This book of images I'd collected was put together for a series of drawings I did focusing on the human body and its related forms. My aesthetic was very much influenced by the photographs of Edward Weston, statues and mannequins, the writing of Michael Ondaatje and his descriptions of early 20th century desert exploration." - W.L

The sadness induced in Jan by the naked bodies scattered all over the beach became more and more unbearable. He said:"Its so peculiar, all these naked bodies here..." Edwige nodded: "Yes. And what's even more peculiar is that all the bodies are beautiful. Look, even old bodies, even sick bodies are beautiful as soon as they're only bodies, bodies without clothes. They're as beautiful as nature... Human ugliness is the ugliness of clothes." - Milan Kundera

"I think we're all very fragile. If you start to look around you, you begin to realise how vulnerable we are. We're surrounded by the everyday chaos of the industrial, technical world we live in. And we're very soft and fragile organisms." -Nick Knight

"Listen, my truest love, I've tried to clear a late-century place for us in among the shards. Lie down, tell me what else you need. Here is where loveliness can live with failure, and nothing's complete. I love how we go on." - Stephen Dunn

I find this woman's back very alluring... I think I once heard it said that the appeal of a Geisha's back lay in the fact that you couldn't see much of it, instead they painted it white and left a three pronged fork shape of bare skin unpainted, pointing downwards.

"The sapper has told her about statues he came across during the fighting, how he had slept beside one who was a grieving angel, half male, half female, that he had found beautiful. He had lain back, looking at the body, and for the first time during the war, felt at peace."
- Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient

"What gives mannequins allure? Is it the clothes they wear, or the scenes they inhabit, or is it their Platonically perfect bodies and flawless faces? Undressed mannequins may be less appealing than those that wear enticing attire, but a detached head, hand or foot also has its mysterious appeal."
- from a book I found in Ms. M's office

The journey ends here...