Christina Rossetti

Made during my residency at Watts Gallery in Compton, Surrey 2018-19. My brief was to respond to an exhibition which focussed on the poet Christina Rossetti (a contemporary of Charles Dickens and Lewis Carroll) and sister of the Pre-Raphaelite painter Gabriel Dante Rossetti. This is the profile of Christina Rossetti (taken from a drawing by her brother), it is defined using the words from a verse of her famous poem ‘Goblin Market’. She wrote all through her life, and to put it crudely, she had a head full of words. This was my first attempt to create a visual connection between her physical being and the poetic imagery she created. It was a painstaking work. To create this hybrid print I needed to digitally trace my original sketch. A process which took much longer than the original drawing, but it paved a way to expand the work using other digital technologies. It is difficult to read the poetry in this representation so I reproduce the verse here - Backwards up the mossy glen Turn’d and troop’d the goblin men, With their shrill repeated cry, “Come buy, come buy.” When they reach’d where Laura was They stood stock still upon the moss, Leering at each other, Brother with sly brother;