulcan, who lived on an island Vulcano, and if you wanted metalwork done, you would leave money there, come back the next day and your item was created. Either way it makes for a good story. In Germany smithies were known as Wayland’s Houses. The place is very atmospheric, particularly when no one is about. I wrote the poem about two years ago, during lockdown.’ Ridgeway burial mound Old Wayland forges metal Horse with old shoes Is tied up waiting The ghost smith works his magic Light breaks, horse is shod.
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 8 ISABEL CARMONA: Pandora’s pithos (box), collagraph & type, 25 x 25 cms, edition of 12, £80 ‘Recently, I listened to Stephen Fry’s Mythos and I discovered I had never understood Pandora’s legend, or what her box contained. It turns out that the box was not a box but a Greek pithos, normally used to store foods, narrow at the bottom and bulkier at the top. Pandora was the first woman created by Zeus to punish Prometheus indirectly as she was married to Prometheus brother, Epimetheus. In short, they were told not to open the jar, they opened it and all the ‘evils’ were let out, the jar was hastily closed before ‘Hope’ could come out and spread too. To me it is interesting how the legend has similarities with Eve and Adam being thrown from Eden after eating an apple (doing something they were told not to do). The jar is open anyway and here we have all those names / threads coming out of it of the many worries and global problems. Hope remains neatly inside … so do we need to reopen the box? The print is a collagraph with small handprinted type. It combines the textural quality of collagraph and the contrasting precision of the type. The strands of ‘evil’ are threads that are inked separately and therefore their position varies slightly from print to print hence the edition is EV (edition variable)’ Isabel Carmona Web: isacarmona-art.comInsta: @isacarmona-art @isacarand
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 9 JACKIE CONWAY: Myths & Legends, etching & aquatint, 20 x 20 cms, edition of 25, £125 Blood runs thick tributaries through beating heart. And stirring and fluttering through brain and stomach. Red plum syrup keeps the fountain Of life replenished. A magical haemoglobin which is bitter and unpalatable. Tasting of iron and metal. Fields and streams run red with poppies. Why do we fear so much Our demise. Because without its flow we are not alive. From darkness Myth and Legend The mosquito and bat are symbols Of life’s womb. Torn apart during the night Stolen while we sleep. Vampires through open window steal. The process which I used was etching and aquatint. The colour was chosen to represent blood
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 10 CHRIS CORSER: Missed the Boat, linocut, 15 X 20.5 cms, edition of 12, £60 ‘A unicorn is a mythical beast resembling a horse with a single horn. There are references in folklore and art from many ancient civilisations. Unicorns are mentioned in the Bible, and early Christians associated unicorns with the Virgin Mary. Some Medieval paintings have images of beautiful maidens with unicorns. In the legends and myths of India and China creatures with a single horn are depicted, and called unicorns. However, this creature was most likely the Indian Rhino or a Narwhal. A Narwhal is a species of Whale found in arctic waters which, with a single horn,i s known as the unicorn of the sea. Items made from Rhino horn or Narwhal tusks were thought to be unicorn horn, and were highly prized. We find unicorns represented in heraldry as in the Royal coat of arms for the United Kingdom, and children sing the nursery rhyme The Lion and the Unicorn Were fighting for the crown The Lion beat the Unicorn All around the town. In this heraldic device the unicorn represents Scotland. But why has no one ever seen a real unicorn ? Maybe, just maybe, he was having so much fun dancing with maidens in the forest that he was too late for Noah's Ark!’
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 11 CHARLIE DAVIES: Halcyon Days, etching, 12.7 x 12.7 cms, edition of 100, £150 ‘The idea came for this etching whilst listening to Claudia Winkleman’s radio show, where she was interviewing Susie Dent about her favourite words. Susie was explaining the meaning of Halcyon Days and how it is derived from the Greek Myth: Alcyone and Ceyx find themselves happily married and buoyed by their love and good fortune, begin to call each other ‘Zeus’ and ‘Hera’, much to the anger of the Gods. When Ceyx is next at sea, Zeus throws a thunderbolt at his ship and drowns him. When Alcyone discovers her husband’s fate she is overcome with grief and throws herself into the Aegean Sea intending to drown. The gods are touched by this tragic show of affection and named after Alcyone, bring both characters back as ‘Halcyon’ birds, now known as kingfishers. Alcyone’s father Aeolus, the god of the winds, soon decrees that the seven days either side of the winter solstice will be still and stormless. Alcyone can then enjoy a period of calm in which to lay her eggs. My love of the sea and kingfishers made me want to capture this story in an image, and so my second submission to the Myths and Legends print exchange was complete.’
