Djana’s Art & Poetry –
Glimpses of Neverland

Style is a simple way of saying complicated things.

Jean Cocteau (1889-1963)

Both drawing pictures and writing poems and stories have always been central to my life. Tales sung by Greek bards and medieval troubadours, stories retold by the great European folk tale collectors, medieval manuscript illuminations, poetry and art from the Renaissance to Art Nouveau and folk art, the architecture of castles, cathedrals and Old World landscapes all provide inspiration for the work I create. And since earliest childhood a ceaseless source of beauty, consolation, and delight has always come from the natural world, contributing to and driving forward my impulse to make art and poetry.

Weather, the seasons and skies of earth, its land, water, trees, flowers, birds and creatures all play a vital part in my still lifes and landscapes, whether drawings, textile pictures, or fantasy tales. These influences are melded with three other essential components of my work: the realm of subconscious dreamscapes; an extremely particularized awareness of color, texture and light; and a sharp-focused appreciation of the small, overlooked wonders of our planet.

Striving to describe and combine these unstable, constantly changing elements in drawings and stories is an endless and inspiring challenge. While I always fall short of my goal to realize an ideal of perfect, coherent beauty, creating my pictures, poems and stories gives my life its purest, most unshaded joy.

Welcome to my worlds of Art & Poetry – places where skies at times darken beneath great piles of storm clouds and chill winds blow then, abruptly parting, allow shafts of golden light to pour down, painting trees, leaves, flowers and birds in a rainbow of bright enchantment.

Meet Fitzwilliam Fizzy-Witz

The photo shows Fitzwilliam Fizzy-Witz, the young owl mascot of my art studio. He’s about the size of a Tawny Owl, though unlike the tawny he’s entirely white. I adopted him some years back, brought him home and settled him in the perfect spot – the top corner of the settee in front of the big north window of my studio where he can watch me at work and comment on the goings-on.

When progress on my drawings or fabric pictures is in an especially fraught state his feathers fluff out even more and he’s been known to shriek some very unflattering remarks!