Greetings one and all! The dragon speaks...
Sleeping Dragon is a new Celtic Art venture set up by myself - Mike Terrett - in October, 2013.
I first became interested in this intriguing, baffling and deeply creative artform around 1994. Intermittently, I found myself drawn to books on how to tie knots, but it wasn't until I came across some modern books on Celtic art that I realised I had to learn to design and draw them rather than tie them! Never satisfied with merely copying I developed a series of original paintings and contacted a well-known publisher of Celtic titles. Fortunately, they just happened to be working on a new book of Celtic art... and so it was that much of my earlier work was published. 'New Visions In Celtic Art' (Blandford / Cassell) came out in 1999 and featured many Celtic artists working today. But that was then... At the moment I am working on some major new designs. Go to the 'shop' to see them as they emerge blinking into daylight!
Celtic art and design is a key practise for me. When I first became interested in this artform it was like discovering a secret place where several roads meet - somewhere I had perhaps walked across many times before without recognition or readiness. Once a crossroads like this is found, dawn comes and something deep and creative awakens - something in that one dawn that casts shadows and light over a lifetime. And once awake it cannot be easily put back to sleep!
This native art tradition is a fusion (some might say 'confusion'!) of several areas (art, magic, nature, number and geometry) into one astonishing language. It is a world born from the world to reflect the world. Any successful and powerful language - like a river - speaks from the drop to the torrent. It seems to me that this particular language has absorbed and fused all the major patterns and form of expression developed by us over centuries and millenia: through spirals, labyrinths, meanderings, weavings, steps... These are the energies of life! What clever fellows these monks were to weave and assimilate such an enduring spell book of endless possibilities... Of course, they were not alone in their task and conspired with nature. My task - I have since discovered - is to present simple, direct and powerful work in an age of perplexing complexity!
Other interests and work? I have also been practising music composition for over 20 years (as well as writing songs relating to nature and Celtic myth).The string orchestra, classical music in general and folk music are particular interests. I have a large selection of instrumental music for a variety of ensembles - from folk band and chamber music groups to solo harp and piano. Music is the river where the currents of surprise and the vessel of discovery meet. All we have to do is follow as they take us on their natural course through the river to the sea! In my work classical themes often merge with folk.
To link to some music demos: go to the LINKS page!
Anything else before we go? How about I show you a key to art? Something you probably haven't been (or won't be) taught at college... Something obvious:
You are a bridge.
Be aware of this through your development and work. Lay your foundations... and reach for the other side!
Something else to ponder: As a bridge moves across it is also reflected beneath by the river. Likewise, what is within is also mirrored and reflected out. The world is a mirror. This is a fundamental of reality. Approach the mirror of life... follow and learn!
Like all good and proper bridges, once established, traffic passes both ways. Sometimes all is quiet. Sometimes there may be steady or occasional traffic and sometimes the rush hour will take you by surprise! You have to be able to handle all this because - don't forget - you are the bridge!
A warning: beware of pontification!
Also, the signs of a good bridge are that, increasingly, things come to you - often unasked - as well as you crossing the river to explore...
MT - Last updated 8th January, 2018