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 12 CHARLIE DAVIES: Stars Align, etching, 12.5 x 13 cms, edition of 30, £150 ‘Myths and Legends is such a hugely broad topic that it took a while for me to decide what image to choose. I spent a long time thinking about Arthurian myths and the link to Glastonbury. At about that time Elton John was announced as a headliner for the festival. What a legend! It occurred to me that pulling together the Glastonbury Myth and the Legend slot on the Pyramid Stage was the perfect response to the brief. I have painted the view of the Pyramid stage several times, so I was able to design the print as soon as I had the idea, and I made the etching plate very quickly after that. I printed the small edition and thought I was done. However, the Royal Academy then announced their theme for this year’s Summer Exhibition: ‘Only Connect’ and this print seemed perfect. I did a multi coloured edition of the etching and very happily succeeded in getting in to the 2023 show. It was a wild ride being included in such a prestigious exhibition and I even managed to sell out the whole edition.’
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 13 CLAIRE DRINKWATER: Wayland’s Smithy, collagraph & etching, 25 x 25 cms, edition of 20, £95 ‘For both my ‘Myths and Legends’ entries, I have drawn on the local countryside for inspiration. The Berkshire Downs are a landscape rich in prehistoric monuments, their original purpose long forgotten, but their remains still clearly visible. Many stories have become attached to them in later times. My prints refer to both the legends and the physical landscape. Wayland’s Smithy Wayland the Smith is a figure from Germanic folklore, a skilled maker of weapons and armour. Like Daedalus in classical legend, he escaped from captivity by making himself wings from the feathers of birds. His smithy is an early Neolithic chambered long barrow, close to the Ridgeway, a short distance west of the Uffington White Horse. The massive stones of its entrance, and surrounding ring of trees make it an impressive and atmospheric site. Local legend says that if a horse that needs shoeing, or a tool in need of repair is left there overnight, with a small silver coin, a groat (fourpence) or a silver sixpence, in the morning the work will be done and the coin gone.’
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 14 CLAIRE DRINKWATER: White Horse Tales, three etchings, 20 x 20 cms, edition of 20, £125 ‘For both my ‘Myths and Legends’ entries, I have drawn on the local countryside for inspiration. The Berkshire Downs are a landscape rich in prehistoric monuments, their original purpose long forgotten, but their remains still clearly visible. Many stories have become attached to them in later times. My prints refer to both the legends and the physical landscape. ‘White Horse Tales’ consists of three small etchings, each showing a different aspect of the site at Uffington. The Uffington White Horse gallops across the hillside, as it has done for over 3,000 years. Legend has it that once a year it comes down to graze in the dry valley known as The Manger, at the foot of the hill. If it needs new shoes, it just trots along the Ridgeway to Wayland’s Smithy. Rising on one side of The Manger is the flat-topped chalk knoll known as Dragon Hill. This, they say, is where St George killed the dragon. There’s still a white patch on the top, bare of any vegetation, where the dragon’s blood has poisoned the ground so deeply that nothing will grow there. Beneath all this landscape lies the chalk – a sedimentary rock made up of the remains of tiny sea creatures, deposited there when a warm shallow ocean covered the whole area. The waves’ white horses gallop across the sea just as their cousin gallops on the hill….’
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 15 KAT FOXHALL: The Horse and the Hunter, aquatint / etching, 18 x 12 cms, edition of 30, £80 ‘I always imagine that the popular myths that have long breathed life into the magical landscape of the Uffington White Horse must occur at night – the mare and her invisible foal coming down to the Manger to graze, or the once in a hundred year occurrence when the horse leaps across the sky to be reshod at nearby Wayland’s Smithy. Looking towards the hill from the village of Uffington, the Orion constellation hangs over this horizon in the winter sky; the figure of the hunter seems to watch over the ancient chalk figure on the slope below. On a clear moonless night the welcome darkness above the North Wessex Downs reveals the ethereal glow of the Milky Way, a luminous swathe across the heavens. And I wonder if the Horse and Orion – that most handsome of men in Greek mythology, who was banished to the sky for boasting how many animals he could kill – could talk to each other, what might they have to say? What human events have they quietly observed together over the last three millennia?’
