Tuesday, February 9, 2016

How I Was Shaken Up by Anselm Kiefer

This is my final Creative Jumpstart Post, and I can't thank Nathalie Kalbach enough for the inspirational ride.  For the month of January, she and the other "Jumpstarters" had me inspired, stimulated and making non-stop art.  What more could I ask from an online class?




The final Master Artist was Anselm Kiefer.  His work deeply moved and troubled me in its unblinking look at trauma, struggle and the Holocaust.   Here is how I translated all of the lessons into my own work.













Inspired by Natalya Aikens stitching project, I layered ripped book, atlas, music and gelli print pages.  I scraped crackle paste by Deco Art through a stencil designed by MaryBeth Shaw to represent a landscape and forest.



Inspired by MaryBeth, I used my fingers to rub in paint.  Inspired by Joe Rotella's lesson involving the fragility of everyday things and new beginnings, I began to doodle buds and other flora with black paint and a thin brush, using my non-dominant hand.  



As I painted those shapes, they began to look like eyes to me.  



I rotated my canvas and began to work on it vertically.  I used a mask of a girl's dress to echo Joe Rotella's gorgeous project. 


Nathalie Kalbach's lesson involved explorations in texture.  In it, she completely painted over a prior canvas and scraped layers away.  I decided to be bold and painted over and scraped away parts of my canvas, and stenciled a window and a door. 


Inspired by Wilna Furstenberg's beautiful layout, I added brush strokes meant to look like stacks of books or twigs.  Inspired by the idea of ephemera like books and pieces of cloth, I scraped fiber medium on deli paper and stained it with orange and gold colors, and used strips of that paper to build a path and stairs through my canvas.  I also stamped a Hamsa to represent hope and blessings. 


Again, I rotated the canvas, added more marks and more white for hope and light.  I used a handmade paper cast embellishment to represent the homes we leave, and the homes we find.  To anchor the peace spiritually, I added a Star of David.  


Again - THANK YOU to Nathalie Kalbach and all the wonderful artists who made Creative Jumpstart 2016 so wonderful.

What do you think of all the twists and turns this canvas took on the way to completion?  I'd love to know!

Your comments make me so happy and let me know you were here. I read and treasure every comment and will happily answer any questions as soon as I can.

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26 comments:

  1. His work is so intense. I didn't go into that during my video but I am drawn to it for that reason. Great job.

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    1. Thank you MB - I loved your tutorial. Don't know if I'm ready to leap to oil pastels though... :)

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  2. Jessica, I got the same feeling looking at and reading your post. I am extra emotional with his work and you captured that along with hope survival and beauty. Excellent. I haven't gotten mine done but I will soon

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  3. This is so rich and layered. So moving.

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  4. Wonderful post and artwork! As you can tell from my videos with Anselm Kiefer I love his work for many reasons - one of them the emotional journey he takes us on. I am so happy you loved creative jumpstart and it was wonderful to see all your amazing artwork you made inspired by it. Thank you Jessica for your support!

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  5. I love it Jessica! You're so very talented..I just love anything you show me!

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  6. Fantastic piece! So glad you enjoyed CJS!

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    1. Thanks Joe. And thank you for your wonderful lesson. It was chock full of inspiration I know I'll be processing for a very long time.

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  7. This is really a gorgeous and exciting piece! Wow. Great work. xokp

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    1. Thank you! I learned so much from the process.

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  8. As has already been said, great post and wonderful artwork!

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  9. Great job! Love all the textures and the meanings!

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    1. Thank you Natalya. I hope to get out the sewing machine soon because I was so inspired by your lesson.

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  10. Another great piece inspired by CJS. Love how this all came together. Layers, pulled back, bring forward. WOW!

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  11. An amazing piece, Jessica, and I love seeing the progress photos. Wow, is all I can say.

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  12. Amazing work! I too am working on CJS but still on the first week. So inspired by all of your work you created from the lessons! I feel like i can spend forever on each of the inspirational artists! Thank you for sharing!

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    1. Thank you Denise = I know you will do exciting work.

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  13. Oh wow Jessica, this turned out to be such a beautiful and layered/deep canvas... thanks for taking us through all the steps, I loved to read your journey! I really like the third photo (before you rotated the canvas) and I think it's really bold to work on/over it... and you were right, the final piece is marvelous! I do see that it has some Anselm Kiefer elements... and yes, he was a fantastic painter. I saw his art in an Amsterdam Museum when I was in my twenties, and it hit me. It's anguished (is that the right word?) yet beautiful. It kind of 'stays with you'...

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    1. Thank you Marit. I hope to someday see his art in person too!

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