RUBIES IN CRYSTAL
Does language hover between my nerve endings and the world, or is language my skin itself?
Sheath of feeling. Words groping to touch air.
Video on the Origins of International Women's Day...
%729 %UTC, %2012, %0:%Mar %ZWell worth watching for the origins of International Women's Day, and for some Danish history of the building where it all began....
Videoed and narrated by Bent Lorentzen, uploaded on March 8, 2012. Direct link: A Danish House United, Divided, then Destroyed.
"This short documentary captures US street-artist, Frank Shepard Fairey (famous for the Obama icon), working on a mural in the hot Copenhagen sun in August, 2011.
Shepard Fairey attempted to evoke "transformative" healing upon a 3-story facade overlooking the rubble of the historic 69 Jagtvej (Hunter's Road) property in Copenhagen's Nørrebro borough. He certainly did not expect the "extreme left" violent response to his kind, generous and "repeated" artistic efforts, including graffiti that stated, "Go home Yankee," and later being assaulted near a Copenhagen night club. Through interviews, the video also brings in a bit of the extreme left POV, as to why some found it offensive.
Sadly, what seems to have gotten lost in that drama, except through Shepard Farley's efforts last summer, includes how the demolished building holds a history far deeper than the recent decades it served as Ungdomshuset (The Youth House).
Towards the end of the 19th century, the building was called Folkets Hus (The People's House), and functioned to coordinate Denmark's emerging labor movement. And in 1910, 130 women from 16 nations met to to plan Women's Suffrage and demand their natural right to vote, and to establish March 8 as "International Women's Day."
In 2001, the building was purchased from the city by a corporation that sold it to a fundamentalist Christian sect, called "Faderhuset" (Our Father's House), and in 2007, following an exhaustive legal battle, the mayor of Copenhagen demanded that the remaining youth squatting there leave.
Though mostly peaceful, the protests then escalated, especially after the police used lethal-level tear gas to storm and evict the remaining youth. Riots then broke out on the city streets of Copenhagen, and the police arbitrarily arrested anyone without cause other than a guess that they could potentially disturb the peace. The Supreme Court later called ruled many of those police tactics illegal.
A follow-up video will focus more of the women's deeper perspective on the subject.
More about Bent Lorentzen, his books and work:
http://www.amazon.com/Bent-Lorentzen/e/B001JOZZAQ
http://www.facebook.com/people/Bent-Lorentzen/1198146266
Musical score by Aborada, traditional/interpretive native Inca music from Peru, is with their permission.
This work is dedicated to all the women in my life who've made me a better human being, including Mette, Ginger, Danusa, Kali, Anjani, Maureen, Joanie, Judy S, Susan, Sharon (thanks for your brilliant critique), Brenda (Happy Birthday!), and most significantly my Ma."
Videoed and narrated by Bent Lorentzen, uploaded on March 8, 2012. Direct link: A Danish House United, Divided, then Destroyed.
"This short documentary captures US street-artist, Frank Shepard Fairey (famous for the Obama icon), working on a mural in the hot Copenhagen sun in August, 2011.
Shepard Fairey attempted to evoke "transformative" healing upon a 3-story facade overlooking the rubble of the historic 69 Jagtvej (Hunter's Road) property in Copenhagen's Nørrebro borough. He certainly did not expect the "extreme left" violent response to his kind, generous and "repeated" artistic efforts, including graffiti that stated, "Go home Yankee," and later being assaulted near a Copenhagen night club. Through interviews, the video also brings in a bit of the extreme left POV, as to why some found it offensive.
Sadly, what seems to have gotten lost in that drama, except through Shepard Farley's efforts last summer, includes how the demolished building holds a history far deeper than the recent decades it served as Ungdomshuset (The Youth House).
Towards the end of the 19th century, the building was called Folkets Hus (The People's House), and functioned to coordinate Denmark's emerging labor movement. And in 1910, 130 women from 16 nations met to to plan Women's Suffrage and demand their natural right to vote, and to establish March 8 as "International Women's Day."
In 2001, the building was purchased from the city by a corporation that sold it to a fundamentalist Christian sect, called "Faderhuset" (Our Father's House), and in 2007, following an exhaustive legal battle, the mayor of Copenhagen demanded that the remaining youth squatting there leave.
Though mostly peaceful, the protests then escalated, especially after the police used lethal-level tear gas to storm and evict the remaining youth. Riots then broke out on the city streets of Copenhagen, and the police arbitrarily arrested anyone without cause other than a guess that they could potentially disturb the peace. The Supreme Court later called ruled many of those police tactics illegal.
A follow-up video will focus more of the women's deeper perspective on the subject.
