Breaking from conventional seasonal collections, By Told brings you small drop collections throughout the year, each with one work of Art at center stage.
MICRO COLLECTIONS
MICRO COLLECTION
NOTHING WAS PUT IN PLACE TO STOP THE GROWTH
NOTHING WAS PUT IN PLACE TO STOP THE GROWTH
It is midnight, you are lying in bed and your thoughts are circling. There is still so much to do, so much to accomplish, so much to create. It's your life - your world. You smile. Your thoughts grow like crystals - they become big, tangible and visible for all to see.
Be brave and live them - don't worry too much. Don't be overwhelmed by their intensity. Observe, think, feel and do not allow them to over take you. You got this, step by step, crystal by crystal. Be gracious with yourself and proud of every single one of them. Let your thoughts rise and do nothing to stop their growth!
(1) Owl Perched, (2) Two Hares, (3) Owl In Flight, (4) Heron,
(5) Golden Eagle, (6) Crow, (7) Humming Birds
ORIGINAL ARTWORKS
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2012
Graphite on cartridge paper
53.5 cm x 43.5 cm
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MICRO COLLECTION
NOTHING WAS PUT IN PLACE
TO STOP THE GROWTH
MICRO COLLECTION
JELLYFISH II
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2019
Oil on Board
70cm x 70cm
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ORIGINAL ARTWORK
JELLYFISH II
Tranquility under water
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The calm but pulsating movements of the long tentacles are floating underneath you. The mysterious darkness of the sea makes you curious, plunging deeper. Keeping your lungs filled with air, almost fainting, feeling alive. Close your eyes imagine the scene - can you feel the tentacles, softly touching your skin?
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Jellyfish II (I-III, 2019) is a micro-series by Jill Tegan Doherty, created before everything started. Having a new power-dynamic and path in her work, the artist was interested in the unknown - new things always fascinate her - as the unfathomable depths of the ocean.
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Jill Tegan Doherty is known for her paintings that are a hybrid of animal and human – but Jellyfish II is simply allowed to be what it is: an astonishing beautiful Jellyfish that acts as a gateway to unchartered territory. Interestingly, in the grand series “Hungry Lungs", one can slowly observe the transition of beings, which all seem to take on human traits, emotions and constraints. However, with Jellyfish II it is rather the materiality that gives this artwork Jill's original twist.
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For Jellyfish II Jill Tegan Doherty explores a new technique within her broad ranging skill set and applies a varnish on the wooden board. Varnish can illuminate colors and give them a shine that changes the appearance of a surface entirely – a technique that has been applied to protect paintings for centuries in the history of art. But yet this varnish can bring us into the present and bring us closer to the work of art, its colors and our daily habits of reception.
So does this vitreous sense relate to the dozens of tech-glass-shields we have in front of us daily? Can you escape and dive into your underwater imagination? Deeply observe the glossy surface of the board, immerse into it and dive into the depths of the sea.. floating away with the Jellyfish..
MICRO COLLECTION
JELLYFISH II
MICRO COLLECTION
I AM REAL I AM NOT REAL
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2018
Oil on canvas
118cm x 149cm
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ORIGINAL ARTWORK
I AM REAL I AM NOT REAL
Imagine: You are in solitude in Denmark. Crackling ice, the spiritual sounds of nature - and you hear yourself screaming. Not out of fear - out of your inner power. A battle cry against all the overwhelming experiences that sometimes push their way through your subconscious.
Art shows you images you've never seen before, let alone thought of.
Art encourages you, gives you strength - Bam! There it is, grab it!
Hold it tight - like an axe!
Sometimes the deep water you want to swim in is frozen. But, hold it high, your POWER! Let everyone know you're still there, REAL! Scream if you need to!
Spherically, everything floats in the black thicket - your memories of the magnificence of nature, yet always mixed with the frenetic pace of the big city.
Your innermost thoughts and fears will push through - no matter what. Except now you'll have your majestic mask conjuring up strength within, allowing you to keep on going!
The forest could be your alternate Kingdom - when you delve into Jill Tegan Doherty's series, which she painted in Berlin after her 2018 residency in Denmark.
MICRO COLLECTION
I AM REAL I AM NOT REAL
MICRO COLLECTION
WITHIN THE GRASP
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2016
Oil on canvas
140cm x 120cm
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ORIGINAL ARTWORK
WITHIN THE GRASP
Fleshy, pulsating, penetrating - and at the same time probably the most romantic symbol: our heart.
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Blood penetrates every millimeter, coloring it deep red. The muscle vibrates but is closely entwined with a growing root system that almost forces it to the ground - but the heart still flies above it.
But open arteries almost look like they are screaming for attention – the entwining and growing veins suffocating the parts that they are clinging onto, small acid rain drops fall and cause painful attacks - Jill Tegan Doherty paints a dramatic image that has nothing less than our survival in mind.
In the artistic-medical project " Crystallisation of Thought’ ", Jill Tegan Doherty and her father want to raise awareness of the very common and grossly misunderstood disease, gout, since 2016. Sensibilization to specific diseases with their side effects, and self-determination in healing, enthrallingly turning the romantic symbol into a sign of vulnerability and awareness of the most important things in life: an amalgamation of love and health - to always remember you.
