I love to collect things. I love old things that have a patina and tell a story. I love how things grow spots and marks like lichens on a rock.
Eyes are very expressive parts of the body. I always look at a person's eyes to see what kind of human they are. Even the most beautiful people can often have lifeless eyes, they always tell the truth about us.
I have seen collections of butterflies and other insects pinned to cards in cases on display in museums. They are such a wonderful relic of long gone times of exploring and discovery, the method naturalists used to bring back specimens from far off places as they came creaking back on some smelly wooden sailing ship to show the world what they had found.
What if one collected eyes that way? It makes my skin crawl at the thought of sticking a pin into an eye.
I am trying to draw them as realistically as possible and yet it makes the whole collection of eyes on cards (yes there are more to come) quite surreal.
Imagine a large canvas...a really big one...at least a meter square (to those among us who are still caught in the ancient tradition of Imperial or statute measurements, thats about a yard) filled with small cards with eyes painted or drawn onto them. A black surface with all these yellowed and mottled and torn cards with eyes on them....IMAGINE a whole room with al its walls and ceiling covered in individual eyes on cards.....
Time to get back to work. Almost time for my luncheon which is, I believe, some smoked salmon on crusty peasant (they are occasionally useful I must concede) bread with a small dollop of sour cream. Maybe Hoarknockle (the new butler) will pop a single bead of caviar on top.
And Earl Grey tea..... certainly.
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