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| Maggie Manning |
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| Joana Cifre-Cerda |
PROJECT CORRESPONDENCE
On
Jan 16, 2012, joana cifre-cerda wrote:
Hello
Maggie,
I
just thought i get in touch about the rhinoceros drawing project ....
I am an Artist in Lincolnshire England. Originally though, I come
from Mallorca, Spain. Graduated last year (Fine Art). My practice is
mainly performance based but i am very interested in drawing.
For
this project I was thinking about describing to you a room where I
spent some good times in during the summer, however I have no access
to that room anymore and no photographs... I was interested in
describing to you what i remembered. But I don't think this is
possible for this project...
For
me the challenge will be to be able to describe to you in writing...
as I am terrible with words... but it will be a good challenge.
I
am looking forward to this project and I am keen to start if you are.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Joana
On
Jan 19, 2012, Maggie Manning wrote:
Hi
Joana,
Thanks
for starting the dialogue! I'm in the middle of moving all my art
storage to my studio space a mile away; it's been consuming a fair
bit of time.(Interesting though.....lots of old work that I've
entirely forgotten about.) I live in Vancouver, B.C. Canada and heard
about the project through a friend; it seems like an intriguing idea,
and I'm attracted to the mystery of not knowing your 'room' or you or
your work, and vice-versa. And the idea of us transmitting our images
to each other through words adds one more dimension to the process of
exchange. I'm a painter and also spend a fair bit of time on music.
Like
you, I haven't settled on a room exactly...I thought I had, but now
am changing my mind. It looks like it's time to start though! By the
way, I once spent a couple of months in Spain, with 2 weeks on
Mallorca; it was part of a longer trip that included England as well
(not Lincolnshire though). I loved Mallorca, and have been thinking
of returning there along with Barcelona for a trip some day.
I'm
looking forward to the project too, and will try to turn my attention
to it right away. Good luck....
Maggie
On
Jan 28, 2012, joana cifre-cerda wrote:
Hi
Maggie,
Yes
this project is intriguing for me too. I have now settled in to a
room.... a room once shared between two people and now is just for
one... a room now open to all sort of exciting possibilities.
Describing
everything will be a real challenge for me. I will endeavour to start
sending you some descriptions maybe tonight... if I don't manage it
then it will be beginning of next week.
Looking
forward to hearing from you
Joana
From:
Maggie Manning
To:
joana cifre-cerda
Sent:
28 January 2012,
Hi,
thanks for the quick reply. I'm in about the same stage as you,
getting close
to starting the project; I think I've decided which room to do now.
Am looking
forward to it.....this is a good opportunity to stretch the
boundaries of
what's familiar, don't you think? Do you know if it's o.k. to add on
to our descriptions
with new posts, or does it have to be all written in one piece?
Talk
soon, Maggie
From:
joana cifre-cerda
To:
Maggie Manning
Sent:
28 January 2012
I
think we can do as we like. I was going to start describing just one
corner and then adding to it.
From:
Maggie Manning
To:
joana cifre-cerda
Sent:
31 January 2012
I really like my kitchen. It's somewhat
old fashioned....the house was built in 1929, and although some
changes were made to it during the '60s, there are also many features
that remain from it's original form. It has pretty good light, since
there are two windows facing south. The door also contains a south
facing window, and it opens into an enclosed back porch lined with
windows to the south and west. There is also one east facing window
above the sink, which looks out over the neighbour's back porch about
20 feet away. Along the ivy-covered fence between my neighbour and I,
there have grown up over the years some lilac trees; they make a nice
screen between us. Lately there have been a lot of birds in the bare
winter branches of the lilacs. I have been enjoying watching them
hopping around as I stand at the sink washing the dishes, but it was
only yesterday that I realized why there were so many of them. My
neighbour is gone for the winter, and a friend of his has moved in to
look after the place; along with many of the improvements she has
made with her prodigious energy, is a bird feeder hung from the
rafter of her porch roof, just a few feet from the lilac trees.
