1979 - 9" x 12" - India Ink, Arches paper
After college, I went on an archeological dig through Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. It was a work/study program at the Koster Site in Kampsville, IL. During the work portion, one of my jobs was in their bookstore. Their collection of books was wonderful, and I purchased quite a few, some of them on the Bronze and Iron Ages, prehistoric art, and archaeology. Studying images from the Bronze and Iron Ages, I was very curious about what the artists had been expressing; what they were thinking; what their lives were like, obviously so different from my own. Images of Nerthus, the Earth Mother and symbol of fertility to those people, were created over and over. Referring to some of the archaeological finds from those times, I created an image of my own using stippling, repeated lines, and solid, inked areas for interest, movement, and stark contrast. I thought of these two images as a fertility goddess and a dragon, but they could be a goddess with owls on her head, and a nomadic Celtic dog as a handle on a bronze flagon. Whatever. They’re compelling images and I used them in this drawing.
Reference:
#60, #79-83, ART OF THE EUROPEAN IRON AGE: A study of the elusive image by J.V.S. Megaw, Harper & Row Publishers, New York and Evanston, © 1970 by J.V.S. Megaw, First U.S. Edition