At the same time I was desperately struggling to produce my book of dogs, my friend and fellow student, Clare Hemstock, was calmly and methodically producing her own book called ‘Ten Sheep,’ which made me feel like a child playing with crayons.
The book was based on an ancient shepherd’s counting system, the Lincolnshire version of which goes: yan, tan, tethera, pethera, pimp, sethera, lethera, hovera, covera, dyk; and it consisted of eight wood engravings containing ten sheep and one shepherd dog. My copy is no.7 in a limited edition of 100. This is my favourite image, appropriately titled ‘Pimp’.
After college we spent several years sending each other elaborate jokey letters, but eventually lost touch when she moved. I have no idea what she’s doing now, but she did once talk about pig farming.
2 comments:
"pimp" is how you pronounce "5" in welsh - COINCIDENCE? Oh, I have just read the wikipedia page which has already realised this.
That's a great looking sheep, it looks very cosmic.
Thanks for the comment, Eleanor.
'Cosmic' is the word - it could be a picture taken by the Hubble telescope.
Post a Comment