Drawings - Janice Deary's Portfolio

Charcoal is our oldest, most primitive medium. So simple, yet capable of such depths of expression.

All work is charcoal on 300-400gsm paper.

"Threshold"

Inspired by the poetry of António Ramos Rosa

Does a drawing germinate?
Who will hear the pollen constellations?

Germina ainda um desenho?
Quem ouve as constelações do pólen?

(charcoal on paper, 3mx1.5m)

What are these lines, but the ashes of the sun?

Que são estas palavras senão as cinzas do sol?

In the dark mouth,
in vegetal immobility.
Return to the yes of sleep
and earthly density.

Na boca escura,
na imobilidade vegetal.
O regresso ao sim do sono
e à densidade terrestre.

black sun consciousness
conscious of the continuous explosion
funereal flavour of imminence

consciência negra do sol
consciência da contínua explosão
sabor fúnebre da iminência

I said sun once as if I were saying the sun
and it was the living death that it designated,
the black splendour of nothingness
the void between the spaces
of each being and each thing.

Disse sol outrora como se dissesse o sol
e era a morte viva que designava
era o negro esplendor do nada
era o vazio entre os espaços
de cada ser e cada coisa.

"Immortals"

drawings inspired by Daoist poetry

春風吹又生

When the spring winds blow,

Again they rise!

(Bai Juyi)

Daoism is the philosophy of Dao, the eternal Way of nature. Daoists encourage a deep respect for the natural world and its cycles of growth and destruction. An ‘immortal’ is someone who lives in harmony with the Way, whether a sage, or a blade of grass. Many of the poets referenced in this exhibition are themselves on the ‘list of the immortals’.