‘Wrapped in Rugby’ – a Scots Memoir of the Oval Ball Game

Posted on January 14, 2014 by Jane Lee McCracken

Douglas S. Bruce at the playing fields of Goldenacre, Edinburgh in 1959

When my Uncle Douglas kindly asked if I would design the cover of his first book, a memoir of his life’s passion, the game of Rugby, it wasn’t long before I found the perfect image. During a visit to the beautiful Isle of Skye and chez Bruce, I discovered an old sepia photograph of my Uncle aged 10, oval ball under arm, standing on the playing fields of his Edinburgh school, anno 1959. Catching sight of the Victorian ‘Red Pavilion’ in the background of the photograph, George Heriot’s cricket club, where the head groundsman and his wife who were friend’s of my father’s lived, pressed the play button in my head and played out a whirlwind of technicolour images of blue faced winged monkeys, beguiling ‘Ruby Slippers’ and dog ‘Toto’ accompanied by the rousing ‘Ride of the Valkyries’; memories of a Christmas visit when I was a child. A peppering of pigeons flying through a dreich Edinburgh skyline echoed the garden scene through the Skye window, of woodpeckers and blackbirds fluttering around a creatively constructed firewood bird-table, under the shadows of the Red and Black Cuillins. And the boy, that bonny blue-eyed, hoop shirted child who’s escapades my mother never ceased to amuse my sister and I with, grew into the wonderful uncle who stood beside me in 2012 making us toast. Reading ‘Wrapped in Rugby’ informed missing generational times before I was born, because this is no ordinary sports book!

Back cover detail of ‘Wrapped in Rugby’.

I am a football and cricket girl, although would not normally choose to read sporting books of any sort, being most comfortable reading the likes of Roberto Bolano’s ‘2666’ or Maxim Gorky’s ‘My Childhood’. But even the sections solely devoted to rugby are enlightening for us round ball game lovers, a converting education! The recounting of a brutal rugby match in the 1960’s on a bleak hung-over Scottish New Year’s Day in the Borders town of Hawick, fought on a frozen pitch turn into literary hilarity,

“The playing surface was like concrete and worse, vehicles had been driven over the pitch when it was muddy. The tyre impressions were now like a scattering of lumberjack’ hand saws. It was a suicide mission for both teams if the game was to go ahead. To go ahead it was (and) like the ANZACS at Gallipoli we did as we were bidden and prepared for suicide.’

There are so many beautiful turns of phrase, metaphors, so much `laugh out loud’ inherited Fife wit I needed a second copy of the book to annotate or the precious signed copy I was reading would have been graffitied all over!

Uncle Douglas and my beautiful late Auntie Rosemary, Wedding Day, 1973

Uncle Douglas and my beautiful late Auntie Rosemary’s Wedding Day, Edinburgh, 1971

Of course I am a wee bit biased, I’m reading a book by the best uncle in the world! But I hope I’m fair also. I found it an eloquently written social history of Edinburgh in the 50’s and 60’s, recounting hysterical life stories, stories I hadn’t heard before, relating tenderly and artfully moving tributes to the likes of my Grandfather, all whilst managing to successfully engage a sub-consciously reluctant niece to understand his enormous passion for rugby. Entwining a history of twentieth and early twenty-first century Scottish rugby throughout the book he reveals personal observations of the politically charged scrum from amateur to professional Scottish rugby. There are many people including my father who will remember fondly the game as it was and for them this book is a tribute to those selfless days when rugby was played for enjoyment, camaraderie and passion. For younger rugby loving generations this is a history of the game their forefathers played with carefree abandon, and unrestricted innocence. Also recorded are my uncle’s tireless efforts to bring rugby to smaller Scottish communities and their younger players as well as the Scottish community at large and it’s youngsters spurred by his passion for the game – it is an inspiration and revelation to me of someone I know well under different circumstances, giving back something they love to others. This is an epic memoir in my opinion, honest, affecting, beautifully written by a very humble, funny and passionate man, my uncle.

‘Wrapped in Rugby’, Douglas S. Bruce, 2013

To order ‘Wrapped in Rugby’ please visit Amazon

‘ATKA’ Wolf Drawing Raises over $1500 for Wolf Conservation Center

Posted on January 11, 2014 by Jane Lee McCracken

‘Atka’, 2013, original black Biro drawing by Jane Lee McCracken

‘Atka‘ original Biro drawing was auctioned on 13th December 2013 at the Wolf Conservation Center, NY‘s annual Wine and Wolves fundraiser. Thank you so, so much to the winner and I hope you enjoy your drawing! Every dollar helps the Wolf Conservation Center, NY promote the conservation and protection of wolves. For more information about magnificent Atka and his friends please visit WCC, NY’s website.

Since the auction a luxury print edition of the original ‘ATKA’ drawing has been released and ALL profits from the sale of each print will be donated to the WCC for wolf conservation.

Luxurious Archival Pigment Prints on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308gsm from the original Biro drawing are especially made to order crafted by prestigious photographer Jack Lowe of Jack Lowe Studio one of the best printmaker’s in the UK.

