Issue 50 - Literary Muse

  An Artistic Dialogue influenced by Literature

For our 50th issue we are thrilled to celebrate as we explore the symbiotic relationship between visual art and the written word. We invited artists and writers to explore the profound impact that poems, prose and the written word have on our creative consciousness.

In this issue we seek to showcase works that are born from the depths of literary influence. Whether it's a painting inspired by the haunting imagery of a poem, a sculpture that captures the essence of a beloved novel, or a short story sparked by a single evocative line of prose, we want to see how the written word fuels your artistic vision.

Artist: Barbara Hulme

Instagram: @barbara.hulme

Description of the work: Here is the writing by Laura (La Shezza) which inspired my portrait of her - I do portraits of disabled people accompanied by their own words "In the quiet corners of her cozy world, Laura, a prolific author and a tinkler of the written word, has crafted a life as enchanting as the stories she weaves. Her journey is one of triumph over adversity, sprinkled with humor, creativity, and an enduring love for the furry creatures (particularly black labradors, hamsters and rats) that inhabit her heart. Though Laura often finds herself confined indoors due to ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis), her spirit knows no bounds. Like a wizard, she conjures entire worlds and characters, all while nestled in her haven of creativity. Her pen dances across pages (or at least, her voice rambles into the dictation software), creating stories that whisk readers away on fantastical adventures. What truly sets Laura apart is her relentless sense of humor. Despite the challenges she faces, her laughter is infectious, like the bloobling of wind chimes on a breezy afternoon.
She finds joy in the simplest of things, infusing her days with a delightful groove that leaves all who meet her with a brighter outlook on life. Just like art, and indeed, all good things in life, a positive outlook takes work – a lifetime thereof. Laura hopes that you may all find that which you seek."

“Laura (La Shezza) Women’s Health Series” 2023

Disability Portraits, this is a portrait of Laura accompanied by her story in her own words, it is water colour and 22.9 x 30.5 cm her story helped inspire her portrait

Artist: Nichola Bendall

Instagram: @nicholabendall

Description: THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA - This was a commission based on the wonderful, transporting books by C S Lewis. I am a mixed media artist and writer who creates poetical objects out of paper, paper clay and weathered, found objects. My work aims for the intersection between art, poetry and nature. It has a dreamy, whimsical quality, yet is thought provoking and strangely haunting; often reconnecting with childhood iconography and memories, provoking a strong emotional response. My narrative works are concerned with time, memory and loss – and my latest body of work, 'Half-ready to Believe' references the current threats to our natural world.

Artist: Lucia Babjakova

Instagram: @lucky_babjak_art

Description of the work: Strange Fruit is a painting inspired by the poem of Abel Meeropol 1937 and later recorded as a song by Billie Holiday. The song protests the lynching of Black Americans with lyrics that compare the victims to the fruit of trees. It was inspired by Lawrence Beitler's photograph of the 1930 lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana. Such lynchings of black victims had reached a peak in the Southern United States at the turn of the 20th century. The song has been called "a declaration" and "the beginning of the civil rights movement" by the New York Times 2000.

Extract...

"Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees."

Artist: Claudia Tong

Instagram: @cxt.art

Description: Dream to be a butterfly / 梦蝶

My work is inspired by a tale from the Taoist classic "Zhuangzi:" One day, Zhuang Zhou, one of the greatest Taoist thinkers, fell asleep and dreamed that he was a butterfly. When he woke up, he wondered whether he was a man who had dreamed he was a butterfly or whether he was a butterfly now dreaming he was a man. My work explores this thought experiment by writing the text in a cyclic order, inviting viewers to this perplexing philosophical dream.

Artist: Francesca Giuliano

Instagram: @francesca.giuliano.here

Description of the work: 'Which Of You Is My Prince?' (2024) is a series that redacts modern retellings of princess stories, finding missold dreams, coercion, and lack of agency. My drawing practice consists of lines, geometries and colour/material clashes to effect redactions of well-known documents such as IKEA assembly instructions and book texts.

Materials: book pages, pen, pencil, acrylic, crayon.

