Greek mythology is responsible for some of my earliest, most foundational memories of story. I first read about Pandora in a white hardback book and felt that I was discovering something special that nobody had ever discovered before.
This elation at coming across a big idea for the first time is a high that I sought out regularly in childhood. When I learned about meditation, I sat cross-legged on my bedroom floor, fizzing with excitement at the thought I’d soon be levitating several inches above my body. Every few seconds I checked: was I having an out-of-body experience yet? Now? How about now?
When that didn’t work I went back to my books: Achilles dipped in the River Styx; Medusa’s writhing snakes; Narcissus besotted by his own reflection.
The rush of a brand new story is harder to come by as you get older. You encounter the same ones with different names, different places. Tropes play out on repeat. But I still crave that novelty. And often I seek it in my work.
Rebirth (2026): available now
I started Rebirth with a sample of a nude woman, taken from a 1970s book on calendar girls. In the original she forms the shape of an apple, arranged in double for the male gaze. One of my greatest joys in collage is taking pieces like this and recontextualising them. Here, her nudity has narrative purpose: she pulls herself afresh from this boiling lake, new, reborn. She has strength and agency.
I let colour lead me through the creation of this piece: after sourcing the first sample, I knew I wanted some teal in there. Teal and red/orange is one of my favourite colour combinations of all time.
I tested a dozen samples for the sky but ultimately came back to this one (the first I tried) because it added a claustrophobic, heated intensity that the cleaner, quieter backgrounds lacked. As always, I’m sourcing for narrative charge.
The other sources are also from the seventies: books on North America, the ocean, and astronomy.
Fragments of myth surfaced for me as I built this piece. The phoenix, Narcissus, Helios, and more.
Doubling the double: perfect colour reproduction in these giclée prints
I have to share how good these prints came out too. A perfect reproduction of a perfect reproduction: a woman doubled, and doubled again. Giclée prints on textured archival matte paper for incredible depth and longevity.
Rebirth is available now, shipping to US, UK, and Canada. Original also available.
What does she bring to mind for you?
Speak soon,
Lily