To purchase an ‘Atka’ print or for further information:

www.janeleemccracken.co.uk/shop/conservation art prints

‘Atka’, 2013, detail from original black Biro drawing

‘Little Red Riding Hood’s Cloak’ – Smashing the Stereotypes?

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Jane Lee McCracken

‘Doll and Pink Boris’, 2011, colour Biro drawing by Jane Lee McCracken, part of design for ‘Red Riding Hood’s Cloak’ fabric pattern

Little girls, this seems to say,
Never stop upon your way.
Never trust a stranger-friend;
No one knows how it will end.
As you’re pretty, so be wise;
Wolves may lurk in every guise.
Handsome they may be, and kind,
Gay, or charming never mind!
Now, as then, ‘tis simple truth—
Sweetest tongue has sharpest tooth!

Charles Perrault, Le Petit Chaperon Rouge,1697

“Les Contes de Perrault” dessins par Gustave Doré. Paris: J. Hetzel, 1867

‘Red Riding Hood’s Cloak’ 2012, was conceived for the ‘The Woodcutter’s Cottage’ Solo Exhibition shown at the Customs House Gallery, South Shields and The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate. This piece focuses on the interpretation of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, as a parable to sexual maturity. An ancient oral fairy tale, ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ was first published by Charles Perrault as ‘Le Petit Chaperon Rouge’ in 1697. ‘Rotkäppchen’ written by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in 1812 remains the most popular version to date. However, a different oral tale registered as far back as 1st century AD, ‘The Wolf and the Kids’ is now thought to be the originator of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ on the evolutionary tree of Fairy Tales, creating a separate branch for this most famous story.

“Les Contes de Perrault” dessins par Gustave Doré. Paris: J. Hetzel, 1867

Recent studies by anthropologist Dr Jamie Terhani of Durham University, suggest that ‘Little Red Riding Hood‘, which was once thought of as a tale that originated “in Chinese oral tradition”and “spread west, along the Silk Route” eventually creating the European versions of ‘The Wolf and the Kids’ and ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ is now thought to have derived from European oral traditions, “and not vice versa”. Dr Jamie Terhani, ‘Science on the trail of The Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood’, Durham University News November 2013

"Der Wolf und die sieben jungen Geißlein", vintage German postcard, Artist's collection

“Der Wolf und die sieben jungen Geißlein”, vintage German postcard, 1915, Artist’s collection

My first fairy tale book illustrated by Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone first published 1967

My first fairy tale book illustrated by Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone, published 1967

Often considered as precautionary and educational fables orated by our forefathers to both adults and children, fairy tales have also long since been scrutinised by the likes of Freud and Jung for their psychoanalytic qualities. Freud compared fairy tales to dreams, revelations of the unconscious mind, exposing our hidden fears and desires. Freud’s all encompassing quote succinctly captures his opinion of man:

“Those who love fairy-tales do not like it when people speak of the innate tendencies in mankind toward aggression, destruction, and, in addition, cruelty. God has made them in his own image, with his own perfections; no one wants to be reminded how hard it is to reconcile the undeniable existence-in spite of all the protestations of Christian Science-of evil with His omnipotence and supreme goodness.” Freud, 1856-1939

Illustration by Hermann Vogel of Wolf slain by Huntsman

Illustration for Grimm’s ‘Rotkappchen’, 1893, by German illustrator Hermann Vogel (1854-1921), Wolf slain by Huntsman

Jung however treads a longer, deeper path, developing the idea of ‘Collective Unconcious’, the ‘inborn’ unconscious mind, common to a collective species such as man, originating from the ancestral organisation of shared experiences, and naming ‘pre-existent’ unconscious forms as ‘Archetypes’.

“The concept of archetypes as the mode of expression of the collective unconscious is discussed. In addition to the purely personal unconscious hypothesised by Freud, a deeper unconscious level is felt to exist. This deeper level manifests itself in universal archaic images expressed in dreams, religious beliefs, myths, and fairy tales. The archetypes, as unfiltered psychic experience, appear sometimes in their most primitive and naive forms (in dreams), sometimes in a considerably more complex form due to the operation of conscious elaboration (in myths).” Jung, 1875-1961

Sarah Patterson, 'The Company of Wolves', Neil Jordan, 1984

Film still of Sarah Patterson, ‘The Company of Wolves’, Neil Jordan, Palace Productions, 1984

So in ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, archetypes such as the the protagonist’s red hood have been interpreted as the Dawn or blood; the wolf often symbolises a man in various guises from lover to sexual predator. The cutting open of the wolf by the huntsman is sometimes interpreted as rebirth.

‘The Bloody Chamber’, Angela Carter, Vintage 2007, Artist’s own copy

Angela Carter’s book ‘The Bloody Chamber’, 1979 presents a wonderful version of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ in the form of the short story ‘The Company of Wolves’, considering the ‘sexual awakening’ concept. Neil Jordan’s somewhat dated but nevertheless beautifully filmed and at times epically scored adaptation, bearing the same name as Carter’s story, ‘The Company of Wolves’, 1984, Palace Productions, realises luscious archetypal Fairy Tale imagery.

