June 2023. South London. England. GB. Hi Life! & Arts! It's wonderful to be back here, at my rocking chair, little heavy 2005 Power Book G4 which I bought with student discount 25% off at the end of my BA (Hons) Digital Media Production at the London College of Printing, now known as The London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, on the lap.
That reminds me that on my yellow table, at Studio F2 Lewisham ArtHouse, at the moment, is a collage of newspaper cuttings bearing the HOLLYWOOD sign on the dry mountain above Los Angeles, with some words surrounding it added by me, and reinforced on my latest visit at the studio: JOE BACON SAUNDERS, PHD Philosophy Communication Cinema, University of Southern California.
I haven't gone for a PHD, myself, not yet anyway, but I have also completed a Master's Degree in Enterprise and Management for the Creative Arts.
I am applying all my skills acquired in this late life education, 10 years of study from Adult Education Colleges to University, as well as those developed in the earliest years at my mother's side. She passed on the year on Fine-Art Painting study in Sweden, followed by the seven years of the same, in Paris, at the Beaux Arts Academy, in the 60's, to me, in everyday living. ...and in the genes inherited from Dad, those of my Texan paternal grand-mother, Lillian, and of my great-grand mother, who both studied to Master's degree level in Painting and Violin practice.
So, Yes! I love to Paint. And Draw. Like they did, and as my mother who still does.
And I have done so ever since I was perhaps even younger than 4, when, at that age, my first A5 artwork of ink on paper, comprising the drawing of a four legged animal resembling a Highland Cow of sorts, underlined by a row of hieroglyphic characters recalling an effort at reproducing or inventing letters, which my mother gave colour to with bright oil pastels, came to life framed and under glass hung onto the wall facing the shiny brown piece of furniture onto which resided the heavy, antique but functioning black telephone with brassed dial there was in the flat.
Later, in the mid-seventies, at my Junior High school in Los Angeles, California, my A1 sized black ink drawing on white card showing horses and a decrepit stone building in Nature, was exhibited at the end of the year. On return to France, my small drawings of a village tucked into snowy hills in ink and gouache on paper were enlarged and projected onto the wall, in the years at school preceding the Baccalaureat, by an enthusiastic teacher who acclaimed the beauty of the aethetics, proportions and balance within my Art.
Soon to become a Londoner for the rest of my Life, to this day at least, but most likely until the end, as I have made it my beloved home since the age of 18, and cannot cease to find wonders and inspirations in it's metropolitan octopus tentacles universe of a multicultural and diverse melting pot, uniting the whole World into one almost 10 Million's Human beehive like of buzzing activities, and just beings for the sake of existing as amazing creatures, going from Humans, to Foxes at night, to tamed and feral cats to Birds and wild Perroquets still flying from tree to tree in the numerous green spaces that are becoming wilder and wilder ever year as Climate Change progresses, and as wise elders of 97 years of age such as David Attenborough, advise us to make changes so as to save the insects and birds... and stop mowing the lawns...
My mother, Susan, herself based in the South of France, says that birds have disappeared around her house, where she used to leave a feeding ball on the veranda's table and have a stone sculpture bird bath dish in the garden at the front for their delight. In 2020, there were many birds busy, chatting and flying above me as I sat there on the white bench with the magnolia tree to the right, and all these green leaves above all round... Have they disappeared so quickly? In areas nearby, the water shortages for human habitation and agriculture are restricting usage to every other day only... There is already, in mid-June, a similar trend in certain areas of the South of England...
Anyhow. At least an army of legionnaires that had been fighting in Ukraine has gone into mutiny in Russia. And that energy and movement towards Peace gives Positivity and Hope to the Present, this Gift that Life, Earth, God, Nature, and parents and ancestors, have passed on to us for further growth and developments...
Oh, I need to make a book with the latest paintings my mother sent me... But will I finally finally acquire this Scanner which I saw at the French Embassy, on that lady's desk that was scanning my passport and documents... a fine device, for sure... and not so expensive... but what about the space on my own home digital media desk?...
... and finally finally publish the script about WW2 starring my grand father Guyon C. Saunders in his "Flying Coffin" that dad wrote and that my ex-husband has helped finish digitizing the text for... an experiment: the first time Dallas did that sort of thing. It might require a lot of proof reading time and focus before designing and sending to the printers and Amazon, but my last remaining aunt, Nancy, who was so kind to help send my grand-mother's exquisitely framed under glass watercolour of a reclining bunch of roses, from San Francisco, will be delighted to receive a copy.
The Arts. The Arts. Always the Creative Arts. And I am not talking about most of what I keep brewing or cooking for ongoing development and production since I learned on the Master's degree that a third of London's economy is propelled by the Creative Arts and the Creative Industries, and also that London represents one third of the UK's economy. Besides, it is known that the US, UK and China hold most of the Arts Market for the world... And blablabla... I am making most useful efforts, continuously, and they are not always fun. But there are many purposes to my humble existence in this little blue planet of ours. Yes. In many varied and multiple ways, I am convinced that the Creative Arts are extremely useful to us all. If only to restore Health and Happiness in social frameworks and in individuals all around.
