Pensive

Visually thoughtful, this picture was something of a medium experiment as well as a statement. I wanted it to look like an old scroll or parchment of sorts, all worn and torn and blotched with ink and literally went crazy with all sorts of details, even working in gold leaf.

I wanted to make it look like a page from one of my character’s (Morphus Verum) notebooks, filled with scrawled notes on his studies of alchemy. You see, in Armarniss, the art of alchemy, the balance between the natural and supernatural and the symbol of the phoenix are all wrapped up together along with this whole creation mythos. It’s an integral part of the storyline and it has huge significance to Lance.

Why a phoenix? Well that’s hard to explain, but the basis is this; not only is the image of the phoenix an ancient and elemental one that features much in medieval heraldry, but it also has, in my view, a perfect link to alchemy. The phoenix is much like the (mythical) result of alchemical experimentation; born from the flames, it has the ability to heal, possesses the gift of eternal life and (in my story) is pure and has a golden visage. The bird here is the last living phoenix in Armarniss, said to be nothing more than a myth, featuring in the stories retold by drunken travelers.

The design for the phoenix has changed greatly since I first produced this, but I still regard it as one of my favourite pieces. Someone once remarked that he looks like a griffin with those two feathers, but he’s supposed to have them, a sort of trailing crest, much like a harpy eagle, [link] which was the original inspiration for his anatomy.

(Armarniss © Leona Preston 2002)


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