Embellish4art

Debora Alanna - Some of my sculpture featured on this site... Although thi site is limited to a few sculpture works, my art practice is more diverse. Yet, I am compelled to allow this sculptural practise to 'float' to the forefront, as I find sculpture adresses the unspoken, unadulterated discovery of internal clarity.

Slide Show of Selected Sculpture...

"Look"

Finding Direction   Pastel - 8" x 10"

  Ascension           Pastel - 8" x 10

2 works of mine are part of the group exhibit produced by the 

Community Arts Council of Greater Victoria called "Look". 

This show runs through the month of March 2010. 

UM LIVRO SOBRE A MORTE: Debora Alanna (355)

UM LIVRO SOBRE A MORTE: Debora Alanna (355)

This is the link to my work on the "Book About Death" blog, for the exhibition Um Livro Sobre A Morte at the MUSEU BRASILEIRO DA ESCULTURA.

"A Book About Death"

http://umlivrosobreamorte.blogspot.com/2010/01/debora-alanna-355.html#links


http://www.mube.art.br/?Expo&area=futuro&id=42

These two works have been reduced to 4" x 6" postcards and mailed to 

"A Book About Death" for the exhibition at the                                      MUBE in Brazil

Museu Brasileiro da Escultura                                            

Av. Europa, 218São Paulo - Brasil

This contribution appears on their blog:

http://umlivrosobreamorte.blogspot.com/2010/01/debora-alanna-355.html#links


http://umlivrosobreamorte.blogspot.com/

I was informed of this opportunity through the 

Davis Museum, Barcelona, Spain.

Davis Lisboa

http://www.davislisboa.com
http://www.davismuseum.com/

Corbu - Space, Light, Order

Le Corbusier (Corbu) quotes (Swiss architect and city planner, whose designs combine the functionalism of the modern movement with a bold, sculptural expressionism.  1887-1965) :
“To create architecture is to put in order. Put what in order? Function and objects.”
“The home should be the treasure chest of living.”
"Space and light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep"
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Memory is eidetic, thinking back to my Corbu experience, almost 14 years ago. http://embellish4art.blogspot.com/2004/09/villa-sarabhai.html

This link (above) begins to describe a part of my soul's formation and how Corbusier had a hand in this. 

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http://issuu.com/shear/docs/24sept09_visual_portfolio_low?mode=a_p

http://www.askart.com/askart/w/robert_winslow/robert_winslow.aspx

Randy Shear of ShearDesigns, posted the third quote listed above to his Facebook page. Robert Winslow, sculptor/painter commented. I also posted a comment. These FB contributions discuss the concept of order.  I learned there is an architectural order that is referred to by Corbu, and this inherent order is beyond my capacity to emulate. I can embrace that capacity in others, especially because Corbusier, author of this quote, has provided a profound living memory through his order, his space and light that continues to structure my life. More, I am grateful for social networking to revive this memory, its impact and further develop its consequence. 

Villa Sarabhai is a "treasure chest of living". Here, Corbusier incised space through architectural order amplifying light and enabling energetic connectivity. I remember rooms merging and ceilings expanding, surprising spaces presenting opportunities for congregating and repose, eating, sleeping and reflection. Pouncing and dancing of juxtapositions that engaged and cuddled, that invited and developed a magical space of contrapuntal rhapsody. There was a comforting weight of solidity, windows of intrigue and mystifying integration of landscape that cradled the walls. Breathing with anticipation, each corner, every turn revealed an new way of thinking, allowed integrity of beauty to expand. The many artists that lived and worked in this home must have felt this, from the explosive production of art they left for Sarabhai. 

