The inspiration behind the art work

My friend Anna Kallis does all my art work, and here are her comments on her process:

Cover art for The Bright Knowledge
This is my second illustration work for Diana.

For Diana’s first cd I had used aquatic images, sparked by the title, Panta Rhei,  which refers to the ancient idea that everything is fluid or in flux. The content supported the watery palette and images evoked by the title: seafaring peoples and songs, the celtic and mediterranean traditions brought together over water. Metaphorically, water stood for traditional music both staying the same through time and changing with each fresh approach. The black and white portrait of Diana by Andy Stewart captured an introspection and serenity that suited the mood, and allowed me to overlay my various washes and layers, such as sirens’ hair, harp strings and ogham script.
As a finishing, playful touch, I added a rebus of the artist’s name using an old print of a statue of Diana, a moon goddess (for me the moon and the sea always go together), next to a leaf from a rowan tree with it’s botanical latin inscription. Though I was only aiming for a visual tease, a sort of subliminal repetition of her name, it occured to me afterwards that the songs were summed up in these two juxtaposed images: the mediterranean and celtic side by side.

Talking about The Bright Knowledge cover over the phone for the first time, I knew this was going to be an album to do with light. Before Diana even explained the ancient irish custom of imbas forosnai, I had doodled onto some note paper a triangular beam of light centered in an otherwise dark background. She then told me how bright knowledge was obtained, through long meditation in dark isolation and then sudden release into the light, that brings the seeker all kinds of enlightenment. It all somehow made sense, but when we met in Berkeley this summer I still only had my first drawing of that beam against the darkness. I knew I wanted some rich golden tones and they were provided by the photo taken by Michael van Auken. I enhanced the beam of light and took it from there. The embroidery on the inside cover is drawn in pencil, scanned and painted in Photoshop. I’ve always admired the traditional embroidery of Skyros, with it’s crazy motifs of people, animals, birds, ships and vegitation utilizing every bit of space, as if trying to fit the world into a length of fabric. In the cypriot song that forms part of Devoted, this is what the maiden is asked to do in a futile attempt to escape the clutches of the dark rider, Death. “Embroider for him, daughter, It might sate his hunger. Embroider the dark sea With its harbours, The plains and the mountains with their forests…” The linen background, golden hues and ripples were added in Photoshop. When an illustration works out, several unplanned things come together to enhance it. In this case I keep finding new ones: the warp and weft in the embroidered handkerchief didn’t even occur to me until afterwards. Diana’s eye drawn directly from her close-up photo worked as a Protective Eye talisman, when I placed it in the lozenge shape on the disc panel.