This is just a note to try & explain a little the series of drawings featured below. The series was done over a period of less than a week, & I deliberately didn't really edit the series -- this is the way & the sequence it came out. It is a sort of rumination on my life so far (I just turned 50 on November 11), so it contains at least in passing some of the major themes of my work, as far as my mission statement goes, which usually says something like "Ayton's work deals with socio-political issues, mythology & the human condition", which already pretty much covers a lot...
So, there are references to the War Room & related anti-war works, Human Rights & the UDHR are probably alluded to, as well as my many other influences (surrealism, expressionism, symbolism, the entire history of art as we know it -- ha ha), and specific artists (Kubin, Rops, Redon, etc.) & also literary figures (Rilke & Kafka come to mind), so the allusions are pretty densely layered, I hope.
My current thinking is that it should be seen in the sequence it was done in, rather than the reverse series (newest first) below...so I put up a page on my web site here, where you can see somewhat smaller versions, but get a sense of the progression, which I think is there, though not specifically planned. While not a narrative exactly (though maybe it is), there is a continuity & resolution of some kind, an evolution maybe.
At the present time, I'm not sure if this is a major work, or just a minor distraction. Time will tell, I suppose. I should also note that this series kind of mirrors an older series of drawings called "In Humanity", which can be seen here. I'm thinking of publishing this series (Timeless, that is) in the Narcissus Press literary review, "Narcissus". I am the art editor, after all...I will post details of that as & when they become available.
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