Besides the door containing one of the
south facing windows that I mentioned earlier, there is a south
window at the end of the counter where the sink is, just at the S.E.
corner of the house. It has a tiny glimpse of the lilac trees, but
mostly looks out over the boundary line between my neighbour and I.
You'd see a laurel which has turned into a tree, some bushes (bare
now) that are at least 20 feet tall, and beyond that is an apple
tree, overgrown, creating a bit of a canopy over the yard and pathway
to the studio. The third south window is inside of a kitchen nook,
which is big enough to contain a table and some built-in seats. The
entrance to the nook is arched, an original feature of the house.
There, along with the window at the end of the table, is a sort of
trim piece (like a wainscoting) that circles around the U-shape of
seating area. Looking out the window, you can get a good view of the
yard, including a second apple tree, and the studio at the end of the
yard.
To give you a better idea of the layout
of the room, I'll describe what I see as I walk a few steps into the
kitchen. The wall containing the fridge, stove and some countertop
are to my left, and behind me a bit. At the corner after that, the
wall that contains the east facing window over the sink extends along
about 10 feet (with lower counters and some upper ones at the end)
until it comes to the next corner. From here, the wall is south
facing, with the one window that looks out to the laurel tree and
bushes. After about 61/2 feet along this same wall, the small kitchen
nook begins. It's 5'7" wide and 6'5" deep. Just past the
nook is the door with the south facing window, that opens into the
enclosed porch. The doorway area is a sort of little alcove in
itself, not exactly part of the main room, which is 10' x12', plus
the nook. On my right is a wall where I hang a painting; right now
it's a large acrylic landscape that I did in the 80s, that I'm
surprisingly still fond of. There is not enough space along this wall
to put a table or anything much, without interfering with the
entrance to the room.
Inside the nook there are two smallish
paintings behind the two seating areas. Also, on the south facing
wall, there is a place to hang keys (to the right of the nook) and a
photograph by a local artist; on the left, a small a clock made by
another artist, and one of my small landscapes. There is also another
smallish piece of mine on the east facing wall to the left of the
sink.
The colours of the room were my choice
some years ago, when a friend and I painted it. The walls are a
creamy ivory, and the trim around the windows a whiter white. The
cupboards are a kind of khaki (brownish)-green, with wood trim.
Inside the nook, I used the same green above the trim piece and on
the ceiling; below the trim is a lighter yellowy-green. The trim
between them and around the window is the white. The floor,
unfortunately, is a cream and light brown linoleum in a sort of
fake-tile pattern. I tend to cover most of it up with a large bamboo
mat.
The kitchen is a happy place for me
mostly. I like it because it has better light than the rest of the
apartment; also, even though I don't have a lot of time for cooking,
I enjoy it when I have friends coming for dinner. As I live alone,
this is an especially sweet pleasure. I like to have the radio tuned
in to the French station (from Quebec) which plays great music; a lot
of jazz, which I love. Looking eastward out the window in the early
morning is special; best on the rare occasion that I'm up early
enough to catch the sunrise. The combination of the pale pink curtain
over the sink, with the darker many-flowered pink cyclamen on the
window sill looking out to the bare branched trees, evokes some sort
of dreamlike deja vu feeling in me. It makes me feel as if I'm in
another place, or time. I can't really describe it, but I think that
this is why I chose to write about this room.
I hope that my description gives you
something to go on, and that after reading it, you can find a way to
make a drawing of your impressions. I seem to have given a lot of
information about what's outside of the windows; this must be another
reason that I chose this room....it has the trees outside of it.
Best of luck, Joana....I'll be looking
forward to hearing from you soon. I'm going out of town for 5 or 6
days, but I'll bring my laptop along.
Bye for now, Maggie
On
Jan 31, 2012, joana cifre-cerda wrote:
Ufff
Maggie, all this is going to take a bit of digesting!! but it is very
good and will be an excellent challenge. I will send you my
description in bits as my room will change over the next few weeks. I
will try to write tonight.
