Red Flow
2001 – Conté on Arches Paper – 122 x 153 cms
Photograph by Martin Wakelin
In the folk tradition of the Mari Lwyd, the horse skull atop a pole draped with a sheet to hide the man beneath is led by a halter made of ribbons, a too flimsy control over the prancing beast. For my re-inventions of the Mari in the Mare’s Tale drawings, scarlet ribbon-reins stream like arterial blood around the beast. Too elusive to be grasped and controlled, they leap and snap and flutter and in The Second Fall, snake about the dying man as he free-falls beneath the Mari’s hooves.
Clive Hicks-Jenkins' Artlog: 
Hi Clive- what a great piece of work. Could I give this post a mention on the voluntary blog I run, http://www.illustatorswales.com ?
Best,
Eleanor
Hello Eleanor. Thanks for calling by. Of course I’d be happy for you to make mention on the blog you run. I’d be honoured.
i agree about the ribbon– and the angles and distortions of the structures really amp up the feelings of distress and anxiety…
That ribbon is genius, my friend. Especially against the Cubist structure in the background.
Hi Zoe and Dave. I’m pleased that you both ‘get’ the ribbon. These drawings were hell to do. I was down on my hands and knees for six months making them and everything hurt all of the time. But the ribbon was a pleasure to draw because of the lovely loops and arabesques, and it was good too to be working in a colour other than black and white! I ran around outside in a high wind with a length of slender red ribbon in my hand to get the feel of how it moved for the drawing. Had the neighbours seen this display they would have thought that I’d finally cracked!