W.B. Yeats described the 'space between' in a poem I once read. The title of this poem title escapes me, however, the experience he epitomized refers to the energy that is created between people, their experience of each other, what they create by interacting, feeling, and all that people do together. Corbu's Villa Sarabhai orders space and light,  encouraging this dynamic. The intoxication, a love affair with his architecture is intensified by the order.  I don't know if I heard the cacophony of Paradise Flycatchers, Magpie Robins and Malabar Whistling Thrushes or the mimicry of Racket-tailed Drongos. I do know that teasing monkeys in the canopy of tall trees were likely oblivious to my presence. Whether Areca Nut, Mango or some other variety is of no matter. I am overjoyed to be a participant in the effervescence that Courbousier created. 

vORtEx

Poetic soul, sculptor's sensibilities, abstract thought process, sensual underpinnings, visionary meanderings... I am in a vortex of discombobulation. The equation for making art work with a monetary outcome eludes me. I need help!  Any suggestions that this universe will impart would be welcome. Please write: d_alanna@ yahoo.ca  Thank you.

Collective Works Gallery and Dogwood Initiative

I have been accepted as a guest artist for the group show at

Collective Works Gallery with Dogwood Initiative.

Above, is what I will be contributing to this show:

Friday, January 29th.

7-9 pm at 1311 Gladstone Ave.

Fernwood. Victoria, BC Canada.

Debora Alanna - Saatchi Gallery - Online

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist_profile/Debora+Alanna/117918.htm


Here's my profile at the Saatchi online gallery. This presents an overview of my work to date. The pictures are not entirely in sequential order. The descriptions of the work may enable a further glimpse into my work practice.

More marker drawings - Preliminary development of installations

These drawings are beginnings of a complex installations.

Materials are chosen tofurther develop the concept.

Size is determined by location.

These works would be composed of light (type to be determined),

glass and metal. Possibly other materials would be integrated,

depending on the size and location of the final work.

Prelude to sculpture drawings

Here's some drawings that are preliminary ideas that may become sculpture or installations. Some themes are reflected previous work.  New drawings replenish the concepts. This is a way to start thinking about making new work. The minimal colour allows concentration on form.

"When I let my life speak, it says to me..."

Created 13 January 2010


Royal Roads University - ESA program
Post forest walk, facilitated by Hilary Leighton, Director, Continuing Studies
*************************************************************
Jargon juxtaposed

with composted fellings
stretched and striated.


Brambles of thought
entangled, jangling
redundancies.


Clarity shrieks
and clearings emerge
with gatherings of saplings
glistening and swaying
gently in sun kissed
quiet.


Bridge that expanse
of field and furrow
including doubt
and sorrow
to saturate beyond
sunlight’s marrow
wrinkled water’s
agitation burrows.


Incising, exorcising
percolating musically
with brisk and unrelenting
nervousness, daunting taunting
cajoling, reminding and imploring that fun is fine

Fun is mirth and breath.


Festivities of silence feast
on absence of vision
regaling whiffs of rancour
begs for indifference.


Release the light.
Lift the dream.
Endanger the debilitation.
Enable the laughter.
Provide simplicity -

Abundance.

Sunday Pastels

This is my Sunday output. Haven't used pastels in years. Kinda fun.

X

Criss-crafted
Cross-crafted
Tied to the dock
Submerging somewhere
On land’s founding
Raft.
Clocking this day
Wayfaring lay
Calcitrant
Calibrating, clocking
Time inbounding
Knouted with NOT
Necessarily knotted
Needling niceties.
Cresting tidiness
Appertain.

ACHE

Rotting light
Blessing blackness
Crunching away
Toothy smiles
Breaching pain
Sugary fright
Sanction liberty
Effective plight.

La Pomme

The weight of the flesh

Weighted apple

Through handling

Firm, unbitten

Shielding unblemished skin

Turning

Palm; round and heavy

Yellow praise

Consume.

Art and Soul - Installation at group show

This work was produced for the 'Art and Soul' exhibition, held 17 October 2009 at the Victoria Conservatory of Music. I have called this type of work Photo-Poetics as I have combined my poetry with photographs I have taken.

'Art and Soul' was part of Homelessness Action Week in Vcitoria, BC, billed as "a special evening featuring the art and music of people who have experience homelessness."

