COVER TO CANVAS ARTIST OF THE DAY – Jeanne Mérer, Artist

Jeanne has that rare gift of giving herself over to the art process and trusting the voice of the work and her own body in creating it. Her work is very unique and layered with life, emotion and movement grounded in the earth as she so deftly expresses when talking about the work…

Art Work Title

‘Taciturn’

I silently explored the King’s Inns Library, as I would a shipwreck looking for hidden treasures. What immediately struck me was all these ancient book bindings, peeling off their layers to the bare pages, unveiling the strings that keep them together, hand written calligraphies ushering the trees back. I could see the ageing bark, an apothecary of plant based inks, delicate worn out papers recalling the complex patterns of lines on a leaf. So many heads thinking these writings, so many hands scribbling, typing, binding, turning pages. I wanted to honour this space and all the workings behind the scenes. Honour the tree to the paper, the plants to the ink, the human beings to the finished book on the library shelf. What a mysterious and extraordinary journey. Layers and layers of Human Time. Each layer of the painting I have infused with the process of making a book and then being fully absorbed by the book itself on diving in. I have used the rawest materials so to dig up all these piled up traces of the Past.

Whispering voices, fingers delicately flipping pages, hands mending broken pieces, keeping the books afloat, great focus of the Mind, bodies in Stillness, time suspended, footsteps echoing from the spiral staircase.

The painting got so enthralled by the process that the final touches had to be made in the King’s Inns Library itself, up in the book conservation section. I was kindly equipped with the finest Japanese paper, glue, a tiny paintbrush and crafted beeswax to mend the parts that had been damaged during the flight from France. Taciturn was finally done. At peace in this monumental space.

Thank you to all the staff involved, especially Louise and Renate!

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