Jay Rubinstein

Pied Beauty 2019

Inspired by the poem of the same name by Gerard Manley Hopkins but also in some measure by the metamorphic etching by MC Escher.

It’s constructed using veneers of different timbers which are laminated into the desired shapes. The fish undulates with even slight air currents

Pheonix

Something of Maya Angelou's "Still I Rise" was part of the inspiration for this. I've made the flames appear as feathers.

Swan Reflections

"This is how we live,

Coming and going through each other."

This mobile was inspired by Imtiaz Dharker's poem "Invisible" in which a swan studies its reflection in the water, seeing in the image a lost lover.

The two swans move in such a way that they reflect each other in movement as well

Thought Fox

I’ve made a number of mobiles inspired by the poem by Ted Hughes. I’m happiest with this one. The fox is also a thought, an idea, an almost-poem. I wanted to make a mobile in which sometimes you could see a fox and sometimes not.

Leaves

Unusually for me this mobile came from an image rather than a poem. deliberately create the leaves in such a way to allow them to curl a little after gluing.

The three rings move independently very easily so that the impression of a swirl of leaves is created.