Butterfly net 2 by Jenny Meehan
Butterfly net 2
2024
I wanted to express the sense of fragility that comes from not knowing how things will be day to day with health, and “Butterfly Net” seemed the right way to do it because, in the process of making it; tearing paper strips; I experienced the very pain that makes a”bad day” a bad day.
This is version 2 of Butterfly Net, in which I incorporate digitally generated and perceived textural
elements. I find it interesting to play with perception generally… I guess this is part of being an artist!
I used to experience the differences between working with digital imagery and physical materials as being much greater than I do now. I even had a bit of an aversion to combining them together in the way I have done in this artwork, believing it somehow lessened authenticity somehow.
However, now I find I’m quite interested in the interplay between the process of creating things both physically and virtually, and then choosing to put the two processes together; this work celebrates the existence of both mediums.
I think this is important for me to express because, due to the restrictions I experience sometimes physically due to osteoarthritis, my appreciation and use of digital media has increased. This brings with it a reminder of the freedom I can enjoy because it it. So the net which holds the butterfly back is partially permeated. This is very positive!
For example, being able to create on a mobile device while lying on my back doing yoga and exercising incorporates bodily movement with imaginative, creative processes; I benefit from the combination of physical and digital working concurrently!
I don’t always need to do this… I am often still able to work with physical materials, even on quite a large scale, but for the periods of time when I cannot, it is a great liberation and joy to not have my creative impetus restricted or held back in any way!
In the first “Butterfly Net” I expressed a sense of fragility by photographing the collage without sticking any paper down. A breeze or even a breath could rearrange the pieces of paper. I chose to create a very simplistic, loose image of a butterfly which I made by cutting and tearing paper, with wide vertical bars which imprison the butterfly, on top of it.
Without being told the paper is unstuck, a viewer wouldn’t appreciate the fragility because the graphic image itself is as far away from a butterfly as possible; it’s heavy and quite bold in black and white only. It’s primitive and childlike. A loose, rather ambiguous and camouflaged depiction of a butterfly! With the net over it, many people don’t even recognise it as being a butterfly! Generally, with figurative art the aim is that people will recognise what is depicted. Yet, as is the case with much invisible disability, the features which characterise a condition are not clear or easily recognisable to an outside viewer.
When creating the first version, I realised that, though I associate arthritis with something which affects people in their latter years, there are many people affected by different types of bone pain, including children, so the childlike nature of my depiction met my desire to encompass this idea. Arthritis isn’t something just experienced by older people.
As said, it’s also a condition which isn’t obvious. There is something of it being a condition which is less visible, often even invisible, to other people. This requires communication on my part of physical limitations when I experience them; I don’t like revealing my own fragility or vulnerability at all! I prefer to emphasis my strength and independence!
In “Butterfly Net 2” the increased integration and merging of media reflects a general increase in self integration I’ve experienced in recent years. Self-integration is critical to identity. It’s the process of connecting experiences to the self and often occurs as individuals narrate events. In a fundamental sense, this is how the creation of both my visual art and writing often function.
Time has passed and I’m more comfortable with the fragile, more vulnerable dimensions of myself. The image now looks even further away from a butterfly!
This reminds me, that as part of humankind in general, we don’t see each others fragility very easily at all, and it is often hard to express openly. So to treat eachother with kindness is a good general principle for life when it comes to disabilities of all kinds. We often just see hanging strips of broken material; torn parts, fragmentation. In both ourselves and others. But don’t forget the butterfly, just because you cannot see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there!
I’m currently continuing my experiments with loose, un-fixed papers. I’ve made a lot of painted papers to play with and as I work with them I’m reminded of the need to hold all things in life lightly, even though it’s so tempting to want to feel totally in control of things and have everything rigidly stuck into place! It’s important to open ourselves up to life with acceptance of what is beyond our understanding and what is beyond any control we may feel the need to have. Why do we do this? I think one factor may be that we do this in order to compensate for an inner sense of security we sometimes (even often!) lack.
