Description

When I first came to Swansea many years ago, I felt like an outsider. Nowadays when I return, I am coming home. I can’t pin down exactly when this change happened but I feel I belong here, if anywhere.
Because of this I was drawn to Dylan’s recognition, his insider’s knowledge, of people and places in Return Journey. I planned to base my print on parts of this piece and to expand upon the theme of ‘belonging’ and being accepted as a natural part of a place. I explored ideas of recreating Dylan’s figure so that it seemed absorbed by Swansea’s landscape.

My plans changed a bit when I re-read some of his earlier poetry with its frequent references to nature and cosmic forces. My own work often draws on the energies and forms of the natural world, so Dylan’s use of nature and the landscape in both implied and specific ways, became an increasing preoccupation. I also remembered that in Welsh, the name Dylan means ‘son of the wave,’ ‘born near the sea’. In Welsh mythology Dylan was a god or hero associated with the sea, and so the idea of my image crystallised.

I realised that when an artist has a sense of belonging somewhere, they also have ownership of it, and the place in turn belongs to them, to do with as they will, to play with and to use. In my print I have tried to show this idea literally, with Dylan as a magician or creator using the elements of the natural world as his raw material. He is growing from Swansea itself; a part of it, but also using it, perhaps doing conjuring tricks, perhaps conducting the forces of nature.

Judith Stroud was born in England and spent her early years in Africa. Following a Fine Art degree in Bristol, she moved to Wales and made a career in teaching art. She is now focussing on her own artistic interests, and in particular, printmaking. http://www.judithstroud.co.uk