Coventry CarolThis piece is part of The Pity of War series that will be my solo show this April at the Allied Arts Gallery in Cambria. The exhibit will include altered books and collage/assemblage paintings of WWI and WWII.
I started this piece with swaths of Lumiere Super Copper and Pearlescent Blue and Liquitex Unbleached Titanium, then used matte medium to adhere 5 descending sized Xerox copies of a picture of the ruined St. Michael's Cathedral in Coventry after the 9 continuous hours of German bombardment in November 1940. Grey Fresco-Flakes were attached with heavy gel medium over the piles of rubble in the photos. A marvelous stencil from Mary Beth Shaw was used to create faux stained glass patterns in red and blue, an Anne Bagby stamp adds a gothic border using Staz-On black ink. Splatters and drips cover all.
The morning after, when dawn lit up the roofless interior of the cathedral, two of the gigantic roof beams lay in the middle of the nave in the form of a cross. They were rescued, wired together and now stand atop the rubble built altar that was errected in the memorial that the still standing walls enclose.
photo courtesy www.historiccoventry.co.uk
This is SO BEAUTIFUL. I clicked open your post, and cried as I looked and read, for as I write, I can hear the bells of another St Michaels - our village church with bell-ringing practice ongoing, here of a Tuesday evening. And I have to tell you that on that particular world war 2 night when Coventry burned, my husband - then a young boy at his Quaker Boarding School only three miles from where we now live, climbed up the tall chimney of the school laundry, and watched Coventry burn (as the crow flies only 20 miles away). He saw and heard the enemy aircraft fly over and still comments on how the whole northern sky was incandescent.)
ReplyDeleteWhat a small world it is, and thankyou for again sharing what is evil in the world. (In my 'bible' post I did not say that my great grandfather was also responsible for contributions to the reconstruction of the rebuilding of the Brabant/Belgian library of Louvain, destroyed in world war one in 1914. I only discovered all this when 'googling him yesterday).
And if it is of any interest, my father-in-law fought in WW1, first in the Dardenelles, and then on the Somme in 1916 where he was badly injured. Because he was then a wood-carver he had worked with many nationalities and understood German. He lay in a shell-hole with a German soldier, both of them dying, and exchanged addresses; Grampy was given by this young German a gold masonic ring, which my husband had until thieves broke into our house and stole it. The two young men were rescued; the German was dead on arrival at the field hospital, but Grampy survived and although his arm was shot to bits, he underwent many operations and what was remarkable was that the doctors saved his arm so that he could continue wood carving and eventually ran his own business, making furniture, and the restoration of old buildings.
Back to WWII: Somewhere, I have copies of maps used by my uncle in the D-Day landings; the last time husband Raymond and I were in France, I walked on the same beach, no-one about and the rain poured down, and I was moved to write a 'word-whisper'. I can tell you about the women pilots who ferried aircraft from factory to active airfields, even of Amy Johnston (one of them who previously had flown solo fro England to Australia), as she worked for my grand-father. I can tell you how I learned to read in aircraft shelters as bombers flew overhead; I learned to knit at the same time, for the teachers kept us busy.
Oh dear, I have gone on, I am so sorry; but thought you might like these personal anecdotes, relevant to war. My apologies if I have bored you. Now I'm going to look again at your beautiful work.
....now go and see THE KINGS SPEECH.....
ReplyDeleteOh, I love this piece, and notes about what you used to make it. I can't wait to see it in person.
ReplyDeleteYou've done amazing work and lots of research. cool.