Note to Self: It’s that time of year again and maybe it’s the weather or maybe a condition of surviving the past two years… but I’m sure I’m not alone when I say, I am (again) in a deep blue funk. So this Valentine’s Day, I’ve decided to reiterate my #365LoveNotestoSelf project from 2017-2018 in which I attempted to alleviate a depressive episode by making a self-portrait every day for a year. The aim was, then as it is now, to give myself a loving gift: an envelope of time full of a kind of “love note to me”, by which I will remind myself daily of what love looks like – by gazing in a mirror and drawing what I see.
For in order to really see, one must make the time to look deeply.
I’ve chosen to create self-portraits (instead of, say, making selfies on my iPhone) because in these creative sessions, I must really look in order to draw what’s looking back at me…and maybe, after another 365 of these love notes in a row, it will become easier day-by-day to see through any of the dark days with a dose of self-love, with positivity, confidence, and joy.
For the “Love and Loss” exhibition at Tate, my intention is to share a new self-portrait every day in keeping with my daily online visual journal of sorts on Instagram: @kelisefranclemont. So who knows how I’ll be feeling on the day!
Exhibition Details:
Tate Modern Level 5, Blavatnik BuildingBankside London SE1 9TG
Dates and Times 16–23 March 2022 12.00 – 18.00
Free with All Tate Modern Collections Route ticket. Advance booking is recommended
#365LoveNotesToSelf, Day 365/365, 2017-2018, collage of 365 prints each around 2×3 cm, collage approximately 1.5 m x 1.5 m. Dimensions of each original drawing, painting, or photograph varies from as small as several centimeters to 1.5 m.
as seen in ‘Green Matters’ – a contemporary postcard art show, at Frogmill Papermill, Apsley 4-16 March 2018
‘degas dreaming of women in the bath’ (infinite drawing series), 2018, ink, wax crayon, and pencil
‘degas dreaming of women in the bath’ (infinite drawing series), 2018, ink, wax crayon, and pencil
‘degas dreaming of women in the bath’ (infinite drawing series), 2018, ink, wax crayon, and pencil
‘degas dreaming of women in the bath’ (infinite drawing series), 2018, ink, wax crayon, and pencil
“degas dreaming of women in the bath” (2018, ink, wax crayon, and Prismacolor pencil on tracing vellum and cartridge paper) is an “infinite drawing” of sorts that can be opened and folded in a variety of ways to get a new and surprising image with each arrangement of the pages. The drawing, on a single sheet of paper is double-sided and can be viewed beneath a semi-transparent paper, and/or folded to present a new perspective sized from A6 up to A3.
A response to the idea of the female nude frequently being the subject of the male gaze, here I’m reclaiming and expressing my own sensuality yet still leaving the way open for the viewer to choose his or her own “gaze” for themselves.
More links and info
Exhibition details: “Green Matters” – a contemporary postcard art show is on at Frogmore Papermill, Peter Ingram Gallery, Fourdrinier Way, Apsley, HP3 9RY from 4th through 16th March 2018. Free entrance; step-free access.
In a year-long experiment, #365LoveNotesToSelf is a project about finding love by giving oneself the gifts of time and looking deeply, one day at a time. #365LoveNotesToSelf is also part of the “Selfie” exhibition on at Candid Arts Trust, London from 23 February to 4th March 2018.
I am here and now
What started as a last-ditch effort to make myself feel better from encroaching depression, I kept at it for a year and in time, developed a pattern of self-love, perseverance, and mindfulness that continues today. I learned how to give myself a break and be flexible (some days it’s just not possible to stick to the plan so learned to make a new one!) I discovered I do have the determination and stamina for a long project (when in the past, I would often run out of steam half-way through). And even though I had a few days here and there with a low mood, it is with joy and pride when I say I can’t remember the last time I felt depression actually take hold.
It’s been a year and I feel like I’m just at the beginning. Stay tuned!