Some new photo-poetics

http://www.flickr.com/photos/embellish4art/

DAVIS LISBOA - DAVIS MUSEUM - BTV

http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/victorianews/entertainment/64430292.html

http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/victorianews/entertainment/64430292.html

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THE COLOR OF FIRE - DAVIS MUSEUM

ELS COLORS DEL FOC -

EXPOSICIÓ COL·LECTIVA DE DAVIS MUSEUM

Cicle sobre sostenibilitat."Els 4 elements: El foc"Fum. Flames. Explosió de colors. Cendres...L'ésser humà pot utilitzar-ho per a treballar, alimentar-se, viatjar...a través de la mirada dels artistes ens aproparem a aquesta capacitat de transmetre sensacionsque ens aporta el foc com element versàtil i metafòric de la nostra realitat.Continuant amb el cicle presentem el foc com a segon element. Reflexió sobre la seva vital importància. Font de vida i destrucció, alhora, ens adonarem que no només n'hem de tenir cura perquè el necessitem en la nostre vida quotidiana, sinó perquè el foc ha estat sempre un element entorn al qual explicar contes, llegendes, reflexionar i transmetre coneixement popular. Recuperarem, per tant en aquest cicle el foc com a font de colors, emocions i sentiments.

http://frengly.com/#

THE COLOR OF FIRE - COLLECTIVE EXHIBITION OF DAVIS MUSEUM series on sustainability. 'The 4 Elements: The foc'Fum. Flames. Explosion of colors. Ash ... Human beings can use it to work, eat, travel ... through the eyes of the artists we approach this capability to transmit sensacionsque gives us the fire as an element of the versatile and metaphorical realitat.Continuant cycle with our present fire as the second item. Reflection on its vital importance. Source of life and destruction, while we realize that not only have we should be careful because the need in our daily life, but because the fire has always been an element around which tell tales, legends, folk reflect and transmit knowledge . Recover, so in this cycle as a source of fire colors, emotions and feelings.

Artistas:

Debora Alanna

http://embellish4art.blogspot.com/

Phyllis Alter

Sonia Burel

http://www.soniaburel.com/

Edward Lightner

http://www.edlightner.com/

Davis Lisboa

http://www.davislisboa.com/

Centre Cívic Parc-SandaruC/ Buenaventura Muñoz, 21, 08018, BarcelonaDel 7

al 22 d’octubre de 2009

Inauguració: Dimecres, 7 d’octubre, a les 20:00 hs

Centre Cívic Parc-Sandaru

http://www.ccparcsandaru.cat/

TASCA Projectes d´animació sociocultural

http://www.tasca.cat/

Davis Lisboa

http://www.davislisboa.com/

Davis Museum

http://www.davismuseum.com/

Ajuntament de Barcelona

http://www.bcn.es/

PRISM

Wake.
A dream?
That door - home!






Looking inside out.
Any time I want.
Open and shut.
A key, my own.

Ascending, descending

The impossibility of
Hope’s taunt
Securely fastening
This dreamer’s
Spectral promise.




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http://www.thefreedictionary.com/home


HOME

1. A place where one lives; a residence.

2. The physical structure within which one lives, such as a house or apartment.

3. A dwelling place together with the family or social unit that occupies it; a household.

4.
a. An environment offering security and happiness.
b. A valued place regarded as a refuge or place of origin.

5. The place, such as a country or town, where one was born or has lived for a long period.

6. The native habitat, as of a plant or animal.

7. The place where something is discovered, founded, developed, or promoted; a source.

8. A headquarters; a home base.

DAVIS MUSEUM - MKAC, MUSEO KARURA ART CENTRE - SECOND LIFE

DAVIS LISBOA - DAVIS MUSEUM - MKAC, MUSEO KARURA ART CENTRE - SECOND LIFE

DAVIS LISBOA - DAVIS MUSEUM - MUSEO KARURA - SECOND LIFEEXHIBITION OF THE

PERMANENT COLLECTIONOF CONTEMPORARY ART BY DAVIS MUSEUMMKAC, Museo Karura Art Centre

Second Life.

September 1-30, 2009

DAVIS MUSEUM'S ARTISTS:Hadeel A. Dhaher, Debora Alanna, Mauro Alberti, Phyllis Alter, Marina Berdalet, Ruth Bolduan, Sonia Burel,María Cañas, Alicia Cayuela, Roberto Contini,

Neda Darzi, Malules Fernández, Simone Gad, Asher Hartman,Davis Lisboa, Colleen Mulligan,

Gê Orthof, Chen Ping, PSJM and Alfonso Siracusa.