At the same time as relinquishing our need to control, it is vital to take full responsibility for ourselves and to exert appropriate self control in the way we manage ourselves in accordance with our values and beliefs. It seems too easy at times to mix up these two movements; to try and control what we can’t and then to abandon control of what we can!
Snail Photograph by Jenny Meehan taken at West Dean Gardens in Sussex ©jenny meehan
Francis Davison
It’s completely impossible to write about artists who have influenced me, because the very nature of experience is so homogeneous. However, when I make it to galleries, it’s natural that I’ll give more time to different creative expressions I come across, and what I see can serve as a little doorway into a passageway of focus. So I look, think, meditate and learn something – I receive a little gift from my investment. The collages of Francis Davison are works I’ve encountered several times, and are a good example of this.
Quote from “An Introduction to Francis Davison” by Andrew Lambeth 2017 in The Redfern Gallery Catalogue ©The Redfern Gallery 2017.
“His reclusive nature had the effect of keeping the work largely unseen, and it was not until one or two astute critics began to champion Davison’s collages that he was persuaded to exhibit in the last years of his life.
By far the most significant exhibition of his work at this time was the solo show at the Hayward Gallery in 1983. But the Hayward was a huge strain on Davison – not only the construction of the frames (which he made himself on the kitchen floor), but the effect of going public, even though he longed for recognition. He was such a private man that he felt more than usually vulnerable at showing the distillation of his life’s work and inviting a response. Although the young Damien Hirst later admitted that the exhibition ‘blew him away’, the public in general seems to have been rather baffled.
A few of the more discerning critics recognised the quality of the collages, and some artists responded positively, but the exhibition changed little, and Davison died in 1984 largely unknown and unrecognised. He is still one of the best-kept secrets of the British art world”.
Not such a secret now, but I guess its relative. And the “British Art World.” ???? No comment from me on that exclusive and illusionary sphere. I often meet artists who have come across his work, and I wasn’t looking, and bumped into his work. So things have changed. So that’s good.
I was invited to the private view of the Francis Davison exhibition (14th November to 9th December 2017) at The Redfern Gallery. I’m still not quite sure why, because I had not put myself in the mailing list. It may have been because I’d written in my art journal a few years earlier of my enjoyment of his collages when they were exhibited at Austin/Desmond Fine Art in their exhibition “Francis Davison: Collages 1976 – 1983”.
Here’s what I wrote way back then in 2012!
“A few weeks back I visited the Francis Davison: Collages 1976 – 1983 exhibition at Austin/Desmond Fine Art.
Some of the small studies had something to teach me, and I found myself wishing that my experiments sold at a couple of thousand pounds, but as I am not Francis Davison, it might be worth settling for a little less in the way of financial benefit. The larger work on show revealed the fruit of many hours experimentation, and it was a rich experience to view the work. “Orange Arc and Spot in Turquoise & Brown” “Egypt” “Blass Mass, Blue Angle, White Background” “Disintergrating Black, Green, Blue Fields” “Sand Ground with Black,Red,White and Green”. Say it how it is. Titles to the point. It was very good. I am glad I made the effort to see this exhibition.
What most struck me was how much like paint the way Francis Davison uses some of the paper. I was convinced that some of the paper was paint, until I took a closer look. This is interesting to me because I have thought about using collage in my own paintings and I have been put off mostly because of not mixing the paint with unpainted paper, but what I saw done here was inspiring. Not a drop of paint in sight, but very, very painterly collage. And the contrast between the dissolved type edges with those of jagged cut paper, which spoke sharper than sharp, was delightful.
My words don’t articulate visual things well, but all I can say is if you give this kind of work the time it deserves, then it will teach you a lot. As I looked at the work I looked for the decision-making process, I looked for the junctures and the points at which I might agree or disagree with decisions made. This navigational process of working my way through any visual expression has become much more obvious to me recently, so much so that the lack of overt subject matter worries me less and less.
