logo scraps and other things

Something a little different. I like to see 'behind the scenes' of things , and so I thought I would show you the work in progress of the Egeria logo. The ship image is pretty much done; I'm still working on the lettering a bit. The bird was too close to the letters and too dark, so it affected the legibility, which is never good. So I took the colour out of the bird and gave the final A more of a swoosh to move the bird further away. The tapey looking bits you see are -- tape. I like that too.
Oh, and the bird is from a Fayum portrait; I will put some images of them on here at some point -- I love them. If you haven't seen any yet you are in for a treat. Anyway, I love to plunder ancient art for ideas (as did the ancients themselves) and decided to steal that bird. I'm pretty sure there is a hieroglyph that looks like that -- it's a falcon or something. To me it's: a bird.
Aside from looking cool it suggests a) flight an b) rest, with the negative space in the A suggesting a doorway and home. Aaah yes, all intentional, my pretties!

The ship is also stolen from ancient art -- this time a mosaic depicting byzantine er -- maritime stuff? I don't know, it's on the cover of a book I bought a while back called Sailing From Byzantium, about the Byzantine heritage in western history that goes unsung. Pretty cool; I must finish reading it. Anyway, nice boat. This is a watercolour version with a bunch of stars. I seem unable to escape piling stars on everything I paint. Some icons are even supposed to be loaded with stars, which is great for me. I love them, both in art and in life. But then there are those exquisite lines from Wounded by Love, the wisdom of Elder Porphyrius:


Whoever wants to become a Christian must first become a poet. The soul of the Christian needs to be refined and sensitive, to have sensibility and wings, to be constantly in flight and to live in dreams, to fly through infinity, among the stars, amidst the greatness of God, amid silence.

And now, something from Egeria's Travels itself:

The holy monks were good enough to receive us very hospitably, and welcomed us indoors. Going in with them we joined them in prayer, and then they very kindly gave us the 'blessings' which it is normal for them to give those whom they entertain. Between the Church and the cells was a plentiful spring which flowed from a rock, beautifully clear and with an excellent taste, and we asked the monks who lived there about this water which tasted so remarkably good. "This", they told us. "is the water which Holy Moses gave the children of Israel in the desert." As usual we had there a prayer, a reading from the Book of Moses, and one psalm.
(John Wilkinson, trans.)