Artist: Conrad Milne (Dystopian Artist)

Instagram : @dystopianartist

After recently connecting with Peter Graves Roberts, we discussed collaborating on words and imagery, and this submission opportunity fit perfectly. The visual response to "stillness, Kate" by Peter Graves Roberts captures the essence of the prose by symbolizing the transition from chaos to calm through landscape and natural elements. A simplistic, predominantly black-and-white colour palette enhances the contrast between past turbulence and present stillness. Integrating words from the prose adds a textual layer, emphasizing key themes and deepening the connection to the narrative. The artwork features a less delineated structure, playing with font sizes and opacity. Sentences are restructured haphazardly and pushed away from a centralized position, making the verses crammed and disjointed. This approach creates a greater visual impact, encouraging deeper viewer interaction. The disarray of the text mirrors the speaker's journey from chaos to tranquility, highlighting a profound appreciation for calm after a lifetime of relentless motion.

"Stillness, Kate" This is the full Prose that inspired the attached Artwork. "stillness, Kate" ( written by Peter Graves Roberts)   forced into motion  from birth restless nature  or prodded,  goaded and  hurried- worried along.   it's no wonder  I've come to  love the stillness,  Kate.   after a lifetime  as this object  always in motion.    I don't miss the  exhaust  from the cyclically bellowing diesel  trucks   in the parking lot  by the post office  in the dust and  howling sand blower as the ice truck's compressor shakes freezing money the day's delivery, no Kate.   I much prefer the times now when  all that shaking noise  is done, none but thunderstorms  and falling rain and  steam, flash-fortified with all the trash of human footprints  vaporized and rising from retail blacktop.    it's still in my light blue bed my room a stillness of a  shaken head.  

Artist: Sharon Reeber

Instagram: @sharonreeber

Description: “The Second Horseman Rode a Red Horse”.

The New Testament Book of Revelation is full of dramatic and mystical visions. Chapter six describes allegorical figures associated with conquest, war, famine, and death. It is famously the subject of a 1498 woodcut, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, by Albrecht Duerer.

This work, made of cheese wax, riffs on that chapter with a depiction of the second horseman. In some interpretations, this figure represents civil war. The humble materials and small scale ironically ridicule the power and terror described in the vision. But underlying that is a genuine fear about current US politics.


Revelation 6
(New International Version)

3 When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword.

Artist: Carla Lobmier

Instagram: @vandanceboat

Description of the work: Grace In Dwelling, the book, was published on the occasion of the Queens Museum exhibition and includes detailed images of the painting of the same title as well as text and photographs of interviewed participants. The entire book with the text from all of the participants can be viewed https://carlalobmier.com/grace-in-dwelling.html. All the text on the art piece was selected and lettered by me to make the house of text. The literary inspiration and component for this visual work comes directly from my community of thinkers who offered up their words.

Artist: Emma Phillips

Instagram: @ephillips_art

Description : “Eat me”. This painting is inspired by Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. I read the novel as a teenager and its commentary on female sexuality, social injustice, and the notion of the fallen woman left a lasting impact on me. This scene depicts the moment Alec feeds Tess a strawberry from his estate, foreshadowing his terrible crimes committed against her later in the book. Oil on Board, 10cm x 10cm, 2024.

Artist: Olesia Komarova

Instagram: @o.komarova.art

Description: Title: Small People. The artwork is based on Fyodor Dostoyevski’s novel ‘Humiliated and Insulted’ side-character, an elderly beggar, representing psychological novels' literary type of 'small people'. The beggar treasures the only remained memory of his late daughter - her dog. One day the dog dies in front of many visitors of a local pub and the only ‘consolation’ offered to the old man is by an opportunistic stuffed-animals maker, who immediately offers his services. While the taxidermist offers a unique opportunity to preserve the old man’s memory tangible, to the beggar it is the most grotesque and inappropriate thing imaginable. The old man dies shortly after the dog, proving that the world has no place for such ‘small’ people — people who do not possess or aspire to material values .