‘The Company of Wolves’ Neil Jordan, 1984, Special Edition DVD 2005, Artist’s own copy

“See! Sweet and sound she sleeps in granny’s bed, between the paws of the tender wolf.” ‘The Company of Wolves’, Angela Carter, 1979

‘The Company of Wolves’, set photograph of Sarah Patterson and wolf, Neil Jordan, Palace Productions, 1984

Inspired by the aforementioned research, I created the pattern for ‘Red Riding Hood’s Cloak’ in the form of two colour Biro drawings. The first drawing ‘Doll and Pink Boris’, 2012 incorporated a vintage Bradley Doll, circa 1960s/1970s purchased from Retro, High Bridge, Newcastle and a semi-wild Sika deer my sister and I came across in the forests of Dumfries and Galloway in 2011 named Boris by the local foresters, who I photographed as he broke through the pine trees into a clearing. The heavily painted face of the doll represents girls who are reaching sexual maturity experimenting with make-up and other facets associated with ‘growing-up’. Boris epitomises the imagery of innocence, the gentleness of a young deer, ‘the quiet before the storm’ of sexual awakening, the loss of innocence but the gaining of experience. His fluorescent colouring signifies the stereotyping of girls with the colour pink. A recent movement has seen groups such as Pink Stinks.org.uk campaign against the stereotyping ‘Pinkification’ of girls, felt to have a detrimental affect on both girls and boys, limiting the development of young girls.

'Blue Boris', 2012, blue Biro drawing, study for 'The Woodcutter's Quilt'

‘Blue Boris’, 2012, blue Biro drawing by Jane Lee McCracken, study for ‘The Woodcutter’s Quilt’

In response to this campaign I must admit that one of the first toys I remember was a race-track with racing cars, a predecessor of ‘Scalextric, my father bought me for my second Christmas, which I loved. I don’t remember many pink toys in my repertoire of play; I transcended to echelons of tube-train driver in London as an adult, an experience I am very grateful for. The toys and books I had as a child, as well as influential people and experiences, gave me an appetite for a variety of different interests across the stereotypical gender spectrum allowing me to see things beyond gender specifics. The questioning by such organisations of ‘Pinkification’, I affirmatively note whilst buying toys for children in my life, is perhaps a distinctly important issue in forging a more positive development for young girls nowadays.

‘Brown Bunny’, 2012 colour Biro drawing by Jane Lee McCracken, pattern design for cloak fabric

The second drawing ‘Brown Bunny’, 2012, depicts a doe rabbit and is both a symbol of juvenility and reproduction . Rabbits reach sexual maturity between 3-8 months. The tender age of the rabbit in the drawing highlights girls beginning puberty as early as 8 years of age, deeming such girls extremely vulnerable, where recent years have seen an upsurge in the UK of child and teenage pregnancies. In the drawing the rabbit miscarries from a small wound on its side, denoting the vulnerability of all women to miscarriage.

‘Red Riding Hood’s Cloak, 2012, by Jane Lee McCracken detail of cloak pattern

Once made, the drawings were then scanned, printed on to transfer paper and cut out individually by hand, ironed onto calico, creating a unique fabric, then the fabric was cut out and sewn together to form the cloak. The use of calico as the cloak fabric symbolises the emergence of a design in the making – calico prototypes are created in the fashion industry before a final garment is made. They are raw and experimental just like young adults as they emerge from adolescence. The hem of the cloak is left raw and frayed.

'Red Riding Hood's Cloak', The Mercer Art Gallery, 2013 next to my Grandmother's bed and 'The Woodcutter's Quilt'

‘Red Riding Hood’s Cloak’, The Mercer Art Gallery, 2013 next to my Grandmother’s bed with ‘The British Moth Throw’ and ‘The Woodcutter’s Quilt’

The vision for the cloak thereafter was to be hung from the ceiling of the gallery on a simple white wooden coat-hanger with the hood raised next to the installation of my own Grandmother’s Jacobean bed, circa 1940. In both galleries the cloak drifted of its own violition in a ghostly, gently animated fashion, due to transient air flowing through the galleries.

‘Red Riding Hood’s Cloak’ next to ‘The Wolf’s House’, 2012, by Jane Lee McCracken

Finally the erect hood not only alludes to the obvious symbolism of male sexuality within the tale of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ but also denotes a suggestion of menace. Reminiscent of the white cloaks worn during the religious wars and crusades’ of the middle ages, this brings us back full circle to what Freud wrote about man – “our innate tendencies… towards aggression, destruction and cruelty”. One could argue further that, much of the aggression perpetuated by humankind in the form of war and destruction, has been led by the male of our species. Females are mostly inclined to be far less aggressive than males. Are we therefore back to Jung’s “Collective Unconscious” as to an explanation for human aggression, is it part of the unconscious? Primo Levi said in his answer to the question posed by members of his readership ‘How can the Nazis’ fanatical hatred of the Jews be explained?’ in the afterword of ‘This is a Man and The Truce’– “Perhaps one cannot (understand), what is more one must not understand what happened, because to understand is almost to justify”. Surely, in the same light as Premo Levi’s advocation that there are no excuses for what happened, the ‘Collective Unconscious’, does not excuse the damage we cause one another or our environment due to the vast knowledge we have gathered at this stage in our species development? Our ability to understand this destruction and the fact that we are able as a species to change our engraved behavioural patterns if we want to should advise the prohibition of our worst behaviour. But perhaps that’s the conundrum with humans, ‘if we want to?’

