Collage, my own!

The woman's skirt is a uterus and the flowers she is carrying are lung tissue.

The tree was cut out from a medical illustration of a human lung.

Collage has always been one of my default means of expression. And to those who consider using ready made imagery cheating, tough! i made this series about three years ago, most of them sold but not all. I appear to have focussed on fertility, and childbirth so they need little explanation, but I would appreciate  any feedback.

new Moleskine pages, part II

A follow on from my earlier post with a few more Moleskine pages.

An occasional dose of culture, A G Rizzoli

Achilles Rizzoli (1896- 1981) like many outsiders only became known after his death. Awkward with people, introverted and shy, he kept to himself. He worked in an architectural office where his talent went completely unnoticed.

 

He didn't think he had enough talent to do figurative work, he used buildings to depict people. For example Shirley's Temple was dedicated to Shirley, a little girl who lived next door on whom he became fixated after she'd shown him a small act of kindness. His works are noble, dignifies and utterly beautiful.

 

The latest Moleskine Page

An occasional dose of culture. Ralph Fasanella

One of my outsider favourites is Ralph Fasanella. A self taught (naturally!) painter born to an immigrant Italian family in 1914. His father sold Ice from a horse drawn wagon and his mother worked drilling holes into buttons, not much scope for creativity there methinks!.He grew to be a union activist believing passionately in protecting the rights of the working man. Fasanella began painting as an exercise to combat arthritic pain in his fingers. As he gained confidence, he began to record the lives of the blue collar communities around him with great affection and honesty. He is not very well known which is a pity as his work is so full of integrity and truth. If art has a purpose, surely this is one of them! To give context to one's life and to process all the information that jostles about in one's head. Critics have argued that Fasanella's work is of sentimental nostalgia for a past that never really existed, So what? He recorded what mattered to him in a way that made sense to him, surely that is what matters?

Moleskine pages.

I did this while watching the news, seeing the entire middle east rise up willing to die for a better life, is that an oxymoron?

Ultimately we are powerless in the face of time. We think we have control but we really don't. The best one can hope for is a quiet life!

I think this is to do with powerlessness. Of wanting things to stay the same. I was thinking about how the people who loomed large in my childhood are now all insignificant or dead. As a child you can't imagine your life being different.

When I was small I asserted my power and sense of self by nurturing deep seated feelings of hate towards those I feared. It was the only bit of identity I could carve out for myself. I wasn't allowed any sense of self determination. That is why I am such a screw up now I guess! Have I given away too much?

I am currently working on some 3D sculptures, rag dolls really. So I'm not working as much on my sketchbooks. I still do my double page spread a day, that is my golden rule that I refuse to break. I am posting a couple of pages just for the record.

An occasional dose of culture. Paula Rego

 

In my opinion, Paula Rego is one of our greatest living artists. Rego  is a painter and print maker that is shamefully underrated. I have no idea why that is, maybe it is part of that current snobbery against skill, talent and figurative, narrative art; everything I love. For some reason Rego is usually told to go and sit quietly next to Frida Kahlo  and let the men make and talk about the serious, important art that sends critics into raptures but leaves the general public cold and confused!  Paula Rego was born in Portugal to an Anglophile father in 1935. As an only child she was indulged and encouraged by all the adults in her life. Her nanny fed her the myths and folktales, gossip and rhymes that she made such great use of when she grew up. She attended The Slade in the fifties where she met her husband, Victor Willing.

Baba Black Sheep

Three Blind Mice

Rego's work is colourful but creepily dark. She can imbue a work with such menace, but will still manage to inject humour at the same time. The Girl and dog series, the Abortion series and so on, all tell stories. Looking at one of her images is like watching a film. If I could choose a picture to own though (dream on!) it would be 'Pregnant Rabbit Telling Her Parents'. It makes me laugh every time I look at it, there is no need for an explanation, it is pretty obvious. Rego's etchings/aquatints are every bit as compelling. Rego is one artist whom I'd love to watch  painting, her studio looks like my idea of Disneyland, full of props and visual stimuli. One last thing, I'd love to be able to draw and paint hands and feet half as well as she does, look for yourself!

Pregnant Rabbit telling Her Parents