This was
inspired by two quite disparate things: the design genius of William
Morris and George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones books.
I
have long been an uber fan of Mr. Morris (1834-1896). This artistic
polyglot mastered an astonishing array of disciplines during his
lifetime including architecture, calligraphy, typography, book
design and publishing, illumination, painting, drawing, textile
design, ceramics, embroidery, furniture and horticultural design and
wrote numerous essays, novels and poetry. In addition, he found the
time to run a very successful decorative arts firm, publishing house
and was a committed revolutionary social activist! When his doctor
was asked upon his passing at age 62, “From what did he die?” His
response: “He died of being William Morris." His influence was felt
by generations of artists and designers and many of his designs are
still in production today.
This piece of mine is a humble
homage to one of his favorite and most iconic designs: Peacock and
Dragon,1878. Morris thought all designers should take inspiration
from the past but always encouraged them to put their own spin on
things. So, enter Game of Thrones. I have never been a science
fiction fan until the idea of owning not one but three dragons was
introduced to me by Mr. Martin. Finally, in this crazy world, the
right tool for the job! How often have we wanted to shout: “Bring me
my dragons!”, stuck in rush hour traffic, enduring long delays at
the airport, a frustrating day in a rehearsal or at the drafting
table with misbehaving calligraphy nibs lying about…the scenarios
are endless! |
I started this piece in the summer of 2016 when I was
attending the calligraphy conference in Asheville. The class I chose
was, naturally, The Design Process of William Morris, taught by
Georgia Angelopoulos. She lead a fantastic class and encouraged me
to forge ahead with this impossibly frustrating project I’d begun.
Enter Reggie in 2017! His fearless, go-for-it attitude helped me
pull this very unfinished and abandoned piece from the cabinet and
start anew. I’ve included a few pics of the process for you to
see...
The entire piece is painted in gouache on a white
rectangular piece of deckled handmade Twinrocker watercolor paper.
The limited palette colors are indigo, white, mayan blue and flame
red. (The lighter shade of red is flame red mixed with white and the
deeper shade of red is a mixture of flame red and indigo.)
Everything was drawn very carefully in pencil, while taking wild
liberties with the Morris design, and adding a mass of vines and
leaves to draw attention to the “flames and dragons”. The leaf motif
continues as a frame for the hand lettering: a
kind of Morris-ing of the Roman caps we were studying in class. The
ultimate test for my patience came with the tiny flourishes of
leaves that are found inside the larger vines. This technique was
again inspired by Morris - a wallpaper design of his I copied into
one of my sketchbooks. I marveled at the effort involved and
wondered if I had the stamina to emulate the technique! They were
painted painstakingly atop the dark indigo blue with a lighter
mixture of indigo & white, ruining several 000
brushes in the
process! Aaaargh!
The untold number of hours I spent on this
piece defy the imagination but it holds a special spot on my wall in
my studio today. It is a comfort and a balm on those days when I
could use some dragons.
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