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Georgie Stewart 9-11 pages
Chiayun Hu 7-8 pages Allegra FitzHerbert 3-6 pages Lola Dement Myers 12-14 pages Petra Schott 25-26 pages
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Rebecca O’Doherty 27-29 pages
Mahsa Merci 15-17 pages
Marta Djourina 21-24 зфпуыpages
Negin Bagheri 19-20 pages 2
ALLEGRA FITZHERBERT
Clüb: Where are you from, where do you live and work? Allegra: I’m from rural Ireland but I live in London, Tottenham and have a live-work set up in an old textiles warehouse shared with other artists and freelancers. We call my room-studio the treehouse coz it feels like it’s up a tree. I have lived in London on and off for 7 years, with shorter periods spent in Ireland and Mexico.
females who fly in literature, which unexpectedly complements what I’ve absorbed from Michaela Cole’s series ‘I May Destroy You’ which I watched around the same time and made drawings from. So there’s this exchange between what I’m reading and what I’m visually inspired by. Legendary and mythological figures, queens and activists have featured and titles are often related to things I have read. The crumbling of patriarchy is so fascinating, it has this domino effect encompassing big issueshuman rights discrimination, racism and BLM, the climate fight, capitalism. Exciting to reflect on this visually.
Clüb: Tell us your story. What inspired you to become an artist? A: I spent most of my twenties ignoring that I wanted to make art. Then I decided to address this and stopped my freelance work in stage design/ decorative painting/ art directing, and moved to Mexico - for an adventure and for cheaper rent, so I could work part-time to focus more on my practice. It was daunting, I hadn’t studied art, but I joined an artist collective which was formative. I’ve been developing since, and in January 2021 I’m starting the postgraduate scholarship at the Royal Drawing School in London.
Clüb: What mediums do you work with? Why? A: I’m drawing lots currently, doing lots with chalk and graphite, gouache and watercolour- playing with textures by prepping paper with emulsion and plaster. I’ve been looking at late medieval/ early renaissance art which has influenced my palette, the natural, earthy colours of the pigments and chalks I use bringing an airiness to sometimes nightmarish images. I’m working on a gouache series about forbidden fruit, thinking about sexual repression, inspired by Bosch paintings and ‘Goblin Market’, a strange Christina Rosetti poem about goblins tempting young girls to eat their juicy fruit. I’m also (very gradually) making some fabric collages and appliqué for a festival flag series, ‘drawing’ with pieces of fabric, creating bold, whimsical shapes, writing phrases with ribbons.
Clüb: Three favourite objects u can remember right now? A: A wooden elephant key-ring studded with tiny mirrors. My brother gave it to me, he had a matching one. When I was worried I used it to reassure myself, kinda like an imaginary friend. An amethyst ring which has passed through the women in my family for a while. Its a pale colour between lilac and blue, depending on the light, and really elegantly set. (Recently the amethyst fell out though!). Josh’s bike- an old postman delivery bike entrusted to me by a friend. It’s red and the gears don’t work but it has the biggest box ideal for lugging stuff. Sometimes I get heckled by postmen, adds spice to my day.
Clüb: Do you have any rituals while creating art? De-cluttering, stick my head out the window, start with a strong cup of tea. I stick lists on the walls- not to consult them really but doing it somehow helps. I like to have source material visible where possible, this can trigger a line of thought. I’ve been listening to Kate Bush’s album ‘The Hounds of Love’ while working on my forbidden fruit gouache series I mentioned.
Clüb: What concepts and ideas do you explore? A: I am preoccupied by gender politics and approach this through material typically portraying gender-bending. I do drawings from films/ paintings/ plays, and read lots; I’ve recently been stimulated by Marina Warner on
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LADIES DRAWING CLÜB
“Harness Her”. Chalk pastel, graphite and watercolour on paper, 14.5x21cm, 2020 4
ALLEGRA FITZHERBERT
“To Yield Or To Resist” Chalk pastel and charcoal on paper, 14.5x21cm, 2020. Clüb: Do you explore contemporary art? Can you tell us the names of artists you love? A: I do! I go to shows as often as I can. I admire Lisa Brice, Marina Abramovic, Barbara Hepworth (I’ve been very inspired by her hospital drawings, and have done a series on healthcare workers inspired by studies I did of these). I revisit the greats- Piero della Francesca and Turner have recently inspired me. This year I discovered Charlotte Saloman’s gouache paintings, she will always be a huge influence. There are also lots of emerging artists who I admire here in London. Clüb: Tell us about your works you attached. A: I created these works during lockdown. They represent the solidifying of my current preoccupations, whether through legendary figures like Queen Elizabeth I and St Uncumber or through anonymous figures. (nb, St Uncumber was a medieval saint for abused wives and she had a beard, while ‘Got that flow’ is a self portrait in a bath). They form a harmonious chain of thought and link together materially through what I had access to during lockdown. Club is the first collective of female-dedicated work I have encountered so it feels like a good place to share the beginnings of my visual musings on patriarchy crumblement.
