A blank wall on Taff Street in Pontypridd has been transformed into a mesmerising mural of local music icon Morfydd Owen, painted by artist Tee2Sugars over five days. The artwork adorns the gable end of Rhi's café, stopping passers-by to admire the portrait of the young composer.
Who Was Morfydd Owen?
Born in nearby Treforest in 1891, Morfydd Owen lived only 26 years but wrote over 250 original compositions spanning classical and folk music, as well as poems. She was also an accomplished pianist known for her cutting-edge fashion sense, including wearing a lampshade as a hat. The mural includes lampshade-shaped flowers as a nod to her style, with a poppy added for remembrance.
Morfydd's story is one of genius and tragedy. In 1909 she won a scholarship to Cardiff University, later earning a top prize at the Wrexham Eisteddfod and a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London. She moved in high circles, including D.H. Lawrence and David Lloyd-George, but never forgot her Welsh roots. Her piece Nocturne was performed at the BBC Proms in 1917.
Marriage and Untimely Death
In 1917 she married psychoanalyst Ernest Jones, biographer of Sigmund Freud. According to actress Rhian Blythe, who portrayed her in a Welsh film, the marriage rapidly changed Morfydd's life. Blythe said: "I couldn’t really understand why she married this man – she met him on New Year’s Eve and they married on February 5, having only seen each other a handful of times. I think she thought he was quite modern – he was working with Freud – and she thought she would be able to stay in London and carry on with her life as it was. Clearly he had other plans. He expected her to be at home and look after the house, and very quickly she lost her sense of self. She stopped singing and composing."
Morfydd died just before her 27th birthday from delayed chloroform poisoning during a hasty appendectomy, said to have taken place on her family-in-law's kitchen table in Mumbles. She was buried without a post mortem or death certificate at Oystermouth Cemetery.
Creating the Mural
Artist Tee2Sugars, aged 36 from Tonyrefail, used virtual reality goggles to map out the design. Scaffolding was used instead of a cherry-picker due to lack of space. He said the most challenging part was capturing the eyes: "If the eyes look dead, the picture looks flat. So, I think I did a pretty good job on getting her eyes to pop. If you get it right, the eyes will always be wherever you are. She's always looking at you."
Caysha Frederick from Pontypridd town council said: "This whole process started a number of years ago actually, and we had a couple of buildings in mind and went back and forth between artists and murals, but it was a conversation a few years ago with Tee and he was so enthusiastic, really ambitious and we’d seen his work on the Eisteddfod mural, and it was just a privilege that we could have him involved."
Public Reaction and Significance
The mural includes a QR code for people to learn more about Morfydd. Frederick added: "The public reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, which is wonderful. I think it’s really helped a lot of people to learn who Morfydd was. It’s such a visual image that sort of slaps you in the face as soon as you come into the town centre."
Jessica Morgan from Park Arts in Treforest noted: "She’s been somewhat of a forgotten icon in her hometown, but she’s very prolific on the world stage. As we have been able to celebrate people such as Tom Jones, and Evan James and James James, we thought that it was important that Morfydd be honoured in Pontypridd’s musical hall of fame as well."
The project was funded by the Welsh Government, National Lottery, and Arts Council for Wales. Tee said: "The reaction to the mural has been amazing and that was really important to me, the reaction of local people to what I'm creating and the excitement around it."
