Val Thorne - through our experience

We filter things through our experience. When I think of Oscar Wilde I remember an eccentric student I knew at university who would wander the quad of 60's concrete dressed in full morning suit, spats, and a cane. Few people tried to get to know him, most ridiculed him. He was later murdered for being gay.

Oscar Wilde was flamboyant and eccentric. He was an easy target for gossip and the media. He was reputed to promenade holding a lily in his arms like a baby. It was symbolic of elevating beauty above utility.

Lilies feature in his work as symbols of pure beauty.

My lily features a stigma which is a wrapped male figure from which emerges a golden butterfly. The figure dives headfirst into the centre of the flower. The anthers crudely resemble male parts.