[Sarah-Jane Crowson]

Thanks Fliss,

When I first made her, it was following a trip to Birmingham and a response to the ideas of the Second Industrial Revolution (UK). The circular image to the left of the female figure is a ceramics guide to colour, heavily digitally transformed. So, I think she was a kind of goddess to industry, but not coherent in concept at all.

I don't want my next thing to be making imaginary deities of industry, but there's maybe something in it. I love Lely's paintings, all those fashionable facing staring out blankly, like possessions, a counter-narrative to what they might actually have been like. I like how they are open to reinvention, in terms of accessibility (copyright) and that they are often scions of long-dead houses (which I'd take into account if I can ethically anyway).

There might be something in the idea of the masked ball, of masks (but that has been done to death). I've made a couple of follow-up speculative ones, but they're all 'out' so I can't share to ask for suggestions.

Onwards, either way, and thanks for engaging with this, Fliss.

Sarah-Jane