DAVIS MUSEUMhttp://www.davismuseum.com/

MKAC, MUSEO KARURA ART CENTRE

http://www.mundosl.com/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=37http://davislisboa.blogspot.com/2009/08/second-life-es-un-programa-muy-complejo.

SECOND LIFE

http://www.secondlife.com/

DAVIS LISBOA

http://www.davislisboa.com/

Roots

Strolling down an avenue, encountering the billowing roots of aging trees, I think of rooting, embedding myself somewhere, settle, become familiar enough with a locale to burgeon, evolve and become rooted. Yet as I see these roots spill over paths, forced into confined quarters barricaded by sidewalk and curb, I think that the contortion is descriptive of how I would feel. But perhaps I need this squishing to produce new work. Limitations often provide an environment where production is prolific.

Letter Writing

Letter writing, whether on paper or computer screen is a practice that is, in my experience a difficult one for many people. I have acted as ‘ghost’ writer for many individuals, including executives, business managers and physicians, both ESL and those educated with English as a means of communicating. The ability to write words describing what one means to say, a seemingly simple act, is beyond the capacity of countless of those wanting to express themselves with letters.

However, for many that are capable, there is a persistent fear to have thoughts and feelings existing for others to read, and refer to; a letter becomes a testament to their perhaps changeable mind. Permanently existing, a letter, whether a personal or business communication, discloses thoughts and sentiments without the guile of gesture, inference of body language, and cleverness of tone of voice that a personal interaction or phone conversation would enable.

The time consuming undertaking of letter writing seems to continue to dwindle due to the expediency of texting and cellular communication. Although an avid email letter writer, I find myself affected and indulgent. The need or desire for speed supersedes the luxury of an enduring hand written letter. It is a loss I feel compelled to take responsibility for, as I too have succumb to promptness over the thriving grace of a letter that has had thoughts wrought through pen and paper.

Summer Arts Workshops

This is the poster for the Stage Design course I am teaching this summer in collaboration with Opera Lirica Italiana. Intake is on-going. This workshop is located in the Sheppard and Yonge area. Please email or call to book a space!

Blind's Eye

'Blind's Eye' is work created after experiencing temporary blindness in my right eye. The work below is the feeling of sight impairment. The work to the right is the affect of that temporary condition - sight has been restored, more or less.

Muse

You are the grit

in my oyster.

You cause ideas

to Pearl.

Some things that influence me during my formative years...

Formative Years

Birth – Born 5 August after 6 extra weeks gestation, with umbilical cord wrapped around my neck, by Cesarean section; bottle fed with Carnation evaporated milk.

Age 1– Father, aged 32, decapitated when exiting vehicle in a snowstorm at a railway crossing, when confronted by an oncoming train; played in playpen made from wood planks, large enough for an adult to recline in.

Age 2– Daycare provided by grandparents, Icelandic settlers to the Interlake that did not speak English; became bilingual, learned to write with pen and ink – first letter: T.

Age 3 – Companion to my grandfather while planting the garden with potato pieces, sharpening tools in barn, drinking with buddies – was the camouflage to prevent discourse/reprimand on evils of drink by grandmother, singer of sagas; mother remarried.

Age 4 – Moved to small village of 600 people into a white, rented house; played in coal bin – fuel for house. Sister born prematurely; we started being cared for by a Polish nanny. Went to kindergarten, learnt about and delighted in using hands in flour paste to make art. Friends with first love, Ernie.

Age 5 – Moved to newly built house on river in same village; boated in container for mixing plaster on flooded fields. Saw Rodin at Winnipeg Art Gallery, and escorted from premises when found stroking statue’s penis; started making forts in river willows. Fed my sister black chalk, to see what would happen, and waited.

Age 6 – Witnessed step-father, planner, (vodka) and grandfather, builder, (rum) reciting poetry while playing chess, each intoxicated; observer of project development and completion: landscaping, breezeway, interior waterfall, plant conservatory. Saw first movie – ‘Swiss Family Robinson’, with mother - cost: 25 cents; started piano lessons. Constantly ill with 'childhood diseases - mumps, measles, rubella, whooping cough; read Nancy Drew books and learned to love to colour with Crayola crayons.

Age 7 – Spent school year with teacher that was cruel; spent many hours at principal’s office after being ‘strapped’. Grandparents were care givers during holidays when parents went on exotic holidays; given loose change to placate spirit. Learned to skate, and participated in winter carnivals with hair coiffed with rags into ringlets – got first ‘Barbie’, a clone – Oleg Cassini doll. Witnessed mother’s desolation after after death of 4th child, a brother who died hours after birth – saved from immediate death by breathing device designed and employed by step-father.

Age 8 – Was tortured in school with yardstick smacks, writing ‘lines’ and holding encyclopedias with arms outstretched - always had name in ‘black book’; “Strapping” was abolished; watched grandfather save house during brush fire. Played in mountain of sand dropped on neighbour’s yard. Watched mother ‘Roto-till’ and plant garden, feed it fertilizer; watched kingfishers and sandpipers on the riverbed flats; crossed footbridge over river. Drew murals of the Amazon.

Age 9 – Grandfather died of tetanus after amputating toe in lawnmower (he laughed walking to the hospital across the lawn for treatment) – nurse did not administer tetanus shot; grandmother sold house and moved to apartment above a store; started organ and ballet lessons; saved from step-father’s belt beatings at home by dog, an overweight golden lab named Bunsy; started to be administered Dial soap after swearing at parents.

Aged 10 – Learned to love science. Wanted to be a nuclear physicist; bought taxidermy animals from teacher. Won public speaking prize; won 4-H photography demonstration prize. Learned to volunteer through mother’s activities – Women’s Hospital Auxiliary, School Board trustee. Caught on fire while burning garbage in the incinerator – rolled to stifle fire. Began to cut grass for 3 hours a day every summer on a Toro sit-down mower.

Age 11 – Suffered loss of hearing from multiple ear infections while learning to swim off docks where boats dumped raw sewage. Wrote poems on top of parents’ roof, at the riverside while sitting on concrete slaps that were dumped to prevent flooding of the river – trees along the embankment had been removed to ‘beautify’ the village. Wrote a poem for the teacher at the end of school – he cried.

Work in progress

Trials of leading...

Either I know where I am going, or I don't. This is the first time in living memory that I am at a carrefour for months. Disconcerting.

However, some work is being produced...

Answering my own questions - some...

I realized at least one archetype is dominant in each figure.

Some figures can be construed to reveal more than one archetype...
The spiral in the central configuration is an archetypal symbol...

The shapes that each figure is composed of are abstracted primal symbols – triangular, circular and square.

• 
  

Some hieroglyphics, pictograms, marks representing sacred iconography are in the lines of the figures.

“Archetypes provide the deep structure for human motivation and meaning. When we encounter them in art, literature, sacred texts, advertising—or in individuals or groups—they evoke deep feeling within us.
These imprints, which are hardwired in our psyches, were projected outward by the ancients onto images of gods and goddesses.
Plato disconnected these from religion, seeing them in philosophical terms as "elemental forms."
Twentieth-century psychiatrist C.G. Jung called them archetypes.”

'The Fan Blade is often an archetype reflecting rotating, spinning movement through consciousness, time and dimension. "

Afterthoughts - 'Congregation'

In my opinion, artists create self portraits, no matter what the original intention – the outcome of the work reveals self. Try as we might, we reveal our identity, our uniqueness, a signature of our soul. This is how I view one aspect of my recent installation. I did not consciously set out to do this. Once the work was presented, I was struck by several levels of interpretation the work may be subject to or clarification the sculpture would explain, and especially, how it revealed who I am and how I think of myself.

First I realized at least one archetype was dominant in each figure. Some figures could be construed to reveal more than one archetype – or if I think about it some more, maybe more than two... Even the spiral in the central configuration was an archetypal symbol... And further, the shapes that each figure was composed of were abstracted primal symbols – triangular, circular and square. I even began to see some hieroglyphics, pictograms, marks representing sacred iconography in the lines of the figures.

After digesting that revelation, I realized I was describing life stages. Simplification of life stages - but surely they were there. And more, the stages were equal to the next, none more prominent, as if there was a balance. Each was interconnected with the other, and each was blatantly important as the next. –Interestingly, I did not order them sequentially. What did that mean?

Now my questions for myself...

1. So what does this say about me, how does it portray my character, my personality?



2. Why did I call the work Congregation, when none of the figures actually meet? Why do the figures only connect by the spiral, the whirling...?
   
   

Then I need to understand and explain the shrouding, the emptiness within the figures, the broken fragility of the sculpture, the facelessness.

So what does this say about me, how does it portray my character, my personality?

1. Why did I call the work Congregation, when none of the figures actually meet? Why do the figures only connect by the spiral, the whirling...?
   
   
2. Then I need to understand and explain the shrouding, the emptiness within the figures, the broken fragility of the sculpture, the facelessness.



3. And finally, the cluster of apple branches placed in the middle of the spiral centre must be clarified, which can be described as the only congregated gathering of any kind in this show.
   
   
   
   
   

Kazakhstan Exhibition

Please check out my Flickr account for more photos...

Here is the installation of "Congregation".

ARTIST STATEMENT

30 October – 1 December 2008

National Museum of Art, Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Title: Congregation

This exhibition will be comprised of 5 over life sized abstracted human forms depicting the monumentality of human alliance and our large capacity for responsiveness to each other. This work will be displayed on the 2nd floor, Gallery 11, A. Kasteev State Museum of Arts on 30 October – 1 December 2006. Congregation is inspired by the momentous Kazakhstan historical works displayed in the gallery. More, as the work depicts people convening, the sculpture is about gathering – an assembly of people, a collection of perspectives, exchange.

Canadians are known as travellers. We explore our own nation and love to visit other countries. Kazakhstan has a history of nomadic existence, and some citizens describe themselves as part of a nomadic culture. Whether on a customary journey or because of a particular adventure, meeting new, companionable people is a wonderful opportunity to impart stories, commune, and interconnect. This work will show how amity and fellowship is universal, and how the act of congregating with each other enlarges each person, our communities, and our dimensionality.

Kazakhstan Residency

Getting materials for my work, here in Almay requires going to a construction bazaar. Each vendor is independently competing for your business. Here is where I bought expanded mesh wire. I did not speak, as my host, curator Yuliya Sorokina, asked me to NOT SPEAK, having done so while at the previous vendor... the price was adjusted accordingly.

My driver, Shokan, is a stunt driver, when not driving me around for materials. His driving on the streets of Almaty makes me feel like I am driving in a movie scene, like that in the Bourne trilogy... It was suggested, that because he has been driving with such confidence, the chances of an accident are greatly reduced.

Here is the 'store' where plaster was procured. Here, they call it gyps, and as I was requiring the material for sculpture, they assured us it was just for that purpose. Using it, I found it to be full of sand and rocks, as well as a match-book. Not ideal.

This is the gallery space at the State Museum of Art in Almaty Kazakhstan, where my work will live from 30 October - 11 November 2008.

Sand People

Sand People
Dwell on the beach
Each day wallowing
In granules of thought.
Rooted in shifting drifts
Piling high with godly gusts of bluster
Raging mounds of dusty irritation
Collects about them.
Stuck to malicious pandering
Sand people hold handfuls of
Scorn
Speckled slurs that desiccate
Blister in the searing sun of
Feigned saintliness...
Scourge decency of those
That get sand
Whipped
In the eye;
Blinding cruelty
Blown By sand people.

New Residency

Just waiting for my Visa to Kazakhstan...


View Larger Map

New residency, new thoughts and feelings to aquire, new work to be done... New show to produce... new friend to make. ADVENTURE!

The Word of the Day:

peregrination \pehr-uh-gruh-NAY-shun\, noun:
A traveling from place to place; a wandering.

Peregrination comes from Latin peregrinatio, from peregrinari, "to stay or travel in foreign countries," from peregre, "in a foreign country, abroad," from per, "through" + ager, "land."

http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2008/08/26.html