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 16 NEUS GRANDIA: Lupine, etching and chine collé, 20 x 20 cms, edition of 20, £75 “Lupin”, Having the nature or qualities of a wolf. ‘The wolf is portrayed as an interesting character in mythological tales as well as pop culture stories today. Wolves have certainly been the subject of myths and attributes such as savagery, primitive and guttural feelings from time immemorial. The popular image of a wolf howling at the moon is part of many folklores around the world and of course, the image of a man becoming a wolf during a full moon (lycanthropy) is an ancient myth which became popular with horror films and literature. But the wolf is also seen as a benevolent spirit and as a protector of humans. It represents many different and interesting things that range from good to evil to even romantic and sacred. Wolves stir up emotions in people. They are either loved or hated, respected or feared, considered a relative or an enemy. Feelings about them are complicated. Perceptions about wolves are influenced by the media, education, culture, folklore, values, beliefs, and personal experiences. It is not surprising that the wolf is a common motif in the foundational mythologies and cosmologies of peoples across the world.’
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 17 ANDREA HEWES: Nature Unites - The Legend of the Hawthorn, Screenprint with highlights of paint made from Hawthorn. 23 x 23 cms, edition of 20, £85 (Homage to Kahlil Gibran) ‘I chose the subject matter because I have always been drawn to the lone Hawthorn tree on White Horse Hill, one of my ‘spiritual homes’. Knowing that the hill was the centre of many celebrations around the time of the scouring of the White Horse, I have often wondered how old the tree is and whether it would have been growing in the last of the great gatherings, in 1895. Veteran trees can live up to 200 years so it is quite possible! In pagan terms hawthorn is a prime symbol of fertility. It was always the traditional tree used at marriages, for it reflects the union of the forces of Nature. I chose one of my favourite printing methods, screen print, as I knew I wanted to create the texture of the couple entwined in a similar way to Kahil Gibran’s drawings from the Prophet. Also the inkiness of the rest of the image is possible when drawing on Tru-grain, one of the substrates that can be used for screen-printing.’
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 18 VANESSA HOWE: Labyrinths, two plate etching on zinc, 23 x 23 cms, edition of 20, £60. ‘It all started in the Ashmolean at their Labyrinth exhibition in summer 2023. According to legend, an elaborate labyrinth was built at Knossos on the island of Crete to hold a ferocious Minotaur. I don’t have many Minotaurs in my Buckinghamshire garden. But in this wet summer there are plenty of beautiful stately snails with their very own spiral labyrinths carried on their backs - ferocious only in munching lettuce. Three of these beauties are pictured entering a swirling tunnel labyrinth hidden in the verdant vegetation. Hovering on the brink, their friends are already inside. The snails and swirling tunnel are done in hard ground etching with aquatint on zinc. The border nods to Ancient Greek labyrinth symbols of unity and eternity in soft ground etching and aquatint. The second plate, a soft ground etching of plants, hides the entrance to the labyrinth. Printed on Fabriano paper.’
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 19 RAHIMA KENNER: The Green Man, Rosslyn, etching on aluminium, 19 x 19 cms, edition of 15, £80 ‘This particular image (an etching), is derived from a carved head of the Green Man in Rosslyn Abbey. Heads sprouting foliage appear all over western Europe in churches and abbeys. Some say this image of irrepressible, perpetual life stems from a legend of biblical Seth planting seeds which flourished from his father's body. Other Middle Eastern stories tell of the Green man, Khidr, who has found eternal life and is imbued with private knowledge of the one Essence. He can appear at any time in many disguises, as a guide to seekers in need.’
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 20 ANNE MARIE LEPRETRE: Apollo, linocut, 15 x 10 cms, edition of 12, £45. ‘I chose Apollo for the Myths and Legends printmakers’ exchange project. He is the Greek god of music, healing, truth and light. I always associated Apollo with the sun. The weather this Summer was cold, wet and grey when I was doing my research so the god of light felt just right. The process I used is linocut. I wanted to make a simple linear drawing in black and white. I was inspired by the work of Picasso, Jean Cocteau and the artist/designer Luke Edward Hall. ‘
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 21 SALLY LEVELL: Romanesque Boss, Iffley Church, collagraph & woodcut, 22.5 x 25 cms, edition of 12, £45 ‘Living in Iffley, I have always been fascinated by the strange stone carvings in the Church of St Mary the Virgin. Particularly enigmatic is the stone boss at the centre of the early 13th century vaulted ceiling. On the corners are pine cones in oak leaves and four bearded human “monsters” – clearly representing the four quadrants (ie North, South, East and West). They are in turn holding a coiled serpent with the head and paw of a cat and the wing of a bird. From below the composite creature appears dragon-like. To the Anglo – Norman population, dragons, cats, birds, serpents and pine cones would all have had symbolic meaning. It is known that pine cones in early Christian Churches indicate “rebirth” and large serpents / dragons (or drakon in Greek) may also symbolise rebirth, renewal and immortality. Serpents can also be associated with “temptation” in the Christian faith. Animals and birds were thought to have special powers in Anglo-Saxon mythology. As the boss is carved in stone I thought that it would be fun to depict it as a colourful woodcut with an underlying collagraph layer in lighter blue to suggest the coarse texture of the sandstone.’
