ALUMNI STORIES
Ruth Tillyard
22 | FOREVER Keele
ALUMNI STORIES
Inspired by Keele: a celebration of alumni art
“ Keele Forever” linocut
Ruth Tillyard
Biology & Geography, Class of 1974; Geography, Class of 1976
“ I decided to make this linocut, the first I have done for about 5 years, to take as gifts to 3 friends who came to Keele for a year over 50 years ago, on exchange from the University of Michigan. I then gifted copies to my British“ gang” of Keele friends when we assembled to dedicate a tree at the Keele Arboretum to one of our number. Thus, it is meant to depict what we think sums up our memories of the Keele campus and friendships past and present. I selected a variety of features as well as trees with personal significance and worked up the images into a design which I printed in a variety of colours.”
Clockwise from the top left: a lanterned gateway to Keele Hall – it and its lovely landscaped area beyond I didn’ t discover( and meet up with the genial elderly Reverend Sneyd) until a postgraduate student; a generic flower to reflect the memorial tree arranged to be planted; the Staffordshire Knot from the University’ s coat of arms, derived from the Sneyd coat of arms and, I discovered, an ancient symbol possibly going back to Celtic times; plums for the memorial tree we are about to dedicate; the Observatory with someone using a telescope – I have to admit that I never went there as a student but some of my friends remember doing so; the Chapel – the first building I wanted to depict and still I think the best bit of campus architecture, the interior of which I remember chiefly for concerts by the resident Lindsay Quartet and a performance of Macbeth which used the pulpit for the three witches and their glowing cauldron; an“ M” from the University of Michigan’ s logo; a branch of Atlantic Cedar from the tree we planted for one of our gang in 2008 across the first lake from Keele Hall; the Forest of Light sculpture by Diane Maclean in the middle of campus which postdates our time at Keele but is now a significant feature of a visit; Square Forms sculpture by Barbara Hepworth in the Chancellor’ s Building which we passed daily on our way to the wonderful daily Foundation Year lectures we were so privileged to have provided for us; the Library Clock – are you late for your 9am lecture?