Hon V

"HON. The Shape of my Country"

This year (2004) the poet Tony Conran published an anthology titled 'The Shape of my Country' and as a cover illustration he used one of the late Paul Davies's numerous 'Maps' of Wales - and there is amongst the collection of poems, one that is dedicated to Davies's work. My recent drawings and paintings re-visit the theme of the Map of Wales, giving the geographic outline an anthropomorphic form that is inspired not only by Davies's work but by an eighteenth century engraving called 'Dame Wales'. The work came about whilst thinking of a cover illustration for a book called 'postcolonial Wales' to be published by the University of Wales Press. Once started - the series of free-floating 'leaping ladies' - suggestive of a leaping forward towards an independent identity - multiplied, they now number thirty in all. Each one has it's own character; each reflects the variety and multi-faceted identity of Wales and Welshness in this new century.