In the past there have been many exiled and banished peoples wandering or seeking for some lost or untranslatable purpose or goal. In the desert southwest of New Mexico (some call the northern part of Central or South America) this exile also applies. In the Desert the isolation brings with it the danger of madness and insanity, or inspiration. Art is now a way to channel visions of Hell into the small window of opportunity the genius uses as his or her canvas in this setting. Art is! My journey into art is conditional on an uncle's work in museums in England and Australia, as well as the WEA in London during the 1930s. It was at about this juncture that George Orwell (Erik Blair) was staying at the institution but whether my uncle and GO ever crossed paths I am not aware. Incorporating art into the narrative via my book cover jackets was a whim that became an obsession and then a passion. Isolation and panoramic views, the physical landscape of geologically historical visual presence and altitude give the cues that enhance or reflect, imitate like a monster mirror, the reptilian brain of our ancestors. Spark the sense of violence and calm underlying the everyday existence in this ancient elevated seascape of arid seabed life.

By importing and incorporating into the narrative a visual cue the task of making coherent the moods and unique pastoral shades, ambiguities of shadow and light verify what is in the book or point to what may be found within its hidden pages. The Idyll! For example the dark portrait of Black Innocence on the cover is by Peter Pabisch which I use to give the impression of poor working class, Blue Collar, miner-like credentials perhaps reminiscent of Zola. On the other hand a religiously ambiguous (pastoral church steeple) cover on One Day in April belies a more subtle yet even existential flow in the narrative of lyrical Magical Realism (betraying the Irish Lullaby in the subtitle). The first of these titles is by Ida Gunderson who's portrait of the author wants to express a traveled middle age man relaxing, or reposing might better explain the posture of the seated figure. A sketch which elaborates and at the same time and moment gives the philosophical mood to the written word. The book is a set of glimpses and is the author's first attempt at composition by peeking out at the landscape and the voices of the New World.  Her portrait sets the tone and casualness of the reader and the read. The exile's diary in The Sun Also Sets also uses Patrick Policastro’s image of a setting sun in the desert southwest. The whole image on the cover is surrounded by a halo of lace-like patterns gleaned at random from An Old Captivity, by Neville Shute. This added a North or Scandinavian frill to the 'diary'. Progressively I discovered new and interesting ways in which to 'frame' my work using the found and donated objects of friends and colleagues, distilling from them more meaningful visual dialogue. I mean that enhancing the outside revealed the inside of each given work. Teabags From England is a typical ploy or manipulated weapon in the game of transparency. It consists in poetry about the Southwest region of New Mexico yet harks back to an old (pre-exiled) previous life in Europe and often mentions teacups, teabags, tea-mania in its textual representations as well as coal mines and musical themes one of which mentions oil rigs in the North Sea. The art used is an oil painting by Alfred Charles Slawson (my uncle Jim) and is of a still life including a Blue Wedgewood teapot with cups and saucers sitting on a kitchen table in front of a greenish wall where an old fashioned gas mantel exudes a 1930-ish warm domestic scene. The jacket cover changes the direction and hue of the scene into a Blue aristocratic celebration of new ideas associated with New World ideals, seated in the most southern and romantic setting of the desert southwest. The temptation is to make 'book art' instead of literary speculations. The reader or observer must decide which it is by confronting their own anxieties and being decisive about what they perceive. Is it art or is it a book? This paranoia is a vital part or aspect of what I wish to convey and intergrate into my work, by extemporizing the mixed emotions found in exile, using both hot and cold, familiar and unfamiliar, rational and irrational tenses in the visible and unconsciously precise world outside of our human control. Madness or insanity prevail over certainty.

David Wilde June 2004