To see an exhibition like this at this particular time, when I am experimenting in a very free manner has proved very fruitful. I find that I need to remind myself of restraint with colour and never forget the importance of edges, as well as the effect of different sized masses and some of the interesting relationships which can be so easily overlooked.”
How funny and useful it is to have this Art Journal of mine as a tool for a reflective creative practice! It’s interesting to read now as I have moved into using collage a lot. I’m still inspired by the work of many artists I’ve come across, yet its true that Francis Davison’s collages have embedded themselves in my thinking in a very rich and rewarding way. The extent of their inspiration is as much as the effect that Ivon Hitchens’ paintings revolutionised my approach to oil painting and opened my eyes up to the power of brushwork, colour and space. My work has evolved over the years in many ways, and of this I’m grateful. There is never a need to be uninspired! Even in the quiet reflective spaces shadows move suggestively!
In my December 2017 art journal post I mentioned The Redfern Gallery Francis Davison Exhibition:
“Francis Davison at The Redfern Gallery
What a great show this was!
I took many visual meanderings across the surfaces of the many collages on show.
As I plan to bring my own work onto a larger format, I found the size of the work on show very pleasing. It is large enough to be easy to enter into, but not so large as to be impractical. Though wall space nowadays is a problem for many people, unless you have plenty of walls, what do you do with this superb, intimate yet impressive work? Both bold and delicate, strong and fragile. I like this. But I lack the wall and floor I need to work at this scale at the present time.
Just one empty wall. Just one empty floor. And I will be happy.”
And
More on Francis Davison…
” Looking around The Redfern Gallery at Francis Davison’s collages at the Private View was not enough for me, and besides, people, lovely as they are, get in the way! So I re-visited and took in a little bit more deeply what was happening there for me. Seeing the work generated all kinds of new ideas in my mind, really, so many I needed to take notes. The art now for me will be restraint…To hold back yet give all, at the very same time.
https://www.redfern-gallery.com/artists/47-francis-davison/
Photos of sections of Francis Davison Collages from 2017
Art Journal note images of Francis Davison Collages at Redfern Gallery in 2017
Section of Francis Davison Collage Art Journal note images of Francis Davison Collages at Redfern Gallery in 2017 Sections of Francis Davison Collages behind glass at Redfern Gallery in 2017 images taken by Jenny Meehan aka jennyjimjams notes for art journal
Francis Davison inspiration!
Reflections on art images are normally to be avoided!
These photos act as note taking for what interests me
When you spend time looking you will always be rewarded
I think Francis Davison used gum arabic to glue his papers together
Ideas around framing and protection, containment, reflections, surfaces, and more!
Steps, as in stepping stones, paths through along ground and space… The list goes on!
Hangings, and gaps… Shadows as key elements. The glass is useful in these photos but robs something too.
I’m reflecting back on these because I’m effectively “chewing the cud” and it’s nourishing. I am a person who finds focus a challenge, and I don’t mind admitting it. My mind will rush ahead very often in whichever way it wants, and I’m getting better at pulling it back and telling it to sit down. It is hard though. Limitations are very valuable things in life. To pull back and chew over grass we have eaten before, rather than rushing forwards into new pastures seems to work well for me. I’m not quite sure how it happens but I always seem to be moving forwards even when I pull backwards.
Carl Jung, ETH Lecture 1st Dec 1939
A bit of Jung never goes amiss!
“I must call your attention to a further passage in the New Testament. In the second chapter of Acts we read of the coming of the Comforter, of the Paraclete (the Holy Ghost),promised to the disciples by Christ:
“And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
The tongues of fire did not fall among them but on each. Each individual could say the Paraclete has entered me, I am the dwelling, another aspect of God. That is simply the logical fact, but it was never allowed to come true on account of the institution for, if God can speak through the individual, it opens the door to arrant heresy. This was proved practically during the Reformation, the so-called “Schwarm Geister” crumbled the walls of the Church.