Artist’s own film still ‘The Company of Wolves’, 2007

“Meaning makes a great many things endurable – perhaps everything. No science will ever replace myth, and myth cannot be made out of any science. For it is not that “God” is a myth, but that myth is the revelation of a divine life in man.” Jung

‘Doll and Pink Boris’, signed and numbered Archival Pigment Print

Luxurious Archival Pigment Prints on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308gsm from the original Biro drawing of ‘Doll and Pink Boris’ are especially crafted to order by one of the best printmaker’s in the UK Jack Lowe Studio and available from my website shop

‘Brown Bunny’, signed and numbered Archival Pigment Print

Luxurious Archival Pigment Prints on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308gsm from the original Biro drawing of ‘Brown Bunny’ are especially crafted to order by one of the best printmaker’s in the UK Jack Lowe Studio and available from my website shop

Pets Home Alone during War and Disaster – New Art PRINT

Posted on January 4, 2014 by Jane Lee McCracken

‘Lily’, 2009, original black Biro drawing by Jane Lee McCracken

During war and disaster pets are often left behind to fend for themselves. Fleeting opportunity in which to escape leaves little time to garner pets whom instinctively may bolt from fear. Panic-stricken people often seize personal possessions and furniture instead of animals – although sometimes the heart strings just aren’t long enough. For those who adore their pets it’s hard to imagine the pain experienced during such times when an owner is not able to locate a beloved animal, left only with the angst and speculation of what happened to them.

My drawing entitled ‘Lily’ represents pets that are left behind during war and disaster; the dog’s owner took the furniture instead.

‘”A girl holding her dog in a devastated neighborhood in Warsaw, Poland, 5 Sep 1939″ by Julien Bryan’

Some pets are kept close during flight or rescued in the aftermath of the event – their moving stories recounted or their images captured on film or in photographs. During WWII, the little girl standing in shock amongst the devastation of Warsaw in 1939 holds her dog close, comforted by his presence. The determination and strength worn on the face of a French woman leading her horse whilst her dogs follow under cover of a cart full of possessions.

19 July 1940, Refugees escaping France WWII

Woman and her Dog outside her bombed house, Grozny, Chechnya 1995. Photograph by Yuri Gripas

In 1995 Grozny, Chechnya, with her dog next to her a woman despairs at the bombing of her home whilst an evacuee in a truck says goodbye to his dog.

Russian man, Grozny, Chechnya says goodbye to his dog, 1995. Chechen forces. (AP Photo)

Cat Survivors of the 2011 Tsunami, Tashirojima (Cat Island), Japan

Around the world concern was raised for the feline occupants of Tashirojima or ‘Cat Island’, Japan during the 2011 Tsunami. But many of the cats survived, cared for by people of the small community of 100 islanders, still outnumbered by their feline friends. In 2013 a dog survived 3 days buried under rubble following an earthquake in Lalu Village in Hetuo Township Dingxi, China and was eventually recovered by villagers and rescue teams.

Dog rescued after 3 days buried under rubble after earthquake Lalu Village in Hetuo Township, Dingxi, China 2013

Dog rescued after 3 days buried under rubble after earthquake, Dingxi, China 2013

The dog in the drawing is my own dog, Lily. She lies on the memory of a chair representing owners who took furniture and personal belongings instead of their pet leaving the family dog to fend for itself amongst the wreckage of war and disaster.

DNA of Northern Inuits and other Malamute breeds is closer to Gray Wolf DNA than many other dog breeds. Dogs who give many of us unequivocal companionship were domesticated from wolves thousands of years ago.

In light of this all profits from each print sold will be donated to ‘The Wolves and Humans Foundation’.

The Wolves and Humans Foundation is a UK based charity dedicated to the conservation of Europe’s large carnivores wolves, bears and lynx. Wolves and Humans work with people and local communities to find practical solutions to co-existence with wolves and other large carnivores, thereby helping long-term conservation of these species. For further information please visit http://www.wolvesandhumans.org/index.htm

‘Lily’, 2012/2014 Archival Limited and Open Edition Pigment Print Series’, Jane Lee McCracken

Archival Pigment Prints are available in two sizes –

NEW A4 Print – signed and numbered luxurious Archival Pigment Prints on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308gsm of ‘Lily’ are especially crafted to order by one of the best printmaker’s in the UK Jack Lowe Studio and are available to purchase for £35 inclusive P&P from my website shop

A3 Limited Edition of 200 – signed and numbered luxurious Archival Pigment Prints on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308gsm of ‘Lily’ crafted by one of the best printmaker’s in the UK Jack Lowe Studio and are available to purchase for £55 inclusive P&P from my website shop

A Year in Pictures – Art Muse LILY takes Life in her Stride

Posted on December 28, 2013 by Jane Lee McCracken

Lily, star of many drawings by artist Jane Lee McCracken reveals a year in her life as an art muse, what she will be eating for dinner this Christmas and her special Christmas wish.