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Allegra FitzHerbert
ISSUE 8
“There were no women in history�. Housepaint, pigment, chalk and graphite on paper, 26x36cm, 2020. 1 6
CHIAYUN HU www.chiayunhu.com
Clüb: Where are you from, where do you live and work? Chiayun: I am currently in a transition period of my life, for the moment I am living in Bergamo, Italy with my boyfriend and continue my creative practice here, after I left my home in London after 3 years. Clüb: Tell us your story. What inspired you to become an artist? C: I have always loved to create since my grandma showed my how to draw when I was around 4. Then it turned into more than just drawing but also making “sculptures” such as cardboard TV and remote control. Being the only child I was never bored surrounded with my inventions. But I never considered artist would be my career until a year ago. Since my mum encouraged me to choose something more “practical”, therefore I went to university to study fashion with the heart of the desire to become a fashion designer and spent years in the industry. In between my student life and work, I started to paint again after a long while in the year in Antwerp to where I moved alone without knowing anyone. I was struggling with mental health issues gladly art was my getaway for the time. After more years in fashion, eventually I realised there was something missing. I believe it’s the concept of being an artist drew me to become one. I love the idea of being able to create my own rules and to be always on the adventurous journey of creation, it’s an endless but good one.
“View”. 33x48cm, 2020.
Clüb: Three favourite objects u can remember right now? C: 1.My safety blanket 2.The Hello Kitty cassette my mom bought me when I was little. I recorded my first and the last audio series about a day of a kindergarten teacher. 3.My Cat, Bora.
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LADIES DRAWING CLÜB
Clüb: What concepts and ideas do you explore? C: Put abstract and figurative into a blender then I will find my work. I use my work to capture moments, memories of senses and (day)dreams. I usually build up scenes by composing them with some pictorial elements and the lines and shapes I create intuitively. Clüb: What mediums do you work with? Why? C:I ’m mostly working with acrylic paint and sometimes I would mix with oil pastel to achieve more layering textures. Clüb: Do you have any rituals while creating art? C: I would put on music that brings me back to the “moment” and a meditative mind in preparation. Clüb: Tell us about your works you attached. C: The works I am attaching are the first stage of the series I’ve been developing since about a month ago. It started with the memory of me and a few friends sunbathing in the park when we were finally allowed to meet people outdoor in June this year. We spent most our time chatting, exchanging thoughts about past and future. We put our energy on just listening and sharing. And I think they would connect with LDCLUB, a place where is filled with moments of listening and sharing. Clüb: Do you explore contemporary art? Can you tell us the names of artists you love? C: Yes, my favourites change from time to time. At the moment I am into Francesca Woodman and Ana Mendieta.
“Us at the hour of orange and blueish grey”. 33x48cm, 2020.
Clüb: Why do you apply to LADIES DRAWING CLÜB? C: I love this safe place created for women speaking through their art, and full of opportunities for connection.
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GEORGIE STEWART www.georgiestewart.com
Clüb: Free of your favourite objects you can remember right now? Georgie: My favourite possession is a very special tablecloth. My mum made it for me when I was starting out as an illustrator running market stalls and selling my designs on Portobello Road. It’s completely hand sewn, with beautiful lettering and tons of appliqué flowers in a mish mash of tartan, polka dots and sparkles. She stayed up all hours of the night making it so it was ready in time for my first market, so it’s precious to me not only because of its beauty but also the time dedicated to making it. I think someone taking the time to make something lovely for you is truly special, and I’m reminded of this every time I look at the intricate stitch work. I have a shelf full of my many, many sketchbooks and journals that are a huge part of my day-to-day life and artistic process.
alive, to stop people in their tracks and make them think or feel in some way. Illustration in particular I think does this beautifully. I love how direct and accessible it is as a form of communication - it transcends time, place and language. Yet illustration is often about subtlety and what is not said, requiring us to look a bit closer. Clüb: Tell us about your ideas and concepts. G: My illustrations seek to electrify the ordinary moments of everyday life, conveying a sense of wonder and joy for the world around us. The main challenge behind my practice is to confront the narrative in arts education that people need to suffer in order to create art - to tackle this issue, I try to show how employing principles such as joy, enthusiasm and friendship to make art that focuses on joy can maintain a degree of gravity without becoming twee. What I’m really interested in is producing insightful, reflective work that communicates joy as a deep state of engagement and interest in the world. My work is about optimism, and experimenting with and celebrating colour plays a huge role in that. I’ve been training myself to learn which colours reverberate and make each other sing...I love the pink hues found in the paintings of Matisse and Bonnard, and the palettes for my own drawings tend to be based on similar fusions of purples, greens and pinks. My ultimate favourite colour combinations are pink and teal, lilac and emerald or coral and pale pink! People often say that I look like my art! This is a subconscious outcome but I’m definitely happiest in my rainbow stripy scarf that I wear pretty much everyday throughout autumn and winter...I’m fascinated by how people curate their style and express themselves through their clothes.
