"The Moon and the Heron"

This original papercut is composed from page 73 of Delia Owens’ novel Where the Crawdads Sing, a story rich with the quiet textures of the natural world — birds, tides, marsh grass and moonlight.

The heron is based on one of my father’s photographs. He is a keen birdwatcher, and the image provided the starting point for translating the bird and surrounding reeds into the language of the page.

Beneath the composition appears a line from the novel:

“If anyone would understand loneliness, the moon would.”

The text has been formed from the discarded fragments of the page removed during the cutting process, allowing the words to remain part of the material of the book itself.

The papercut is stitched by hand onto a black background so that the paper sits slightly away from the surface. This allows the feathers, reeds and surrounding forms to cast subtle shadows, giving the work depth and movement.

The piece is presented in a hand-finished box frame with a 20 mm space between the artwork and the glass, allowing sections of the papercut to rise from the surface and creating a quiet three-dimensional presence.

This composition later informed Edition V of the Novel Print Archive.

This work is the only hand-cut instance of the composition, made directly from a specific page of the text.

A small studio edition may be developed from this work at a later date, derived from the original and produced through a separate, fixed process.

Artwork is A4 in size (210mm x 297mm)
Inside the frame, the artwork is 320mm x 230mm

Presented in a hand-finished white wooden box frame with UV glass.

The artwork itself is complete and signed in the studio.

Each original work is carefully framed and prepared for shipment upon purchase.

Please allow up to 10 days for dispatch.