January – “I love snow! I like to run at it with my mouth open like a snow plough so I can eat as much of it as I can in one go.”

February – “This is one of my favourite drawings where I got a big starring role as the white wolf. I liked modelling this cool i-pad cover too!”

March – “Early rehearsals began for this year’s nativity! (I put my ears back when I’m happy so could wear Mary’s headscarf with ease)”

April – “I have to do a lot of sitting around during modelling shoots. I just go to sleep and boom wake up for the camera”

May – “In my recreational time I love to lie in the garden amongst the flowers and sleep. I often dream about rabbits and barking at other dogs”

June – “I love to go to the pub, particularly the beer garden of the Olde Ship in Seahouses, Northumberland”

July – “This year I was centre stage in an exhibition at The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate, England and went down to trip the light fantastic and meet the people of Harrogate who were very nice”

August- “Summer brings clover and I love to lie in it and pretend to catch bees!”

September- “This is the year that I learnt to open the back door and let myself in and then I wanted to let myself out again as the football was on!”

October – “Cuddling my playmate is a very important part of my daily routine and now the mornings are dark I find it increasingly difficult to get out of bed for walks, I’d rather just have hugs”

November – “Atka’s my pin-up boy, I’d love to meet him one day!”

December – “My friend Joe Bason made me this Christmas bow-tie, isn’ it gorgeous?! I love wearing it when I go to the shops with my owner, it goes with my Red Dingo collar! (Thank you also to my friend Juliet of KimonoKraft Love you Long Time http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/KimonoKraft for being the inspiration behind my calendar!)

So Lily what will you be eating for Christmas this year? –

“I just can’t resist it, I’ll be having a bowl of my favourite food, Chappie and then a whole Dentastick after my owners have eaten their Christmas dinner. But probably when they’re not looking my Granny and Auntie Karen will sneak me roast potatoes and maybe some Haribo Starmix as I love them!”

Have you got any special Christmas wishes? – “My owners bought me from a breeder who didn’t tell them that Northern Inuits can never be left on their own, plus they didn’t do enough research about my breed before they bought me. I’m lucky, they love me very much, but it’s hard work making sure that I’m cared for 24 hours a day. I get very distressed if I’m left on my own. If you can’t give proper care to specialist breeds like me give a rescue dog who’s not a Diva a loving home instead.”

Sponsored by http://www.dogonthepitch.co.uk/

‘ATKA’, Ambassador Wolf Art PRINT – Wolf Conservation Center, NY

Posted on December 21, 2013 by Jane Lee McCracken

'Atka', signed and numbered luxury Archival Pigment Print

‘Atka’, 2013 Luxury Archival Pigment Print by Jane Lee McCracken

Prints of ‘Atka’, Ambassador Wolf of the Wolf Conservation Center, NY are now available to order with ALL profits donated to WWC, helping to protect wolves.

Luxurious Archival Pigment Prints on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308gsm from the original Biro drawing of ‘Atka’ by artist Jane Lee McCracken are especially made to order crafted by prestigious photographer and printmaker http://mrjacklowe.com/ one of the best printmaker’s in the UK.

To purchase an ‘Atka’ print or for further information:

www.janeleemccracken.co.uk/shop/conservation art prints

'Atka', detail of black Biro drawing, 2013

‘Atka’, 2013, detail of black Biro drawing by Jane Lee McCracken

Magnificent Atka has dedicated his life to educating people about protecting his wild brothers and sisters. Wolves in America are having a bit of a hard time and need all the help they can get.

That’s why the original Biro drawing of ‘Atka’ was created and winged its way from Newcastle, England to New York State for WCC Wine and Wolves fundraiser on 12th December 2013. Since 1999 WCC has been teaching people about wolves and their role in the environment.

If you’re not familiar with WCC already, have a look at the sterling work they do for wolves http://nywolf.org/

‘Atka’ Ambassador Wolf, photo courtesy of WCC

From Moscow with Love

Posted on December 17, 2013 by Jane Lee McCracken

‘The Russian Doll’, red, blue, green and black Biro drawing, 2008 by Jane Lee McCracken

The Russian Doll… Back in my home town of Edinburgh in 2005, with money in my pocket and a premeditated mission to visit ‘The Russian Shop’, my target was a Russian doll and successful return to Northumberland the same day with my own matryoshka.

