April 2021
Beautiful quality fine art print
from original pencil drawing.

O climbing vine
O hidden sign
O python coiled in a cave
Passion's slave and master
O Author of the welcome disaster;
Welcome! Everlasting killer of the black goat;
You who float at the outer edge of reason
And desire; you whose immortal grandfather
Was his sire: EUOI SABOI! O AGRIOS THEOI!
Wild one of the woods, running loose; love-child
Of Persephone and Zeus; by Hera hated, and hunted
By the titan-kin, who pursued you through the forms
Of bee and boar and bull - 'Til cornered as a bull,
You were dismembered in great agony. But then
Your father from the still-hot ashes pulled
Your beating heart, and placed it in a secret womb
To start again, O friend
Of drunks and dreamers, fighters, fugitives,
And pythons coiled in caves; of passions' slaves
And masters. O Welcome Disaster - Come!
I call you to this place, and picturing your radiant face
I lift this brimming cup. EUOI SABOI DIONYSUS!

from Hymn To Zagreus-Sabazios-Dionysus, in The Hekataeon by Jack Grayle,
which was integral to the making of this drawing.

Dionysus is the God of fertility, grapes and wine, theatre, ritual madness and religious ecstasy. His devotees included a retinue of frenzied women known as the maenads, who dance and drink themselves into intense ecstatic rapture. Later known by the Romans as Bacchus, his festivities of indulgence in feasting, dancing and copulation known as the bakkheia or bacchanalia have many similarities with Gaelic Beltane traditions.

As a God of vegetation and agriculture, Dionysus brandishes a thyrsus - a sacred staff wrapped with ivy and topped with a pine cone, sometimes dripping with honey, a symbol of prosperity and abundance, which is also used to ward off all that would oppose his wild, unfettered and glorious life force.

Frequently he is depicted as a bearded older man, or a naked androgynous youth. But the image that came to me as I began working with him was between these two - a celebration of his sexuality, virility and strength, as well as a nod to the divine madness he brings.

I'm so excited to bring this One to you, at this time of making the world anew. What fertile seeds does he plant within you, what new freedoms, that can be fiercely protected, nurtured and grown to their fullness this coming year?

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277 x 400mm
(approx 10mm white border all round)
on 297 x 420 mm paper.

Printed on heavyweight 315gsm archival watercolour paper, with Epson UltraChrome HD inks.
Signed and editioned and backed with board in a transparent sleeve.

Edition size: 250

All large prints come beautifully wrapped in tissue and ribbon, in a robust flat card box. Can also be shipped anywhere with a hand written gift message included.