More about Bent Lorentzen, his books and work:
http://www.amazon.com/Bent-Lorentzen/e/B001JOZZAQ
http://www.facebook.com/people/Bent-Lorentzen/1198146266
Musical score by Aborada, traditional/interpretive native Inca music from Peru, is with their permission.
This work is dedicated to all the women in my life who've made me a better human being, including Mette, Ginger, Danusa, Kali, Anjani, Maureen, Joanie, Judy S, Susan, Sharon (thanks for your brilliant critique), Brenda (Happy Birthday!), and most significantly my Ma."
Comments (3)
Dancer in Red and Black
%432 %UTC, %2012, %0:%Mar %ZCelestial Dancers paintings, dancer, painting
Dancer in Red and Black, 2012, 16" x 20", graphite and India and acrylic inks on stretched canvas.
The second image is in my Moleskine, and 8.5" x 11". I was going to continue working until I arrived at a similar place to the image in my Moleskine. My daughter thought that I could leave the painting as a raw sketch with the red and black ink. It doesn't feel 'finished' to me... and so I am struggling a little with knowing that it may work at this stage as is, and I could overdo it and decrease its energy by continuing to work on it. Not sure anyone can offer any art advice, but I'd welcome any thoughts on the two images. Thanks!
Dancer - sketch on canvas
%511 %UTC, %2012, %0:%Mar %Z
Dancer - sketches 1 and 2 for a painting, 16" x 20", graphite, stretched canvas.
Truly, I prefer the original sketch to the left best. Shading removes the inner dynamic somehow. The sketch on the right is where it is presently, and since it is sprayed with fixative, there is no going back.
Dancer
%877 %UTC, %2012, %0:%Mar %Zmoleskine, Moleskine sketchbook, poem painting
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Happy with this painting of a dancer in my Moleskine. Why? She is lithe and muscular, and has an elegance. She also looks like she's dancing in an ink painting. Splotches of black India ink move over her; she is situated in torrents of acrylic flame red ink. In her dance, she holds still for a moment and her pose imparts a tension of the energy of emotion. There is life, passion and death here.
What I most enjoyed was overdoing this piece. Many inks were dip penned and brush spread until it was a mess, and then, miraculously, I washed the inks off, using all my rags and a half roll of paper towels, wetting and blotting until the sketch began to re-emerge.
With that weight of paint removed from her, of which only I hold the memory, she is again lithe, ready to spring.
And I had to laugh when someone said she looked intersex, and admit ever since Fellini's Satyricon, and then Jung's exploration of the hermaphrodite, I've felt intersex in dreams or art can be a powerful image of inner union. If my Dancer appears to be both woman and man, I am delighted.
Not sure why, since I don't usually anymore, I scanned the sketch, and then the first wash of black India ink and permanent red acrylic ink, and I took an iPhone photo early in the process of adding the inks that I later removed. I have included these three in-process photos, along with the final one (it's first, on the left), for you so you can see the progression of this little painting that took the greater part of last Sunday to complete.
Dancer, 21cm x 29cm, 8" x 11.5", 2012, graphite, India and acrylic inks, Moleskine folio Sketchbook A4.
Comments (1)
Drawing of a Young Man
%833 %UTC, %2012, %0:%Mar %Zdrawing, moleskine, Moleskine sketchbook
I drew this on Saturday, from life, while wearing two pairs of glasses! An old pair of prescription readers enabled me to see detail at a distance, and a small drugstore pair perched on the end of my nose allowed me to see my drawing on the paper. Hopefully I can get progressive bifocal or perhaps trifocal lenses soon - it was a crazy way to draw! ::laughing:: Though I did achieve a likeness, something that's been inexplicably eluding me in my return to drawing.
Figure, 21cm x 29cm, 8" x 11.5", 2012, Moleskine folio Sketchbook, graphite.
%820 %UTC, %2012, %0:%Mar %Z
My mother, so far, is holding her own. She may survive this crisis, not with full capacities, but enough to live at a nursing home perhaps. My brother was looking after her, and called 911 when she said she was dizzy and then fell, and so she was at a stroke hospital within the hour. While she can't speak, and may never walk again, she will likely survive this crisis, and after a month or so in hospital move to a stroke rehab facility... beyond that we do not know.
I am relieved, of course, but sad to see how hard it will be for her. She will not ever go home again. And that is what she most wishes for. Spending the rest of her life in a nursing home or long term care facility may work out for her - she's always been extroverted, and the company, at the very least, will do her good.
While we are still some way from that, she is doing real well considering she had a stroke and a mild heart attack, and has pneumonia, and it is entirely feasible she may live for some years yet.
I am relieved, of course, but sad to see how hard it will be for her. She will not ever go home again. And that is what she most wishes for. Spending the rest of her life in a nursing home or long term care facility may work out for her - she's always been extroverted, and the company, at the very least, will do her good.
