In 2017 I was invited to exhibit a work on paper for A Collector’s Exhibition at Aldeburgh Gallery. The exhibition featured works by some wonderful artists: Emily Sutton, Mark Hearld, Tessa Newcomb, Alex Malcolmson, Mary Fedden, Maggi Hambling, Julian Trevelyan, Michael Stennet and many others.
After creating my book, Black Shuck’s Awful Alphabet, I wanted to create a paper sculpture to further investigate the East Anglian folk tales of Black Shuck.
First I created the prints using direct drawn monoprint (the trees) and block prints (Black Shuck, the magpies and the forest floor). Once dry, I cut up the prints to create the paper sculptures.
BLACK SHUCK’S AWFUL ALPHABET – A DELICIOUSLY DARK BEDTIME STORY….WIP
Black Shuck’s Awful Alphabet is the gruesome and gory alphabet-based folk tale that I wrote and illustrated for my 2nd term MA project while studying at Cambridge School of Art. In 2018 the story was shortlisted in the Noirwich Flash Fiction Competion.
Black Shuck is the legendary Devil Dog of East Anglia, but the devilish dog appears under many names across different regions. My favourite tale of the East Anglian Black Shuck is of a more beneficent hound that shows the safe route home for women travellers. My Black Shuck is female, compared to the usual male dog of the folk tales. However, don’t let that lure you into a false sense of security, as she works her way through the awful alphabet with abominable abductions, badly behaved brats, delinquent daughters and lumpy liquidised lungs that she serves up to her beloved Baby Shuck…
