IMOGEN HARVEY-LEWIS
Love comes in all shapes and flavours.
Lockdown Love bird is an illustration of living though lockdown and the counter intuitive notion of socially distancing from someone you love.
Taking delight in the natural world, animated figures nestle within the feathers of the majestic kingfisher, whilst little birds perch alongside. During the pandemic, nature has been a constant uplifter and delight. My design celebrates our living alongside the natural world.
The printed text within Love Bird is a love poem, lilting around the form from hand to chest to speech bubble. It is taken from my short, illustrated book, Rubbish (published Yew Tree Press in 2021), which delicately and frankly describes the incredulous ordeal of physically distancing from a loved one during this past lockdown year.
I hope that its poignancy and topicality ring true with many of you and that the dose of wry humour with which it was written does not go amiss. The bite sized snippets of text piece together however you feel, though there is a definitive order intended.
The characters that adorn Love Bird represent us all. They are both feisty, expressive, and calm. I love to play with scale in my illustration and to invent my characters to fit the intent. Working around such an unusual 3D shape has been a challenge, but also suggested configurations that may not have come about otherwise. I wanted my kingfisher to reflect my signature style of drawing, namely pen and ink, heavily hatched, emotive characterisation, and the integral use of words.
Rubbish: A lockdown love poem
I know it’s rubbish but
Why don’t you not come over
And we won’t hold hands
We could stay apart
For weeks on end
And not be us
Rewrite our diaries
Be abnormal
Pretend to be OK
You could not come round
And not sit down
U turn
Love
And try
Not to miss each other
Yeah…right.