Love,
Joana
From:
Maggie Manning
To:
joana cifre-cerda
Sent:
31 January 2012
Hi
Joana....yeah, I guess this room is quite a handful! The third
paragraph that describes the layout of the room is probably the best
place to start. Also, I found that when I tried taking the picture
this morning, it took 4 of them to encompass the entire room (I don't
have a panoramic camera). So maybe the area around the sink with the
birds outside the window would be enough to draw.
One
more thing....I described the size of the room in feet, not metres,
sorry....so if you're thinking that one metre is a bit more than 3
feet, that should do it. Thanks for the positive attitude!
Bye!
Maggie
On
Feb 4, 2012, joana cifre-cerda wrote:
Hi
Maggie,
Here
is a bit of a room:
I
will start by describing one corner.. This is the bottom righthand
corner of my bedroom. It is the corner that I see with more ease from
my bed. Right in the corner there is a chair.. a side chair (straight
back and no arms) previously there was an old arm chair in its place
but that has been moved somewhere else. It is not going to be easy to
describe this chair... This is one of three chairs that I used in a
performance last year.
The
upholstered part of the sit was removed and replaced by a solid flat
bit of oak wood. Th straight bits of wood that for the edges of the
back are not they have a square? rectangular shape. across de back
there are three ondulating bits of wood. from the side towards the
centre the shape of the wood goes slowly up and then down and then
slowly up but not as high and it reaches the highest point right in
the middle of the back and then goes gradually down slowly and then
goes up a bit quicker and down again to meet the end of the back. The
bottom part of this bit of wood goes slowly up towards the centre
from the sides then comes down abruptly and makes a point that then
continues towards the centre ondulating upwards slowly and then
downwards. then it makes a point and goes upwards and then slowly
down wards again to reach the edge of the back of the chair. The wood
is oak stained a dark brown.. the sit is unstained oak but it has
dried up bits of chopped onion suck to it.. lots of them as in my
performance that is what I did.. chop onions. The two back legs are
just a continuation of the straight bits of wood that form the sides
of the back. the two front legs are rounded.. almost till the last 5
inches and then after to consequent donought/round shapes there the
end of the leg becomes square ended.
Just
behind the chair.. just visible there is an electric socket and a
socket for a tv. The wall behind it is white and the squirting boards
are pine. The floor is laminate and pretends to be cherry tree.
Against the right wall there is an old grey/golden frame with a
picture of my great grand parents and behind it a large book
squareish double a4 size with blue covers.. it is a David Hockney
book..
It
is late now.. I will carry on again on Monday.. the description of
the chair is terrible I know but don't know how to describe it
better. Feel free to ask any questions.
Joana
From:
Maggie Manning
To:
joana cifre-cerda
Sent:
5 February 2012
Hi
Joana,
I
really enjoyed your description! I haven't tried to make a drawing of
the chair yet, but some parts of it I can see in my imagination. This
is a very interesting project; I'll try my best to be accurate....and
I'll start asking you questions later when I start to form a drawing.
Do you want me to rewrite just the sink area (with the lilac trees
outside the window) of my kitchen? It seems like that's quite enough,
to me anyway. I just returned home from 5 days away, and I'm getting
ready to go to a figure drawing session, so will just wait for your
next description. What fun!
Bye,
Maggie
p.s.
in your performance, were you peeling onions so that you would cry?
How long did
you
do it for? Did you have a bowl of water for washing you eyes to help
with the stinging?
From:
joana cifre-cerda
To:
Maggie Manning
Sent:
5 February 2012
Hi
Maggie,
I
just re read what I sent you and it is full of grammatical errors...
sorry it was late at night... I am quite happy with what you sent so
just sent me what you want but don't feel that you have to re re
write anything.
In
my performance.. my mum, auntie and I chopped the onions sitting on
the chairs and using the seat as a chopping board. We did it for
hours.. and at the beginning we cried but after a bit the tears
stopped...that was one of the points...we become immune to pain
sometimes and we stop crying and we act as nothing is happening.
I
am hoping to start the sketches on your room soon.
Joana
From:
joana cifre-cerda
To:
Maggie Manning
Sent:
9 March 2012
Hi
Maggie,
Sorry
it has taken me so long to send you some more info... I have been so
busy..
