I was awarded my PhD on William Blake’s images of Christ and ideas about art in early 2016, and have since published a book and several academic and popular articles emerging from my research on the artist. My doctoral research was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the University of Manchester and a visiting fellowship at the Yale Center for British Art.
Book
The Visionary Art of William Blake: Christianity, Romanticism and the Pictorial Imagination (London: I.B. Tauris, 2018; T&T Clark, 2019). ISBN (hardback): 9780567694171
William Blake described Jesus as an artist. My book explores how this idea is expressed in the artist’s works from throughout his career.
I discuss both famous images, such as Blake’s designs to Milton’s poetry, and some of his less well-known works, such as his illustrations to Edward Young’s Night Thoughts.
I argue that Blake uses his images of Christ as a vehicle for his visionary theology of art.
Articles and chapters
‘“As the Eye Is Formed”: Seeing as Christ in Blake’s Bartimaeus’, in The Figure of Christ in the Long Nineteenth Century, ed. Elizabeth Ludlow (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), pp. 39–52. ISBN: 978-3-030-40081-1 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-40082-8_3
‘William Blake: Visionary artist’, in Seventy-Second Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts [programme book] (Snape Maltings, 2019), pp. 35–38.
‘An “apostle of futurity”: William Blake as herald of a universal religious worldview’, in Visual Culture in Britain 19.3, special issue ‘William Blake: The Man from the Future’ ed. Colin Trodd and Jason Whittaker, (2018), pp. 321–334. DOI: 10.1080/14714787.2018.1523685
‘Re-viewing William Blake’s Paradise Regained (c.1816–1820)’, in Religion and the Arts 22:1–2, special issue ‘Picturing Paradise in Nineteenth-Century British and American Art’ ed. James Romaine and Rachel Hostetter Smith (2018), pp. 16–39. DOI: 10.1163/15685292-02201001
‘“On the Stocks”: Biblical watercolours from the Felpham period’, in William Blake in Sussex: Visions of Albion, ed. Andrew Loukes (London: The National Trust in association with Paul Holberton Publishing, 2018), pp. 33–45. ISBN: 9781911300298
‘Citizens of “London” as Members of Christ’s Divine Body in William Blake’s Biblical Illustrations’, in Visualising a Sacred City: London, Art and Religion, eds. Ben Quash, Aaron Rosen and Chloë Reddaway (London: I.B. Tauris, 2017), pp. 89–101. ISBN: 9781784536619
William Blake’s Virtual Cottage Tour
I was commissioned by the Big Blake Project to curate a virtual tour of the cottage in Felpham, West Sussex, where William and Catherine Blake lived between 1800 and 1803. I devised the scheme of images from Blake’s designs for the six spaces; worked with the photographer, Jason Hedges, who created the tour; and secured permission for the accompanying music by Lucien Posman.
The tour is free to view on any device, including via a VR headset.
Mini talk
‘V is for Visionary‘, for the Whitworth’s A–Z of Creativity series (2020).
Reviews
‘William Blake‘, exhibition review in Art and Christianity 100 (2019). ISSN: 1746-6229
‘William Blake, Tate Britain‘, exhibition review for the CenSAMM blog (19 November 2019).
‘William Blake and the Age of Aquarius: A Round Table Discussion’ [with Jason Whittaker, Colin Trodd and Douglas Field], exhibition review in Visual Culture in Britain 19.3 (2018), pp. 393–400. DOI: 10.1080/14714787.2018.1525308
‘William Blake: Apprentice and Master‘, exhibition review in Art and Christianity 81 (2015), p. 9. ISSN: 1746-6229
‘Genesis: William Blake’s Last Illuminated Work, edited by: Mark Crosby and Robert N. Essick, with an introduction by Robert R. Wark. San Marino, CA: The Huntington Library, 2012. ISBN:978-0-87328-247-5’, book review in Visual Culture in Britain 15.3 (2014), pp. 366–368. DOI: 10.1080/14714787.2014.945132
‘Quatre Bouches. Eisler Trio. The William Blake Experience‘, CD review for the Blake Society blog (4 March 2014).
Report
‘Output in Focus: The Visionary Art of William Blake‘, in Arts Research 12 [University of Manchester magazine] (2019), p. 5.
Blog posts
‘Curating a Cottage‘, Blake Fest blog (18 September 2017).
‘Q&A with Naomi Billingsley‘, Hell’s Printing Press: The Blog of the Blake Archive and Blake Quarterly (4 April 2017).
‘Image of the Month: William Blake, Sealing the Stone and Setting a Watch (c.1800–1803)‘, Romantic Illustration Network blog (24 July 2015).
‘Image of the Month: William Blake, ‘Mary Magdalen at the Sepulchre’ (c.1805)’, Romantic Illustration Network blog (13 February 2015).