Then there are the triangles and lozenges on the left, which are broken into three layers of similar looking shapes with or without borders around the shapes. It all seems at first glance to be, well, unprofessional is the word I might use. Some triangles flop on one side like a wet cardboard box or bow at the bottom. Everything is at an angle climbing from left to right but not evenly. Some have interpreted the repeated triangles seen in much of the art as a counting system (Martin Brennan-The Stones of Time) so perhaps their shape is not so important (although he did in his earlier book The Boyne Valley Vision present theories on structure using large circles that encompassed the whole designs). But why were some of the triangles perfect and others not? Why if they appear to lay along a line of sight are some dipping below the line and others perfectly on the line. Why were some shapes repeated to perfection and others apparently arbitrarily untidy and inconsistent? Why are the diamond and square between the spirals not exactly on the central axis? The artist was capable of precision (the spirals) so why not be precise? So frustrating.

Having studied and drawn and redrawn this image I noticed something. I was tracing the spirals image and moved the tracing paper to the left of my drawing of the entire stone meaning I could see the triangles through a spiral, The top right triangle in the row of three has sides that curve gently outwards and it had a perfect straight base. One side of it fitted perfectly inside the second turn of the spiral Could this mean something? I drew a sort of K67 machine rumbling on with apparent wheels turning and noted curves everywhere. I tried to see if there was some consistent way of making sense of this half section of a circle, then I saw two circles overlap amid the chaos of all the tracings and like a bolt of lighting I saw that the triangle was the centre of a ven diagram so this meant it was a shape made by two interlocking circles. I did a bit of surfing and found that there are loads of ways of making images using interlocking circles and that many of these were often described as “sacred geometry”. I have scoured the internet and not found anything on their use before the Roman period. I noted that when circles interlock they make a grid of lozenges with great ease. If you have a circle with the centre marked then you can play endlessly with designs. You will get a lot of 60 degree angles and 90 degree angles. So you can make squares, lovely isosceles triangles, parallelograms, rectangles to any size you like, all without needing protractors or T squares or indeed numbers, just string and a pencil and some kind of ruler.

Then I realized something important. If you make an interlocking pattern of circles showing it’s line grid it gives you three options if you are drawing a line. You can use the straight line of the grid like the base of the triangle I was focusing on or you can use the curve of the circle as in the left and right sides of the triangle. This was starting to get me very excited about the floppy triangles. Another point about this way of drawing is it allows you to have pinpoint accuracy without measuring anything. You put a circle with the centre point on a straight line and you build from there always placing the central point on where circles intersect and you will not go wrong. To my utter astonishment an interlocking pattern which makes 6 petals and a grid of lozenges was the basis for the entire left side of the stone. The etched semicircle on the left of the stone fits into the pattern. If I continued beyond the diagonal border between the left side and the right side the circles stopped making such clear sense.

I then turned my attention to the right hand side of the stone and noted that while there seemed to be circle segments, the left hand circles were too small to fit like when you try to put the lid of a jam jar on and realise your mistake when it drops into the jam. So the circles on the right side were based on the (invisible) outer arm of the spiral. You can see a curved line in evidence rather than a dead straight line on the top right of the diamond shape. Also if you look at the large square, it’s outer top right side is a circle segment and you can even see the circle extend a bit downwards, is this a guideline? The tiny square also has a curved edge. And look at the ‘L’ again. This too could be a section of a circle. Was there more design to be seen originally and we are left with some bits missing? I squinted at my laptop and drawing programme.

What I couldn’t have imagined is that every single shape would eventually find its meaning in the design and it is a design of such astonishing complexity and beauty I couldn’t have believed it. Far from being less than perfect, it was based on an amazing two part design! Please go back and forward to see where each circle finds its origin. It may be a tiny little edge of something but it is there and will always have it’s corresponding matching shape on the other side but will have a different line to guide you. As it gets more complicated I am sure there are errors and omissions as it is impossible to find the central point as all the lines become blended together but you can see in principle that it makes sense. The V shapes on the top right also make circles that touch the lines within the spirals but by the time those are done the image is almost obliterated by lines! The large circles also match up with the left over lines of the left hand pattern.

So what have we got? The left hand side is a design made using a repeat pattern and the right hand side is a single symmetrical (hooray!) image involving a mind-bendingly dazzling use of circles. And to think the first time I saw K67 I thought it looked like an owl in flight. I suppose the next question is why do a pattern and then remove arbitrary bits of it so the original pattern can’t be easily discerned? Was it completed on special occasions using paint or charcoal? Was it a secret known only to certain people? Or was it simply a grid over which patterns and designs could be made which I since found is a feature of Islamic art of the middle ages. The left hand side pattern makes me think of the stories of the swans with rings around their necks all connected to eachother by silver or gold chains. The spirals make me think of Boanne breaking taboos by walking around a well in counter clockwise direction rather than the prescribed clockwise direction.

