Went to an exhibiton about Francis of Assisi a little more than a week ago. It was worth the trip to Utrecht – the Catharijneconvent – but not as spectacular as the Jeroen Bosch. Curated by an ex-director of the Rijksmuseum, the exhibiton focuses on Francis as a latter-day Jesus and Francis in his relation with nature. A lot of crucefictions, which I find slightly off-putting. I’ve always had a problem with the way the church focuses on Christ’s suffering – I find his life more inspiring than his death

I’m doing text over images these days, so I was grabbed by two items that do the same.

First the Canticle of the Sun  by Roger Bissière, who took Francis’ Canticle of the Sun  and did his thing with it, The work consists of ‘eleven woodcuts in colour, printed in copperplate’ – I am guessing the images are woodcut and the text is copperplate? Anyway, inspiring stuff –  images that don’t illustrate the text but interact with it. This is one of the challenges I am wrestling with – I want my drawing to connect to the text under and inside it, but not illustrate the text. Which turns out to be a difficult thing (not) to do.

Second is a page from an old psalter – this is an illustration, but such a beautiful one! And its colors are still vibrant after years and years and years.