We must, therefore, be human and not judge the Church too hardly, for it was really impossible for her to tackle this problem. The problem is an eternal truth but it only becomes acute when the Church is no longer able to control the situation and its walls spring apart. Then we are forced to remember such texts. They are no empty words but basic truths, and we have no foothold in the shifting ground of contemporary problems without them.
We fall captive to the herd animal if we cannot reach the individual divinity in ourselves. If we think this means the ego, we are rightly condemned as individualists and egotists, but to remember our primeval divinity, that is a totally different thing.”
Carl Jung, ETH Lecture 1st Dec 1939
Mary Oliver
Here’s a few lovely lines from one of her poems:
” Do you bow your head when you pray or do you look
up into that blue space?
Take your choice, prayers fly from all directions.
And don’t worry about what language you use,
God no doubt understands them all.”
Yes!
Thomas Keating
“The greatest teacher is silence. To come out of interior silence and to practice its radiance, its love, its concern for others, its submission to God’s will, its trust in God even in tragic situations is the fruit of living from your inmost center, from the contemplative space within. The signs of coming from this space are a peace that is rarely upset by events, other people and our reactions to them, and a calm that is a stabilizing force in whatever environment you may be in. God gives us everything we need to be happy in the present moment, no matter what the evidence to the contrary may be. A good spiritual director helps us to sustain that trust.”
Father Thomas Keating, Summer 1997, Part II lecture notes
Joss Bay in Kent ©jenny meehan aka jennyjimjams
Joss Bay in Kent ©jenny meehan aka jennyjimjams
Chris Chapman
“Life itself is where the word of God is sown, and we can make space to receive the word in attentiveness”
from “Praying with Parables” Spirituality training handout, not sure of date as it was several years ago!
Joss Bay in Kent ©jenny meehan aka jennyjimjams
Ramsgate
Joss Bay
Joss Bay in Kent
View from Pegwell Bay Nature Reserve
Camera Phone Cameras
Image of Neil my husband holding a camera phone.
Its stunning how much technology has transformed the creative arts in so msny ways. While I’ve spent a great deal of time in the past with technicalities regarding photography and printing, for everyday purposes and for my current digital art working, I’m enjoying the ease of use, absences of technological considerations, and the need to work on my laptop, and instead do sooo much on my phone! I don’t make large prints anymore anyway. Having said that, it’s jolly useful to understand the limitations and features of camera phones.
Early Rothko
These are fascinating, and I did not realise he had done any representational work, which is very silly indeed, as I’m sure most abstract artists start with representation/figuration before they fall into the abstract abyss. Which is rather fun, of course!
Kingston Artists Open Studios 2024
This year Kingston Artists Open Studios will be held over three weekends, though I’ll be exhibiting over two weekends only; the 11th and 12th of May and the 18th and 19th May.
It’s always a fun and enjoyable time, and so come along if you are free, in the area, and enjoy some art.
Here’s a few images from years gone before:
kingston artists open studios 2019 jenny meehan artist designer
Pattern Books on display at the 2022 Kingston Artists Open Studios including the Keim Galaxies Book by Jenny Meehan
jenny meehan kingston artists open studios events
jenny meehan kingston artists open studios events
jenny meehan at 2017 south west london/east surrey Kingston Artists Open Studios event contemporary female artist painter jenny meehan
kingston artists open studios jenny meehan
Scraper Poem by Jenny Meehan
https://youtu.be/MqoHgTq71hI?feature=shared
I wrote the first version of this poem, “Scraper” in 2008. It’s still pretty similar to what it was with only a few minor adjustments. I edited it in 2023.
The inspiration for it is personal experience of male violence, so in that sense I know that many women (and men) will be able to relate to it.
