In our dreams
Today I went to see an exhibition of work by the artist Peter Blake (best known for the record cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band.) He has been obsessed with Under Milk Wood ever since he first encountered it and this year being the centenary of Dylan Thomas's birth his work has been put on display in St David's.
Most of the work consists of small drawings and paintings inspired by the words. I liked the 'dreams' set best. Thomas introduces the characters in the radio play while they are still asleep, revealing the secret loves and lusts that preoccupy their unconscious minds. Here are a selection as depicted by Peter Blake.
Top left: And in the little pink-eyed cottage next to the undertaker's,
lie, alone, the seventeen snoring gentle stone of Mister
Waldo, rabbitcatcher, barber, herbalist, catdoctor, quack,
his fat pink hands, palms up, over the edge of the patchwork
quilt, his black boots neat and tidy in the washing-basin,
his bowler on a nail above the bed, a milk stout and a slice
of cold bread pudding under the pillow.
Top right:
And high above, in Salt Lake Farm, Mr Utah Watkins counts,
all night, the wife-faced sheep as they leap the knees on
the hill, smiling and knitting and bleating just like Mrs
Utah Watkins.
Bottom right:
And the Inspectors of Cruelty fly down into Mrs Butcher
Brynon's dream to persecute Mr Beynon for selling
owlmeat, dogs' eyes, manchop...
Bottom left:
Alone until she dies, Bessie Bighead, hired help, born in
the workhouse, smelling of the cowshed, snores bass and
gruff on a couch of straw and
picks a posy of daisies in Sunday Meadow to put on the grave
of Gomer Owen who kissed her once by the pig-sty when she
wasn't looking and never kissed her again although she was
looking all the time.
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