Parliament of Beings

This intricate woodcut was inspired by Giotto’s painting of St Francis of Assisi giving his sermon to the birds. In my print, in similarity to Giotto’s masterpiece, all the birds are looking up in one direction, although the figure in my image they are looking at is actually removed from the picture frame and is imagined in the wings, stage left. There is one exception and that’s a tawny owl at the base of my woodcut looking out towards any viewer looking in, with his anthropomorphic eyes. 

Why a group of birds arranged in this way beyond the formal influence of such a great late medieval painting? As artists we often try and put a mirror up to the world and in this case it is pretty self evident that we and our fellow creatures, in fact all living things, are running out of time. What is it that makes so many humans, in particular neo-liberal oligarchs in power, shun the need for evasive action in order to mitigate some of the looming disasters of climate catastrophe? In my woodcut I hope the effervescent fervour of wonderment , being alive on our edenic planet, conjures me to celebrate how precious and beautiful life is, living in the natural world amongst our fellow creatures. They need us and for the sanity of our own psyches, we sure need them. - TH