Artist: Jenny Marshall

Instagram: @jenny.marshall.arts

Description : 'WHY OF THE TIGER'. Inspired by Blake's "Tyger, Tyger," "Why of the Tyger" is a layered exploration of the creative process—bringing an entity into being, capturing creative energy, provoking the viewer’s imagination, and questioning possibilities. Combining collage, texture, and paint, this piece is constructed on reclaimed wood: oak, pine, birch, mahogany, and elm. The essence of the 'tiger' emerges through found materials, textiles, and intentional blank spaces. Utilising air as a texture creates a sense of unease, capturing the unresolved nature of creation. Four tigers, each deliberately awkward and fearlessly asymmetrical, nod to Blake’s "fearful symmetry." Unexpected items and marks respond to Blake’s concept of ‘four states of mind’ and his fear that scientific ‘Newtonian’ thinking stifles creativity—echoed by a discarded metal tape measure. Recycled door furniture invites us to open our perception, while blank spaces highlight the possibilities and energy of imagination. "Tiger with a Why" celebrates creation, the allure of imperfection, and the endless possibilities that arise when we view the world through unconventional lenses.

Artist: A23-NECTAR

Instagram: @a23nectar

Description: A. S. K. H. T. I. K. H., has been inspired by the work, Salvatores Dei or Ascesis:The Saviours of God, by Nikos Kazantzakis.Within the literary work, the author shares amongst other views, a creative process both chaotic and subliminally ordered, in which violence & rebellion are fundamental catalysts for life. The art is a snapshot described in the original tome as "ρεούμενο κρέας". This one phrase, usually lost in the translations, is simply defined as "fleeting flesh" ("The Second Duty" chapter). Upon reading the work for the first time, these two small words immediately conjured the imagery of molten, flowing, primordial meat being moulded into the shapes of things. It implied the concepts of plasticity and fluidity and inherent transmutability of the corporeal form which we take as immutable and unchanging. The artwork tries to capture this overwhelming phenomenon in a distinct manner: with imagery and symbols of which we are aware of and as such, create a threshold from which the viewer can delve further into the implications of said piece.

Artist: Susan J Hart

Instagram: @susanjhart.art

Description : My sculptural work is increasingly influenced by my own poetry and vice versa. Their development is simultaneous, as each inspires the other.

'Directions' Susan J Hart

Don't take the road
That's furthest from your soul,
Where trees hold branches starkly bare
And hills forget to roll.
Go find the path
That leaves unease behind,
That clears the darkling undergrowth
And tangles from your mind.

Both poem and sculpture explore the doubts and fears that can accompany decision making.

The poem directs the reader towards the least challenging option; that which minimises stress and emotional turmoil.

The sculpture depicts a fragmented figure, and her similarly broken alter ego, each considering opposing directions. The figure chooses the familiar and unchallenging path, as advised by the poem. She ensconces herself within her metaphorical comfort zone. Meanwhile, her alter ego attempts to break free, opting for the road leading to uncertainty.

Artist: Alastair Noble

Instagram: @dunoon_moca_

Description: I am an environmental/installation artist and bookmaker. My artistic practice is a response to architecture and the natural environment, and reflects on particular sites in the context of poetry and literature. The writings of Mallarmé, Marinetti, Mayakovsky, Wittgenstein and Poe have been the genesis of numerous works in the past. The language games invented by Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges, evident in his short narratives “The Library of Babel” and the “On the Exactitude of Science,” have been the stimulus for numerous works.

On a Raised Beach (poem by Hugh MacDiarmid 1922) - This is One of 20 drawings of Macdiamid's poem On a Raised Beach transposed into a map that follows the coastline of EastNeuk Fife. The rock formations that jut out into the sea along the shore line are echoed by these written lines of poetry. 580x300mm medium Faber -Castell ink on Arches paper.

Artist: Richard Kenton Webb

Instagram: @richardkentonwebb

DESCRIPTION: Epiphany of the other is inspired by John Milton's Paradise Lost, Book III. Here I am discussing the wonder of Milton's words to describe the sublimity of Heaven descending to earth. I spent 10 years responding to Paradise Lost, resulting in 128 drawings, 40 paintings and 12 relief prints. I finished my Conversation with Milton's Paradise Lost in 2021. This painting is a further reflection, as though I’m looking back on my experience of Milton, thinking about how to summarise or capture everything. This idea of a city descending out of the sky is an idea, like a seed which was planted by Milton and is now growing and flourishing.

Artist: Elizabeth Palmer

Instagram: @elizabethpalmerart

Description of the work: I have an ongoing obsession with dystopia, and this piece is inspired by one of the best examples of dystopian literature in modern history. 'The Handmaid's Tale' is a terrifying depiction of a future where woman see their rights ripped away from them, divided and classified by their ability to birth children. I used some of the most prominent features from the book as icons to simply represent it.