The little shop on St Mary’s Street just off the High Street was overflowing with an impressive array of magnificent Russian dolls, lacquer boxes and wooden toys. I wanted a special doll, something unique. All the dolls were wearing coats of glistening varnish, except one which had a matt finish – she had the prettiest face, and on her body was a representation of Ivan Shishkin’s painting ‘Morning in a Pine Forest’, 1889. All her children had Russian landscape paintings on their bodies too and the same pretty face as their mother. This was my doll!

Russian doll and her four children on “The Wolf’s House”, mixed media, 2012, by Jane Lee McCracken

I took her to the counter to pay and the shop owner pointed to a woman I had noticed earlier who was sitting at a small desk painting a lacquer box. “This is the artist who made your doll, she has just flown in from Moscow this morning to give a demonstration of her work”. Such excitement, such a lovely, gentle woman, we spoke to one another about her art and like a child holding out an autograph book to a living legend, I held out my dolI and asked if she would sign a dedication. “To Jane, with Love, 2005” it says.

“All I have Left”, 2001

Found objects and my own possessions feature a lot in my work. I love the simplicity of using what is close at hand, a Biro, my dog Lily, objects I find on Ebay. Working on a series of drawings from 2008 called ‘Tales from the East’, I wanted to employ the iconic image of the Russian doll and create my own doll. I used my Russian/Scottish doll as inspiration and a photograph from 2001 of myself, that was made for a series of digital montages called ‘All I have Left’ .

"Red Riding", All I have left' 2002, digital montage

‘”Red Riding”, All I have Left Series’ 2002, by Jane Lee McCracken, digital montage using artist’s photograph of the Black Forest

Like all my work, the drawing of “The Russian Doll” made with red, blue, green and black Biro acts on several levels and is symbolic of issues relating to war. The self-portrait layered over the doll’s face, represents ordinary women “like you and me”.

For further information about the symbolism of this piece please visit my website: :http://www.janeleemccracken.co.uk/photo_4657711.html

Luxury Archival Pigment Prints crafted by http://mrjacklowe.com/ are available from my shop:http://www.janeleemccracken.co.uk/photo_8181965.html

“The Russian Doll”, Archival Pigment Print series

175 Steps with Patrick Leigh Fermor

Posted on December 14, 2013 by Jane Lee McCracken

‘R and Lily bookmark and “Between the Woods and the Water”

“Sighișoara, Transylvania, 31 August, 2008 … Have brought Patrick to be reunited with Angéla. He’s in my bag! As our feet touch the first step of the Scholars’ Stairway, a wooden covered staircase built in 1642 boasting 175 steps which lead to the ‘School on the Hill’ … we notice the sweetest old woman crowned in a floral headscarf, shyly concealed behind the ornate entrance. She is holding a basket with four of the rosiest, plumpest apples (Snow White would have discarded the wicked Queen’s offering as windfall on first gaze of these!). She is selling them just as others are standing on the streets of the beautiful Saxon citadel, trading their house hold possessions or fruit from their garden, all swallowed by a cerulean sky. Not meaning to offend we give her lei and leave her the apple she offers so she can sell it to someone else and make more money. As she begins to understand our international mime, she smiles the warmest toothless smile and thanks us – “mulţumesc”. The steps are hard work, too many Vogue cigarettes! I’m on the steps finally after dreaming of seeing what you saw! The sun is setting as we reach the top of the staircase. The ‘Church on the Hill’ welcomes us too. The gravestones are on fire. I take out ‘Between the Woods and the Water’, Patrick Leigh Fermor from my bag and read pages 156-158. But it’s page 154 that I’ve marked with a photo of R and Lily…”

‘The Scholars Staircase’, Sighisoara, 2008

‘We put up at an inn with gables and leaded windows in a square lifted high above the roofs and the triple cincture of the town wall and dined at a heavy oak table in the Gastzimmer. The glasses held a cool local wine that washed down trout caught that afternoon, and every sight and sound – the voices, the wine-glasses, the stone mugs and the furniture shining with the polish of a couple of centuries – brought it closer to a Weinstube by the Rhine or the Necker. When István retired, Angéla and I sat on in the great smokey room holding hands, deeply aware that it was the last night but one of our journey. There are times when hours are more precious than diamonds. The gable-windows upstairs surveyed a vision of unreality. The moon had triumphed over the mute fireworks to the east and the north and all the dimensions had been re-shuffled. We lent on the sill, and when Angéla turned her head, her face was bisected for a moment, one half silver, the other caught by the gold glow of lamplight indoors.’ (“Between the Woods and the Water”, p 154)

Balasha Cantacuzene (Angéla), Romanian Princess

“Sighisoara”, 2008

“R, Ciuc beer and ceramic candleholder of the Shoemaker’s House, Sighisoara”, 2008

Our trip to Romania in 2008 in the footsteps of Patrick Leigh Fermor had a profound affect on me and I began my own journey making a series of work called “Tales from the East” upon our return. “The Cupboard” a drawing from this series, was of a painted corner cupboard in the Szekély style that furnished the blue cottage we stayed in at Micloșoara, Transylvania.

