A few weeks ago I remembered having done a drawing of Macha running with horses (something she was forced to do while pregnant and so cursed the men of Ulster to be severely debilitated in time of greatest need) when I lived in Kerry. I was sure the drawing must be in one of the portfolio or flat storage boxes that have been relegated to the attic roof for the past few decades. I was determined to, at the very least, do an inventory of the work in these portfolios while looking for the drawing and perhaps purge a few things on the way. First up was a flat box portfolio that I recall being made to house a submission of drawings to Canada's Artbank in the early 1990s, prior to my big move to Ireland.
Musings about art, writing, music, travel and food (life, the universe & everything...) by Lorraine Whelan
Wednesday 30 November 2022
archive from the rooftop!
My work wasn't bought (I don't even remember what I submitted) but the durable portfolio has proved itself very useful for unframed work.
The work inside was a nice surprise too and I began an inventory. Photographs and measurements were taken of all works, and then I began separating work into piles to keep or to purge.
I'm glad I kept the two self-portraits from the early 1980s and they went into the pile to still keep.
When I worked in the Records, Archives & Museum Dept. of the Toronto Board of Education, a clean-up/clear-out of perceived junk was being done. I was offered a huge, double-handled porfolio and gladly took it off the TBE's hands! All kinds of things were inside it that I didn't expect to see. I had been searching for years (in the wrong places, obviously!) for my copy of a Day in the LIFE of a Bull Dyke magazine by Canadian artists Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan. There was a photocopy of a memorial to my Dad that appeared in The Bray People in 1995. There was a large, handmade calendar page from my busy final month in Toronto in 1993 giving a daily account of my doings (packing, garage sales, meetings with friends, gigs, literary readings. I was also surprised to see some fine drawings that I did for a Community Employment Scheme in which I participated in 1990: my task was to create drawings of historic sites and sites of interest around Wicklow for possible use in tourist walks brochures. The brochures were never made, so nothing came of it, but it was nice to see these illustrations again.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment