Welcome to the website of Michael Fowdrey, a printmaker and picture framer based in the North West of England.
Here you’ll also meet Inky, my alter ego: a curious octopus who helps me make sense of the world through the eyes of an outsider. Inky is fascinated by the creativity of humans but often puzzled by our contradictions and the baffling intricacies of daily life. As a well-meaning but confused tourist, Inky’s observations often find their way into my artwork.
Inky also has an endless supply of ink, which, as you might imagine, comes in quite handy for printmaking!
Below the thunders of the upper deep,
Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides; above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumbered and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages, and will lie
Battening upon huge sea worms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson