Metafiction, Myth and Language: A World in Words (and Pictures)

 While this week has proved to be the most harrowing I've ever faced to date, yesterday I still managed to find time to sneak in a flying trip to Auchmithie on the coast to capture a piece of very impromptu 'cave art':  The whole operation took no more than 20 minutes, including actually finding a suitable cave spot on the beach (luckily the tide was out, as I hadn't had time to check beforehand). The painting, intended to resemble the ancient red ochre tradition, was simply ground sandstone powder ( prepared in a previous post ) applied with a wet brush (and finger) and, I think, looks actually OK. The painting is designed to resemble the head of the raven god Hrefni, who is lord of storms, and is therefore an invocation to him by fishermen for calm seas: As I forgot my sketchbook with the full-length figure of Hrefni and his shaman's drum, I would like to revisit the caves at Auchmithie and spend longer realising another piece of prehistoric cave art, which can th

 Friday afternoon, and I started to think ahead to the final public 'installation' concept - namely, one (or more, resources allowing) pieces of 'prehistoric wall art', most likely to be created here , at Auchmithie. I found some chunks of sandstone lying around the garden and ground them down. Research shows that a glutinous binding agent of some sort - like animal fat, egg white or some such, is what was probably used by actual prehistoric artists. I opted for water since it was readily available, and after scattering some of the finely-ground powder on a slab, was able to produce a decent-looking result using only a wet brush: In the right light (or with some subtle Photoshop manipulation) it could look pretty much like red ochre, the traditional medium of ancient artists. A trip to Arbroath in the coming days or weeks will be a nice break from stone grinding and donkey work.

  While reading through N.K. Sandars' Prehistoric Art in Europe has so far been hugely stimulating, as previously posted, the above page in particular drew a number of things to my attention: considerations of different forms of representation, in this case, the geometric, even abstract, depiction of universality of form; but also the idea of finger-art, which may be the oldest form of sentient art imaginable, if we consider an appendage tracing hesitantly in sand, clay or snow - an action which is, in the poem, defined as the origin of the written form of the Rockcats' language, Sli'ith, and its cursive nature (which, visually, is suggestive of Arabic script): "Few men could write, but Rockcats long recorded words in their tongue, Sli'ith; and unlike rigid runes, their writing flowed in curling twists and tails, for once they wrote their words in sand, when on the coast of Kren they stood; a new-born people, elder tribe; those ancient days when all were one."

 Following on from my earlier post , this was delivered earlier today (48 hour service!): NK Sandars - Prehistoric Art in Europe and after a lunchtime's worth of browsing, it has already pushed the visual side of this project in a whole new direction. Sanders' scholarship might be 60+ years old but it covers so much more than processes of dating and archaeological musings - the clue is in the title, and she addresses the ideas of these works as art in their own right as well, citing the likes of Gombrich on the way, as well as several detailed comparisons of prehistoric figuration to so-called 'civilised' Greek artistic forms. In terms of visual interest, a few beast/human hybrids caught my attention straight away: especially the 'sorceror' (beast-shaman?) figure at bottom right. This straightaway inspired a more 'primitive' rendering of this depiction of Hrefni, the raven storm-god: as this, re-imagined in a much earlier style: Herein the difference is

Having spent the last few months developing a distinctive 'native art form' for my mythical world, in which gods, mythical concepts and heroes are signified (rather than represented - following the Lévi-Strauss model of 'primitive art' whose aim is not imitation of the subject), a random bit of browsing overturned the notion of a unified art style . Schematics of the idol's multiple faces and design elements   The age and distinctive design work on this idol made me realise the importance of establishing an 'elder culture' which existed long before the present time in which the poem's narrative is set, in which the origins of the 'contemporary' forms could perhaps be traced. Having a single homogenous style of representation made me think of those old TV period dramas set in, say, Edwardian days, when all furniture, fashion and design featured is of that exact era - with nothing from the Victorian or Georgian periods still extant. Furniture, fab