Night Wish

"Two hundred twenty-two days of light

Will be desired by a night

A moment for the poet's play

Until there's nothing left to say

I wish for this night-time

To last for a lifetime

The darkness around me

Shores of a solar sea

Oh how I wish to go down with the sun

Sleeping

Weeping

With you."

Nightwish, "Sleeping Sun"

How much meaning gets woven in a a picture of fantasy horses ?

I got hooked on the Unicorn and Kelpie motif due to a commission I had last year (proof that a commission can be great for an artist's own journey) and have been exploring different nuances of it since. What was most interesting to me here is that we see the Kelpie both above water and under. Out of the water he's a black creature.... But in his own element he's full of colour and light. I do not know if the unicorn can see that. Maybe she desires him for his darkness.Maybe she knows there's a whole lot of him that the world doesn't see, rainbows of poetry that only shine underwater. Maybe he's trying to tell her, trying so so so hard to say how much light there is in him, if she could come into his world. Maybe she can't. Maybe she won't. Maybe he's a creature of darkness. Maybe he's a creature of light (a different light). Maybe they only just met. Maybe they loved each other for eons. Maybe they can only ever meet in this liminal moment, on the edge of earth, sky and water, touch for a moment in time and space and never truly know each other, and yet... Still... Want....

This is a piece about poetry and love and desire and impossibility, and how hard it is to bridge difference, how heartbreaking it is to never have your colours truly seen, how precious it is to connect... If only for an instant in time and space... The Night wish song became part of the journey, and the "voice" of this piece.

The composition of this piece is freely inspired by a watercolour painting by Sieskja on Deviantart.

It is entirely handcarved and painted in iridescent acrylics, and set with opalites backed with silver foil. It would look most magical in a fairly dark background with just enough sidelight to bring out its own inner luminosity. 

30x87 cm