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the tale behind THE LOST CHILDREN show

I ‘m enchained by particular forceful archetypal symbols, and it is a forest for the series of works for my “the Lost Children” show.

It is dark in a forest, and you don’t see your way clearly, there are secrets and mysteries, and you can get lost easily. There are also sunlit meads to play in. Different creatures dwell in forest. Birdies, bunnies and butterflies stay in the alight places. The monsters, predators and witches lurk deep in the woods. But there are also wonderful secrets within the darkest places – forgotten castles, buried treasure and a virgin in need of salvage. Forest is a place where the boundaries between reality and fantasy become blurred, enabling intuitive perceptions and collective cognition, opening the unwitting, deepest part of our consciousness. The children are being taken over by this ‘forest’ every other hour, although we ask them to be neat tidy and lovely, wash of the dirt every day, sit calmly hands in lap, not to stain their trappings.

{some of my early spring forest feelings below}

Regarding the show title idea, there are a couple of external references.
One, more playful reference is the Neverland, the famous dwelling place of those who want to stay lost and remain immature forever, a place found in the head of those who are still children. It is not the same from one child to the next – one of them ‘had a lagoon with flamingos flying over it' while the other 'had a flamingo with lagoons flying over it’, 'John had no friends, Michael had friends at night, Wendy had a pet wolf forsaken by its parents’. Etc.

The other reference is a French movie “City of the lost children”, about a mad man who kidnaps children to steal their dreams because he himself is incapable to dream. Visually arresting, bizarre, funny, illogical, beautiful, dark and sumptuous – it is a candy for eye and a decoy for soul. If you don’t know the movie – go see it!! It is possible that you will fall in love with it forever....

THE LOST CHILDREN SHOW

I’ll be having a solo show this May, in the Distinction gallery, California.

For your pleasure, you will see my new mixed media original paintings and pencil drawings in the show.

Everything’s finished, I’m shipping out the last ones this week.. yay!!

Here’s a small sneak peek:

LAST DAYS animation

suggestive animation

I'm  drawn to this incredibly animated stunning inspirational short from a Tokyo ‘Ultra Technologists’ group TEAMLAB {you can go, wander and explore yourself all the strange wonderful diverse things they do, at their webpage}.
This one sounds a bit like club music from nineties conveyed to now.. well, I wanna dance in swarm with those animals... :)


Last Days from TEAMLAB on Vimeo.

ANABELLE'S HEART drawing

drawing cause

I used to do drawing just as a part of my preparation for my big ‘serious’ painting. But sometimes I got carried away in the process and completed these groundworks to elaborated delicacy.

Sometimes there is even more life-blood, vivacity and poetic imagery in the drawing; and sometimes this all wither completely when I try to transfer the idea to a corresponding image in some more ‘serious’ material. So, I keep doing drawing.

I have been asked - how do I do it, where do I start. I start with peace of mind and enjoyment, and then I draw, looking in my heart for the sensation that wants to come out in sight..
Here is a tiny video that a friend of mine did composing the working process photos of my drawing called “jungle of Anabelle’s heart”. Enjoy!

Oh, and I'm definitely going to do a real hand-drawn animation one day! :)

{A close-lipped whisper in your ear: This video is also a peek into my upcoming solo show “The Lost Children” in the Distinction gallery, in this May}

ALTERED MEMORY series

Review of some oldies but goodies {i think}

I did a series called ‘Altered Memory’ last year. It consisted of small monochromatic paintings, like these:

{"hunters from sunday school"}

{"a boy who told stories"}

{"a boy who came to fight with an animal"}

etc.

I was looking through my family photos as a part of preparation, and there were “disturbances” in my emotional and actual remembrance, even if the photos were taken not so long ago.

It is especially interesting with the photos from childhood – these stories and events are emotionally very close, they have once happened to me in person; but in the same time it is as hard to remember them correctly in detail as a book read a long time ago. Or even harder.

The old events are now mixed together with childhood fantasies, imagination, tales and inventions, which once were as real as facts... as well as got altered by the present visions, the things I want to supplement, or what I don’t want to remember, or what I’ve been told by others, but do not remember.

It was fun to try to depict these strange, altered states of memory in my drawings, capturing their enigmatic nature.. hazy, obscure, dim, patinated, half erased but embellished, stained by spots of indefinable origin but dear – just as antique photographs..

** If you have bought or know whereabouts of any of the paintings above, please write and tell me, you will make me most happy! :) Thanks!**

ESTIMATED MYSTERIES

suggestive images

I won’t be first or the last one if I say that the antique photographs hold a certain peculiar charm in them. There are a couple of particular ‘trends’ in vintage photography which draw my special attention. One is ‘post-mortem’ {discuss them later}, the other is ‘spirit photography’ – both dealing with death.. what a juju topic for today!

I do not feel much attracted to simple ghost stories, but the 19th century ‘spirit photography’ has a certain ethereal aura of reverie, an atmosphere and attraction to them, haven’t they? Be cruel towards the mourning relatives and fake as it was, and despite of all that, I think those images are exceptionally devout, they capture humaneness in all its intensity – pain, despair, beauty, mystery of life and death, chastity, hope and love love love above all.. See for yourself:
 

{Besieged and confused}

{An angel watching over a sleeping little lady}

{I particularly like this one – a ghost lady holding a rose under man’s nose... chillingly lovely}

{Sometimes the images are exceptionally sentimental and melodramatic, aren't they?}

Everyone – from forlorn forsaken brides to grieving parents or children, from heartbroken widows to seemingly unshakable venerable men would sit for these spirit photographers, vaunted mediums between the world of the living and the dead, hoping the ghosts of deceased loved ones would show up during development of the photography – and time after time ‘apparitions’ happened as if by miracle. I guess in those days, photography was a mystery to people, regardless of whether it was capturing images of your living friends and relatives or of deceased ones… 

This maybe raises questions about ethics and whether everything really is allowed in art (and for that time, that maybe wasn’t art at all, just a business of some quick-witted photographers), but nonetheless I think just for now and today, with all the captured strength of human emotions, these photos are an example of really strange wonderful art!!