Envy and Censorship

 D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930)

Those of us that sailed oceans in small boats over fifty years ago would swap books for something new to read on a long passage. One book that came my way was a well thumbed paperback edition of D. H. Lawrence's poems and short stories. In the forward the author makes mention of the negativity that comes from those who want to create but can't. Their envy turns to censorship and the closer the relationship, the greater is their attempt to thwart. 

If the truth of D. H. Lawrence's statement struck me fifty years ago it strikes me all the more so now. A good friend once advised me not to expect those I had known to be pleased if I made a success of life - they'd rather not know.

In comparison, I received these words from a good friend who is talented enough not to begrudge the talents of others. 

I am glad we met in this lifetime. I have already learned so much from you.

William Holt (1887-1977)

Going back even further, the author, artist and adventurer William Holt was once a neighbour of mine. Towards the end of his book "I Haven't Unpacked" he relates how, after travelling the world, he returned to his West Yorkshire home town impoverished and had to go back to working in the mill. 

Guess who I saw today, and him wearing clogs too: Billie Holt. I always said Billie Holt would come down in the world.

I remember William Holt showing me some sketches he had made at a life-class. One in particular remains in my mind. It was of the nude model warming her hands between poses before a one-bar electric fire. 

After the artist's death I tried to organise a retrospective exhibition of his work, but the surviving family members were not supportive. Perhaps they considered that Billie Holt had hogged too much of the limelight during his lifetime. I have found that negativity, envy and censorship from those who want to create but can't, sometimes continues after the creative person's death.

Life Force by William Holt

Creepers and Calligraphy

 Creepers. My latest Bare Minimum Design

I have used an invasive creeper that grows in profusion on the land that surrounds my studio to decorate the latest dress in my Bare Minimum collection. It was an experiment in applying fabric dye with the speed that I paint in watercolour. By working fast, and not let my brush linger at any point, I avoid the dye bleeding against the surrounding fabric. As with my watercolours, speed and timing are critical. The splashes are all part of the effect that I am after.

Design Detail

I have finally found the best way of adding text to my designs. After experimenting with pastels and permanent felt tip markers, I've gone all the way back to the traditional brush techniques of master Chinese calligraphers. Again speed is of the essence.

Sample brush script painted with fabric dye on cotton voile.

Whereas not many artists are fortunate enough to have had a talented calligrapher as a model, I have. But until Verlena returns from her studies at the University of the West Indies, I must do the best I can. Below is the clay sketch for a sculpture I made of Verlena before she left.

As strange as it sounds

The British and French brought the madras fabric to the Caribbean in the 1600s and it became a currency of slavery: made in India, sold to traders in London, and then used to barter for slaves in West Africa and to clothe slaves in the West Indies. 

As strange as it sounds, the tartan madras has since become the national dress of many Caribbean islands, including my own island of Dominica.

What interests me is the material's link to the banana plant. It is the fibres from the stem of the banana plant that were spun, dyed, and woven to make the early madras fabric, a fabric which is now very rare and sort after.

The same fibres are an ingredient of my handmade papers.

Samples of my handmade papers.

Weird or not weird

 

Comparisons by Jan Saudek

Jan Saudek, art photographer and painter, is an holocaust survivor who was born in Czechoslovakia in 1935. His art work represents a unique technique combining photography and painting. Many of his images depict the transition from puberty to adulthood. In his country of origin his work was considered pornographic and oppressed by the authorities. He is now recognized as one of the leading fine art photographers of the 20th century. 

For many his work is still considered weird. To counter their claim I can do no better than quote Paul McCartney of Beetles fame:

I used to think anyone doing anything weird was weird. Now I know that it is people who call others weird that are weird.

The theme of this post came about by way of a prospective model that visited my studio this morning. She began by considering my work weird. But as she was about to leave she had a change of heart and decided that the nude figure was not weird after all. 

For an excellent introduction to Jan Saudek's work go to: https://artnorth-magazine.com/news/2019/3/4/consuming-pleasures-the-art-and-life-of-jan-saudek

A touch of colour

 

On a rainy day in the Caribbean I decided to add a touch of colour. 

