Saturday, November 21, 2009

song for edith holden (work in progress)


ink and pen and marker on paper

...its not right for the zine ,but this is very dear to my heart at the moment, I have been haunted by the little known facts of edwardian artist and botanist Edith Holden ,for a long time now.
You may not know of the country diary of an edwardian lady ....its a fascimile copy of a diary that edith kept as her journal in the early 1900's , she recorded what was happening in nature throughout the year and drew it all. Birds ,flowers , poems etc.
In the 1970's her grand niece found it in the attic and got it published.
It was very freely available and many homes had one ,you can still pick them up easily second hand.BUT what really gets me is the nature of her death .....its soooooo tragic , you wont believe it.
Edith was gathering chestnut buds and leaning over she fell into the river thames and drowned. omg ......
I am making more work in response to this awful end ,it has really captured something in me.

6 comments:

denise nestor said...

Jane this is beautiful. You've really got your style down. It looks finished to me, but I get that you're at that dangerous stage where you're deciding whether to leave it as it is or go on. Its one of the reasons I often leave things 'unfinished'! : )

Jane O Sullivan said...

thanks denise x ...I think I will leave this piece as is...the work in progress bit is me trying to keep it going.....ie. I want to make a whole body of work around this..... ,you know keep my nerve on the idea...but I agree with you this piece does look finished ,thanks for your comment.

slow said...

Hi Jane, I would love to see it in the zine; the In These Shoes theme is only a proposed starting point. It is very open, so throw it at me for the zine, if you like. Only, it will lose it´s delicate colour, zine is B&W.

Shaunab said...

I really, really like it. It reminds me of Frida Kahlo's stuff for some reason. Would love to see more like it - a series would be wonderful as it is a great (but tragic) starting point.

denise nestor said...

I thought of Frida Kahlo too! Just forgot to mention it : )

Jane O Sullivan said...

thanks so much guys for the feedback , I always had a special love for the work of Frida Kahlo and I appreciate you seeing her in my work , I take that as a huge compliment and shaunab,a series is my dream ,thanks for the encouragement.