Phoenix Ash

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Materials: India ink and watercolor on 100% cotton hot press illustration board
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Size: 5" x 6"

"A chattering crow lives out nine generations of aged men, but a stag's life is four times a crow's and a raven's life makes three stags old, while the Phoenix outlives nine ravens." (Hesiod, Precepts of Chiron, Fragment 3, Plutarch, De defectu Oraculorum, Trans. Evelyn-White)

This is a spirit of phoenix ashes. 

I saw a lot of crows in Connecticut and fell in love with them. They’re much larger in real life than depicted here, and very intelligent and vocal.

This began as one of a set of five granulating ink experiments. After creating the ink wash, I traced it and sketched out where I wanted the figure to be so he would be interacting with the textured forms. I then transferred the under drawing onto the piece and continued with a dip pen and ink, bringing out the shapes I saw hiding in the inky chaos.