While we are still some way from that, she is doing real well considering she had a stroke and a mild heart attack, and has pneumonia, and it is entirely feasible she may live for some years yet.
Comments (1)
%986 %UTC, %2012, %0:%Feb %Z
Last night I lay awake most of the night, knowing something... she was taken to the hospital by ambulance at 3am. My mother is dying. She had a stroke, a mild heart attack and has pneumonia. Without a 'living will,' she will be resuscitated if she stops breathing. Her dying could take a long time, as my father's did in ICU in a high tech hospital. But, essentially, she is gone. She'll never go home again. I feel very strange, though she is 89 and very thin and frail and we've known it could happen at any time. If I'm absent... it's because... thank you so much for your kindnesses, understanding.
Comments (2)
Comment on Tangled Garden
%922 %UTC, %2012, %0:%Feb %ZBent Lorentzen, Tangled GardenSince Tangled Garden, a triptych of earth poems, spans 30 years of poetry writing, and took 9 months to video, edit, subtitle, with more blood, sweat and tears than I like to recall, I continue to post comments, and responses to it. It is a major piece of work for me, and so far, if only one of my videopoems remains, I would like it to be this one.
Bent Lorentzen's comment, in a post where, mostly, I defended my videopoem, caused tears of gratitude. I shall not try to summarize his comment; rather, present here in full.
direct link: Tangled Garden
Bent Lorentzen's comment, in a post where, mostly, I defended my videopoem, caused tears of gratitude. I shall not try to summarize his comment; rather, present here in full.
direct link: Tangled Garden
Celestial Dancer III
%838 %UTC, %2012, %0:%Feb %ZCelestial Dancers paintings, painting
Celestial Dancer III, 2012, 24"x30", 61cm x 76cm, oils, acrylic inks on canvas.
This painting was worked on in 4 successive stages over 8 years. The figure was sketched on the canvas in 2004, and first painted in early 2005 - when the background was done and the figure roughed in. In 2009, the figure received more definition. Celestial Dancer III was completed, 8 years after it was begun, with slashes of permanent blue ink (two days ago, she is still fresh). She hangs on my living room wall, where already she has received compliments from visitors. I am fairly shocked, and delighted, that this painting is finished!
Blue Blood. If you don't bleed, is it art? :laughs:
On October 21, 2009, I wrote in my blog:
When this painting is a little drier, I'll work on the details - though surprisingly if cropped a bit it looks almost finished now. It was not easy to come back to this figure when I have let her sit in storage and my rooms here and in Vancouver unfinished for 5 years. With courage and force of will, I began to complete it. First I tried painting her on an easel, which perhaps isn't my style in that I probably dance over the work as I am painting. A quick trip out to purchase 2 yards of thick clear plastic at Honest Ed's, the kind for tables in Italian restaurants, would protect my living room floor. I placed it on the floor, with a little prayer that neither my cat nor my dog would inadvertently wander over the painting space, the canvas surface of wet oils, along with a long piece of unused canvas on the side in case of spills, and shone a clamp lamp with a daylight bulb on the area. And then carefully laid the painting flat and wetted it and painted from the tube with fingers and washes with a large thick brush and oh solitary dramatics in an attempt to feel my way into the movement of the dance, her moment of stillness... she is graceful, beautiful, I don't know if that comes across. Hope so!
On the upper left photo in the collage, I wrote in my Xanga blog (on January 4, 2005):
Despite the gloom of earlier, I moved my art supplies into the little unheated kitchen (an add on to the original house), that wire up front a makeshift dog gate, and my studio heater, which warmed me up marvelously, hang the 1600 watt usage, sat looking at the canvas, as I did yesterday for hours, and couldn't begin, and, you know, wept for long while, entered into a zen state, and squished paint around for maybe 20 or 30 minutes, and now I have the first, most difficult layer...
The drawing on the canvas, with a 2B pencil (shown with a Sepia photo filter), in 2004.
A loose sketch (2004), 14" x 17", India ink and watercolour pencils, which you can see in the collage.
Original sketch with a Photoshop filter.
The original sketch in 2004, 14" x 17", graphite and ball point pen (an after thought, and thankfully the ink has faded out). My brother had this drawing professionally framed and I have to admit, it looks good on the wall in his apartment.
Comments (4)
A tunic from a dress: re-formatting the 90s
%962 %UTC, %2012, %0:%Feb %ZsewingFor about a year and a half, I have been following a blog called New Dress A Day by Marisa Lynch (she will have a book out in Oct). Marisa was out of work a few years ago. She loved fashion. She wanted to do something creative. So she decided to take used clothes, that she bought at Salvation Army, Goodwill, Thrift stores, etc., and give them new life. Her only restriction was that she could spend no more than $1.00 per item per day. It was a great year, I tell you. She did some amazing transformations. Since that year, she has either posted other people's finds and fittings, or, sporadically, her own. She not only snips and sews, but dyes, glue-guns, and once even made a cool purse out of 1980s shoulder pads!