From my Dad hitting me in the face to stop me crying as a child, to the crime of rape by someone else in my late teens, plus other experiences of verbal and physical aggression in between, I know on a personal level how male violence affects women and I know I’m not alone in this.
Later on in life my brother was also violently assaulted, resulting in a head injury. This event, and it’s later consequences, proved to be just one thing to many to bear, resulting in considerable distress which started coming to a head around 2008. So this poem was part of a realisation of trauma, and though it’s a very sad poem, I am grateful for it, because it was part of a process of recognising where I was, and one factor in me seeking the professional support I needed.
That “one fistful of fired up rage” is a metaphor for violence that’s impacted me and other members of my family. Anger is an important emotion and is not, in itself, aggressive. Aggressive behaviour is not the same thing as anger. The main difference between anger and rage is that the anger is an emotion while rage is the violent, uncontrollable anger, often accompanied by violent physical actions.
Violence and abuse, intentional and unintentional, take many forms and can be emotional, spiritual, and psychological – not just physical.
Empathy, (the capacity to resonate with and reflect upon the feelings and mental states of others) was in short supply for myself and other members of my family of origin. There was, for a variety of reasons, including schizophrenic, alcohol use disorder, and ptsd, a level of deprivation which caused damage all round. I now recognise my parents were only able to function in the ways they knew how to. That doesn’t make certain things alright, but it does enable me now to hold them in my heart with a certain amount of compassion, which is healing in itself. As a child you can’t see things from this perspective.
I’ve given you some personal context for the poem, however, my aim in expressing myself through poetry and art is not to particularise, but rather to stretch out expansively, in a recognition of shared pain, and shared love too. There are so many people who can relate to aspects of my experience, and vice versa. There is great strength and peace in recognising commonality.
We need compassion. So much!
Also, I pray too for empathetic understanding of myself and others, and a sacred recognition of each individual person I meet, day by day. We are all wounded. We can all heal.
Enduring Grace
Carol Lee Flinders writes, in her book Enduring Grace:
“The healing balm that Julian (Saint Julian of Norwich) offers in her teaching on the motherhood of God is that we need not grieve that our relationships here on earth are less than perfect. Life on earth is, after all, inherently flawed. Nonetheless, the rich promise that the maternal relationship holds out can finally be realized, because the mother we long for, and the mother we long to be, is within each of us,”[xii] for God is within us.”
Carol Lee Flinders, Enduring Grace: Living Portraits of Seven Women Mystics (HarperCollins, 1993), 97 – 98.
This is such a healing reminder! I can’t stress enough how vitally life giving an awareness of the divine feminine is to me, and I certainly see this coming out through my creative expressions now, more so than ever before.
Its interesting, as always, to look back and reflect on my personal development journey and how it’s manifested itself through artistic expression. It’s immensely reassuring to me to see the many meandering pathways which formed, almost like the formation of small rivulets initially, which have organically grown and developed over the years. And looking backwards, paradoxically, does encourage and inspire looking forwards. It helps motivate me! This is part of the joy of contemplation I think.
Save Our Souls/Distress Signal
save our souls ©2011 jenny meehan. I had in mind Ophelia in Hamlet. British painting by artist ©Jenny Meehan
A big theme in a lot of my visual art is dissociation. Its been a constant theme, among others, and particularly relates autobiographically to women’s experience of male violence /sexual violence. This painting, while it certainly contains hope, and maybe this gives it a message of “enduring grace” even through suffering, is also quite dark in emotional expression. It was painted during a period in my life of “moderate depression”, though the depression felt, at times, like it would “take me under”. It certainly had troughs of despond and a strong experience of hopelessness as well as periods when I felt more supported internally and externally.
A concept in my mind when painting it was the character of Ophelia, from the Shakespeare play Hamlet, who loses her mind… And then her body, in her case through suicide. The painting is called “Save Our Souls” because it’s a a cry for help, not just for myself (it was a personal tool for me in my own journey) but all women whose sense of self and sanity have been violated, and find themselves on the edge of either feeling they exist, or, too close to the real boundary of life and death for comfort.