Clüb: Where are you from? Where do you live and work? G: I’m currently an illustrator based in London where I live with my three housemates, but I grew up in South Manchester. For the past year I’ve been completing a masters in illustration at Camberwell College of Arts. Throughout lockdown I’ve missed working in the shared studio with by my talented peers terribly! I think it’s invaluable to surround yourself with people who challenge the way you think about your work. Clüb: Tell us your story. What inspired you to become the artist? G: Growing up I was always completely obsessed with storytelling and creating visual worlds...I was always writing and illustrating my own stories. I would also make hundreds of lists of different outfits that I made up in my head, much to the bemusement of my mum who found them all over the house. Looking back now I realise that I’ve always been besotted with colour. I think it’s also got something to do with the kind of life I imagine for myself. I look at these incredible female artists, Rose Wylie in particular who is my ultimate idol. She’s working well into her eighties, producing these wonderful paintings about the everyday. It’s clear from her work that she’s in love with what she does. That’s where I want to be. I want to be creating work that I care about, and that can hopefully spark some kind of connection with someone viewing it. One of my favourite quotes by Guston is that the job of an artist is to make us feel ‘un-numb’ - this is at the heart of what it is we are all trying to capture - an essence of what it is to be
Clüb: What mediums do you work with? Why? G: Drawing underpins my work, but as an illustrator I embrace digital techniques as well. I identify as an illustrator artist, so a mixture of drawing, painting and digital elements are all integral to my practice. The initial mark making is an important part of the process, and I try to draw directly from life every day, even if it’s just a quick five minute sketch of something that inspires me. Clüb: Do you have any rituals while creating art? G: I wake up just before 8am, and try to run or at least go for a walk for half an hour to think about what I’m working on that day. Before I start drawing, it’s important for me to surround myself with lovely things and create a cosy little nest for
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ISSUE 8
“Going Nowhere. Oil pastel, crayon and gouache, 297 x 210mm, 2020. 10
GEORGIE STEWART me to get lost in my drawings. I think as your practice develops it’s important to constantly be learning and seeking out new ideas. Freelance life can be a little solitary sometimes, so it’s great to be able to speak to other artists and use each other as creative sounding boards, particularly if you’re stuck on an element of your painting.
eficial exercises for my observational drawing. Hampstead Ladies’ Pond (2020) presents an affiliation with the Ladies Drawing Club as it depicts the sanctity and power found in a space formed for a collective of women who join together for a common purpose. The Ladies Pond is my favourite place Ladies Drawing Club as it depicts the sanctity and power found in a space formed for a collective of women who join together for a common purpose. The Ladies Pond is my favourite place in London - it’s a little oasis of calm and beauty that feels removed from the city. It’s the only wild swimming spot in the UK reserved for ladies, and a place where women can expose themselves freely both physically and verbally without judgement. This artwork presents not only the power of the small joy that swimming and being close to nature can bring, but also a sense of the close community and refuge between the women who visit the pond. Hyde Park (2020) presents an ode to our gratitude for nature during a time when our allotted hour slot for a walk through the park could bring us a small pleasure or space for mental clarity that day. Similarly, the buoyant use of colour in Pink Breakfast (2020) celebrates the joy brought from food. I have been looking to food, relationships, nature and travel within my wider topic to illustrate the ways in which simple pleasures allow us to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. The ideas of nostalgia, comfort, memory and gratitude are intrinsically linked to this subject, and are prevalent in each of these works. This year I’ve been reflecting on what it is about these moments of joy that we find in everyday life makes them significant to people. I discovered the answer to be the ritualistic qualities that are intrinsic to simple pleasures, and began studying the daily routines and rituals of artists. I was most drawn to learning about what the subjects themselves were looking at, what they were inspired by and the objects they chose to surround themselves with. I began creating a series of drawings that are Vanitas style portraits of prolific artists and figures who I admire. William Morris Vanitas Portrait (2020) shows a sense made up objects from his home in Walthamstow, to form a sum of his parts as a subject. My favourites are the extra large coffee cup and saucer kept by Burne Jones for when Morris visited, and the Icelandic drinking horn from Morris’ trip to Iceland in the 1870s. He was drawn there by his fascination with the ancient sagas, and he felt at home amongst the Icelandic people and their simple way of life.
Clüb: Tell us about your works you attached. G: Although I began researching simple pleasures over a year ago, the subject has become significant now more than ever. These artworks were all created this year throughout the first and second waves of lockdown, and each of them attempts to evoke the observations of the modern philosopher Alain de Botton that, ‘The difficulty of life has thrown into relief the beauty of modest things which matter so much more to us now.’ The piece Every Day I Look at the World from My Window (2020) is concerned with the idea of clinging to the familiar in the face of strangeness. Thinking about windows in relation to the world we are currently living in, it is evident how the view through our window has become relevant as something we’ve all had to contemplate recently, more than we ever could have imagined. Looking out at the view has something to teach us - not so much about what we happen to see, but about how we choose to look at it. This artwork is not simply a still life but a reflection of my way of viewing the world - it encompasses the lens in my head that is made up of my emotions, experiences, identity and body. It presents my unique artistic vision. I set myself the challenge of creating a corresponding work from the position of the outside looking onto the window. Walking around my area with my sketchbook, I noticed how the language of the things people are putting up in their windows is becoming increasingly sophisticated. Posters, phrases, messages, children sticking up rainbows to show each other...it shows how we are all striving for connectivity. So much art we see now is what people put up in their windows. The streets have become forms of galleries in this way, where people are showing us what they think about the NHS or what’s happening globally. I love how the shape of the central rainbow in Sign of the Times (2020) is echoed in the architecture of the building, creating a continual tunnel that leads the eye to the focal point of the child’s drawing. Increasingly I am enjoying the technical challenge that drawing presents me with. Choosing architecture as my subject allowed me to practice use of complex perspective, one of the most ben-
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LOLA DEMENT MYERS loladementmyers.com
“It is a gift to dress the same as your friends”. Pencil on paper, 11x17 cm, 2020. exploring the infinite ways to do that.