Exhibition details: “Selfie” is on at Camden Arts Trust, 3 Torrens St, London, EC1V 1NQ from 23 February to 4 March 2018. Hours: 12-6PM daily; free admission. Cafe on site.
The following text is a journal from two sessions as a sketch artist observing the rehearsal of the London Shakespeare Workout programme directed by Dr. Bruce Wall, where I aim to capture some of the live performers as they practice their craft in a most unexpected venue in London.
If you’ve read this one already, scroll down a bit or click 19 January 2018to jump down the page.
15 December 2017
I arrived to the gate with my pens and sketchbook… waiting to be registered, checked off the list, given a visitor’s pass (to be worn at all times). Anticipating the day and a little bit nervous (I shouldn’t have read those articles the night before; someone died here, not too long ago).
Guided through a maze of corners, past the glittering Christmas tree, narrowly brushing by the incongruous painting which wouldn’t be out of place above a matching sofa …more corridors and locked doors… to room C3, splashed on all walls with the kind of colourful signs reminiscent of primary school, letters 25-cm high cut from cheery flowered paper, spelling out “food poisoning”, “Campylobacter”, “Clostridium perfringens”… A few empty paper cups are accompanied by bits of rubbish, untidy stacks of paper strewn about, mismatched chairs abide patiently in an haphazard circle. It’s pretty much a performance rehearsal space anywhere…
The musicians set up and began to practice, working out some of the more difficult cues. I found a table to lay out my pens, my sketchbook, all of us warming up our instruments…and waiting for
…the actors to arrive.
Kelise Franclemont, ‘Wayne’, study from London Shakespeare Workout, 15 December 2017, at HMP Pentonville, London.
Kelise Franclemont, ‘Vlad’, study from London Shakespeare Workout, 15 December 2017, at HMP Pentonville, London.
Kelise Franclemont, ‘Jacob’, study from London Shakespeare Workout, 15 December 2017, at HMP Pentonville, London.
Four energies burst in all smiles and a handshake, Wayne shining confidence in a dancer’s step; Vlad his spirit gently glowing with firm purpose; Edwin, solemn, kind, a professor, a mentor, someone’s dad perhaps, in another life… Jacob with his whole soul in his eyes, not sad exactly, but something’s there, just behind the dignity and resolve.
Welcome to Pentonville.
Model prison, Pentonville, from The Illustrated London News, 1843. Illustrator unknown.
After polite introductions all around, the actors begin to rehearse their lines of Shakespeare, drinking in stage direction from Dr. Bruce* like eager blooms sipping the rain after a day of too many fiercely rooted under the burning sun…
I tried at first to move my pen in time with the actors and saw many things too important to miss in a downward glance… my pen just stopped and started; it’s impossible to grasp a whole form so I am concerned only with the fleeting gesture of lines, a posture, and I focus on the between-moments
…self to character to self again.
Kelise Franclemont, ‘Edwin’, study from London Shakespeare Workout, 15 December 2017, at HMP Pentonville, London.
Kelise Franclemont, ‘Jude’, study from London Shakespeare Workout, 15 December 2017, at HMP Pentonville, London.
Kelise Franclemont, ‘Peace is what we need!’, study from London Shakespeare Workout, 15 December 2017, at HMP Pentonville, London.
Three more actors arrive, two whose names I can’t quite hear over the musicians testing the newest phrase, the first tall and well-met with the easy smile full of welcome, the second whose spirit, unlike the others, is a carefully guarded mask.
Still I’m not convinced by the tough-guy-i-don’t-care exterior, who pretends to be here for a change of pace – I can feel the gusto with which he gathers his why-not in a fist to shout in chorus “I’m free!” …and Daniel, a spark about to ignite… and I saw it happen when he became an old man, palsied and stumbling, unable to speak…around him courage swelled and defied all weakness, to help him raise his hand, grasping an imaginary torch that we all could see. And he is a hero.
