R ichard Kaye likes telegraph poles. As do I. Unlike me, though, he has an artist’s eye. And talent. He has produced a series of fine art prints of poles that haunt the skyscape of his locality. It is the telegraph poles that haunt his locality not his prints. His pictures are not at all spooky and don’t do any haunting. At all. I just want to be clear on that. He uses a traditional drypoint intaglio technique. Me, I think they’re stunning and capture the essence of everything about poles that has entranced me since my earliest days. Here’s what Richard has to say about them :
I have become fascinated by telegraph poles recently as I believe they are really powerful, bold and iconic as images. It’s also interesting that they are all around us and yet rarely seem to get noticed. I have tried to capture them as silhouettes in order to make the black and white prints I create more vivid and compelling.
The whole idea started when I was sitting on my front step one night and looked up at the one outside my house.
As a series I am trying to capture the disparity in the poles and also importantly consider the most striking composition.
The prints are for sale via Richard’s own <website> are very reasonably priced and should rightly grace the walls of any telegraph pole connoisseur. Personally I would like to buy the whole set as I feel they belong together. Alas, times are tough at Telegraph Pole Hall here in Mid-Walesshire and just putting quails in aspic on the table is proving quite the challenge these days. Proof of this can be found on proletarian fencing-site, eBay – in the category for Body Parts/Offal where my left kidney, with 2 days to go, has just 3 bids against it and is up to a paltry £39.77. And I forgot to put a reserve on!