Karisgonegonzo

30/07/2026

Devil's in the details......the perfect brief (especially as my art theme this year was 'plant lore, folk customs and the liminal!')

Pure joy for me scribbling such sorcery!. Thanks for a very decent excuse to get trapped in a Cornish Pellar's cottage for a while this month!

If you're down in Cornwall this autumn, check out Keith's talks, and as always the podcast 🖤

A huge thank you to Karisgonegonzo for putting together the amazing artwork for my Autumn series of talks, which will be delving back into the topic of witchcraft in Cornwall, focusing on charms and cures, and also the belief around the power of the evil eye and 'ill-wishing.' Tickets are already on sale for my talks at Poly Falmouth on the 28th Oct and 25th Nov. Check out the link in the comments below for booking and more info.

27/07/2026

Beethology lives on! Thanks to Farleigh Hospice for taking these pictures, lovely to see her back in nature, the bees knees! 🐝

06/07/2026

🐙Sculpture Trail Launch Day! Say hello to ‘Inkognito’ 🏴‍☠️

Inkognito is a celebration of the maritime tattoo tradition used for centuries by sailors. Marking journeys, experiences, and achievements, ink and ocean ‘hold fast’ to one another. Permanently etched onto skin, they were not just works of art but recordings, symbols, living maps and even lucky talismans to some. This design showcases some of Plymouth’s history via tattoo flashes, camouflaging the ‘guiding light’ and exploring what lurks beneath the surface…….

An absolute joy tattooing my mini lighthouse, I’ll be hunting them down later this summer…..
Sponsor
Raising funds for
A trail by

My lighthouse is part of the Roaming Exhibition which will travel to the following locations during the trail:

Salcombe Brewery Tap House, Salcombe, Devon 6th-19th July

Harbour House Gallery, Kingsbridge Library and the Velarde Gallery, Kingsbridge, Devon 20th-2nd August

St Luke’s Hospice Charity Shop, Tavistock, Devon 3rd-16th August

Dartmoor Zoo, Sparkwell, Devon 17th-30th August

The Barrow Centre, Mount Edgecumbe, Devon 31st-13th September

Farewell Weekend, Market Hall Devonport, Devon 25th – 27th September

28/06/2026

Hatches are open!

10.30am Open Boats Day, come say hi!
**ds

27/06/2026

🍃New Print ‘Foraging Folk’🍃

Each year I try to illustrate a new poster to celebrate Open Boat Day, and this year I’ve continued with my plant lore and liminal theme with ‘Foraging Folk’. Only got these printed at the very last minute so super happy to have available as part of tomorrow’s art market aboard!. Also ties in nicely with the community w**d walk for some towpath wisdom…..

What three words location 👉flute.fire.tables

These shall be added to my other boaty/towpath arty prints and cards.

Available as a4/a3 prints and a5 greeting cards.

10.30am Wolvercote lock-CRT info tent (questions/volunteering queries) then head north up the canal
10.30am-2pm art market Lady Banbury art market and exhibition
10.30-12 Galileo refreshments and boaty chit chat
12pm Community w**d walk with **ds (meet at Lady Banbury)

Come hang out tomorrow Sunday 28th 🛶🛶🛶

22/06/2026

🧚Foraging for fairy palettes…..🧚‍♀️

Which colourway? These are the three I edited down to from about ten variants, but still can’t choose….

Some snippets of new cover art which I have been making and thoroughly enjoying the line work. Very much inspired by William Morris patterns, Richard Doyle’s fairylands, Richard Dadd’s insane attention to detail and whose life was bonkers…..with his best visionary masterpieces being painted whilst in asylums….The forgotten botanical illustrations of Berthe Hoola Van Nooten are ace and the very obvious influence of Cicely Mary Barker‘s flower fairies. Really allowing myself to get sucked into decorative enlightenment era gubbins here.

18/06/2026

🪡Common threads on common ground…..🧵

As midsummer approaches, so too does the Wolvercote and Wytham Festival!. II was asked to design an image for this year’s brochure, the theme being ‘Threads’. I scribbled out a load of rough sketches but this one was the winner, and I’m so happy to see my corn-dolly style dancers on the cover and posters, the Daisy wheel idea also a nod to the village emblem 🌼

For me ‘threads’ conjures up connections and entanglements, as well as roots, and growth, creativity, patterns, identity, uniting community and common ground. Textile crafts such as quilt sewing, knitting and weaving etc. hold so much ancestral relevance, and a joy to get my head around a way s of portraying this.conceptually. I don’t often share my roughs but it’s quite fun going back over where my own thought threads were and how they eventually unravelled themselves……I hope you like the final design.

The festival kicks off tomorrow June 16th and finishes with Open Boat Day on Sunday 28th. PDF brochures are available online and physical ones are at all the usual villagey hubs such as the pub and the mill.

The music accompanying is Olivia Fern ‘Red Thread’ and the lyrics are exactly what I feel in this land; walking on this common ground, through the canal waters and rivers and willow leaves and faces and stories. I might have looked a little hippy dippy, but I spoke these words to two cygnets this morning, who happily munched their way through the incantation in ignorant bliss. Cygnets are powerful symbols of unity and community, staying with their parents for up to a year, hopping on the adult’s back for rides and learning from the close unit, so perhaps a very fitting find on my walk.

Heartbeat, drum beat
Life flowing through me
Power be released
Healing the wounds of my ancestry
Calling on my mother’s mother
Mother of her mother
Red
Thread
Calling on my mother’s mother
Mother of her mother
Red
Thread
We ask for healing for the daughters
We ask for healing for the sons
We ask for healing backwards and forwards
May it be done