Title
Floating Ribs Flare – Breath-taking
(Electric Storm) Sun Kissed Freckles
‘What did you hear my blue eyed son?
What did you feel my darling young one?’ -D
A mountain weeping – Tuwhare
Be still my Highland heart.
A hard rain’s gunna fall.
Details
1460 x 760mm
2021, Soft Pastel on paper.
Framed in Blue Mountains Ash (Eucalyptus Oreades) by Mount Framing.
Process
My floating ribs flare out, because of a body shape called pectus excavatum, which means my sternum sinks into my heart and lungs. It hasn't impacted my health yet, but it used to make me super self conscious.
I worked on this drawing for nearly two years, very intermittently, but it's fair to say it's been through a bit, including the 2019-2020 fires. It takes part of its name from my body, and a few other stories...
References
"What did you hear my blue eyed son? What did you feel my darling young one?" and "A hard rain's gunna fall" are misheard lyrics from Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" (1963).
"A mountain weeping" is a line in Hone Tuwhare's poem "Reign Rain" in Making a Fist of It (Dunedin: Jackstraw, 1978).