An occasional Dose of Culture. Charlotte Salomon

Charlotte Salomon is an artist I admire greatly, on a personal as well as on an artistic level. Salomon was a young artist from a cultured family that had the misfortune of living in Hitler's Germany. For her own safety, Charlotte was sent to live with her grandparents in Nice, where she began her opus of 769 paintings that encapsulated her short life. Her detailed paintings told her tragic story with humour and wit, the detail becoming more frantic as the net tightened. She fell in love and married Alexander Nagler. When she was 5 months pregnant, the couple were taken to Auschwitz where they were executed.

Charlotte entitled her work; 'Life or Theatre. a Singspiel'. She entrusted the work to a family friend asking him to safeguard it as 'it was her life'. Music was an integral part of the work, as she threaded a soundtrack into it's fabric that included Nazi marching songs, Schubert's Lieder and Mozart.

There have been several major exhibitions of Salomon's work, and a book is also available, yet she remains virtually unknown. The main reason for this is that none of her work is available on the open market.

There is a lot of information about Charlotte on the Internet and I urge you to read more about her if her work moves you. Any comments on my posts would be appreciated; opinions, questions or just observations would all be welcome.

Slideshow of my Moleskine pages

Moleskine pages: 2007-2009

I am posting some pages from my older Moleskines. my first one was started in 2003 while I was at the Royal College of art. I am struck by how different my work looks although that may not be apparent to everyone. The themes haven't changed much: life, death and in between!

A daily dose of culture, Andrea Dezsö; artistic wonder woman!

Andrea Dezsö is nothing short of a wonder woman! I came across her work while researching artist sketchbooks, what a lucky find! The special thing about Andrea is that she can turn her hand to any form of artistic expression and come up with something original, beautiful and awe inspiring.

 

Andrea Dezsö is a Romanian born artist (Transylvania if you want the exact location) of Hungarian extraction. Her Eastern European heritage undoubtedly feeds her richly narrative work and gives her the wonderful stories that act as a framework for her creative interpretation. Her grown up job is Assistant Professor of media Design at Parsons. But there is so much more to this creative dynamo. She works in ceramics, installation, animation, paper-cutting, embroidery and a lot more besides.

In this post I will focus on a series of embroideries that depict some of her mother’s sayings that will ring a bell with most people! They are beautifully executed, very funny and I love them all. There is plenty of information out there about Andrea and if you need inspiration I have no doubt her work will provide it. She has exhibited widely, has had books published but I still think she deserves to be more celebrated and her work more exposed. Andrea I salute you!

A New Moleskone Jan 16th update (new pages)

I used a new little rubber stamp to decorate the wall, I hate having to repeat a pattern, stamps are much easier.

As I was drawing this, I pulled a thread in a crochet blanket fred bought from a charity shop, It made me think about unknown and unforseen consequences.

We found we had a family of rats living under the decking and that the ratcatcher had placed blocks of poison for them to feast on. On the one hand I felt awful for the poor creatures and the other I was worried about disease and our electric wires they nibble on.

I was watching Criminal Minds and thinking about human nature. How do you become a twisted, heartless killer?

I've always had a love-hate relationship with angels. As a child i would see angels scuttling along my bed-room ceiling, they were watching me and reporting my actions back to God. Mum never seemed to notice them but I was silently terrified all the time.

I am posting a few more pages from my current Moleskine sketchbook.

A daily dose of culture. Ray Materson, outsider artist.

Today's outsider artist is Ray Materson. Ray was serving a 15 year sentence for a robbery related to his drug offences. One day, out of a clear blue sky, he was inspired to embroider his teams colours on a scrap of material ripped from his prison bed-sheets. He bought a pair of nylon socks from a cellmate for a packet of cigarettes as they were made up of his team colours.

The House On York Road. 1995

The boot story 1995

the Taming of the shrew 1995

He unpicked the threads and changed his life. The success of his first piece led inmates to commision their own embroideries of their sports emblems. Ray began to receive cast off socks in every imaginable colour. Ray's subject matter evolved to include portraits, landscapes and narrative images.

Conscientious Objectors 1995

The Arrest 1993

The Cup of his blood (Hate me) 1992

Gossio 2009

Ogre's All Stars 1994

Vermont River - Montpelier 2009

Gino- Life Times six 1999

An afternoon At Ogre House 2002

Anywhere Next Exit 1992

Twin Towers 2005

Ray's pieces are tiny jewel coloured little treasures about half the size of a post card. Each piece takes 40-60 hours of work and up to 1200 stiches per square inch. I love the honesty and passion that shines from Ray's work. Ray now travels all over the United States lecturing on his works and encouraging art programs in the prison service.

A daily dose of culture, the work of Kyoko Okubo

I have always had a strange relationship with dolls. I am at once beguiled and repelled by them. Dolls are such loaded little things. Everyone relates to them , positively or negatively. My grandmother made exquisite rag dolls, I'd be mesmerised by their metamorphosis from a flat piece of fabric into a three dimensional, magical living doll.
Of course, fabric isn't the only medium. Man has made dolls for as long as he has existed, from every imaginable material, as fetish object or a simple toy. We identify with them on such a deep level, it is hard to untangle our own existence from theirs. I still remember my earliest of dolls, they all ended up with smashed in eyes (now there is a subject for a psychiatrist!.)
 Today's artist is Kyoko Okubo, a self taught Japanese artist. She sculpts her small figures, that tend to include a female figure interacting with an animal, using 'Washi', a traditional Japanese paper made from tree bark. Her tableau give us snatches of narrative but never disclose the full story. Some may find them a little 'twee' or sentimental, but I think they are beautiful and enchanting.

The Rumour Of bees, by Kyoko Okubo

Pug cups, Kyoko Okubo