PayPal is the Worst Company in the World
Fanny by Herbert Freeman
Séraphine Louis
Woman by Herbert Freeman
This week, in addition to viewing the pioneering hip-hop film Wild Style, I watched Martin Provost’s sublime biopic Séraphine. In Provost’s movie the life of the self-taught painter Séraphine Louis is explored.
Séraphine Louis (1864–1942) was orphaned at an early age. She supported herself by working as a domestic for the middle-class families of her town. At night she would compose pictures using paint that she would make from her own unique formulas. In 1912 the German art collector Wilhelm Uhde was shown a still-life of apples by his neighbor which intrigued him. He was astonished to find out that the painter of the picture was his own housekeeper. Uhde was impressed with her work and encouraged Louis until the outbreak of World War I forced him to leave France.
By 1927 Uhde had returned to France and attended an exhibition of local artists in Senlis where he saw some of Louis’ work. He renewed their acquaintance and became her patron. He included her in an exhibit of Naive painters that he curated in Paris called Painters of the Sacred Heart. This brought Louis critical and financial success, however the Great Depression soon put an end to the market for her paintings. Ill prepared for this turn of events Louis fell into a psychotic state and was institutionalized for the remainder of her life.
Dance Crowkiller
Woman in a Fedora by Herbert Freeman
I have known about the photo below of Dance Crowkiller for many months now. I discovered it in a blog post by Vancouver artist Laura Bucci. Ever since then I have been hoping to find more photographs of Mr. Crowkiller’s carvings. Either there are no other photos of his work on the internet or my google-fu is lacking. I have found several testimonials as to the quality of his work.
Dance Crowkiller is of the First People and has been living the life of an urban homeless artist. He is a carver who creates pieces based on his native heritage. He is the subject of the documentary The Purpose of Life is Rice…Wink and was also featured in the CBC documentary The Devil Plays Hardball a film about trying to help the homeless in Vancouver through mentoring.
If there is anyone in Vancouver who knows Mr. Crowkiller and is captured by his artwork I would call upon you to start documenting the work and posting the photographs. If this man’s work is worthy do not let it get lost.
Anthony Mannix
Woman with Big Hair by Herbert Freeman
Anthony Mannix is an Australian artist who has made a career out of exploring the world of the unconscious. He began creating art at age 26 when he felt compelled to draw while in a dissociative psychotic state. Mannix has a history of being institutionalized and coming out of madness. He explains what he has gone through and what art has done for him and other outsider artists in this radio interview for the show All in the Mind on the ABC.
A Teaching Moment
Teacher by Herbert Freeman
A bronze shoe sculpture honouring the shoe throwing Iraqi reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi
Turntablism – Grandmaster Flash
Omniscience by Herbert Freeman
By building on techniques he had observed used by party DJs and developing crucial innovations of his own, Joseph Saddler aka Grandmaster Flash, became the first person to take the DJ set-up of two turntables and a mixer and use it as a musical instrument. His stylings were pivotal to the development of hip-hop.
This video clip is from Wild Style, the original hip-hop movie from 1983. This movie features many of the pioneers of the four pillars of hip-hop; DJ-ing, rapping, graffiti, and break dancing.
Jessie Dunahoo
Barbara by Herbert Freeman
Jesse Dunahoo is an installation artist who creates functional environments using fabrics and plastic shopping bags that are stitched and knotted together. Mr. Dunahoo who is in his late seventies was born deaf and with limited vision in rural Lee County, Kentucky. He later completely lost his eyesight while still a child.
Growing up on a country farm Jesse Dunahoo would create pathways for himself by moving earth and brush and then knotting and hanging a webwork of string, rope and wires through the trees and bushes from which he could reach up and use to navigate his space. He would hang markers such as pie plates to signify locations.
Today he stitches together fabric scraps or plastic bags to create spaces and functional objects such as tents, rain suits, or sleeping areas. In his own quarters in his assisted living group home he has eschewed chests of drawers and instead has created hangings of plastic bags with open pockets in which he keeps his belongings.
Mr. Dunahoo works at his art in his studio at the Latitude Artist Community in Lexington, Kentucky.
The Coffins of the Ga People of West Africa
Hokage by Herbert Freeman
In the West African nation of Ghana is an ethnic group known as the Ga-Adangbe. They have a strong spiritual belief in their ancestors and the ability of their ancestors to affect the lives of the living. The living take pains to ensure that their dear departed receive a grand funeral and beginning in the 1950’s the use of elaborate coffins became traditional.
It is said the first fantasy coffin was for a female relative of the carpenter Ata Owoo. This coffin was of an airliner that the woman always wished she could fly on but never did when she was alive. This coffin so impressed everyone who viewed it that Owoo was soon commissioned to construct other fantasy coffins for his customers.
Today the Ga are world renowned for their elaborate coffins and some of these coffins have wound up in art gallery showrooms and museums.
Funeral Procession
Ataa Oko
At age eighty-three the Ghanaian Ataa Oko suddenly took up drawing. Since that date he has created over 2500 pictures. At first his drawings were of the fantasy coffins he created for his clients when he made his living as a carpenter. Later on he let his imagination lead him to depict the worlds of fantastic animals and of the spirits. The artwork of Oko along with that of Frédéric Bruly Bouabré from Dakar are currently being featured in an exhibit at the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Ataa Oko (center) with rooster coffin
Turntablism!
Girl in a Hat by Herbert Freeman
Here is the French turntable crew Birdy Nam Nam performing Abbesses live in an intimate setting.
The Freeman Project 