Clüb: Free of your favourite objects you can remember right now? Lola: My notebook(s) and my loafers.
Clüb: Do you have any rituals while creating art? L: I scan every piece before it leaves the studio.
Clüb: Where are you from? Where do you live and work? I am working in Chicago,IL and I am living in LOLA WORLD.
Clüb: Tell us about your works you attached. L: The pieces I included are a collection of unrelated, but recent work from the past season. Everyday I rotate in and out of obsession. Each piece I make corresponds with an obsession while creating the work. I relate to the club (and many artists) because I believe we not only understand obsession, but welcome it.
Clüb: Tell us your story. What inspired you to become the artist? L: I am a compulsive person. When I am not doing my work, I am wasting my life. Clüb: What concepts and ideas do you explore? How do you present it in works? L: Through world-building practices I explore surveillance, digital etiquette, and branded identities.
Clüb: Do you explore contemporary art? Can you tell us the names of artists you love? L: Saim Coy, Simone Bodmer Turner, Amanda Ross Ho, Thomas Barger, Narumi, Jim Joe, Ross Hansen, Dorthy Zhang, Erin Jane Nelson, Bunny Rogers, Hugo Comte, Roberto Lugo, Priscilla Jeong, Maia Ruth Lee, Ivy Dement.
Clüb: What mediums do you work with? Why? L: I use digital, ceramic, and metal fabrication to create the designed objects of my personal world. My undergraduate education gave me the opportunity to try many modes of production. My obsession is creating objects and my joy is
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LOLA DEMENT MYERS
“Lola world newspaper”. Inkjet print on newspaper, 13 x 19 cm. Lola Myers and Ropy Pipia 13
LADIES DRAWING CLÜB
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MAHSA MERCI instagram.com/mahsa.merci
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ISSUE 8
Э”A Queer with Red Hair”. Oil on canvas, 35 x 28 cm, 2020 16
MAHSA MERCI Clüb: What concepts and ideas do you explore? How do you present it in works? M: When I began my art practice, my works have been and continue to be erotic, defining orgasm, sexual violence, and the complexity of sexual relations. I created them without understanding their source within myself, despite the fact that I was unable to show any of my works publicly, because of the restrictions in Iran, I proceeded to work. I didn’t change my intention, and instead, I continued to express my feelings. These limitations allowed me to examine indirect ways of showing the forbidden elements. I found this sad but the challenging situation, created new opportunities to express my ideas. I began creating works that could metaphorically convey those concepts. The ideas of my works have been improved slowly by research, and learning about myself as I’ve gotten older. In the past few years I have come to understand the concepts of my work which are about gender, identity, beauty and sexuality consciously and unconsciously that arose deeply within me. As a bisexual woman, I now understand the reason for my work and my own inner conflicts. I was suffering unconsciously and ignoring my sexual orientation for 28 years. My unconscious understood my struggles and uncertainties better than I knew myself. I found the process of my practice effected by my gender identity. I am interested in the spectrums of gender, identity and beauty. I would define myself to live in a spectrum, in fact I am living in between everything. In my art practice, I have questioned the duality between men and women, and their sexual boundaries. This is the reason I named my recent project Between. Clüb: What mediums do you work with? Why? M: In this series, I am painting portraits of LGBTQIA+ community with oil paint on canvas in small scales. On one hand, portrait paintings have been one of the most important subjects in art history, where the intent is to represent a specific human. On the other hand, I choose to paint portraits of this community to show their identity, gender, lives, hobbies, occupation, or aspects of their personality or beliefs, their relationships, values and also the trauma they have endured from society and narrow minded family members. Clüb: Do you have any rituals while creating art? M: Listening to music is my ritual Process. I can’t paint without listening to music. Clüb: Tell us about your works you attached. M: I choose to paint LGBT portraits using vivid colours and texture to bring out their inner feelings. These paintings often focus prominently on their nose, lips, ears, hair and sometimes their clothing. I paint them as if they are coming out from the 2D surface to the world and they become real as a human. These paintings have been created between painting and sculpture that is a metaphor for being just an image of social media and internet and their actual presence in society as well. In Iran, the previous president said in a speech that gays and lesbians do not exist in Iran. So who are all these photos, documentations and videos that are found on the Internet and in public spaces? One Iranian transgender said: ‘’We exist and we don’t exist at the same time in Iran. We have a license from the Ministry of Heath, but our licenses are not signed and sometimes it takes up to 10 years for our approval by the judiciary.’’ I also paint them in small canvases to invite the audience to come closer to discover their face, their character and feel it as closely as possible. Clüb: Do you explore contemporary art? Can you tell us the names of artists you love? M: I do love contemporary artists. My favorite artists are : David Altmejd Jenna Gribbon Trey Abdella Aly Helyer Katherina Olschbaur Rachel Feinstein Leigh Bowery
“I am applying in the LADIES DRAWING CLÜB to present my works and stories in this great platform as well as worldwide to support ART in this hard time and LGBT people. I hope my works can help to open new doors to my audience to rethink about human identity, gender, roles and patterns which have been dictated to us for centuries.” 17
LADIES DRAWING CLÜB Call for Arts 7 came with very special artist’s stories and also with serious and soulful stories from ladies in Iran what we can not leave with out attention. We received some applications from Iranian artists/ladies who still live in closed country with a lot of traditions and rules what can not let the lady be the artist or anyone she wants. It’s hard to imagine that the government can dictate how anyone should behave in 2020 - from what to wear to what to post on Instagram. Same to art and your self-expression through art. Ladies artists in Iran still face it every day and bear the burden of being an artist and a woman in the Islamic state. Iranian artists do not have much freedom of action due to the current political situation in the country, which is clearly not stable. When one chooses to become an artist, she/he agrees to be heard and seen but not to choose to be condemned for what she/he feels and what she/he does. We understand how it might be difficult not to give up and not to follow the path you’ve been set upon by your family or society. We believe in you and what you can create. We’d like to support and champion every woman artist in the remote areas of this huge world. Everything is possible, ladies, and we are here just to support you.