It does very much contain hope, expressed through light across the surface of the woman’s physical body, even in its fragile, ambiguous materiality. But the whole paintings relationship with hope is fragile and delicate. It’s deliberately unresolved and paradoxical. It pulls both ways, into darkness and into light.
I did follow up the painting with a poem, as I often do. Indeed, it’s a key part of my creative practice to partner my visual art with my writing. I view my visual art as a form of poetry, because of its relationship to my writing. When I exhibit visual art, I prefer to exhibit both poem and painting (or drawing, sculpture, whatever! ) together because they are integral to eachother.
Here’s the poem ‘Ophelia Poem’ which accompanied the painting ‘Save our Souls’
“It was
an unfinished poem
who took
her hands and led her
to the river spring.
Who invited her,
held her,
cried with her.
Who even laid her body out,
as she willed it,
to face her grief.
In her vulnerability
she was
too fragile to speak, even –
yet, intent
to trust the universe,
her painting pressed into a tiny pearl,
the love which first formed her
So she treasured it.
And there was light.”
Thomas Merton Prayer
when earth meets sky painting by jenny meehan
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you, and I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore I will trust you always. Though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death I will not fear, for you are ever with me and you will never leave me to face my peril alone.
THOMAS MERTON
This is a lovely prayer… I have it stuck to my kitchen cupboard.
Winter
Well, Winter does actually feel far behind us now, but it’s not too late to share this beautiful engraving of a painting by Wilhelm Kray (German, 1828–1889 titled “Winter”. I prefer the engraving to the original painting. Emotionally it comes across to me more. It shows the transformation of Winter to Spring. I’m guessing that the figure in the background shows Winter dying. I found this “Originally known as the Spring Equinox, the word Easter parallels the German word Ostern which is derived from Eostre or Ostara, the Anglo-Saxon Goddess of Spring. In German stories, Ostara is believed to have been responsible for bringing about Spring each year.” So maybe this is Ostara? She does have a star on her head!
I also wondered if the figure may be fruitfully read as Saint Brigid too? I found some information on her…
” Both Christians and pagans celebrate St. Brigid’s Day on Feb. 1. People still celebrate her day by weaving twigs into a square “Brigid’s Cross,” an ancient solar symbol traditionally made to welcome spring. Feb. 1-2 is also known as Imbolc, a Spring festival when the goddess Brigid returns as the bride of spring in a role like the Greek Persephone. Imbolc has been adapted not only into St. Brigid’s Day on Feb 1st, but also as Candlemas on Feb 2nd.”
Wilhelm Kray (German, 1828–1889 titled “Winter”
It’s such a beautiful image, quite nurturing and tender. I guess I’m a bit late in my interest as we are now in April, and the time of year I’m looking at here appears to fit more comfortably into February! In an effort to align myself more with the calendar I’ve brought this very exciting book “The Celtic Wheel of the Year” by Tess Ward. I’m going to attempt to read and pray it monthly. I haven’t stuck to a seasonal prayer pattern like this before but my creative practice fell into a seasonal pattern very naturally so I think it will be good to shape some of my devotions and meditation too in a form which moves with the year.
Here’s a little interpretation from me on Saint Brigid, thinking on Spring and Resurrection combined. The figurative image isn’t my own, but a section of a cutting of a photograph I kept from one of my art books. It’s of Christ and Mary his mother when Christ was taken down off the cross after being crucified.
God Beyond All Dreams – Bernadette Farrell
1. God, beyond our dreams, you have stirred in us a memory, you have placed your powerful spirit in the hearts of humankind.
Refrain: All around us, we have known you; all creation lives to hold you, In our living and our dying we are bringing you to birth.
2. God, beyond all names, you have made us in your image, we are like you, we reflect you, we are woman, we are man.
3. God, beyond all words, all creation tells your story, you have shaken with our laughter, you have trembled with our tears.