Up to now I have been content to contrast white cotton voile against the dark skin of my potential models. I am still undecided if colour should be added and what form it should take. My experiments have ranged from batik, to dye, to ink, to pastel and back to dye - as in today's picture. 

Fortunately a lifetime's experience of throwing down watercolour washes helps when it comes to throwing down uncontrollable brushfuls of dye. As with watercolour, speed is the essence. The above design took me fifteen minutes from beginning to end. As with my paintings, risk is involved. And this time, it is not an expensive sheet of watercolour paper that's at stake but a completed dress.

Incidentally, a job lot of fabric that I bought recently as "cotton voile" turned out to be "cotton lawn". Hence the problems I've experienced in getting it to drape with gay abandon. Cotton lawn has a higher thread count which makes it a little stiffer and not quite as sheer. 

I live and learn! 

I will repent...tomorrow!

 

The Yorkshire Keel Barge "Brookfoot" discharging her last cargo of coal to the Thornhill Power Station.

 If you repent, the parson said,

Your sins will be forgiven.

Aye, even on your dying bed

You’re not too late for heaven.

 

That’s just my cup of tea, I thought,

Though for my sins I sorrow;

Since salvation is so easily bought,

I will repent…tomorrow. (Robert Service 1874-1958) 

I've lost count of all that I have done in my life, but my adventures really started on the day I gave up my job in engineering design and bought for £200 the canal barge shown in the opening picture. In the years that followed, it was one thing after another. If it is true that in the next world nothing happens and it goes on for ever, I'm happy where I am.

My unconventional lifestyle was recently brought home to me in an email from my daughter in the UK. She said that when she was growing up she wished we lived the same as all other families. Now that she is grown up and she tells her friends of her upbringing, they are green with envy. 

The photographs below span twenty-seven years of Trina's life. 

Trina had an easier start in life than her sister Tania, who at nine weeks made a stormy ten-day sail from Bermuda to the Virgin Islands in a cardboard box wedged on the cabin floor of my gaff cutter Born Free. 

The cardboard box had previous held eggs and was appropriately marked "HANDLE WITH CARE".

 

 

 

The cheek of it!

Work in progress on one of my lace-up designs.

Fifty-five years ago I declared myself an artist on the pavements of France and more recently I declared myself a fashion designer. 

The cheek of it! How dare someone who had spent his teenage years at an engineer's workbench and never a day in art school believe he could earn his living as an artist. And how dare someone approaching the age of eighty have the audacity to believe he could influence the dress of those in their teens and twenties. 

However, very few of those that went to art school made it as artists and I doubt that many of those who have studied for a degree in fashion design have become fashion designers. I learnt more about developing my talent for painting on the pavements of France than I could ever have done at art school, and a lifetime spent depicting the beauty of the female nude gives me a head start on subtlety revealing the beauty that lies beneath the dress.

My approach is specifically directed to the tropics and in particular to my "Daughters of the Caribbean Sun". I am not after flaunting yards of silk nor the sexually skimpy. What I am after is a cool feminine alternative to tee shirts and jeans that welcomes the attention of a fleeting glance.

A few weeks ago I began tentatively sharing my ideas at random with others. Whereas I expected a non-committal response, the feedback has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic. As one of my respondents said: "I like it! While the rest of the world grows older you grow younger." 

Retrospectives

Sketch by Roger Burnett

The title of today's post is plural because there are two of them. Both depict the town of Halifax, Yorkshire from fifty or more years ago. One is of photographs taken by my brother, the other sketches made by myself. I left Halifax, the town of my youth, in the 1960's, my brother remained. 

My retrospective is scattered through the pages of this blog and my brother's masterful photographs are scattered through the posts on his blog News from Nowhere. More recently he has compiled a selection as a video titled, Monochrome Valley.

Although there can be no greater contrast between my native town and my adopted Caribbean both offer the artist creative inspiration. Moreover, the pandemic is giving us time to search through past portfolios and thousands of negatives.

Photograph by Alan Burnett

Ode to Joy

I can't remember what the Halifax Symphony Orchestra was playing when I sketched them from backstage over twenty-five years ago. It may have been Beethoven's 9th Symphony, but no matter. Here is a very different version of Ode to Joy to cheer my followers up and give them hope in the midst of this pandemic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceX5jJ5fggs