For a long time, I have had this idea of a poem taking place in a garden, where the roses die, crisp-up, and this armoured Lady doing her best to protect them. This combined with UV-scare, climate changes, and days in my tiny garden and allotment house looking after the plants, crops, insects, and wilderness, created the base for the illustrated poem Rosy, I made in 2023, (Ink on Bristol Board):
Some months after finishing Rosy, I had to scout the internet for William Blake for another project and I found this, his Illustrated Poem ‘The Sick Rose’:
I have always loved illustrated books, Picture books for children, old Medieval illustrated books, Graphic Novels, Art books of all kinds and Poem Collections illustrated by different Artists. I don’t believe, I have ever encountered ‘The Sick Rose’ poem by William Blake before after my own Rosy, but have my unconsciousness played me a trick? Is my Rosy an unknown comment and celebration of Blake’s Poem? I have no idea; all I know is, that it’s still puzzling me and that in a way, is so fitting for this poetical sci-fi garden world of Rosy, and maybe the answer one day will pop-up, and the rose-story will continue.
ROSY – AN ILLUSTRED POEM – NARRATED by Mira Noltenius 2024.