4. God, beyond all time, you are labouring within us; we are moving, we are changing, in your spirit ever new.
5. God of tender care, you have cradled us in goodness, you have mothered us in wholeness, you have loved us into birth.
On the subject of dreams… Just beautiful. My Good Friday Meditation this year.
Dream of the Rood
(trans. by Roy Liuzza)
Another beautiful meditation for Easter
BY UNKNOWN
TRANSLATED BY ROY M. LIUZZA
Listen! I will speak of the sweetest dream,
what came to me in the middle of the night,
when speech-bearers slept in their rest.
It seemed that I saw a most wondrous tree
raised on high, wound round with light,
the brightest of beams. All that beacon was
covered in gold; gems stood
fair at the earth’s corners, and there were five
up on the cross-beam. All the angels of the Lord looked on;
fair through all eternity; that was no felon’s gallows,
but holy spirits beheld him there,
men over the earth and all this glorious creation.
Wondrous was the victory-tree, and I was stained by sins,
wounded with guilt; I saw the tree of glory
honored in garments, shining with joys,
bedecked with gold; gems had
covered worthily the Creator’s tree.
And yet beneath that gold I began to see
an ancient wretched struggle, when it first began
to bleed on the right side. I was all beset with sorrows,
fearful for that fair vision; I saw that eager beacon
change garments and colors––now it was drenched,
stained with blood, now bedecked with treasure.
And yet, lying there a long while,
I beheld in sorrow the Savior’s tree
until I heard it utter a sound;
that best of woods began to speak words:
“It was so long ago––I remember it still––
that I was felled from the forest’s edge,
ripped up from my roots. Strong enemies seized me there,
made me their spectacle, made me bear their criminals;
they bore me on their shoulders and then set me on a hill,
enemies enough fixed me fast. Then I saw the Lord of mankind
hasten eagerly, when he wanted to ascend upon me.
I did not dare to break or bow down
against the Lord’s word, when I saw
the ends of the earth tremble. Easily I might
have felled all those enemies, and yet I stood fast.
Then the young hero made ready—that was God almighty—
strong and resolute; he ascended on the high gallows,
brave in the sight of many, when he wanted to ransom mankind.
I trembled when he embraced me, but I dared not bow to the ground,
or fall to the earth’s corners––I had to stand fast.
I was reared as a cross: I raised up the mighty King,
the Lord of heaven; I dared not lie down.
They drove dark nails through me; the scars are still visible,
open wounds of hate; I dared not harm any of them.
They mocked us both together; I was all drenched with blood
flowing from that man’s side after he had sent forth his spirit.
“Much have I endured on that hill
of hostile fates: I saw the God of hosts
cruelly stretched out. Darkness had covered
with its clouds the Ruler’s corpse,
that shining radiance. Shadows spread
grey under the clouds; all creation wept,
mourned the King’s fall: Christ on the cross.
And yet from afar men came hastening
to that noble one; I watched it all.
I was all beset with sorrow, yet I sank into their hands,
humbly, eagerly. There they took almighty God,
lifted him from his heavy torment; the warriors then left me
standing drenched in blood, all shot through with arrows.
They laid him down, bone-weary, and stood by his body’s head;
they watched the Lord of heaven there, who rested a while,
weary from his mighty battle. They began to build a tomb for him
in the sight of his slayer; they carved it from bright stone,
and set within the Lord of victories. They began to sing a dirge for him,
wretched at evening, when they wished to travel hence,
weary, from the glorious Lord––he rested there with little company.
And as we stood there, weeping, a long while
fixed in our station, the song ascended
from those warriors. The corpse grew cold,
the fair life-house. Then they began to fell us
all to the earth––a terrible fate!
They dug for us a deep pit, yet the Lord’s thanes,
friends found me there…
adorned me with gold and silver.
