Brisons Veor - The Celtic Triskele Symbol

“No county in England has a stronger individuality than Cornwall, whether in economic or social conditions, in history, nomenclature, tradition, or even in physical characteristics of the land.” Encyclopedia Brittanica sometime before 1925 quoted in Unknown Cornwall 

Before I came to Cornwall I used the Celtic Triskele symbol to signify water in a piece I made about cotton and middle passage.  

The triskele is not specifically a Cornish symbol but I felt committed to make some coordinates to go with this piece and explore the symbol a bit while I have the time and the space.

I'm trying not to be too serious or product oriented as I work at Brisons Veor. I'm working on newsprint not to be too precious about anything. I don't have a big ruler so I am just folding newsprint to line up the patterns.  I bought 44 sheets in Truro. I am also really giving myself permission to be messy and free and see what I can find in the process.  

Here are some of the sketches I did on tracing paper.

The proportions on this one didn't feel right.

This second drawing felt better proportioned for me.

I carved this block with the soft linoleum I brought from the US. 

This is an experiment using 2 colors and spattering. I love spattering and because I don't have great clean up facilities the paper was getting some finger prints on it.  I decided not to worry and just cover it with spatter and consider it texture.

I like this one a lot.  I think I could play with more of an overlap.

In this piece I incorporated a quote from a book I am reading that I brought from the Los Angeles Public Library called "Unknown Cornwall."  The quote reads - "The sea in storm, with the clamour of falling surges and the whipping of white spray over the boulders, fills you with thoughts which are hard, firm, distinct and cleanly cut, like rock.  In calm weather, the sea invites you to play: in storm challenges you to a tussle  ."  

I am using the quote as a stripe.  Althea McInish has some pieces with great stripes in the backgrounds of her designs.

This piece has the triskele symbol overlapping on itself and rotating.  I think I will develop this a but more with a new carving. I folded the newsprint to give me some rough guidelines.

Here I added a bit of spatter.