About The Lake Suite

The Northeastern woods of Thailand: the stillness and tranquility is deafening and overwhelming. 35 minutes from Chiang Mai is Compeung Village of Creativity - an artists retreat nestled into a verdant and isolated pocket of the earth. A short distance from the compound, I am introduced (for the first time, at midnight) to the nearby lake. The blackness intoxicating; sublime. Framed by forest and mountain, the fragrant sweetness of nearby rice paddies fill the air; the stillness of the night is broken only by the hypnotising lull of toads and crickets. I begin a month-long residency here. I am beckoned by the lake.

'The Lake Suite' is a small series of drawings which culls its namesake from this location, as well as the Edgar Allen Poe poem entitled 'The Lake', (first brought to my attention as performed by the spectacular Antony Hegarty). The drawings are sourced in the exploration of a number of personal events that occurred during October 2010, including sickness, death, birth, marriage, and the deterioration and collapse of a number of personal relationships. Perhaps it was the isolation, perhaps it was emphasized by the removal from my 'normal life', but the work penetrates what I feel is a significant and deeply personal aspect of my life.

 

"The Lake"
Edgar Allen Poe

In youth's spring, it was my lot
To haunt of the wide earth a spot
To which I could not love the less
So lovely was the loneliness
Of a wild lake, with black rock bound
And the tall trees that towered around

But when the night had thrown her pall
Upon that spot as upon all
And the wind would pass me by
In its stilly melody

My infant spirit would awake
To the terror of the lone lake
My infant spirit would awake
To the terror of the lone lake

Yet that terror was not fright
But a tremulous delight
And a feeling undefined
Springing from a darkened mind
Death was in that poisoned wave
And in its gulf a fitting grave
For him who thence could solace bring
To his dark imagining
Whose wildering thought could even make
An Eden of that dim lake

But when the night had thrown her pall
Upon that spot as upon all
And the wind would pass me by
In its stilly melody

My infant spirit would awake
To the terror of the lone lake
My infant spirit would awake
To the terror of the lone lake

Springing from a darkened mind
So lovely was the loneliness
In youth's spring, it was my lot
In its stilly melody
An Eden of that dim lake
An Eden of that dim lake
Lone, lone, lonely...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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