“Now you can hear, my dear hero,
that I have endured the work of evil-doers,
harsh sorrows. Now the time has come
that far and wide they will honor me,
men over the earth and all this glorious creation,
and pray to this sign. On me the Son of God
suffered for a time; and so, glorious now
I rise up under the heavens, and am able to heal
each of those who is in awe of me.
Once I was made into the worst of torments,
most hateful to all people, before I opened
the true way of life for speech-bearers.
Lo! the King of glory, Guardian of heaven’s kingdom
honored me over all the trees of the forest,
just as he has also, almighty God, honored
his mother, Mary herself,
above all womankind for the sake of all men.
“Now I bid you, my beloved hero,
that you reveal this vision to men,
tell them in words that it is the tree of glory
on which almighty God suffered
for mankind’s many sins
and Adam’s ancient deeds.
Death He tasted there, yet the Lord rose again
with his great might to help mankind.
He ascended into heaven. He will come again
to this middle-earth to seek mankind
on doomsday, almighty God,
the Lord himself and his angels with him,
and He will judge—He has the power of judgment—
each one of them as they have earned
beforehand here in this loaned life.
No one there may be unafraid
at the words which the Ruler will speak:
He will ask before the multitude where the man might be
who for the Lord’s name would taste
bitter death, as He did earlier on that tree.
But they will tremble then, and little think
what they might even begin to say to Christ.
But no one there need be very afraid
who has borne in his breast the best of beacons;
but through the cross we shall seek the kingdom,
every soul from this earthly way,
whoever thinks to rest with the Ruler.”
Then I prayed to the tree with a happy heart,
eagerly, there where I was alone
with little company. My spirit longed to start
on the journey forth; it has felt
so much of longing. It is now my life’s hope
that I might seek the tree of victory
alone, more often than all men
and honor it well. I wish for that
with all my heart, and my hope of protection is
fixed on the cross. I have few wealthy friends
on earth; but they all have gone forth,
fled from worldly joys and sought the King of glory;
they live now in heaven with the High Father,
and dwell in glory, and each day I look forward
to the time when the cross of the Lord,
on which I have looked while here on this earth,
will fetch me from this loaned life,
and bring me where there is great bliss,
joy in heaven, where the Lord’s host
is seated at the feast, with ceaseless bliss;
and then set me where I may afterwards
dwell in glory, have a share of joy
fully with the saints. May the Lord be my friend,
He who here on earth once suffered
on the hanging-tree for human sin;
He ransomed us and gave us life,
a heavenly home. Hope was renewed
with cheer and bliss for those who were burning there.
The Son was successful in that journey,
mighty and victorious, when he came with a multitude,
a great host of souls, into God’s kingdom,
the one Ruler almighty, the angels rejoicing
and all the saints already in heaven
dwelling in glory, when almighty God,
their Ruler, returned to his rightful home.
Roy Liuzza, “Dream of the Rood” from Old English Poetry: An Anthology. Copyright © 2014 by Roy Liuzza. Quoted from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/159129/dream-of-the-rood-translation
Kingston Artists Open Studios 2024
CATALOGUE 2024
Kingston Artists Open Studios Catalogue
Yes! It’s here! Take a look at the Kingston Artists Open Studios Catalogue 2024 and see what’s in store!
Redbubble Artist Jenny Meehan
I’m doing a bit of tidying up on this blog and gradually working my way through the pages to bring them up to date. Here’s the blog page which gives you an introduction to my Redbubble artist profile ‘jennyjimjams.redbubble’. Redbubble is a print on demand marketplace and I have over a thousand designs on it.
Redbubble Artist Jenny Meehan AKA jennyjimjams
The Mummy and the Pyramid Video
I’ve reworked this a bit. I like this one better than the first version created about a year ago.
Here is the additional image I used. It’s one of a series.
Weeping willow Mummy by Jenny Meehan aka jennyjimjams
Jenny Meehan - Art Journal 