“We Must Not Look at Goblin Men”

Mixed media art quilt

We must not look at goblin men,
We must not buy their fruits:
Who knows upon what soil they fed
Their hungry, thirsty roots?

(from Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti)

This piece is based on Goblin Market, Christina Rossetti‘s long narrative poem about temptation, seduction, courage and sisterly devotion. Although Rossetti herself insisted the poem was intended solely as a children’s tale, subsequent scholars have made much of the symbolism of juicy, enticing fruit offered by friendly goblin men who later abandon and ignore the innocent girls who give into temptation, leaving them to waste away from frustrated desire. In contrast to the two girls, with their golden and warm brown hair caught in the last rays of sunset, the goblins are shadowed by dusk, except for the gleam of the brilliantly coloured fruit they use to tempt unwary maidens.

This is an embellished art quilt, mounted on a wooden frame. It is essentially a quilt sandwich with trapunto to raise the figures, heavy machine quilting, beadwork, separately stitched elements, and hand embroidery and couching. 

Year	2009
Size	TBC
Series or Collection	n/a
Media	hand-dyed and painted cotton ground, acrylic and oil paint; hand and machine stitch, embellishment
For sale	£400
Image Licensing	contact me