Description

Especially when the October wind

(Some let me make you of autumnal spells,

The spider-tongued, and the loud hill of Wales)

With fist of turnips punishes the land,

Some let me make you of the heartless words.

The heart is drained that, spelling in the scurry

Of chemic blood, warned of the coming fury.

By the sea’s side hear the dark-vowelled birds.

Inspiration for the print produced for the box set came from the descriptions of ravens and ‘dark-vowelledbirds’. It was this imagery that stayed with me as I sketched on Rhosilli or drove over Cefn Bryn on the Gower Peninsula, on my way to work.The majority of my observation was done in the rain and I felt that the image of ravens hindered by the wind, whipped up with the strewn leaves would make a strong basis for a print.

In the poem,Thomas describes his craft of translating images into words. From examining his notebooks and letters we saw how he created his poems. Carefully selecting words, scribbling out, correcting and re-working. It is that passion and vigorous approach that I hoped to capture in my print. By allowing the print to bleed to the deckle edge of the paper, I hoped to allow the viewer insight into aworking process and suggest evidence of the artist.

The print was produced using a photo-stencil silkscreen process and required two printings, one for each colour.