Below is a dress that sat in a corner for 6 months awaiting the 'Marisa Treatment.' I loved this dress, originally bought at 'La Cache' (now Cornell Trading) on sale. It was a sheer rayon dress, and way too big for me, not only in the 90s style, but a(n overly generous) medium size. No, no - it's not a 'fat' dress, I was always the weight I am... it's only ironed. I used to love dancing in it, having it swirl about me.
On the night that we went to the superb Paul's Spaghetti, which was my niece's Christmas gift to us and where she is the only waitress, I realized I had nothing to wear. Oh ha. A few hours later, I had finally reformatted the dress. I took it in by 20" - 10" on each side! After cutting it to shorten it into a tunic top, my daughter grabbed the left-over and said she was going to make it into a scarf. The print really is nice, as is that red.
These photos weren't so good, so I played in Camera+, being too lazy to ask anyone for another photo shoot.
Below is a dress that sat in a corner for 6 months awaiting the 'Marisa Treatment.' I loved this dress, originally bought at 'La Cache' (now Cornell Trading) on sale. It was a sheer rayon dress, and way too big for me, not only in the 90s style, but a(n overly generous) medium size. No, no - it's not a 'fat' dress, I was always the weight I am... it's only ironed. I used to love dancing in it, having it swirl about me.
On the night that we went to the superb Paul's Spaghetti, which was my niece's Christmas gift to us and where she is the only waitress, I realized I had nothing to wear. Oh ha. A few hours later, I had finally reformatted the dress. I took it in by 20" - 10" on each side! After cutting it to shorten it into a tunic top, my daughter grabbed the left-over and said she was going to make it into a scarf. The print really is nice, as is that red.
These photos weren't so good, so I played in Camera+, being too lazy to ask anyone for another photo shoot.
Before... bought maybe in 1997 or so, I used to wear it over a danskin for dancing at Sweat Your Prayers, which was a weekly venue in Toronto in those days, or with a belt over a black silk slip. Loved the dress, and fabric, and could not bring myself to throw it out, though with sleeker current styles it seemed like a tent dress and unwearable.
Snip, snip! (and the real colour!)
And now a great little tunic top, which I can wear with tights and a black skirt, or with my velvet leggings, or a pair of skinny jeans. Dressed up here with some dangly jewelry and my red Venetian glass beads, and a belt, I'm on my way out to hear Paris Black sing at The Unicorn (last Sat night) with a bunch of friends.
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I've seen pieces of this as you shared them in the production. What a mesmerizing journey, into your soul, and the soul of us all. Brenda, this full-length product evokes all sorts of deep emotions, some primitively-emergent tribal, some divine, as if there is a difference. It's very rare that a video this long can hold the viewer so well, but you do it masterfully with an integrated visual and auditory tension, and gentle releases, that are never too much or little, but just right... a single ancient tree with many branches and deep roots, each with their specific nuances, integrated in layers out to the cosmos and deep into the primal. I can only imagine the time and deep patient work you've put into this.
And you invoke humor: "We are told quite succinctly, to stay away from dreams and poetry. Moreover, natural is unnatural... creepy and viney, you scare us, heavy and pendulous, not at all like a laurel tree..." - the metaphors are outstanding!
Oh, the layers in this, the colors, the shadows and light, I haven’t enough vocabulary to describe the sheer exquisiteness of experiencing this multimedia experience. If I were back in my college days, with a half Cherokee philosopher who guided a couple of acid trips, including one with Walt Disney's Fantasia, I would be beyond the beyond into a most wonderful trip from this film. But I am a well grounded shaman in my own right now, deep in the roots of the planet, and already in the cosmos of my highest most subtle heart, so your work, Brenda, is nothing short of, excuse the redundancy, a masterpiece.
It is worth anyone's time to feel, I mean really F-E-E-L to the core, every single dripping dewy, sunshine bright, moonlight shadowy, archetype-inducing moment of this video. And it holds and expresses so many subtle little clues which reflect back upon the viewer... so my advice to any potential viewer is don't take you eyes or attentions away from any of its unique moments, for you will gain insight from, again excuse the redundancy, you will gain insight from this holistic audio-visual presentation.
As you can see, Brenda, I can't praise it enough, and am lost for words.
So drink it up sober like me, to get drunk in the Rumi way, or drink it up in any other way, you will be not only entertained but wiser from the experience.
And what a spine-chilling powerful finale, and I won't even describe it. That's for other viewers to experience
Thank you, Brenda, for making this. I'm going to dream well tonight.