My creative journey on my sabbatical in India and beyond
I went on a day trip to Akko from Dalyat El Carmel with my son Toby and dog Talulah. Always easier to get the dog to pose!
I just loved the whole art scene and vibe.
The Eretz Israel traditional Jewish (and a few Palestinian) costume collection from all over the world was photographed on 80 models by Kyris an Athens photographer. It was printed on cotton which meant many of the photographs had sumptuous embroidery as well. All the models had smokey eye make-up! Ruty and I loved this exhibition and enjoyed different bits and challenged each other as we often do!
This was billed as a fantastical show.
Germaine found two blank canvases painted black. Being a klutz I dropped one and made a hole. So Barbie could now crash inwards. Loni helped my hang the canvases level and Miriam started by applying the clouds. I had envisioned this being a community project again but I wanted artistic license here so only Miriam was involved! Tanya told me it had to be more than just Barbie breaking through a canvas – so I made it my world.
I collected loads of stuff over many months and played around a lot with ideas.
It has lots of animals (cats/dogs/birds) as well as a cow (India). I have designated anything that is red, amber, green a traffic light and there are three sorts of these (small plastic cups/sweets that look like lego/popcorn). I found a road marking tape in the Flying Tiger store. I made the Belisha Beacons (that stand either side of a zebra crossing and flash) from painted sticks that I made stripey with white stickers. The yellow beacon is a flock bauble I found in Next in Milton Keynes! The pin broaches I get from one of my favourite Archway coffee shops – Crick’s Corner – and the money goes to the RSPB and my sister-in-law Tracy manages their supply. There are birds, small mammals, butterflies and flowers. I made the clouds from lego style blocks in pink, white and purple. There are snowflakes with whales for fun and gold sprayed terracotta pots which I used for coffee in India. They have black flowers, fishing wire with Rudolf the red nosed reindeer earrings and flat bits of plant.
One of my constant shape themes are spirals and I have illustrated them here with blue earrings in the shape of a spiral and two interlocking silver spiral earrings.
Purple is a go to colour and there are three wooden trees all painted with different purple inks. One has heart earrings and the other one animal earrings. At the bottom of each tree is a duck.
I bought astroturf with Caroline FC when I arrived to make it into small mats for use as Talulah’s garden toilet. At the bottom of these pieces is a small thin (unused!) piece. The gold sprayed Barbie torso’s came with a set with 4 Barbie outfits. The glue from the gun was so hot it melted the handle! To make the painting lie flat I had to saw off Barbie’s legs and it seemed a shame to waste them so they are at the bottom next to one of my favourite flowers (frangipane). On a wooden curved piece of thin wood I placed 6 skateboards with 6 firetrucks on top. There is a green bicycle on the grass as well as a London red bus and red post box to remind me of my UK roots! My children Betsy and Harry are very happy to see my Barbie projects. Toby less so. For him I have put in two gold elephants underneath 4 mermaids. They are surrounded by various shades of blue puff paint
Neeta and I went on our last morning together to the Art Museum. We had a rainy last morning and before we went to the marvellous Itaka Library Café (where we had had sumptuous cocktails the night before) for coffee, we went to this museum and essentially had a private tour by one of the staff – Ljubica. We went to the permanent collection which had traditional dress from three eras and archaeological finds from the site we’d been to the day before – The Duklja Ruins.
The highlight were the two art exhibitions. Both by Montenegrin artists still alive.
He is 95 and all the work on display is from the last 2 years. There are a few watercolours but mostly are oils. And the first set are painted to look like watercolours and are of local places like Kotor.
We really liked some of her work. She is in her 30s and has some very vibrant paintings.
Neeta and I posing by the front entrance! A diptych from the 1950s showing all the famous parts in Montenegro’s history and architecture
When my friend Tracey went to visit family in South Africa she asked me if I would like anything. I just love anything beaded from SA and so asked for 5 small dolls. I have called them my Voodoo Barbies – not that look anything AT ALL like any Barbie I or anyone else has ever seen!
I took them to Mexico and mostly photographed them in the old and wonderful city of Taxco, home to silver, VW Beetles, a huge Christo up a hill and a city build on a very steep hill.
I thought it was time to attend to the three monotheistic religions. I looked up on YouTube how to tie the various head-coverings and made outfits for all three of my Barbies. I made the stockings for Muslim and Jewish Barbie out of hair ties I split and sewed back up. I even made slippers, and handbag and book of Psalms for Frummer (Orthodox Jewish) Barbie. For Palestinian Muslim Barbie I knitted her a cardigan and used some left out Palestinian embroidery for her neck covering and coat. She also had a bag. Nun Barbie had some black flowers and a cross on a chain. For the most part I photographed them separately but also as a threesome. Now I have attached them to a padded bag that Yasmeen gave me.
Witch Barbie
Devil Barbie
Dick Whittington Barbie
Fairy Barbie
I love wandering around with Talulah and asking her to sit and pose in front of purple graffiti/street art and occasionally flowers!
So Neeta and I go away for a few days every few years. We have been to Porto, Portugal, Tel Aviv, Israel and Limnisa in Greece so far. This time it was for my 60th and we had to choose somewhere that we could both fly directly. So I chose Podgorica, Montenegro. Except I did have direct flights and poor old Neeta didn’t. The capital of Montenegro had clearly been wiped out in WW2 and was a feast of Slavic architecture. It made Milton Keynes look like it would win the most beautiful holiday destination. To boot, it was rainy most of the time and cloudy at best. But we had a serious laugh with good meals, wine and cocktails. Neeta seemed happy to play along with my total Barbie obsession and I suggested we get some knock-off Barbie dolls and whilst in Kotor we bought 2 cheap ‘Lucy’ dolls. Neeta wanted them to look very poor and communist eastern block so proceeded to chop all her Barbie’s hair off and we dressed them in the grey equivalent of sackcloth and ashes. It was a chopped up pair of grey tights. And then the photography and videoing began!
Most of taxis are VW Beetles. All white. But lots of others drive them. It reminded me of the lovely cars in Havana. How these beetles managed the hills in Taxco I just don’t know…
I had a totally lovely time in Mexico. Hoping to return in a year.