The painting I chose for our upcoming exhibition poster is called ‘The Magician’ It’s big! A semi-abstract crow. The intelligent crow represents ‘The Magician’ in my recently completed tarot deck. I feel a wee bitty brave deciding to exhibit it and wouldn’t have thought to do so if my biggest critic and biggest fan, my mum, hadn’t said she liked it! I was shocked! I loved painting it but thought it was probably too wild, too out there, for anyone else’s tastes. One of those paintings that bring the reaction that ‘a child could do that!’ And one of the reasons for choosing the title – permission for a bit of wild child energy for this ‘old bird’ after a year of doing very tight and precise pen and ink drawings for the tarot deck.
Brenda’s fabulous felt sculpture of Magpies felt like a great choice as not only is it brilliant but we became good friends after constantly bumping into each other at the Sunday boot fair looking for treasures and materials for our art. Two for joy. Two birds joyful at thought of exhibiting together. I love Brenda’s work, her birds and animals are full of character and story. You will love them too!
And the title? A word that has energy and freedom and compasses both of our love of nature. A short word so that it shows up on the poster, long titles take too much space – good advice from my ex – journalist friend. Plus, I feel like a bumpkin coming in from the wilds after far too long. I was thinking about this yesterday and remembered Jane Austen, and it’s definitely how I feel –
‘When I am in the country I never wish to leave; and when I am in the town I feel pretty much the same.’ Pride and Prejudice.
Todays job is to get a few exhibition flyers printed and then carry on with my wild bird series.
Hope to see you in Edinburgh in May,
Love Kirsten
