Creating from a Dark Place

Childhood Memories. 12"x12" collage

Did I believe I had a clear mind?
It was like the water of a river
flowing shallow over the ice. And now
that the rising water has broken
the ice, I see that what I thought
was the light is part of the dark.
--- Wendell Berry

Ray Johnson, early collage, Untitled, 1957-58

RAY JOHNSON: The story of the life (and death) of Ray Johnson is cloaked in mystery. Throughout his career he was difficult to know and understand. Johnson is known as the founding father of MAIL ART...and as a collage artist. But he was overshadowed by artists like
Andy Warhol and he became more reclusive... mailing his art to his few friends. He had been called the most famous unknown artist in the world.

Ray Johnson was also a performance artist. To try and separate the man from his art is impossible. He lived his art and he thought he was the embodiment of art. Some say his
suicide was his last art performance. When he was 67, on Friday Jan. 13, 1995 he jumped off of the Sag Harbor bridge in NYC. Many aspects of his life - and death- involved the number 13.
His age (67, 6+7), the room number he checked into earlier that day (247, 2+4+7).

There is an award winning feature length documentary (2002) about his life and art directed by John Walter titled HOW TO DRAW A BUNNY. Follow this link to a one minute movie trailer.

Special Note: International Mail Art Exhibition and Swap, deadline October 1, 2011. See details at this link.

HANNELORE BARON: She was a young child in Germany when Hitler rose to power. Her family barely escaped the Holocaust.
Small. Intimate. Personal. Compelling. Moving. Mysterious.

"It is her work's fragility, both physical and spiritual-- the sense of quiet, private anguish expressed through forlorn materials and cryptic, edgy scrawls-- that have often been cited as the defining characteristics of Baron's art." Michael Kimmelman, NY Times, 1993

ANSELM KIEFER: The history of Germany, the Holocaust and the horrors of war also inform Kiefer's life and art. Although unlike Hannelore Baron, his works are often large and monumental, though they are just as personal, and compelling and emotional.

His works are characterized by a dull, musty, nearly depressive, destructive style... deeply textured. "The truth is always gray." --- Anselm Kiefer

Sometimes it takes darkness... while it is painful to experience or endure...
the light that is hard won offers the greatest illumination...and can lead to the greatest
beauty.

In the early 1990's Kiefer moved from Germany to the south of France where he created a landscape extending over acres--- miles of corridors, huge studio spaces with large paintings and monumental constructions, always growing and changing. OVER YOUR CITIES GRASS WILL GROW is an almost wordless documentary by Sophie Fiennes about this monumental project.