on sunday we adventured to the brick lane market with Z's sister L. we had hot cider and donuts. we had browsing and serious discussion of what to do with our lives. and we finally found dan hillier's upmarket stall. Z & i fell for his work when we first moved here, after we saw it at a craft fair in the old queen's head pub (one of our favorites for drinks when it's not a weekend night), but we'd never found him at the market. apparently this trip was beshert (a word meaning meant-to-be that Z's mom taught me). we happened to see a print of his in a shop window on our way to the market and L fell for hillier's work as well.
so, the three of us searched him out and then poured through his odd prints and picked out a few. i admit that his work is hyper influenced by max ernst's surrealist collages in une semaine de bonte. but i also admit that it's not like you can own a numbered ernst. Z & i bought the top print at market price which is much much cheaper than online; L bought the bottom one along with a stark & beautifully masculine print of a faun standing across from a stag with a tree growing out of its head. we agreed it's neat for siblings to own pieces by the same artist (like each of us have a section of something larger).
what i dig most about hillier's work is the expression of emotion, the caught-in-the-act of feeling: a brief glimpse of grieving, or anger, or delight. go check out more of his work here.
Does that mean Neal and I should get one too?
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