In the early nineties, working in encaustic, I visited an exhibition on the Celts in Venice that would fundamentally change my view of history and brought celtic symbolism into my work. Over time as I aged so did the past and the Celts became modern in the face of things older.

In 2012 I was fortunate to win the annual lottery and be at the 5,200 year old Newgrange for the solstice dawn. A journey in the dark to Brú na Boinne, palace of the goddess, where such rites were held for over five millennia. Before Stonehenge, before Pyramids and way before the Celts. Humbling yet inspiring.

The solitary triple spiral carved into stone of the inner chamber has global renown. It took me till 2025 to engage with it. It was a dark year all round, accompanied by deep personal loss. During these times, often unable to think, lost in an underworld, I worked on the spiral. A near daily ritual of traveling the twofold labyrinth, down one , up another, moving always round the path, finding a way, staying true to the line.

I can’t count the time, days, revolutions but this image captures an early rendition. Perhaps the best. Time moves along and up and around.

‘Spiral’ and ‘spiraling’ became ubiquitous of late touting loss of control. Historically it was something else altogether. The cosmos, the spiritual, mathematical inspiration. Whirling galaxy’s and seas of Sufis.

3,000 years before Rome, 4,500 years before ‘shamrock’ the Irish knew well their starry nights and swirling trinitys.

Savage September 2026