Studies for Lorraine's Moley
I thought I'd better make a start. So, I've been digging around my various Joan Eardley books, notes, etc. I found a few photos she and others had taken, and started to think about the Glasgow tenement close. Since it's early days, I won't worry too much about spoilers here... the format will be different, the medium too, and the actual assemblage also...
7 comments:
Nice little sqiggly sketches Gesa!
For the first seven years of my illustrious life I lived "up a close" at Shettleston Cross in Glasgow's East End. It was a "single-end" and there was no inside toilet, We had to go down half-a-flight of stairs with a big iron key and a wad of newspaper to the "Lavvy". We were lucky - the bannister didn't have brass knuckles so we could slide down them. Ah, them were the days!
[translations for our American friends can be made on application!]
I'll apply with a request for a definition of "up a close" here, David!
Great sketches Gesa - looking forward to seeing how this develops.
Gesa, that second page could have been in your Lines Moley.
You are a brave man, Brian! So here goes:
In Glasgow, where I was dragged up, we have tenement apartment buildings, much the same as in New York I'm sure. But unlike NY (from what I've seen on TV, eg; Sexin theCity) the entrance corridor and stairway, or "close" was open directly off the street. To live "up a close" was to reside in one of the apartments off that close. Now, if you were quite well off you might live in a "wally" close, which is one that had ceramic tile decoration. Sadly, as you might guess, I didn't live in a wally close. Even more sadly, my tenement (551 Shetleston Road) has long since been demolished. A way of life gone forever. Life has improved, but I no longer get to slide down the bannister!
Gesa, I'm intriqued, who is Joan Eardley? I followed the link you provided and found lots of examples of her work as well as David's great review of an exhibition of her work. I would love to know more. Love the sketches by the way.
Lorraine: have a look at my Joan Eardley tag on my blog's sidebar (thanks to Casey for suggesting to install it in the first place) - I did a few entries on Eardley - an English artist who studied at Glasgow School of Art in the 1940s, did glorious pieces of documenting East End Glasgow tenement life and the wild stormy seas of Aberdeenshire before she did in the early 1960s.
Steph - yes, I suppose it could have been, couldn't it? Now, how did I come up with the theme for my moley again...
Cheers, David and Brian... yes: squiggles I can do rather well by now. Just need to move them to something else now... time... where's my time gone...
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