Laura Baisden

I had too much fun making this poster and this entire series for @gillianwelchofficial and @davidrawlingsmusic so far - a few months ago - I pitched an idea to create an “illuminated manuscript” series - choosing a few of their songs with particularly vivid narratives and transforming them into a medieval setting. The first featured “Red Clay Halo,” and this current poster features “Cumberland Gap”- I’m going to make a second or third post dedicated just to the research for these images - if you’ve been following along in my stories, you might’ve seen some bits and pieces, but I’ve taken a deep dive into the world of the 1200-1400s and man-alive, were they a wildly creative bunch when it comes to depicting “the devil.” Seeing that the Cumberland Gap is “a devil of a gap,” I thought it’d be a perfect time to pull from that wealth of hellish inspiration. My version came out much happier, but it’s probably a lot to do with the color choices - though if you see the side by side comparisons - each monster of mine has an equally silly (albeit more sinister) twin from dark age history. Everything has tails or wings and horns - dogs as dragons, men as fish, lions as strange chicken lizards…the list is endless. My particular favorite animal combo was the one whose thighs were each possums whose mouths opened at the knees to make way for chicken legs. (See the guy in the top right?). Anyway, I like to imagine the innocent boy venturing into the wild mountains toward Kentucky, as a bard (a la Canterbury Tales)- singing his song of fear and woe as he narrowly skirts past the goofy yet ill intentioned creatures lurking behind the bushes all along the pass. #kissmemamakissyourboy
#idratherwrestlesatan
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#linocutprint #linoblock @aconyrecords #letterpress #blockprint #printmaking #handmade #reductionprint #vandercook #americanamusic #cumberlandgap