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 22 SALLY LEVELL: Wayland’s Smithy Forge, collagraph & woodcut, 22 x 25 cms, edition of 12, £45 ‘I have become fascinated by Anglo-Saxon mythology because of the way religious and supernatural images are combined. In the British Museum is Franks Casket which is a small, carved whalebone box and on one side is a depiction of the German/Norse God Wolund. Wolund was the God of Metal Working and on the casket are his tools of the trade which differ from later blacksmith’s tools. In the carving a robed figure is offering him something (coins?) - apparently in payment. Franks Casket -British Museum The Legend of Wolund’s escape from Germany to Berkshire is gruesome. He was once visited in his forge by two young Princes. He killed both of them and turned their skulls into golden goblets which he then presented to their mother, Queen Niduth. Once the murders were discovered. Wolund escaped and flew to Berkshire where he set up his forge in the Long Barrow. There is a more recent myth that if you leave money in the stones of Wayland Smithy overnight plus your horse then their hooves will be reshod overnight. My print is two layered with a collagraph to suggest the mossy and irregular texture of the stones and overprinted by a woodcut’
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 23 JENNY LINES: Inuit Sedna, etching & aquatint, 14.5 X 15 cms, edition of 16, £70 ‘While studying Anthropology I became interested in those cultures who find a way of living in the harshest climates - among them were the Inuit peoples of the Arctic. In Inuit mythology ‘Sedna' is the goddess of the sea and sea animals and she is also known as ‘mother’ of the sea. The legend of how Sedna became a sea goddess is told throughout the Arctic and varies from one region to the next. However in all versions a young woman falls into the sea and becomes the mother of all animals of the sea, controlling the availability to Inuit hunters of seals, walrus, fish, whale and all other sea animals. Sedna is interpreted in many ways in Inuit art, here I have drawn my image from a piece of Inuit sculpture, and I chose etching and aquatint as a process, aquatint being useful in producing the effect of water.’
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 24 SHARDA MISTRY: Dragon, etching, 14.5 x 14.5 cms, edition of 15, £60 ‘In mythology and tradition, dragons symbolize power, happiness, and fertility and are believed to bring good fortune and wealth. In both the chivalric and Christian traditions the dragon is the symbol of evil whereas In the Orient, it symbolizes supernatural power, wisdom, strength, and hidden knowledge. In most traditions, it is the embodiment of chaos and untamed nature. In Celtic art, dragons were guardian figures, protecting treasure and guarding against evil. They are also seen as the symbol of strength and wisdom. Chinese dragons symbolize male power because of their superior strength. They also symbolize nobility, in part because so many emperors have chosen dragons as their personal symbol. Dragons also symbolize agriculture, kindness, and good luck. They are associated with water in Chinese mythology and appear on the roofs of Chinese homes. This depicts that they are able to protect their homes from fire by controlling the rain and sea.’ e-mail: [email protected]
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 25 KAREN MORECROFT: Abraxos, linocut, 25 x 25 cms, edition of 20, £60 'I chose to feature Abraxos, a wyvern and one of my favourite characters from the fantasy book series Throne Of Glass. I’d already been thinking about making a print featuring Abraxos so Myths and Legends was perfect timing. Abraxos is a smaller than usual wyvern, and as such was used as bait beast for training other wyverns which resulted in many sustained battle scars. He forms a bond with his rider and trainer, Ironteeth witch Manon Blackbeak after she steps in to help him from attack by another wyvern. She obtains some rare spidersilk to strengthen and repair his wings (which I’ve tried to capture in this image), and also replaces his broken teeth with iron. Abraxos is known to love wild flowers and is pictured here holding a flower for his mate Narene, another wyvern who died in the battle of Orynth along with The Thirteen.’
