Altered art book page 13 continued: Danse Macabre

Vanitas paintings take the form of still lifes, consisting of objects that symbolise death and love of human life and earthly pleasures.  The symbols used are mirrors, skulls, hourglasses, flowers, amongst others.  One of the most famous of the vanitas is Hans Holbein the Younger’s ‘The Ambassadors’. The skewed skull in the corner provides a

Altered art book page 13 A deadly reminder’

    page-13-altered book   The chosen words are: – ‘He listened to his father breathing’ ‘And made plans for that lonliness’     The Egytians made plans for their  death.  They left nothing to chance.    Sometimes a whole lifetime was dedicated to their own rememberence:   Egypt is full of these reminders.     page13-skeleton

Readers of the Lost Archives

Well so far I have managed to keep to all my resolutions……. well, apart from 5 and 6.  I am still concerned though about my archive as a lot of work has gone into them and it would be a bit tragic if no one read those posts.  Do people actually trail though archives though? 

Is there anybody actually there? or is that just a blot on the landscape?

    austin-o-spare In was in pursuit of researching artist’s who used automatism to express themselves,  I came across Austin Osman Spare (see   page 4 altered book: a matter of Life or Death‘) .  Following  Breton’s and Ernst’s lead, several artist’s applied automatic techniques to produce works.  Andre Masson forced himself to work under the influence of drugs,

Art and the Subconscious: Sleight of mind

  Being fascinated with the subconscious and the art associated with it, starting with the Surrealists (see Max Ernst) and earlier post: ‘Altered book page 10 Freefalling Snake in the Grass’ and  ‘Altered art book page 4 A Qustion of Life and Death’   you will see what I mean.  Artist have used many different means to tap the subconscious. 

The Bride keeps her Clothes on after all these years

I found this writing I did a few years ago when I was in my Foundation years at Uni. ‘Art and the Subconscious’ “The French writer Andre Breton wrote his first Manifesto in 1924.  Its main objective being to ‘express verbally or by other means the actual functioning of thought – in the absense of

Page 12 Altered art book continued Death wish: Don’t Fear the Reaper..

  page-12-moon       page 12 continued ‘He hid his own fears and wishes and only took them out in private under the eye of the moon..’ Fear of madness, fear of death, even fear of living in some cases, we all live with  fears and artists are no exception.  Some even exploit their

Altered art book: page 12 By the light of the Silvery Moon furtively

My scanner is now out of action.  It was playing up the other day, now it’s completely packed in.  I have  had to take a photo of these pages, with not much success. but anyway ……. Page 12, the words chosen were: – ‘He hid his own fears and wishes and only took them out