St. Hya or Ia, Riding to Cornwall on a Leaf

I became interested in the story of Ia after I read about her in my Unknown Cornwall book.

"You may have read, or heard, how the daughter of an Irish noble, a Christian girl named Hya or Ia, desired greatly to join the expeditionary force of holy men and women who were setting forth from Ireland to fight heathendom in Wales and Cornwall.  She hoped to find a place in the company of Fingan and Piala, devout missionaries, but they sailed without her.  And one day, as Hya was walking by the waterside, there floated close to her a monstrous large leaf.  She put forth her staff and drew the leaf towards her; it was so broad and so buoyant that she, stepping daintily thereon, was wafted across the sea to the very shpre that she was seeking. St. Ives the scene of her landing, bears her name - St. Hya, or Ies or Ia." pps. 73-74

I went to Ia's church in Saint Ives on the 3rd of January.

One night at Brisons Veor I began doodling about St. Hya a few days before I got to St. Ives.

These are bench ends from Ia’s church in St. Ives. The church is full of interesting bench ends. 

This is a piece I made about Ia.  The text reads the same as the text I used the start this post from the Unknown Cornwall book.

Playing around with these shapes from the top of a bench end from Ia’s church in St. Ives. 

This design is put together with draw shapes in photoshop. 

Here I decided to cut some blocks. 

This print has a washed background and the linoleum prints and some hand painted elements. 

Here is another variation with the same blocks except I didn't used the diamond one.

Brisons Veor - Sankofa bird

"The Akan people of Ghana use an adinkra symbol to represent the same concept. One version of it is similar to the eastern symbol of a heart, and another is that of a bird with its head turned backwards to symbolically capture an egg depicted above its back. It symbolizes taking from the past what is good and bringing it into the present in order to make positive progress through the benevolent use of knowledge."

I started thinking about the Sankofa bird after I began playing with the swallow inspired by the bench end at St. Just church.

In these studies I am playing with what is the most harmonizing combination of the left-facing and right-facing birds.

Here I am taking some of the ideas from the bench end at St. Just-in-Penwith  (shell, birds and crescent moon) and applying to the Sankofa birds. 

Here I am trying to make some finished pieces using these same elements.

 

Brisons Veor - Pew End with Shells and Swallows

“The pew end is an example of the type of pew end that used to be found throughout the Church. It was discovered in a farm stable pigsty, covered in many layers of paint and muck and the bottom two or three inches were set in concrete.” 

I’ve been playing with swallow and shell designs. I got interested after I saw this bench end at the church in St. Just 

I also saw this sign in town 

"As for the birds of the coast-the sea-birds-the Cornish coast is the coast par excellence for the study of their lives." 

p.43, Unknown Cornwall

I started playing with these designs

Then I started printing 

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I’m cracking back to the shells - this one was in the house/ Brisons Veor