“The Cupboard”, black Biro drawing, 2009 by Jane Lee McCracken

Before I discovered Patrick Leigh Fermor, “A Time of Gifts”, Proust was the most beautiful writer I had read, he wrote art. Patrick Leigh Fermor’s ethereal prose is so exquisite and rich I only ever managed two pages at each sitting in order to savour every phrase and image conjured. Patrick Leigh Fermor began his epic walk from Hook of Holland to Constantinople in 1933 when he was just 18 years old and chronicled his journey in “A Time of Gifts” and its sequel “Between the Woods and the Water”. He feeds our thoughts of run away travel, of exotic Europa with its diverse landscapes, cultures and jewels of buildings and people, of halcyon times lost forever to war. But above all it’s the sense of freedom he bestows as he roams across a blithe youth full of promise and adventure, capturing and bottling his journey as a gift for us of an inimitable perfume and through its fragrant notes he gives us back our own precious lost hours.

Patrick Leigh Fermor

N.B. My husband bought me Artemis Cooper’s biography of Patrick Leigh Fermor and although I wanted to read it I delayed, waiting for news about “the last book”. Leigh Fermor planned a third volume about the final part of his journey to Constantinople but suffering from writer’s block he was unable to finish it in his life time. ‘The Broken Road From the Iron Gates to Mount Athos’ has been published post-humously bringing together two texts he left behind. I hope Santa is good to me! But there’s another reason I haven’t read his biography yet. Patrick Leigh Fermor is the boy walking through pre-war Europe, the soldier and hero of WWII in “Ill Met By Moonlight”, W. Stanley Moss, and the intellectual who gave us “Mani” and “Roumeli”; he is legendary and maybe I’d rather he remains for me as the person he presents through his own beautiful words.

“A Time of Gifts”, Patrick Leigh Fermor

For further information about ‘The Cupboard’ drawing please visit: http://www.janeleemccracken.co.uk/photo_4657731.html

Luxury Archival Pigment Prints of ‘The Cupboard’ are available from: http://www.janeleemccracken.co.uk/photo_11377802.html

Atka, King of New York!

Posted on December 10, 2013 by Jane Lee McCracken

‘Atka’, black Biro drawing, 2013 by Jane Lee McCracken

Two days to go….. The Wolf Conservation Center, NY, USA is having its annual WINE & WOLVES fundraiser on 12th December. Since 1999 WCC has been teaching people about wolves and their role in the environment. Have a look at the sterling work they do protecting wolves http://nywolf.org/ if you’re not familiar with WCC already.

This year I wanted to celebrate beautiful Atka, WCC’s magnificent Ambassador wolf, by making a portrait of him drawn in black Biro to donate to WCC’s fundraiser. Atka has dedicated his life to educating people about protecting his wild brothers and sisters. I imagined the rock Atka sits on as his favourite spot where he surveys the world around him and thought this is how I should draw him, King of New York State.

‘Atka’, detail of black Biro drawing, 2013

Wolves in America are having a bit of a hard time and need all the help they can get. That’s why this drawing winged its way from Newcastle, England to New York State in time for 12th December’s WCC fundraiser.

Miss Lily is Atka’s biggest fan!

A big thank you to my mother and father for sponsoring the framing of the drawing so Atka is good to go and to Greg at http://www.mountkiscoframeshop.com/ for his excellent work framing the portrait in time and of course to Maggie Howell and Alex Spitzer at WCC for their tireless help organising the framing.

I hope Atka’s portrait finds a new home and in turn raises some funds for wee wolfie’s across America!

‘Atka’, signed and numbered luxury Archival Pigment Print

A note on prints – I am hoping to produce a luxury Archival Pigment Print run of ‘ATKA’ with 100% profit of any prints sold going to WCC if there is enough interest generated. Please do get in touch if this is something you would be interested in or know anyone who would like a print – email jane@janeleemccracken.co.uk

To War…

Posted on December 9, 2013 by Jane Lee McCracken

‘TV Screen III – “East Meets West, Forests’ Memories”‘, colour Biro drawing, 2010 by Jane Lee McCracken

With nights drawing darker and the days colder and thoughts of when will it snow again ever present, reflections of winter and watching war films as a wee girl with my father, having just returned from a foreign land on business, are rekindled. Whether it was the colours of epic explosions or the excitement of machine gun fire, war was a romantic notion and my father’s passion for war films passed to the next generation.

My beloved Grandmother on her wedding day to my Grandfather, 1st April 1939

My beloved Grandmother on her wedding day to my wonderful Grandfather, April 1939, Elie

My grandmother often talked about ‘The War’ unsurprisingly as WWII ended only 23 years before I was born and memories of rationing were still in their mere infancy at 14 years. She mostly talked about how my Grandfather who died when I was four, was ‘never the same after The War’ – he was ground crew on Lancaster Bombers in Lincolnshire, badly injured when hit by the wing of a Lysander aircraft and I guess waited in vain for friends to return from bombing missions – how could he be the same, was anyone?

