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Ilkley Music Man
by Peter Grant - 14:02 on 29 October 2024
Ilkley Music Man
In April 1973 I was a visitor at the first Ilkley Literature Festival, inaugurated by W.H.Auden, as friends of mine were performing there.
I cannot remember the venue for the festival – but I do remember seeing a man with a “hurdy-gurdy” and took a photograph.
In October 2024 I made a linoprint of the subject. Fifty-one years from photo to print must be a record!
The man is actually not playing a hurdy-gurdy which is a violin-shaped object with a handle which when turned makes leather or wooden discs to rub against pre-tuned strings. The discs are called “gismos”. Very popular as a street instrument in the nineteenth century – they are now rarely seen. The man in my print is simply playing a large music box mounted on a pole.
The print is on large paper (A3) and took a lot of cutting – especially cutting away all the white space!
Notice that before proofing I have already cleared the top of the music box and it shows as white in the first proof, but my daughter said it looked wrong and I had to correct it!
A small piece of lino decorated with the “70’s” flowers was cut and let into the “hole” on the top of the box, and all was ready to print.
Except the page needed something to the man’s left. I cut a stripey tent on a separate piece of lino and it was printed in grey as if in the distance.
Edition size is 15 copies.