My work has always been about the fusion between reality and fantasy--what I remembered or thought I remembered; it's a mix of memory and desire, regret and hope.It has always been romantic and narrative in nature, and the major influences have been literary figures such as Dylan Thomas, T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, and Rimbaud.The work has always manifested itself in series. The "Escape Series" is just that--escape in its most wonderful sense. The "Desperado Series" is about the time I lived in Texas, I think.The "Dolce, Dolce Series" is based on 17th century Italian love poems, and has a lot to do with memories of my lost youth, wandering through Europe, my father, death, and music (in various combinations).

I've just finished a series of multi-media works on Arches paper based on Blake's "Songs of Innocence and Experience"; twelve about innocence and twelve about experience.
The work never stops, and the effort now, in the work and in the day to day journey is, as Dryden said,"to move the sleeping images of things toward the light."
That's the rush of it, and its impossibility.

                                        Tommy Mew