Myths and Legends
Like ancient amphorae before them, these vessels may one day be unearthed as relics, their narratives used to explain human life to new, curious civilisations.
Each illustrated myth describes an ever-present power battle playing out between the sexes, as it has done perpetually since the dawn of time. Some draw upon the archetypal figures of Homer and Hesiod, while others reflect the contemporary landscape – viral arguments and social media campaigns; yet some appear to be nothing more than foolish fantasies made up on the spot. Myths once provided frameworks for understanding existence, they formed a dichotomy between truths and lies that people believed and followed, and they were entrenched in bias. We have advanced little, the myths go on, and so too does the battle.
The Shower of a Hundred Hearts
Dimensions: 43cm x 36cm Glazed stoneware, slip and sgraffito decoration with 24ct gold lustre.(2025)
A thousand year war ended one day with love. Goden, the son of one Emperor, and Hallber, the daughter of a rival Empress, married. On the night before their wedding however, a prophecy was delivered: The couple would unite the kingdoms and have one hundred children, each with a feature from their mother that would lead to Goden’s death. Everyone dismissed the ominous warning as they would surely not have one hundred children, it was impossible!
After their third child was born however (another happy and loved infant with Goden’s face and Hallber’s heart) fear began to take root in Goden’s mind. He began to see his children’s pure hearts as a threat; a feature from their mother that would turn them against him. His love became resentment and he grew cruel towards his children who drew closer to their mother. In a fit of jealous paranoia, Goden murdered all three of his children while Hallber slept. He had her all to himself again.
I’m afraid to say that the cycles of love, birth, jealousy and murder repeated many times over, until Goden and Hallber had indeed had 100 children between them. Each one had been murdered and each one became a ghost to torment Goden more. In madness he came to believe that Hallber, once from a rivalling nation after-all, had planned the prophecy. He attacked her but as he did, a hundred cherub-like ghosts surrounded them both, protecting Hallber under a shower of a hundred hearts (all of which matched her own) before killing Goden in a shower of one hundred arrows.
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The Passing of the Lips
Dimensions: 43cm x 36cm Glazed stoneware, slip and sgraffito decoration with 24ct gold and mother of pearl lustre.(2025)
Long ago in another age the sleepy town of Mooth hosted an annual ritual called ‘The Passing of the Lips’. Here, all girls coming of age were to drink a potion that either bewitched them into lifelong compliance or (if they rejected it) found them rebellious and banished them to the ‘underground’. Most chose to avoid exile, swallowing it down regardless and the town functioned well with incredibly loyal and dutiful women until that is, the turn of twins Devorare and Despuo.
Although identical, they couldn’t have been more different. Devorare was quiet and obedient like a pet dog; Despuo was mischievous and cunning like a feral cat. As expected, Devorare swallowed the potion and Despuo spat it out. But before she could be taken, Despuo looked up at a lone crow in the sky and yelled ‘Dragon!’ With the crowd distracted she swapped her sister’s blue ribbon for her red one and passed Devorare her beaded pearl necklace, whispering instructions into her newly bewitched, compliant ears.
Despuo (disguised as Devorare) entered the crowd and dutifully agreed to everything that followed, fingers firmly crossed behind her. Devorare (also mistaken for her sister) was led underground, secretly and obediently dropping pearls from the necklace as she walked, just as her sister had whispered. She arrived at a community of exiled women who, on hearing Despuo’s plan, followed the pearl trail back to the surface where a thousand fierce women overwhelmed the town easily, declaring the twins rulers over all - Despuo accepted, Devorare did as she was told.
Despuo changed the ritual (Devorare agreed): offering it to boys as well as girls and with choice to not participate at all. With free will and equity in play the potion’s magic changed. Those who chose to drink felt briefly warm but retained autonomy; those who spat it out simply disliked the taste and moved on, those who didn’t participate found other ways to mark the occasion and eventually, no one knew who was doing the ritual or not anymore…and no one cared.
Flaming Nora and the Golden Eggshell
Dimensions: 43cm x 36cm Glazed stoneware, slip and sgraffito decoration with 24ct gold lustre.(2025)
In the serene village of Ruhig, Nora was born to a happy couple, her mother a proud ‘egg-shell dancer’. This ancient tradition, passed down through generations, involved women dancing on scattered eggshells to soothe their husbands’ simmering moods, ensuring the village’s peaceful harmony.
Nora learned the dance, observing how her mother’s graceful movements on the crackling shells would calm her father’s temper. As Nora grew and prepared for her own marriage to Stan, her mother warned of the dance’s vital role: it prevented men’s moods from escalating into destructive anger and war.
For years, Nora dutifully performed her dance whenever Stan’s mood shifted. However, during a particularly harsh year of failed crops, Nora found herself dancing constantly. Her body ached but Stan remained calm. When a late summer storm destroyed their remaining crops however, Nora’s own frustration boiled over. As Stan’s anger began to rise, Nora, weary and furious, threw the eggshells down. This time her dance was not one of calm, but of released rage. She spun so furiously that the shells ignited and her husband, for the first time, felt intense anger and fear.
Lost in fury, Nora didn’t notice the burning eggshells melting into a golden pool. Stan’s rage peaked but as he looked into his golden reflection, he was shocked by his own frightening appearance. This self-realisation coupled with Nora’s sudden clarity, brought him back. Exhausted, Nora handed him a just-turned, golden eggshell. “When your mood rises, look at your reflection and find your own way back,” she advised.
From that day, the legend of “Flaming Nora” spread. The men of Ruhig learned to manage their own emotions and the women danced only for themselves.