MICRO COLLECTION
WITHIN THE GRASP
MICRO COLLECTION
GIDEON
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2015
Oil on board
70cm x 70cm
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ORIGINAL ARTWORK
GIDEON
Oh old friend - my black feathered Jester. It’s so nice to see you again - it feels like forever ago! So much has changed - you have changed! And now?
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It's all coming back I remember the subconscious thoughts of the waking reality, the void room, the fancy attire. Oh, my old friend, you look so classy in your radiant orange dress and high ruffled collar.
A ruff made from stiffened linen, starched and rolled tubular with burning scissors - sometimes very high or protruding expansively. In my humble opinion a very elegant and modest one, my Dear! Certainly, it could have been because of our influence that the ruff became an integral part of the upscale evening wear in the dynasty of Spanish Baroque and Victorian England. What an eloquent way to dress.
Today we can adjust – not only the look but questioning how our wardrobe was made. Aspiring a responsible approach to consumption, a clear stance like you did! Much has changed since the 17th century – Fashion less restrictive and damaging - society has changed, we have changed - let’s keep this motion and embrace the change!
MICRO COLLECTION
GIDEON
MICRO COLLECTION
DARK CIRCLES
DARK CIRCLES
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2011
Oil on board
107cm x 94cm
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ORIGINAL ARTWORK
Sometimes everything is too much at once and still too empty. Colorful - but only on closer inspection.
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There are encounters with others - but somehow these are strange.
So let's take the time to look more closely.
Like to this peculiar scene.
A bird in high-heeled shoes - a goldfinch, perhaps? - stands there quite naturally in a coat with a high collar and knee pads crowning his stocking covered calves. The diagonal button line stretches up to the coat lapel, pointing us directly to this fairly awkward moment between… him and a sparrow!
They are different species - come in different looks and sizes, one maybe even puppet-like - regarding each other attentively - but isn't this what strangers always do?
Here they stand tense, questioning each other wordlessly eye to eye, he is holding the sparrow in his feathery, giant hand. Are they trapped in this situation in a room with no windows and doors, stuck with one another?
But wait! On the painting itself Jill Tegan Doherty lets suspense swirls emerge like the somehow animated tiles below them - almost invisible. Do they announce a forthcoming union of the two on this rippling ground, next to the fireplace? Or do they already start to escape through the chimney any second? What an exceptional moment - come in and follow them!
MICRO COLLECTION
DARK CIRCLES
MICRO COLLECTION
DELPHINE
DELPHINE
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2015
Oil on board
70cm x 70cm
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ORIGINAL ARTWORK
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Amazing ways to see the world
Open and with kind orange-blazing eyes, Delphine looks at us. Her neck appears so graceful and colorful, shimmering in shades of blue, green and purple. Does she resemble a proud peacock? or a tropical fish, according to her name Delphine "born from the water"? Jill Tegan Doherty left the rest of her body undefined with edgy brushstrokes – shadowy in light blue, reminding us with a smile that her kind can be quite clumsy on the ground.
At a distance, we observe them in fascination circling in perfect choreography along the rooftop. Barely reachable - as in the great flocks in Venice - but still so close, you imagine their wings have brushed you. What could they possibly be doing?
Her beauty transcends her alluring iridescence. The white dove brethren, is loved as it flies high into the sky in marriage ceremonies, symbolizing a bright new beginning. The small feathered creature holds high hopes in her wings, also freedom and peace, symbols verging on the divine. Our private written letters attached to her dainty legs, we trust her dearly to deliver our messages across the sky. Yet, in daily life we seem to forget, referring to pigeons as 'flying rats,’ ‘vermin of the sky,' strategically placing sharp needles to disturb ‘them' from their favorite sleeping places.
Nothing is definite - nothing has only one side. We have to learn to deal with all of that. Just as we do when dealing with nature and people.
The more suggestively painted bodies of the animals in contrast to their elaborately painted heads and necks run throughout the series.The clothing thus aesthetically and symbolically alters the otherwise delicately feathered animals. In the series "Ornamental Stature" from 2015, Jill Tegan Doherty fuses animals with the constraints often facing human beings. Delphine stands so boldly for her painted portrait like in the Victorian era - so perfectly shaped now for our possibly revised idea of nature’s aesthetics. Jill Tegan Doherty drapes her birds in fashion to expose us to this controversy, as well as to her unbridled flights of imagination.
Fashion can as well be an expression of how we perceive beauty in our cultures - but also of what rules fashion imposes on us. So, what happens when you see a dove in a beautiful tulle collar with pearl buttons? Do you remind yourself of our often too ignorant approach to nature? Our sometimes changing and ambivalent image of humans and creatures? Perhaps gazing at life through a silk feather dress changes our view. Can we preserve that beauty, if we just let our heart lead ? Fashion does not have to be uniform, it can make the most colourful birds out of all of us.
MICRO COLLECTION
DELPHINE
MICRO COLLECTION
THE JESTER AND THE THIEF
THE JESTER AND THE THIEF
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He stands there boldly and looks right at you - or does he look to the side? His gaze is scrutinizing - "is what I am experiencing here real?", he might ask himself. A room void of windows and doors, and an almost imperceptible hue on the wall, his surroundings do not seem quite right to him. Almost unnoticed, his shadow begins to rise, yet remains grounded on the strong checkered floor. Like subconsciousness itself, the shadow fades into smoke.