I work my hardest every day at developing my brand, JOYCESART, which comprises activities in: * Painting, drawing, illustration and digital image manipulation * Photography and filming, including "Mirror Art", as my dear younger friend Gwen Thurstan the filmmaker called it when she came to film me at Studio F2, Lewisham Arthouse, a few years ago. Mirror art for Selfies, self-promotion and Art Practice documentation as it can be very time consuming expensive to hire the help of cameramen or camera-women, or photographers. * Editing and uploading content to the web. * Writing and publishing for myself and for others, although I now prefer to just focus on myself as regards this, as it is hugely time consuming, with Translating, Editing, Correcting, Proof reading, Designing, Print Buying, Publishing, Illustration and various Post-publishing activities related to exhibition of Illustrations, in print and in originals, as well as Book Signing Events. But I am glad my ex-husband Dallas has four books to his name name, by JOYCE Publishing, that have made him a proud published author as such. * Fashion, Acting, Comedy and Theatrical appearances, when I have the energy and desire, be they as Graffiti style interventions in everyday settings around London, or at organized (or not so organized) events in Town. * More, and more, but I tire just at the thought of writing up these + I like to keep most of my life private. That's my God given right. And I have made enough efforts, during all this creative life, to stay Underground and Obscure to deserve it. Peace. Freedom...
That's why I don't have a cleaner, a washer man or woman dedicated to taking care of my chores, although that would be much needed as I work as JOYCESART with 5 or 6 arms and hats, constantly growing my Brand. No. That's not the only reason: I need to be extremely careful with money, in order to carry on running my Art Practice. As a forever emerging artist, it still costs more to make art then it makes in return. But Hey! I need to do it to continue breathing Life into my lungs. It's essential for me. For survival. Mental, Physical, Spiritual. It is vital.
When I allow myself to rest and read a book picked up at my local tube station the way back from the gallery that represents me, at this point in time, such as "La Vagabonde", written by the famous French writer and artist Colette, in the 19th Century, I am doing R&D, research and development, for the French language, that I need to keep that alive in me, although my first language, in Paris, was English, and for a richer knowledge of the Bohemian back stages and all of artists' lives in those days, that are probably not too different from those of today's world.
So. For once, let's publish this piece, as Colette would have in her days: my own writing. It will have been a long time, as I keep most of my writing saved on hard-drives, for a later day. I now decide to do a quick self proof-reading of this page and share it on one of my three websites, http://joycesart.weebly.com before the end of the day. Numerous other tasks will come in between, but let's resolve to doing that. After all, my dad was a writer. Let's go for it! A polymath artist. That's what I am. Enjoy! Peace. Love. Arts. Happiness. Health. Abundance. God. Life. Gift. Nature. Buddha. Freedom. etc. etc. Thank' s for all the goodness that has enabled me to sit once more and write on this beloved second hand white rocking chair today. XXXXXX JOYCESART
GABRIELLA, my long time friend from the 90's Bonnington Square era, and Paul Chandler, whom I met whilst walking with The Ramblers, at my Open Studio, Lewisham Arthouse, 2015 or so, with some students from Lithuania. Behind us, "The Dallas Mustangs" mural on canvas, 6 meters x 1,50m.
I am an established recognised artist in my life...
At times more than others But always an artist Wherever my feet may take me.
Everyday brings it's discoveries And accomplishments However mundane or extraordinary.
Creativity guides the way Goddess of meaning and self-realisation Above my being and actions The purpose, the drive, the reason.
Art Love Work Perseverance. Gift of oneself To the belief that they are all that matters Continuously Enduringly With dedication Always.
I am an established recognised artist in my life...
Time. Love. Peace.
4 January 2014 London GB Here are images of the artwork I am developing at my fine-art studio at the moment. First I had cleaned and sized a blank stretched canvas that a fellow artist had given me before leaving her studio and relocating to Spain. As such, ready to be up-cycled, it bore of few marks of age but had never been painted upon. The idea grew in me as a large self-portrait has been stored behind my fine-art studio's desk for a while, and had attracted the attention of the photographer from Deptford X during the last Open Studios (October 2013) at the Arthouse. It had also been exhibited on the first floor lending for the duration of the previous Open Studios and year: a self-portrait of me dancing, painted on another up-cycled stretched (but also framed that time) large painting that a friend had brought for me from Paris when my studio was based in Bonnington Square, Vauxhall. In fact, while travelling to the studio yesterday I had been writing in my moleskin notebook about this series of self-portraits, one of which was exhibited in the gallery just below the Brixton Recreation Centre in a woman only show… So here it came to … light! while the former dancer is set against the dark background of the night, this 2014 resurrection moves, so far at any rate, in daytime.