I’ve always been fascinated by the combination of images with text – after all, text is as much of a design as any image and it’s a challenge to use both text and image together. Some time ago I experimented with zoomorphic calligraphy – that is, images made up of the shapes of letters, and I did several birds in this style
Zoomorphic calligraphy. The text is "The Bird of Paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp"
I enjoyed doing these but eventually I decided that I’d done enough, and tried to work out other ways of using text. I did several large panels some months ago, such as “The Hare Gazes at the Moon”, and The Deer Crying in Winter”, which had both designs and texts to go with them. But I was still interested in finding other ways of combining text with images. Then, out of nowhere, a new idea occurred to me. I seem to be a bit obsessed with crows recently, so I envisaged a crow with poetry engraved on his feathers. The crow was easy enough to draw, but it took a while to find poetry to match him. Then I discovered Ted Hughes’ series of “Crow” poems. Those poems were far too long to use, but I chose several lines that seemed significant to me, and added them to the crow image
Ted Hughes' Crow
The result is maybe a bit strange, but I think I like it. It gives the crow more of a character and more of a voice than a simple image would. One nice thing about it is that it looks at first like just a picture of a crow. Then you see that there’s something unusual about the feathers so you look more closely, and gradually the words appear more and more clearly. I think I’ll enter this one in next summer’s Art in Aboyne exhibition, an annual art show in a nearby town
If you’re interested in the words, bear in mind that they’re just disconnected phrases taken from Hughes’ poems. They are: Crow decided to try words. Crow was Crow without fail. Well, said Crow, What first? Which way, said Crow? Blacker than ever, Crow realized God loved him. After his clamour of caws faded, Come, said Crow, let’s discuss the situation. Unwinding the world like a ball of wool, flying the black flag of himself
These are amazing. I, too, have a fascination with combining image and text as image. Brava!
I absolutely love the crows, I too am fixated on crows.
Your creative imagination never ceases to amaze me. Combining text with your fabric and design art is awesome.
This is a great idea. I like your crow a lot!
Wow, This is very creative. Crows are such smart creatures, how fitting to have words show their thoughts. Deena
Wonderful and clever as always! I’m constantly amazed at what you do and look forward to your posts! Once you pointed out what the Bird of Paradise says, it was fun to read it!
Your crows are a pleasure to see. I agree that you should enter the one in the annual show. Lots of people would appreciate looking at your unique creation! Wow!
Your artful birds…I know that only the one is a crow! I was too anxious to comment and didn’t proof and couldn’t edit…Thank you for showing/sharing, Joan
What a wonderful combination of image and words. Ted Hughes would have been happy to see this, I think.
Love the crow.