Perigee
Hahnemühle Bamboo giclée mounted on dibond
198 x 149mm
2023

In 2022 I was commissioned to create a piece of work that reflected on Jean Harrisons poetry. I chose a poem called ‘Woman on the Moon’, focusing on this expert:

“The earth has been huge in our sky all day
and as it sank, I felt I could reach out
and touch you, but all the time indigo
was seeping into the valley.
Now it’s flooded and the hills
are like shadowed snow.”

Published in The North, 2003 and The Forward Book of Poetry, 2004

The poem spoke to me about both the feelings of separation and connection that can happen after bereavement. I reflected on how her relationship with the Moon, the wider night sky and the constancy of tides out my window has helped me with my personal experience of grief. The collaged image gestures to a familiar world that is almost as it was before a bereavement but which is now irrevocably and wholly different.

This piece is currently part of an auction to support the Contemporary Poetry Library, which closes on 30 September.

Settle's Contemporary Poetry Library was established in memory of Jean Harrison. Support the future of the Library and other collections at the Museum of North Craven Life by bidding on one of the artworks or making a donation.