Well
I forgot to say that between both front and back legs of the chair
there is a wooden rectangular pole that join them .. Just the back
leg to the front leg on both sides. The poles are 2x3x30cm. There
is another pole the same size that joins these poles slightly forward
from the midline of these poles.
As
I said before, this chair is in a corner. Sometimes i put things on
it. At the moment there is a print on it size A3 that has three...
reddish/brownish footprints across. On the wall to the right of the
corner, at about 35 cm up from the back of the chair and25 cm in from
the corner there is a small rectangular canvas. It is A5 size and has
a drawing of a nude woman (drawn with hair). I bought it for £20
from an art student a few years ago.
Above
this canvas about 25cm higher there is a frame ( 40x30cm) with a
picture in it that my daughter did. It is a seascape... a sailing
boat in blur, the sea in pink, the sun in red and the sky in
bluish/pinkish tones.. it is done with oil pastels. From the border
of this picture and going away from the corner at about 13cm we hit
the curtain. The curtain is about 130cm long and it is hung by a
round wooden pole and rings. the material is linen like and is off
white with blue stripes. At the moment the curtain is open at both
sides so at both sides of the window it is about 40 cm wide. The
window is about 2m long and 1.09 wide. it has 3 window panes the
borders of which are brown pvc? (non wood). The middle window pain is
the only one that opens inwards. The handle to open it is hook like
and is golden in colour.
Through
the window I see the magnolia tree that has no flowers or leaves yet.
Behind it the chicken house to its right the shed further back the
apple tree still bare and between it and the shed a large ash tree..
also still no leaves. to the right of the chicken house there is now
a little run with two guinea pigs in it.
I
hope this keeps you going...
I
have down a couple of drawings from your descriptions. I will do some
more tonight.
Love
Joana.
On
Mar 12, 2012, Maggie Manning wrote:
Hi
Joana,
Good
to hear from you! I'm on a sort of holiday in Phoenix Arizona right
now, visiting a friend. Sorry, but I won't be able to work on the
project until I get home, around March 20th or so. Thanks so much for
the description.....I'll try to write a little more when I get home,
but I think at this point we both probably have what we need.
Bye
for now....I'll email when I'm back from my trip. Love, Maggie
From:
Maggie Manning
To:
joana cifre-cerda
Sent:
22 April 2012
Hi
Joana,
How
is it going with the drawing? I thought I should make connection with
you to see if you need any more description from me....or maybe
you're already finished with the project! I'm hoping to get it mainly
done during the next few days, so that if I want to make changes,
there will be time.
Just
reading over one of the the latest emails from Janis, I noticed it
said that we should be sending a copy of our drawing to each other.
Is that right? I know that definitely we should not send the
photo...only to Janis. Anyway, my drawing isn't finished yet. I think
I have a pretty good idea about your description so I'm o.k.; it's
will most likely be somewhat impressionistic.
I'm
really enjoying doing this.....it was hard to find the time, but I
guess that means I'm not allowing enough space for my art these days.
It's funny how the most important things can get pushed to the side,
in order to just deal with the basic things like taking care of
business and making a living. I seem to have piled
up
so many projects and responsibilities, that there isn't much room to
"breathe" creatively....but I'm working on changing that,
and getting back a good balance. Hope you had fun with the
project....
Bye
for now, love, Maggie
p.s.,
you mentioned a David Hockney book....I'm a fan of his too...
From:
joana cifre-cerda
To:
Maggie Manning
Sent:
22 April 2012
Hi
Maggie,
Pleased
to hear from you. It sounds like we have been having the same
problems with time. I have done a few drawings but I am hoping to
finish the project over the next week I am not sure if we are to send
an image of the drawing to each other.
I
forgot to mention that on the wall immediately above the chair - the
wall to the left of the corner there is an a5 drawing in charcoal of
a rectangular cube?. On the window sill there are a variety of
stones picked up from various different places.
I
am happy with your description, Thanks.
I
have had fun with the project but I have really struggled to find the
time or i should say to make the time.
Joana
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