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 26 ROXY MULCAHY: Toothworms, photopolymer etching, 21 x 20 cms, edition of 15, £85 ‘One bad night with my wisdom tooth bought me pain so serious and unbearable I could only roll around on my bedroom floor crying and praying for relief. Had a dentist told me that I had tooth worms I would have wholeheartedly believed them. The myth of the tooth worm has existed in diverse cultures across the ages (evidence found in Sumerian text as early as 5000 B.C). It was the belief that dental cavities and tooth pain were caused by worms living in teeth, eating them away. In medieval England, tooth worms were treated with the fumes of burned henbane seeds. The plant worked as a sedative that relieved the agony. Despite the availability of henbane teeth were often removed outright. Dentists often believed that a tooths nerve was a worm itself and this likely supported the myth. In the 18th century Pierre Fauchard, known as the father of modern dentistry claimed that tooth decay was linked to eating sugar. Int he 1890's W.D. Miller, an oral microbiologist, discovered that bacteria living in mouths produced tooth dissolving acids. Despite these new theories the legend of the tooth worm lived on into the 20th century. Thankfully modern science and medicine has taken away the anxiety of having a mouth full of worms but I often wonder what we believe now, with so much conviction, that will seem ridiculous in a hundred years' time.’
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 27 SWEE HAR NEWELL: Hereward the Wake, (also known as Hereward the Outlaw or Hereward the Exile), linocut, 15 x 15 cms, edition of 15, £70 ‘I have always been fascinated by stories of heroes, men or women, who fought their oppressors or enemies: Robin Hood, Hereward the Wake, Mulan, and I love making linocut portraits using only black ink. Not a great deal is known about Hereward the Wake. Although he was a real person, sorting out fact from fiction is not easy. It is said that some of his exploits inspired the early ballads of Robin Hood. He was born around 1035 at Bourne in Lincolnshire. One unlikely claim was that he was the son of Lady Godiva, famous for riding naked on a horse through Coventry. He was a Saxon nobleman who led a rebellion in East Anglia against the Normans, whose conquest of England in 1066 caused great resentment among the indigenous population. Hereward’s resistance fighters were based on the Isle of Ely, an ideal location as it was remote, surrounded by marshes and difficult to attack. Legendary stories of Hereward’s rebellion are many. The Normans tried to build a causeway to bridge the marshes but it collapsed under the weight of men and armour. A witch was hired by the Normans to curse Hereward from a wooden tower but he set fire to it. Eventually it was the betrayal of a monk from Ely who showed the Normans a secret path through the marshes that ended Hereward’s resistance. No one is sure what happened after that. He was killed or he went into exile or he became one of William the Conqueror’s knights. All passed into legend’.
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 28 MORNA RHYS: The Deep Dark Gorge, etching, 14.5 x 15 cms, edition of 100, £80 ‘The inspiration for this image is the dark secret places where little light penetrates, but there is still magical life, and distant light guiding you to a way out. There are many myths about escaping from the dark, such as Theseus in the labyrinth, but I like the idea that even in the darkest gorge there is still life and escape. This etching is mostly made from an aquatinted plate with only a few hard ground lines to guide me when stopping out the aquatint. It was printed in a mix of Black, Prussian and turquoise ink, and prepared for printing only using scrim. Butterflies have significant meaning in many cultures, often representing departed souls. For more of the mythologies and folklore culture around butterflies please see the link below.’ weekly.com/2021/06/16/folklore-of-butterflies/
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 29 GILL SALWAY: Oedipus and the Sphinx, etching, 15.5 x 18cms, edition of 14, £85 ‘Long ago I was a student of the classics so Myths and Legends immediately brings to my mind the rich and amazingly complicated corpus of classical mythology. From a wealth of possibilities I have picked the enigmatic Sphinx and her encounter with Oedipus, who comes out on top on this occasion but , having already unknowingly killed the King of Thebes his father, is marked by fate for destruction. Whereas Egyptian sphinxes were kindly creatures , set up as guardians at the entrance to tombs , the Greek sphinx ( there seems to have been only one, imported via Ethiopia) was a nasty piece of work with the seductive face and breasts of a woman but the body of a lion and the wings of an eagle. She sat outside the gate of Thebes and challenged passers by to solve a riddle. Those who failed were seized and slaughtered. What, she asked, is weakest when it goes on four legs, strongest on two and finally goes on three? Oedipus correctly answers “man”, who crawls as a infant, walks on two legs as an adult and finally needs a stick in old age. The sphinx then threw herself off a rock and Oedipus went on to become King of Thebes with disastrous consequences. I have used etching as the medium as best suits a fairly straightforward illustrative approach. I have tried to bring out the seductiveness of the sphinx and the calm reasoning of Oedipus since at the heart of this myth is the assertion that human reason triumphs over the carnal and irrational.’
