“Seawind”, purple Biro drawing, 2012 by Jane Lee McCracken
The halcyon days of childhood, inspiration for so much! Anyone remember this?
‘The White Horses’, Jackie Lee
Enjoy your memories!
“On White Horses, Snowy White Horses…”
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Monthly Archives: March 2014
Canary Love!
Canary Love! 2014, Jane Lee McCracken
I don’t normally write two posts in one day, but the cutest, ironical thing just happened. I was busy hand sewing a miniature canary with a transfer of my drawing ‘Wolf the Canary’ as a representation of a cuckoo clock, to put inside a commission of ‘The Wolf’s House’. Lily was on the floor sleeping. I went to get the iron so that I could give the canary a last wee press before adding it to the house. However the canary was nowhere to be seen! I searched high and low for some considerable time – perhaps it had flown out the window! Then I spied a piece of yellow silk under Lily’s paw. Now Lily loves toys it has to be said – Dino Baby being the latest addition to her collection, flown all the way from the set of Breaking Bad, apparently high on crystal meth with those eyes!
Dino Baby – the eyes, the eyes! 2014, Jane Lee McCracken
However it never crossed my mind that Lily would have delicately picked the tiny canary up in her mouth (my Sherlock Holmes powers of elementary deduction cleverly worked that out! Ok, maybe the canary was slightly damp!) to give it a cuddle! Too small to prop between her paws, she was hugging it with one paw!
I managed to prize her latest conquest from under her paw to check it wasn’t damaged! She looked so sad I popped it next to her one last time. Sorry Lily, this one’s not for you!
And the irony…Wolf the Canary symbolises the misinterpretation of wolves through fairy tales and the media – Lily could have destroyed the canary with ease but she tenderly looked after it!
Where Wolves and Bears Dare!
‘TV Screen II – “Where Wolves and Bears Dare”, 2009, colour Biro drawing by Jane Lee McCracken
After the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 people were evacuated from the disaster zone. With humans gone from the countryside, wildlife began to take over the homes of the previous occupants, finally realising the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears! Taking my own photographs of the Discovery Channel’s documentary ‘Chernobyl: Life in The Dead Zone’, 2007, I drew layers of images from five stills weaving together a wolf, a bear, a kitten and toys of the former occupants into a new interior setting ‘where wolves and bears dare’ to roam. The title also suggests a link to my favourite war film “Where Eagles Dare” and the war between nature and man. This piece represents the harmony nature re-encounters without human disruption as well as Nature’s infallibility to human destruction. Has nature won this war? Only time will tell, but it appears to be thriving in the most radioactively contaminated area in the world. With people refused access to live there, other than some 100 or so elderly inhabitants of 11 villages, it is to be hoped this Involuntary Park where rare Lynx along with Brown Bears who had disappeared from the area over 100 years ago and have returned again, is left to flourish.
This drawing took some 3 months to complete, working on a square inch per day as colours are mixed directly on the paper and the complexity of deciding as I draw what should be layered over what to produce a projected, abstract effect makes for painstaking work in its entirety.
Luxury Archival Pigment Prints of ‘TV Screen II – “Where Wolves and Bears Dare!”‘ made by the marvellous Jack Lowe studio are available to order from my website
‘TV Screen II – “Where Wolves and Bears Dare”, 2009, Archival Pigment Print
ATKA Print Sales Update! Nearly $400 reached
‘Atka’, 2013, original black Biro drawing
Thank you so much to everyone who has shown interest in the print of ‘Atka’!
I am pleased to say print sale donations to the Wolf Conservation Center, New York have reached nearly $400! Thank you so much to everyone who has bought a print and given directly to WCC, NY to help conserve US wolves!
It is with great sadness and disappointment in our species that I read everyday of more wolves being killed or threatened in the U.S. But thanks to organisations such as WCC who work tirelessly to educate and conserve wolves we can feel proud that so many care what happens to wolves. And obviously the star of all wolves, the special one, ‘Atka’ who has dedicated his life to help WCC with their work, cannot be forgotten!
The print of Atka is a luxurious, high quality, signed and numbered art print which I can proudly say is made by the best printmaker from our fair isle, Jack Lowe Studio! It is an open edition so that as many dollars as possible can be raised for WCC and ALL profits from each print sale are donated directly to them.
It would make a very special gift for a special person!
To purchase an ‘Atka’ print or for further information:
www.janeleemccracken.co.uk/shop/conservation art prints
Thank you for your support for Atka and his friends!
‘Atka’, 2013, Archival Pigment print of Biro drawing by Jane Lee McCracken, printed by Jack Lowe Studio.
Jane Lee McCracken, Artist 