N.B. 10th December 2013 – “Two Years after retiring, my Dad died of kidney cancer. He spent his last few moments, my mum at his side counting in the lancs from some hellish raid or other; F Fox, V Victor, B Baker and so on. I guess it troubled him whether a lanc was lost with all its crew…” Extract about my Grandfather from my uncle’s newly published wonderful book ‘Wrapped in Rugby’, Douglas S. Bruce http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wrapped-Rugby-Douglas-Scott-Bruce/dp/1492154326

‘Where Eagles Dare’ quilt square detail from ‘The Woodcutter’s Quilt’ made by Jane Lee McCracken for ‘The Woodcutter’s Cottage’ Exhibition 2012 http://www.janeleemccracken.co.uk/photo_10019238.html

‘The Woodcutter’s Cottage’ Exhibition at the Mercer Art Gallery, 2013. Installation includes ‘The Woodcutter’s Quilt’, ‘Woodcutter’s Giant Pillow’, ‘British Moth Throw’, my Grandmother’s Scottish Queen size bed and dressing table circa 1950, British Moth prints entomology case in drawer of dressing table and ‘Red Riding Hood’s Cloak’ suspended.

To this day ‘Where Eagles Dare’, MGM, 1968 remains one of my favourite films. The wind howling round the Bavarian Alps, the beautiful glare and hardship of the inexorably falling snow, hues of blue from azure to midnight, brilliant orange explosions, brilliant Richard Burton; cool Clint Eastwood a ‘second rate punk’, the fairy tale ‘Schloss Adler’ with its warren of hallways and monumental fireplace, a secret aspiration to be Mary Ure’s MI6 agent ‘Mary Ellison’ and that cable car! From beginning to end with its dramatic score and the faint rat-a-tat drum beat crescendo in the opening seconds it is still one of the most exciting and gripping films I have seen. (My family recently discovered a forgotten memory that my father had once shared a lift in the Inter-Continental Hotel, Budapest, with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in the 1970s not long after ‘Where Eagles Dare’ was made – in our excitement that such movie royalty had briefly entered life’s theatre we foolishly asked “was she really beautiful?” and in his concise, ‘Meldrew-esque’ way he replied “yes” and swiftly moved on to mention how charming they both were while sharing a lift conversation with him – through his simple affirmation we knew she was truly beautiful!)

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor during the filming of ‘Where Eagles Dare’, 1968

As I grew older the romantic excitement of war increasingly paled and was replaced by horror after spending many years viewing the reality of war through documentaries. What most prevails is the individual suffering of so many caught up in the decisions and actions of so few. Over 60 million dead during WWII, the holocaust, the painful displacement of people and their loss of everything they once knew, the horror that their eyes transmitted, not to mention the incalculable loss of wildlife, livestock and pets, in many of our present cosy bubbles how can we truly understand what war and such loss is like? We can’t.

‘Russian Man, “Ivan’s Childhood”, Andrei Tarkovsky, 1957’, detail of quilt square from ‘The Woodcutter’s Quilt’, 2012

‘The Sideboard II’ red Biro drawing, 2008 by Jane Lee McCracken, inspired by the girl in the red coat, ‘Schindler’s List’, 1993, Steven Spielberg http://www.janeleemccracken.co.uk/photo_4657718.html

‘Sindy and the Troika’, black Biro drawing , 2008, by Jane Lee McCracken symbolises possessions left behind when people flee their homes during war or disaster.

I began to try representing individual suffering through my work and create memorials to lives lived and ways of life lost, both human and animal not just through war but disasters, environmental destruction, to empathise with reality and not the Siberia of statistics. Some years ago I had watched an English soldier relating a particular experience in a WWII documentary. Towards the end of the war, in battle he had shot a German soldier dead on a road. When he went over to check the body, he saw it was just a young boy and placed in the buttonhole of the boy’s uniform was Edelweiss still blooming. Edelweiss does not last more than a couple of hours when picked fresh off the mountains so he knew that the boy had come down from his mountain home that morning to war. Tears of futility fell down the old man’s cheeks.

‘TV Screen III – “East Meets West, Forests Memories”‘, detail, colour Biros, 2010

This memory was the catalyst for creating ‘TV screen III – East Meets West, Forests’ Memories’, that and a passion for forests. Drawn in colour Biro, this piece took five months to produce and was inspired from stills of films such as ‘Band of Brothers’, 2001, HBO, ‘The Red and the White’, 1967, Miklós Jancsó, ‘Come and See’, 1985, Elem Klimov and of course Lily in a starring role as the white wolf or the faithful dog. This drawing was made to symbolise and consider that both good and bad people exist within all sides of a conflict and to imagine the conflicts as well as the facets of ‘life’ witnessed by mighty forests across Europe. It ultimately represents how nature fights back and survives no matter what human destruction is plied on it and in the end how futile war is and how little we learn from our mistakes. Viva nature!

For more information on this piece and its symbolism please visit my website via this link:

http://www.janeleemccracken.co.uk/photo_5698743.html

Luxury Archival Pigment Prints of this piece crafted by prestigious photographer and print-maker http://mrjacklowe.com/ are available to buy from my website via this link:

http://www.janeleemccracken.co.uk/photo_7578872.html

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