Street Tales – Mab

Mab was the traditional queen of the fairies in English folklore. An ambiguous figure, she could be both midwife of dreams but also the bringer of ‘blisters to the lips’… Who would she be now?

Varnished acrylic on card.
Framed in a dark stained wood box frame.

Street Tales
This painting is from a series based around traditional folk narratives set in woods – Red Riding Hood, Herne the Hunter, The Green Man… The ancient forest was always a place of anarchy and danger – where you could lose yourself. City and urbanscapes are our modern equivalents.
I find words very interesting when they are legible in a painting. Not only do they symbolise meaning (perhaps a narrative or a title) but they also have their own cultural typographical language, signifing a time, place and culture. Sign writing as street art demonstrates this perfectly. Regardless of whether the viewer can read the words, the written forms and codes of graffiti always strong indicators of moment and location.

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