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ISSUE 8
“Falling up”. Sculpture, 2020. 19
NEGIN BAGHERY
instagram.com/neginbagherystudio We want to share with you full dialoge with Iranian artist Negin and clüb’s founder Ania Sokolova.
A: Tell about your education. How did you become to create? Or it has nothing in common with your art? N: I studied sculpture at university. At first, I simply wanted to make something with the direct influence of my hands, and be one with the material and work without intermediaries. The excitement that flowed in my veins. When I made this choice, I had not even met any sculptor, but just by looking at the pictures in art history books, I felt that making and living could mean only one thing to me, by designing and sculpting. But over time, that decision swallowed my whole life much deeper. I wanted to create something bigger than making and drawing beautiful images. This is not uncommon among Iranian artists. For me, creation and making are more important than money and fame. I like to influence the same way I have influenced great artists.
Ania: I received application by Negin without donation and ask her about it. Sometimes artists miss that. Negin: No i didn’t pay any donation. Unfortunately because of sanctions of Iran we have no access in international cards or bank account. A: So it means you can not apply for any art groups because you can not pay the fee or donation? N: Seems like it is true Ania. The only way i work abroad right now is that sending the artworks, sell them then take any pay or fee.I lost lots of situations or symposium just because of the bank issue. Hope it ends soon. A: I feel it’s very important for our clüb and want to share your story in ISSUE 8. Can we talk about ladies artists in Iran, about country rules and art community? N: I appreciate. Yes I love share story of being artist and woman in Iran. A: What does it mean to be the women in Iran?(we think about traditions, rules and ambitions) And what does it mean to be the artist in Iran? N: Being a woman in Iran has two meanings: what is seen from the outside and the daily flow that we live every day. A dual definition of Iranian religious definitions and traditions. A general and 80% definition that means being a mother and a wife and a daughter and a child, an identity made by a man. And a 20% definition of women trying to find an identity through their work and social status. Inequality is always present in all walks of life as a woman in a traditional society, with boundaries and deterrents even in our own minds. We ourselves are part of the belief that many things and events are impossible. Being an artist and woman can be more difficult than being a woman alone. It becomes a very large part of the presuppositions that exist in the social space and in the work space. If you are a woman and an artist, you have a challenge every day to be independent and not to be disappointed and to continue and hold back the constant worries and at the same time keep your mind free to create.
A. How do your family react on your art movement? N: I’m like my father, a 24 - hour dreamer. And my mother’s greatest chance in life. Someone who set me free to choose for myself. Although, like all mothers in this land, she wanted me to have a normal life, but she coped with my madness not to be afraid of an unknown future. The combination of a dreamy father and a brave mother has made me live an independent and different life. Of course, there are always many questions from people, relatives and all those who can not believe that this is a way of life, but after years I have become accustomed to it and maybe it no longer bothers me. A: Do you plan to be the artist in Iran or somewhere else? N: Of course, it is my dream to be able to travel and work wherever I want with just my tools and a backpack or teach drawing to art students which I know very well. The idea of having no borders and being free means paradise to me. The most ideal way of life that I picturing every day.
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MARTA DJOURINA instagram.com/martadjourina
“Glowing Attraction”. Direct exposure on photographic paper with bioluminescent algae, unique, 40 x 30 cm, 2020. 21
ISSUE 8 Clüb: Free of your favourite objects you can remember right now? Marta: A neon green laser pointer, the ring from my grandmother, which I wear everday, the first frame my father ever made for me (holdign a portrait of mine when I was 3) Clüb: Where are you from? Where do you live and work? M: I am from Sofia, Bulgaria, currently based in Berlin, Germany. I moved to Berlin in 2009 to study and stayed here. In the recent years I’ve been traveling a lot more than at the beginning between Sofia and Berlin, trying to get a better understanding of the art scene in both places. Clüb: Tell us your story. What inspired you to become the artist? M: The decision to become an artist came very naturally to me and was a very personal process. My father changed his career shortly after my birth and became a frame builder. From a piece of wood he created wonderful frames and was often surrounded by artists. Some would pay them with artworks and soon after our small high rise apartment was filled with artworks from the floor to the roof. As a child, I loved to help out in his little workshop and become a part of this atmosphere; surrounded by creative people, always interested in decision-making about color and format. In my memory, I decided to become an artist there and then, in my father’s workshop. Clüb: What concepts and ideas do you explore? M: In my art work I explore the essence of light using photographic experiments. I examine the cause and effect of various light phenomena on photosensitive paper and thus approach the medium of light. A performative movement, an object or a combination of the two is traced with various light sources and recorded on the two-dimensional carrier. The translation of the momentary takes place within the framework of the analog photography process as a painterly and performative gesture. My works differ in production and appearance and yet they have a common idea underlying: With every project, I test photography’s ability to bring out the Hidden to visibility and to fix the Ephemeral as an image. A current research of mine focuses on the topic of glowing bodies and the expansion of my own body through light sources. I am currently working with different ways in which the human body produces light. After experimenting with different materials through analog photographic techniques, I started to use the light and the radiations of living organisms, especially bioluminescent algae and my own body, as exposure medium. For the project “Glowing Attraction” I work with bioluminescent algae which react by a given impulse from the outside (a shake of the test tubes in which they are cultivated) with light production. Clüb: What mediums do you work with? Why? M: The focus is on the examination of light as a medium, which I approach in different ways. With punctual light sources, laser pointers or coloured diodes, I leave from the distance traces of color on the photo paper. The transfer of performative gestures is translated into experimental color compositions. Individual series of works consist of intimate small formats or monumental paper scrolls up to 6m high and work with different approaches, e.g. the project “Glowing Attraction” results in an interplay with bioluminescence, while other projects focus on the physicality of light traces, the visualisation
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“Untitled”. Direct exposure on analogue photo paper, self-made film negative, unique, 350 x 183 cm, 2020.
MARTA DJOURINA
of geometric folds and shapes or the attempt to document an imaginary trip by using pinhole cameras. The devices and the tools emerge from this working process as acting protagonists. Clüb: Do you have any rituals while creating art? M: My work process is split between my studio and the photo lab. While the studio is more of a research hub, where the preparations for the photographic process take place, my experiments happen while I’m the lab. There I work in a total darkness, navigating through the space by intuition and muscle memory. The main ritual is to always put music on, place it near my work station and take some time before actually starting to work to get a feeling of the space. The music then will guide me through the dark - between the light-sensitive photo paper, the enlarger, my lights and the developing process I trace my movements and steps into the pieces. Clüb: Tell us about your works you attached. M: The works attached represent some of most recent projects and give an overview of how I work. In the experimental process, different aesthetic results emerge, which I follow and develop further. My works are not to be understood as separate series, but rather an investigation within the realm of the photographic experiments: each project delves deeper. The transformation of performative influences, as I would call my approach, the relationship between light and image, carries an unknown within itself and the final result remains experimental in its nature.
“Untitled”. Direct exDo you explore contemporary art? Can you tell us the names of artists you love? posure on analogue Clüb: M: There are many artists I cherish and explore. Usually I draw inspiration photo paper, self- from different directions and different fields. Just a week ago I found the wonderful work Katarina Zdjelar at the 11. Berlin Biennale, in which I felt in love. Often I find myself made film negative, by researching photographers like Carl Strüwe or even going further back towards the of the technique and drawing inspiration from photographic techniques on the unique, 600 x 18, beginning verge between science and art. 2019. View at UDK Clüb: Why do you apply to LADIES DRAWING CLÜB? Berlin. M: I really like the concept behind it: a nonprofit support network for female artists. In Berlin, I’m a part of a network for women in the arts, which creates an important place for exchange for me. I believe that there is a still need for more visibility for female artists and would like to not only be a part of the LADIES DRAWING CLÜB community but also support it trough a strengthening of each other’s networks: less competition and more togetherness.
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LADIES DRAWING CLÜB
“Untitled”. Direct exposure on folded analogue photo paper, unique, 30 x 40 cm, 2020. 24
PETRA SCHOTT Club: Where are you from? Where do you live and work? Petra: I am from Frankfurt, Germany where I live and work. Clüb: Tell us your story. What inspired you to become the artist? P: Being a painter for me means working with my subconscious and my unconscious which pop up as rough material in colours and shapes and lines. And then I can let it unfold, play with it, analyse it, structure it - or just leave it as it is. Art for me is part of another dimension of the world. You can love an artwork and have no idea why. It is just overwhelming and speaks to you in a language of its own.
“There were no women in history” Housepaint, pigment, chalk and graphite on paper, 26x36cm, 2020.
Clüb: What concepts and ideas do you explore? P: I normally work parallel with different artworks in progress at the same time. My ideas and questions get more structured while I work.I start maybe with a certain colour - and while doing so, ideas pop up how to contrast this colour with another one, what to do with a figure suddenly visible, where to have the center of tech painting and s on. At a certain point painting itself takes over. Sometimes it is a very long process, the painting has to dry, I don’t know how to go on with it, and then, at a certain point, I know that the paintings wants to be taken to the next level. I love this process, this slow growing of my paintings into something I don’t know from the beginning. Clüb: What mediums do you work with? P: I work with nearly all mediums. But I don’t change my mediums very often. So, for the time being, I work with oil colours. A year before, I mainly work with egg tempera and pigments. I try to go deep into the medium and find out what I can do with it, how colours match, how long you have to wait before a new layer can be applied, which transparency is needed and so on. Clüb: What is your ritual when you work in your studio? P: I love listening to music while painting.When I enter my studio I look at the works unfinished around me and try to find out which one I want to start with today, to which one I feel an attraction, which one speaks to me.
Clüb: You apply second time. It’s a very big pleasure for us. And it reflects our idea of community we want to be. Why do you apply for our club? Petra: I think Ladies Drawing Club is doing a great job promoting female artists which still have by far less attention than male artists.
Clüb: Tell us about works you attached for Call for Art 7. P: All the works submitted are from 2020. This year is marked by Covid for nearly all of us. It is a time of change, of social distancing, of inside looking, of being alone, of fear and insecurity. In these times, for me it has been a huge consolation to be outside and surrounded by nature, to stroll around in woods and fields and meadows and to inhale the colours and beauty of it. In my paintings submitted the power of nature and the power of colours and organic structures plays an important role.It is part of the answer to the question: what is really important in our life? Clüb: What about art and artists you like or feel famous for yourself? P: I love Tracey Emin, Leiko Ikemura, Maria Lassnig, Paul Klee, Cy Twombly
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PETRA SCHOTT www.petra-schott.de
“Serenity”. Oil on canvas, 65x56cm, 2020. 26
REBECCA O’DOHERTY
“Vase, Still life”. Oil on Canvas, 110 x 130cm, 2020. 27
ISSUE 8 Clüb: Where are you from? Where do you live and work? Rebecca: I am from Derry a city in Northern Ireland. Currently living and working in Co.Donegal. I am fortunate enough to have a home studio with lots of light and rural landscapes for views.
the essence in the air and atmosphere floating around them. I aimed to create something like a dreamscape with fragments lightly floating around in the layers, foliage spilling down the painting as privacy. Two figures haloed with a lightness in the centre. Blurring the boundaries between imagination/ fantasy and memory. I wanted this painting to be ambiguous yet playful for the viewer to attach their own narrative, maybe connect their own personal experience of a first kiss, hoping to evoke feelings related to their own experience. The second piece I have attached is called ‘Sitting Room’ 110 x 130 cm Oil on Canvas 2019 This is situated in a family living room, yet a quite an ambiguous, retrospective idea of ‘place’. I wanted to make somewhere so familiar and close to home seem yet unfamiliar and just at the viewers grasp, yet so far away. The depersonalised figure in the image can be a means of anyone, a way to impersonate one’s self in the situation. With no fixed narrative this painting is open to interpretation. I feel a great sense of nostalgia towards this piece fostered by my own personal memory and experience. Thirdly, ‘Pendant’ 30 x 40cm Oil on Canvas 2020 This is one of my newer paintings. I have freed up in terms of gesture and literal mark making, this was a big step for me to become more loose when painting. To me this painting is an object invented by my subconscious mind, I found myself painting the form of my granny’s pendant with the impression of subtle patterns of her clothes and home decor. During lockdown I have been concentrating more on family and getting to know the pasts of objects within my grandparents’ house that they have carried with them for decades. This pendant was passed down to my grandmother from her mother and her mother before that. It holds a lot of history and has seen the lives of all three women. In an unexpected way this painting carried more narrative through a multiplicity of voices and carries a certain fragility of possession. The fourth painting submitted is called, ‘The Painting Sketch’ 14 x 20.2 cm Oil on Canvas 2020 Created from the experience of a day trip to ‘Glenveagh National Park’ in Northern Ireland. A representation of the many painting ideas I get whilst out and about. Once coming home from this beautiful national park I was overcome by images of leafy foliage, shapes lines and forms of the whole experience. Constructing a reflection of sensations of my own interpretation of my personal experience. The Fifth painting is called, ‘Vase, still life’ 110 x 130cm Oil on Canvas 2020 This is one of my newer works inspired by Matisse’s many series of still life’s. I played around with loose gesture and mark making the image obscure, perplexing the viewer’s judgement while identifying the piece. Using an array of bright
C: Tell us your story. What inspired you to become the artist? R: I have always dreamed of becoming an artist, with a ‘working studio’, a space to call my own. Someone who can inspire others and constantly create. I have always been interested in art, always drawing and painting. When out and about my mind and gaze are constantly wandering/scanning/ analysing, darting about. Making up constant lists of new painting ideas. For me, painting is part of my everyday normal life. I have a busy mind and painting helps clear this allowing me to start fresh with new ideas. I have ongoing streams of inspiration from everyday life around me. C: What concepts and ideas do you explore? R: I explore the concept of memory, place and identity. And how I can reproduce these into a painting, a new image, constructed up of layers containing my idea of the memory and what I imagined it looks like. C: What mediums do you work with? Why? R: I work mainly with oil paints. I enjoy the freedom of oils, they allow much more of a lifespan to work on the painting, go in and change things, wipe things away, create layers. I feel they have a certain quality and richness to them that other paints do not obtain. I also use collage as a medium. Created from old family photographs, magazines, paper scraps, or any found materials I can use. I do this to work out colour combinations and my visual compositions. C: Tell us about your works you attached. R: The first work I attached is called ‘Kissing Tree’ 110 x 130cm Oil On Canvas 2020 I created this work at the beginning of my third and final year of University studying Fine Art Painting. The story behind the painting is a story of a memory told to me by my grandfather. He would always tell me stories of ‘back in the day’ off when he was young. This particular story was about him and my grandmother and how they had a secret spot to go to after school that only they knew about and they would go there for hours and hours after school. Young loves dream. They called it their ‘kissing tree’. I recreated this memory by imagining the setting, their forms,
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REBECCA O’DOHERTY
“Pendant”. Oil on Canvas , 30 x 40 cm, 2020. C: Do you explore contemporary art? Can you tell us the names of artists you love? R: I consider myself a contemporary artist. I feel the contemporary art world is very diverse and can range in many style’s and all still be considered contemporary art. One of my favourite contemporary artist’s is Peter Doig. I have been inspired by his huge scale works painted memorisations and nostalgia. Saturated with colour and layers beyond layers. Another artist I am currently looking at and loving is Jon Pilkington. He creates these busy composition’s filled with motif’s from his own personal experiences/memories and found imagery. His colour palette has no limits and his paintings vary in texture, they are very interesting and aesthetically pleasing to look at.
colours, layered over one another deconstructing all sense of familiarity and evoking an artificial reconstruct of shape line and form to create an image. This piece reminds me of the vase of flowers in a great aunts house, sitting in finely decorated china, with a nice bright bunch of flowered placed inside. As a child you knew this was something you should not touch, a representation of a fragment of childhood. The sixth piece is called, ‘Glass House’ 30 x 40cm Oil on Canvas 2020 This piece was inspired by one of my favourite places to visit on a day off. The Botanical Gardens, Belfast. I am drawn to exotic plants, foliage and the wildly overgrown, explorative, unpredictable ways these plants grow, twist and tower. They are like one big abstract painting with many movements and forms. I created this piece showing the barriers and lines of confinement of which these plants are detained and compacted into, much like our thoughts inside of our head. With a bright palette I aim to present this painting in a light which is happy and aesthetic. There is an essence of storytelling and energy presented alongside my paintings, in a way in which I aim to translate into personal perceptions of the present and memory. Saturated with colour I create playful, yet obscure and ambiguous pieces where the narrative is not obvious, familiar yet unfamiliar, it can be created in whichever way the viewer perceives the information within the paintings.
C: Why do you apply to LADIES DRAWING CLÜB? R: I recently graduated from Belfast School of Art with a First Class Honours Degree and as a young emerging contemporary artist I feel it is important to keep in touch with the art world, get involved with other art promoting platforms and educate myself more about the constantly thriving art world that is beyond art school. Ladies Drawing Club caught my attention as I feel the male painters dominate the presence online currently and in galleries and I would like to contribute to the empowering pool of Female presence in the contemporary art community.
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ISSUE 8
“Cushioned ourselves on the grass”. Combed our memory for some sparks, 33x48cm, 2020. Chiayun Hu 31
“Chatting about the future that might or might not come�. 33x48cm, 2020. Chiayun Hu 32
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“I’m going”. Pencil on paper, 2020. Lola Dement Myers. 34
ISSUE 8
“Bobby Swan Characters”. Pastel on paper, 10 x 16 cm, 2020. Lola Dement Myers 35
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“A Drag Queen in Flames”. Oil on canvas, 30x40 cm, 2020. Mahsa Merci 37
ISSUE 8
Stay, oil on canvas, 30x40 cm, 2020. Mahsa Merci 38
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“Untitled�. Direct exposure on analogue photo paper, selfmade film negative, unique, 50 x 60 cm. Marta Djourina 39
“Untitled�. Direct exposure on analogue photo paper, selfmade film negative, unique, 600 x 183, 2019. Marta Djourina 40
“Glass House”. Oil on Canvas, 30 x 40.5cm, 2019. Rebecca O’Doherty 41
ISSUE 8
“Kissing Tree”. Oil on Canvas , 110 x 130cm, 2020. Rebecca O’Doherty 42
ISSUE 8
“Elizabeth the First�. Housepaint, pigment, graphite on paper, 83x85cm, 2020. Allegra Fitzherbert 43
“Got That Flow�. Linoprint, charcoal, housepaint and gouache on pape, 52x50cm, 2020. Allegra Fitzherbert 44
“Everyday I Look at the Word from My Window”. Pastel, watercolour and gouache, 238 x 296mm, 2020. Georgie Stewart 45
ISSUE 8
“Sign of the Times”. Chalk, pastel, gouache and watercolour, 210 x 297mm. Georgie Stewart 46
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“Falling up”. Sculpture, 2020. Negin Bagheri 48
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ISSUE 8 was presented at 23th of November, 2020. LADIES DRAWING CLĂœB was founded in St-Petersburg, Russia in 2019.