Very sad yesterday to hear of the sudden death of Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney.
I met Seamus a few times. He had that way of talking to you, while standing in a hall packed with his enthusiastic and determined admirers, as if you were the only other person in the room. Seamus was a charming, sexy, mischievous, lovely man.
I was exhibiting the Yeats in Love series in Galway in 2009. President Higgins (Michael D as he was that day) kindly agreed to open the exhibition and after the event asked me what I intended to draw next. I admitted I hadn't had much of a chance to think about it.
I met Seamus a few times. He had that way of talking to you, while standing in a hall packed with his enthusiastic and determined admirers, as if you were the only other person in the room. Seamus was a charming, sexy, mischievous, lovely man.
I was exhibiting the Yeats in Love series in Galway in 2009. President Higgins (Michael D as he was that day) kindly agreed to open the exhibition and after the event asked me what I intended to draw next. I admitted I hadn't had much of a chance to think about it.
"Why don't you do a series on Seamus Heaney?"
I considered this and then remarked,
"Well he does have fabulous eyebrows"
Being a girl who keeps her promises I repaired to my office and began researching Seamus.
I asked a close friend of his if he could give me some small bits of information I could use.
I wanted to do an amusing series of pictures about Seamus but did not want to be the very first person in the world to insult or offend him. I wanted to draw him with some of the things that meant something. His awards. His remarkable hair. A jar of Tadpoles. His favourite shirts. The squadrons of women who followed him around like Bobcats.
Picking up tiny stories I'd heard like bits of string, I slowly put a couple of drawings together.
One drawing said he needed to be reading in his study and I wanted the book to be something relevant.
I asked his friend,
I asked his friend,
"What might Seamus read in his spare time?"
Expecting the answer to be oh, Plato or Horace or Yeats.
"The Ben Sherman Catalogue" came the reply.
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