Excalibur

Excalibur is a new series of scarves I'm working on based around the Arthurian Legend.  I wanted to explore the relationships between Arthur, Mordred, Guinevere and Lancelot, the Lady of the Lake and the sword in the stone. It's not the usual fairytale and maybe that's why it has more resonance. The characters are complex and their relationships rooted in the real world full of love, passion, deceit, sexual jealously and power. No one emerges as a perfect hero, they are all flawed in some way but the true heroes are those who fight against their own selfish desires and do their best for others. The sword Excalibur is entrusted to Arthur and it embodies the role of king: protector and guardian of England. He has the potential to be great but as with so many leader loses his way on a personal level. He is seduced and tricked and betrayed but eventually wins his eternal rest with the Sisters of Avalon. Guinevere's human failings however are punished by seeing her husband die and her lover banished and she gets lived out her days in childless, celibate prayer. A bitter price for her love. Even Lancelot was redeemed in the final battle. The ambiguous Lady of the Lake was either the seducer of Merlin or the wicked step mother who stole Lancelot and raised him but she is also paradoxically the final guardian of the sword.   These tales of heroic men and duplicitous women are rampant throughout literature, where women are portrayed as either virginal mothers or deceitful sexual predators and men as brave and fearless, decisive and wise but undone by women. I guess this comes having male authors. Even so the stories tell of battles and heroics and betrayals that are very compelling and there's something very beguiling about the whole idea of a simple world where it was enough to try to be good. 
So far I have completed two scarves, The Lady in the Lake a fabulous vertical banner and The Tangled Triangle which is the relationships of  Guinevere. In this scarf I have shown the impossible tangle represented by her hair that binds them all and traps them into a situation that can only be resolved by cutting their way out, thus destroying the beauty and love between them. Maybe it's a difficult scarf to wear but it's a human story that says the uncomfortable truth that no one wins in these wars and everyone carries their wounds. I doubt very much that it is commercial! But that's not why I paint my scarves: I have stories to tell and interpret.....