Book 12  Eternal. Magwood-Fraser, L and Penn, C. (2008) (Fig. 10).  Eternal.  Unique collaborative artist’s book. 40 pages, Graphite pencil, crayon, pastel, printing, oil paint.  31cm x 43cm. Book 12. Collection: Lesley Magwood-Fraser.

Eternal was a further collaboration between Lesley Magwood-Fraser  and myself.  Magwood-Fraser gave me a set of drawings of idols.  The pages she gave me were  complete in terms of textual content and visual imagery .   I felt I needed to activate the back of the page, rather than try and alter  her work.  We work very differently   I did not want the loudness of my work dominating the delicateness of her drawing.  I worked in oil paint on the back of her pages which produced a stain.

This was an allusion to  the ‘human stain’;  the result of idolatrous worship  especially during Biblical times.    I painted Biblical  passages dealing with idols, especially  those dealing with Baal and Molech.  In both forms of worship, the followers indulged in child sacrifice,  a real stain in human history.  Although Magwood-Fraser did not know that this was my  intention, her title Eternal for the book,  given later, gave credence to my narrative.

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