Sæd and the Fall of Man
Dimensions: 43cm x 35cm Glazed stoneware, slip and sgraffito decoration with 24ct gold lustre.(2024)
Season after season after season, the Gods watched on bored as those mortal men
bumbled around politely on Erath. It wasn’t quite what they had hoped for when they designed them. Fyrst grew increasingly frustrated by the lack of developments and entertainment, so he asked Ku-Wa to create a mortal woman to shake things up a bit. Now, Ku-Wa had lived for ten thousand years as a shadow god (an assistant to the creator gods), and to be trusted with such an important creation task, by Fyrst himself, was surely a sign that he was finally up for promotion. So, Ku-Wa searched far and wide across all of the worlds and realms that were open to him, seeking the finest lapis lazuli that ever was. Then, over a single phase of the moon, he used his minerals to fashion a fine blue glass acorn that was so beautiful it made the soil it touched begin to weep "From this Sæd will grow the highs and lows of mortal life" he declared. "When she is born to Erath next Fall, man will finally learn what it is to live!
The Venomist Sausage Party
Dimensions: 45cm x 36cmGlazed stoneware, slip and sgraffito decoration with 24ct gold lustre( 2024)
Part reptile, part mammal, the venomists were God-made for their unique milk: An elixir granting mortality should the Gods choose to drink it. Milking was excruciating for venomists and reproduction biologically yearned for, yet males were never made. They grew increasingly despondent and depressed until one day, they finally escaped their life of exploitation, hiding in dark caves, deep within the mortal world. They emerged only for their annual “sausage party,” which took place during the “General Meeting of Minds.” This celestial event bound all Gods to the stars until sunrise and thus provided the venomists with one safe night of freedom, out in the open on mortal soil. They celebrated with their favourite food, and although harmless and well intentioned, this social gathering terrified men who were fearful of symbolism and ashamed of where their imaginations took them. Many vowed to kill the venomists, while others secretly enjoyed the spectacle from the shadows, exploiting them in new ways.
Night of the Willy Pullers
Dimensions: 44cm x 30cm Glazed stoneware, slip and sgraffito decoration. (2024)
The Night of the Willy Pullers was an event mischievously designed by the Three Graces, simply to amuse Olympians. On Earth, for one night only, women and men would suddenly recall and re-embrace long-forgotten childhood curiosities about one another's bodies. Along with their inhibitions, social hierarchies and gender imbalances simply disappeared. Despite the name, this night was not just about willies; it was just as much about lady bits but the Grace’s wanted to keep the name snappy and appropriately immature. It was all very slapstick and nothing dark ever happened, just the shenanigans of human puppets, acting like children, fuelled by laughter, fruit and invariably, a bit of booze. The gods and goddesses would look down upon the world thoroughly entertained. Then, as the sun began to rise in the sky, the revellers returned to their ordinary adult lives, and mythical beasts, confused by what had just unfolded before them, rolled their eyes and shook their heads before going about their business again.
The Sun Lady chose a hypothetical bear and all of the men cried. They argued that not all of them would have raped her but the bear might eat her. They called her stupid but still she did not change her mind. The men grew angrier and angrier and wanted to kill the hypothetical bear, so the sun lady put the men up in the sky where they could do no harm. Their anger and tears did create great rainstorms over the Earth and soon great seas and lakes and rivers had formed. The sun lady made life spring from these waters. Every rumble of thunder is a sign that the sky men have seen a new bear born into the wooded lands of The Sun.
The Sun Lady and the Hypothetical Bear
Dimensions: 43cm x 28cmGlazed stoneware, slip and sgraffito decoration with 24ct gold lustre (2024).
The Quest for the Nominal Skirt
Dimensions: 45cm x 35cmGlazed stoneware, slip and sgraffito decoration with 24ct gold lustre. (2024)
As prophecy foretold “Immortality awaits the man who takes the nominal skirt. Even a piece of skirt will make him undefeatable, but should he catch it in his eye for even a second, he will end his days a pig”. So, armies of warriors invaded her island with victory in their minds and their eyes clamped shut, trying not to look up and into that golden, powerful garment. But the magic always proved too strong, one by one, peek by peek, armies of men inevitably and irreversibly transformed into drifts of vile, dribbling swine.
Cassus Belli
Dimensions: 46cm x 22cmGlazed stoneware, slip and sgraffito decoration with 24ct gold lustre. (2024)
Eris, the tatty haired, scruffy goddess of discord and strife was an uncontrollable force of nature and unquestionably clever. By exploiting the vanity of others, usually with the smallest of perfectly placed triggers, she created chaos on a monumental scale. On one such occasion the simple act of placing an apple in a room led to friends politely disagreeing before eventually throwing insults, then falling-out. Soon after, relationships broke down then broke up and enemies were made, sides chosen, lines drawn and eventually, the Trojan war happened.
Look hard, look really hard, squint in fact… you might just see her tiny name written on a single page of those great scholarly tomes. He who wrote them dared not speak it more.
Prohairesis' Choice
Dimensions: 45cm x 32cmGlazed stoneware, slip and sgraffito decoration with 24ct gold lustre. (2024)
Every 28 days, when the moon vanishes into its own shadow, Prohairesis ascends. From the northern heavens, she pours forth a celestial ballet of crimson ribbons, captivating the world below. Humanity awaits; hearts held in suspense. Will her decree bring renewed life to Earth, or will it ignite new stars in the cosmos? The spectacle can unfold over many nights, culminating in her ultimate pronouncement. Whether she favours Earth or the heavens, her choice is met with reverence and celebration. The people understand the delicate balance – too much of either, and both may vanish. They are eternally grateful that this profound decision falls unto her celestial wisdom and not their own.