About Keryn

Keryn Evely’s working life has alternated between teaching (primary school and later for Dyslexia Institute) and ‘making’. Graduating from Glasgow School of Art (Jewellery and Silversmithing) in 1982, she worked as a designer-maker specialising in enamelling on precious metals for many years. She has also been learning and teaching circle dance since the 1990s.

From 2007 she attended occasional printmaking courses at D.C.A. and elsewhere, culminating in a part-time course at Leith School of Art (2019–20). Her interests and influences in both her jewellery, and now printmaking, derive mainly from the natural world or ancient artefacts (especially when they relate to dance).

The work exhibited includes various traditional printmaking techniques including relief (lino and collagraph) as well as intaglio and monoprint.

Artist’s Statement

A sign tells you something. A symbol opens up a possibility.

Artefacts and wall paintings from ancient times have long been an area of interest. When working as a designer-maker of enamelled jewellery, images from the frescoes at Knossos featured in the designs.

In the collection of prints here, made over the last 10 years and using a variety of techniques, the designs and complete artefacts are inspired by objects dating from the 5th millennium BC to the 2nd millennium BC. They are from various places across the Mediterranean, the Balkans and Eastern Europe (present day Romania).

One line of special interest is the patterns and symbols that recur. The archaeologist Marija Gimbutas has ascribed certain meanings to them. Her interpretations are regarded by some as controversial but nonetheless fascinating.

Some of the patterns and symbols (such as spirals, zigzags and meanders) can also be found in the oldest, and simplest, circle dances from the Balkan area. These and other symbolic designs also persist in the form of embroidered textiles.

This part of the work on show is somewhat like a museum collection. Postcards have been printed of the images — as museums have postcards.

You do not need to be aware of any of these attributed meanings but just admire the beauty of the objects and wonder at their survival and what their original purpose or uses might have been.

Artistic Practice

Selected Works

Standalone Prints

Museum Collection

Keryn’s “Museum Collection” is a series of prints inspired by ancient artefacts dating from the 5th millennium BC to the 2nd millennium BC. Each image is accompanied by a detailed description of the source artefact, its archaeological context, and the symbolic patterns it carries.

Full background for each piece is available on the Museum Collection reference page

• Statuette from Italy (4900–4700 BC) — Drypoint
• Figurine from Cucuteni (N.E. Romania) — Trace monoprint
• Pot from Sicily (3500–3000 BC) — Viscosity print from drypoint
• Three Cycladic Figurines — Collagraph
• Bird Figurine from Malta (c. 2500 BC) — Drypoint
• Libation Vessel from Mallia, Crete (c. 2300 BC) — Linocut over printed background
• Bee Pendant from Crete (1800–1600 BC) — Linocut over screen-printed background
• Trio of Goddesses (Mycenaean, 15C–12C BC) — Acrylic collage
• Poppy Seed Goddess from Crete (c. 1350 BC) — Print

Contact