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John Barleycorn Original A4 Lino Print 12 by Pat Rodriquez
And here they made a solemn oath
of little John Barleycorn
John Barleycorn is the personification of the agricultural cycle and an ancient archetype of resurrection and resilience. Just as the year passes from winter to spring we are reminded of the possibility of passing through hard times and not just surviving but becoming stronger.
The earliest recorded versions of this folk song are many centuries old and clearly hark back even longer to Druidic and pagan ideas. The lyrics tell of the barbaric treatment of the eponymous hero and how he returns and is empowered to become more than he previously was. Each of the treatments would be torturous to a normal person but are in fact simply the agricultural processes that are used to plant, grow, harvest and process from seeds to finished barley. Finally after his apparent death he returns "the stronger man at last", with his body transformed to bread and his blood to alcohol (in a remarkable echo of Christian imagery).
We first started this project when our business as Liverpool Indie Art School was being founded. Then the pandemic hit and during lockdown, we lost our studio on Rose Lane, our equipment was wrongly disposed of by a third party, our income was decimated and we came close to giving up. We worked incredibly hard to survive through and it was the loyalty of our regular artists that kept us afloat. We are hugely grateful to all of those folks and to our new friends who have made it possible for us to move to our current and better studio at John Archer Hall. We've been made to feel very welcome and our classes and work is stronger than it was.
We decided to return to this project to mark this new growth and set the project brief for Beltane 2024 to plant the seeds. We'd finished cutting our lino blocks to reference medieval woodcut by midsummer and printed and mounted our work for Mabon 2025, the late harvest and equinox when all things are equal.
It is worth noting that during this print project life has not stood still for our artists and each of us have been through life events. We've experience various trials including illness, injury, chemotherapy, surgery, degree qualification, work changes - all of us are still standing and growing, and we are incredibly proud of our artists.
These original prints on A4 paper are now available for sale at £75 each in limited editions of 50. Each will be signed and editioned by the artist.
And here they made a solemn oath
of little John Barleycorn
John Barleycorn is the personification of the agricultural cycle and an ancient archetype of resurrection and resilience. Just as the year passes from winter to spring we are reminded of the possibility of passing through hard times and not just surviving but becoming stronger.
The earliest recorded versions of this folk song are many centuries old and clearly hark back even longer to Druidic and pagan ideas. The lyrics tell of the barbaric treatment of the eponymous hero and how he returns and is empowered to become more than he previously was. Each of the treatments would be torturous to a normal person but are in fact simply the agricultural processes that are used to plant, grow, harvest and process from seeds to finished barley. Finally after his apparent death he returns "the stronger man at last", with his body transformed to bread and his blood to alcohol (in a remarkable echo of Christian imagery).
We first started this project when our business as Liverpool Indie Art School was being founded. Then the pandemic hit and during lockdown, we lost our studio on Rose Lane, our equipment was wrongly disposed of by a third party, our income was decimated and we came close to giving up. We worked incredibly hard to survive through and it was the loyalty of our regular artists that kept us afloat. We are hugely grateful to all of those folks and to our new friends who have made it possible for us to move to our current and better studio at John Archer Hall. We've been made to feel very welcome and our classes and work is stronger than it was.
We decided to return to this project to mark this new growth and set the project brief for Beltane 2024 to plant the seeds. We'd finished cutting our lino blocks to reference medieval woodcut by midsummer and printed and mounted our work for Mabon 2025, the late harvest and equinox when all things are equal.
It is worth noting that during this print project life has not stood still for our artists and each of us have been through life events. We've experience various trials including illness, injury, chemotherapy, surgery, degree qualification, work changes - all of us are still standing and growing, and we are incredibly proud of our artists.
These original prints on A4 paper are now available for sale at £75 each in limited editions of 50. Each will be signed and editioned by the artist.