A Butterfly's Dream

A Butterfly’s Dream is a reduction woodcut, made in 24 panels of 45 x30cm, the maximum size my printing press can take, and took a year to complete, panel by panel. It is broadly speaking, a darkly humorous take on being an artist, money, death, success, fame, fortune. An art gallery illuminated in a cityscape depicts a glamorous gathering in front of paintings made by artists who all either lived or died in poverty. The floor of the gallery is based on a floor in the Louvre, and the groupings of figures are inspired by Piero Della Francesca. Below in the foreground a skeleton, in the pose of Chagall’s The Poet Reclining is buried, surrounded by jewel like micro-organisms. A skyscraper based on the shard but with wolflike attributes appears to howl at the moon. It was made alongside a growing interest in Buddhist philosophy and the title takes its name from the story of the philosopher Chuang Tzu who dreamt he was a butterfly and on waking was unsure if he had dreamt the butterfly or the butterfly was dreaming him.