Page 17
Autistic boys
Their easels are next to each other. They talk about their Aspergers while they are working. They are eighteen years old. One is very, very anal-retentive about drawing, taking too much time and care to get anything onto paper. The other (the beautiful one) not. In the end they both do lovely drawings. Gifted. I really like the one of my upper body and head. Ribby, with no eyes so that I look like a sculpture. The tutor manages to get Peter to give me it. At home I put it on the wall above my desk.
In ‘Melanie Alone’ Melanie gets off with a fifteen year-old boy with Aspergers Syndrome, one of her pupils. It’s an illustration of her loneliness and her attraction to those whom she perceives to be as vulnerable as herself. It starts a chain of events that ends in her prosecution and attempted suicide.
In my earlier draft the boy spends a night in her bed and she only cuddles him, but she gets prosecuted for sex with a minor. In my rewrite however they do have sex. Victoria’s suggestion.
This week’s topic
17. Is solitude ‘the school of genius’?
And does the creative person’s need for solitude mean they’ll probably ending up living alone?
This is the first of four topics in my new discussion subject: LONELINESS FOR ART’S SAKE. Contribute your thoughts by clicking on the above and scrolling to the end of the discussion. Alternatively, perhaps you’d like to comment on page 17 (the above installment)?
And see here for the full list of discussions on life-drawing and Life to be found on my blog.
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NOTE FROM ADMIN: Sue Vickerman has asked me to reiterate that she is Suki’s manager and that she is definitely not the same person as Suki, coz people keep asking.
NOTE FROM SUKI: Thank you Admin. Tell my “manager” I don’t want to be mistaken for her either.
On to important things:
1) PHENOMENAL! Rush to the utterly fantastic CLOTH & MEMORY [2] Exhibition on the top floor of Salts Mill in home-of-the-Arts Saltaire (that’s a famous ‘World Heritage Site’ village in greater Bradford, UK: commiserations if you don’t live near enough!).
I, with my tendency to snort “conceptual bollox” when looking at installations, found this mix of European and Japanese artists’ works awesome. The more time I spent with them – I was rapt for ages – the more wowed I got. See Yoriko Yoneyama (review and photos here) and Karina Thompson (mind-blowing not least for the sheer time it must have taken to construct their exhibits), Annie Harrison, etc etc etc. See also Bel’s blog (she dragged me to the exhibition) for a photo of Koji Takaki‘s piece.
And to cap it all, this top-notch exhibition is FREE ENTRY. 11am-4pm daily til 3rd November 2013.
2) Flippin’ heck – controversy! Has anyone else read this article slamming Britain’s art schools, penned by Jacob Willer in Standpoint online magazine (June 2012)? Artist Lois Brothwell showed me it. You will LOVE it or HATE it. Lois loves it. Read ‘Don’t Go to Art School if you Want to Learn to Paint’ here.
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I LOVE KEITH HANSELMAN‘S GAUDY DAUBY PAINTINGS. However I can’t find online any examples of his paintings from life (mostly head portraits) which he creates at Doug Binder’s Monday workshops (scroll down to Halifax) at DEAN CLOUGH GALLERIES in Halifax (UK). Keith has had work included in London’s annual Royal Society of Portrait Artists and The Royal Society exhibitions. A quirk of Keith’s when painting portraits is that his canvas will already be mounted in a big, broad, paint-daubed frame.
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