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 30 ANN SPENCER: Dragon Hill, screenprint, size, 19 x 19 cms, edition of 18, £120 ‘Dragon Hill, from a drawing made on site. An unusual flat topped hill, set in a strange landscape. The area has a real feeling of ancient feet having passed this way, the Ridgeway running nearby. Did George slay the Dragon here? Who knows, but there is certainly magic in this landscape.’
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 31 NIK STANBRIDGE: The End of Time, linocut, 20 x 18.5 cms, edition of 20, £75 ‘In the former Yugoslavia (think Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina et al) there are hundreds of Soviet-era monuments that were erected in the 1960s and 70s to commemorate the victims of WW2 fascism. They are colloquially known as ‘Spomeniks’, meaning ‘monument’. These Spomeniks are, in the main, futuristic concrete artefacts of stunning modernity and beauty. One of them however, in Novi Travnik in BiH, is six pairs of 3-4m tall bihacite stone carvings. And one of the 12 monoliths is the subject of my linoprint. ‘Necropolis for the Victims of Fascism’, designed by Bogdan Bogdanović in 1975, is in quite poor condition having suffered from being on the front line in the Balkan conflicts in the 1990s. It can also be seen fleetingly in a short 2020 film based on a futuristic 1930 book, ‘Last and First Men’ by Olaf Stapledon, set two billion years in the future when ‘almost all that is left of humanity are lone and surreal monuments’. The two headed serpent, Amphisbaenia, represents the end of time, and the omega symbol, carved into the base of each monolith represents the end of death.’
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 32 RICHARD STEPHENS: Marilyn, screenprint, 20 x 20 cms, edition of 25, £50 My screenprint of Marilyn Monroe for this exhibition pays homage to both Marilyn herself, who of course is both a ‘Legend’ and has many ‘Myths’ surrounding her life and death, and to Andy Warhol, whose famous prints of Marilyn defined the Pop Art movement in the 60’s and brought the technique of screen-printing to a much wider audience. I first started screen-printing about 50 years ago and loved using paper cut-outs stencils to create multiple copies of images incorporating solid blocks of colour. I returned to printing when I retired, and the facilities at the Oxford Printmakers Cooperative gave me the opportunity to use photographic images to produce finely detailed prints. This flexibility of screen-printing I still find very appealing, along with the challenges the technique brings, and the serendipity of the outcome when things, inevitably, don’t go quite as planned!
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 33 CAROLINE TYACK: Milpreve, etching & embossing, 20 x 20 cms, edition of 12, £95 ‘A milpreve (Cornwall) is a stone with a naturally water-eroded hole through it. Aka ‘Adder stone’, ‘hag stone’, ‘witch stone’, ‘Gloine nan Druidh’ (Scotland) ‘Glain Neidr’ (Wales). The myths and legends about the milpreve go back centuries, of their magical properties to be able to mysteriously give protection and ward off witches and other n'er-do-wells. Legend has it that only good things, good fortune and good wishes can pass through the hole. They've been worn on necklaces, attached to ships and hung outside the doorways of houses. A favourite white limestone milpreve I found in Cornwall with its great symbolism of protection has been the starting point for this print. The etched plate was created using Chinese Lanterns (Physalis alkekengi), as they also symbolise protection, creating a rough texture depicting the thousands of years erosion it takes to form the milpreve. The embossing represents the milpreve protection itself.’
Myths and Legends 2023: exhibition information 34 LIZZIE WHEELER: Wings of a Phoenix, linocut, 20 x 19.5 cms, edition of 30, £80 ‘I was drawn to the myth of the Phoenix for its powerful imagery. The idea of a bird of blazing feathers, rising up out of the ashes after being set of fire by the passing sun, is both visually strong and emotionally powerful. It is a story of renewal and rejuvenation, and has always been present throughout most of human history, across many cultures and religions. I like to think that for thousands of years humans have taken comfort and strength from the story - that maybe we too can rise up out of our metaphorical ashes into the sky on wings of fire. This is a two-layer lino-print. Both the pale yellow layer and the orange/red layer are printed using the same plate, but placed opposite ways up. The orange/red layer is inked with a gradient roll to create the fire-like colour effect.’