The implications of this could be big. The art of the Boyne Valley specifically consists of so-called geometric shapes such as lozenges triangles squares and rectangles, and then a more fluid style of curves, circles, wavy lines, dots etc. In the case of K52 there are different sections with both apparently opposing styles, a section of spirals and a section of grid made using straight interlocking lines. If I am right in my hypothesis then these designs are part of the same set of design tools and motifs. The grid could hold circles, the circles can hold a grid and both can be used to make art that is at first glance not symmetrical and apparently haphazard even. Giant ‘X’s naturally form from interlocking circle grids too. I’m thinking of the roof box stone with its eight ‘X’s. Is it related to the other art? I am now looking at other stones and seeing this and other methods appear. Some stones are more stubborn than others but in between making my own art I will carry on looking as long as the original artists maintain their silence.

Sun sun sun! Here it comes!

Site specific, time based art is what modern artists would call Loughcrew (and Sid in Broige and the other sites in the Boyne Valley) if it was made today as an artwork. This is artwork that can only exist in or may be a part of a particular setting or building and it involves a ‘happening’ that people must attend at a specific time, the rest of the time the art does not exist. A movie is time based for instance. For me as an artist the fact that the rising sun completes the work is such an amazing idea. What a special moment for the artist when the sun came and all went to plan. It is in a place aligned to the rising of the Equinox sun and cannot be seen any other way unless a burning torch was brought inside. The stone is not portable in that it couldn’t have been taken out and looked at in day light. It waits for this event and then the stone is lit up by the sun that travels along the shapes and they are individually lit up. This is sun dialling but in reverse as it is not casting a shadow but capturing the light in the gap between objects. For more I recommend Martin Brennan who wrote extensively on this and did real time experiments and observations.

The art exists in a particular place and time and ceases to exist in its true form until this place and time converge again so whatever is on that stone must mean something in that context. When I decided to do a watercolour of the stone using imagined colours, I had this feeling of the stone shouting that the sun was here in many different voices as each motif lit up with my brush. “Sun sun sun, here it comes!” There is a stone to the right which has ridges across it and to my mind when watching a video of the sunrise light pouring over the stone it appears to measure the movement of this rectangle of light that moves down the stone at an angle taking about 50 minutes. Did people sing or chant or drum in time to this?

Once more with feeling! The Sil Stone

As the light leaves the chamber it swoops over the Sil stone. It has an 8 petaled motif (there are two on the Equinox stone) within a circle that tapers a little at the top similar to F4 . What is distinct about it is that it’s petals are formed by hollowing out the shape rather than etching a line around it. This is a clear choice to do the opposite technique to the Equinox stone to describe the shape. The little petals do not reflect light, they are in shadow surrounded by light. It is a very important difference to me as an artist even if it doesn’t seem that important at first glance. It is about intention and consciously playing with the idea of capturing light or capturing darkness. It is different to the other flower like patterns in that it contains dots in its pattern besides the centre dot. Does it use the same size circle as on the Equinox stone? I can’t be sure not having any way to measure it from my studio in London! I believe but cannot prove that the dots are the centre points of each circle used to create the design. My circles’ central points do not all line up exactly with the dots but it may be to do with the angle of the surface of the stone in photographs. The tapering point at the top can be formed by one of the outer petal shapes as it forms outside the main circle. It is a beautiful farewell to the sun before it leaves till next time.

Putting it all together

The overall effect of all the motifs is an intense visually noisy image but done with great delicacy like an embroidery. It is all happening on the surface with the faces of the ‘flowers’ directly in front of the viewer. You are meant to see each detail of the main motifs. The motifs seem to have wider gaps between them as you go lower down the stone and the frequency of the tiny in-between motifs also diminishes until the bottom area has no marks at all. This part of the stone is obscured by the sil stone so this does suggest a work that is meant to be looked at from a particular position and indeed I can’t imagine there being much room to see if from any other angle. The most repeated theme in the work is a star or flower shape, a central dot with lines or loops splayed wide some enclosed some not. This repetition but not exact repetition makes the stone come alive with a notion of change or growth. The pattern on the sil stone seems a final flourish although there are other minor patterns the sun interacts with before it leaves the chamber. To me it reads almost as music with variations on a theme. I know that it has been compared less favourably to the masterpiece that is K1 at Sid in Broige (Newgrange)in that K1 is more sculptural and this is true. But K1 was an art piece that could be viewed from many angles as people approached Sid in Broige whereas the Equinox stone was made to be seen from one position and close up as it forms the backdrop to the sun’s journey within the chamber. (I used to be a window dresser and made lots of props for windows that had an almost 3D view a bit like K1 which were not meant to be viewed from the back but approached from left and right). Perhaps this is why a flat stone was chosen so that the light ran smoothly over the surface and also the motifs remain ‘legible’ not distorted in any way by being at a different angle or going around a curved surface. In terms of the thought and planning behind it I see it as equal to K1 but more like a painting than a sculpture. Truly joyous to behold!

One more thing (focal beag)…daisies

I know I said that I called the motifs on the Equinox stone ‘flowers’ just for ease but something has occurred to me about this particular flower. The english word daisy means Day’s Eye referring directly to its resemblance to the sun and how the sun is an eye that looks out over it’s domain. The irish word for daisy is “Noineen” which translates as “little noon”. This means the humble daisy with its multiple little loops around a circle in irish usage is not a representation of the sun or even an eye but a time.