Illustrations Retrieved from a None-Existent Book

In my pursuit of capturing the sublime, I found myself struggling to create anything using the Sublime as a subject of a piece. So in the hopes of finding some inspiration, I turned to other elements of my practice.

Inspired by Lithuanian artist and composer M.K. Čuirlionis, I took another look at my works with narratives and my personal world building hobbies. His music and artworks all spoke of a story or some otherworldly mythology that captured my imagination.

I attended a narrative workshop during Covid within which, my narrative project took the form of depicting emotions and emotional states as they might appear to the faceless protagonist of the story. These images were left when the workshop finished. Abandoned but still so full of potential, so I redrew Rage (Below)

This piece was born from the sensation of rage, a great hot snake curled in the chest and lying heavy on the stomach. This was a rage coiled there, demanding to be freed into fury and anger, stealing the air from the lungs and leaving you hot and seething, clamping your mouth closed and clenching your fists to stop it from escaping and feeling its head rise to push as a lump in your throat.

To contrast this negative, slightly disturbing imagery, I drew The Palace Uplift, another location mentioned in the narrative I created. This was meant to represent uplifting emotions, excitement, joy, delight and, perhaps, even ecstasy.

There is a lot of hidden imagery in this piece and a certain feminine shape to it. I feel it is a very positive image, but that there is also something comforting in it. There’s a celestial air to it that I took from the work of Swiss generative artist and computational architect Michael Hansmeyer.

I have been experimenting with colouring this piece in particular. The colours and forms of clouds at sunset is very special to me and something I felt key in a depiction of Uplifting emotions. This is also drawing on that Sublime element I have return to time and time again.

Uplift in gouache and ink (Left), Uplift in watercolour and ink (Right).

This ongoing series of images within the project are called Illustrations Retrieved from a None-Existent Book because they were, to me reminiscent of vintage illustrations within children’s books, or perhaps a hand-written guide to another world. Pieces of an artefact, one which has never existed. It feels powerful, particularly as, at this point in the project, I am leaving the “true” narrative or story vague and unspoken to grant the audience the role of story teller.