As is generally known, Alice’s adventures were “born on a golden afternoon” when the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll) took the three young daughters of Dean Liddell of Christchurch,Oxford, on a boating trip up the Thames. Carroll delighted the children by relating Alice’s adventures and eventually promised his favorite, Alice Liddell, to write the story down for her.

 

Realizing that his own illustrations would not pass muster with a public that had high draughtmanship standards, Carroll sought out John Tenniel, premier cartoonist of the satirical magazine,”Punch”, for the job and the collaboration resulted in the indelible images we know today.

 

“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” was published in 1865 and became an instant success with both critics and public. In the post-Tenniel years, “Alice” and it’s 1872 successor, “Through the Looking Glass” had attracted literally hundreds of the finest illustrators/artists world wide. Among the most famous are: Marie Laurencin, Max Ernst, Melvyn Peake, Salvador Dali, Peter Blake, Helen Oxenbury and scores of lesser known artists. In addition there are theatrical productions, musicals, operas, movies not to mention comic and manga artists. Every art movement of the past two centuries has been embraced: Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Surrealism, Pop Art, PhotoRealism, Minimalism and Fantasy.

 

The life of Lewis Carroll has been laid out in one biography after the next; his psyche has been examined, analyzed and dissected, his motivation questioned, studied, and, interpreted and the Alice books probed, poked and pored over from hell to breakfast.

Why, then, it might be asked, would an artist revisit subject matter so widely known and universally recognized? Why, for the fun of it of course! I first read the Alice books when I was eight. The images of Wonderland have not faded with the years; my interest never waned and I am no less captivated by the emblematic figure of Alice and her extraordinary encounters now than I was so long ago.

 

Aspects of Alice is a series of paintings not illustrating but inspired by and celebrating the stories. While my Alices vary racially and are at different life stages, they retain the resolute spirit of the original, neither meek nor obedient, but adventurous, inquisitive and strong. My rendition of her entourage includes recognizable images of Carroll’s famous characters as well as freshly invented characters for whom new stories must be imagined.

 

Lewis Carroll envisaged an alternative world with outsize characters and it’s own logic. He encouraged his readers to give free rein to their imaginations…..to follow Alice down that rabbit hole and through the looking glass. And so I did. He created a kaleidoscope of illusions; I simply rotated the cylinder.

 

Phyllis Davidson.
October 20, 2017