Kelise Franclemont, ‘Daniel’, study from London Shakespeare Workout, 19 December 2017, at HMP Pentonville, London.
I am surprised when the guys crowded around my table at the end, to check out my drawings, hoping to see themselves maybe… and I wish that I’d been able to capture more between my eyes, fugitive moments, and my pen, to portray each of the men before me: Wayne, Vlad, Edwin, Jacob, “all smiles”, the one I don’t know quite yet, and Daniel.
Each of them proud, confident, strong… powerful and vulnerable and brave…warm, open, funny, creative… and beautiful.
Daniel, shyly bold, asked me to draw him… not of vanity I felt, but of a desire to be viewed under a different light… I am humbled by his confidence in me, and I don’t know what to say, except that I’ll try. I’ll do my best.
Kelise Franclemont, ‘Daniel’, study from London Shakespeare Workout, 15 December 2017, at HMP Pentonville, London.
On the tube journey home, I was afraid that my memory would fail me, even as I hurriedly corrected lines, filled in spaces, and scribbled notes…
Kelise Franclemont, ‘Vlad rises up and leads the chorus – ‘Prepare!’ ‘, study from London Shakespeare Workout, 15 December 2017, at HMP Pentonville, London.
Kelise Franclemont, ‘Edwin’, study from London Shakespeare Workout, 15 December 2017, at HMP Pentonville, London.
My thoughts race to a pause…
These men…it’s not pity I feel for them….I don’t know what they’ve done to be locked up…it’s not my business, and I find I’m not even curious…
My job here today was not to know such things anyway, but to look and to really see.
Thanks to these seven inmates, actors, people for showing me the place you happen to be in now does not have to define you, your present, nor even your future.
Who do you want to be, you can be; now that is the question.
Kelise Franclemont, ‘Daniel as Mohammed Ali takes the torch’, study from London Shakespeare Workout, 15 December 2017, at HMP Pentonville, London.
19 January 2018
There are no musicians today to accompany the scenes; it’s just myself and Bruce from the outside on the return to Pentonville. I’ve also recovered somewhat from my nerves; though I’m still not 100% used to the idea of being in a place with no way out for any length of time, at least I know what to expect here: register, visitor’s pass (to worn at all times), narrow corridors and plenty of corners, no Christmas tree this time, and more locked unlocked locked again gates.
Bruce and I both warm up, he with his script, I with my sketches, as we wait for the men to suddenly pour in all at once to C3, the same room as before.
Like my last visit, I am greeted warmly by familiar and friendly faces, with a few new ones, and am glad I had, in the weeks previous, attempted to sketch outline portraits from memory; all the guys seemed pleased to have been remembered even imperfectly (although there was some comedic debate as to whether or not I had gone too far with the lace collars and “men in tights” costume ideas borrowed from the 16th century).
Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southhampton by unknown artist. Image courtesy http://www.npg.org.uk
Portrait of James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, Later 3rd Marquis and 1st Duke of Hamilton, Aged 17 1623 Daniel Mytens the Elder c.1590-c.1647 Presented by Colin Agnew and Charles Romer Williams 1919 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/N03474
Knowing the impossibility of describing anyone in hastily scribbled ink, always moving, pacing, gesticulating, I chose pencil instead to observe the actors sitting away from centre stage, still for moments at a time, heads bowed, awaiting cues, or mouthing their lines.
Kelise Franclemont, ‘Wayne and Jacob’ (l-r), study from London Shakespeare Workout, 19 January 2018, at HMP Pentonville, London.
I couldn’t guess why the mood today was one of familiar ease (after all, most men had been an artist’s subject many times before), yet still detectable was a faint thrum of tension. Later, this undercurrent of nervous energy is explained when I am astonished to learn that the actors were due to perform their piece for an audience in a few days’ time – with only the equivalent of about a week of rehearsals over the same number of lines for which outside companies would possibly take months.
Kelise Franclemont, ‘Leroy’, study from London Shakespeare Workout, 19 January 2018, at HMP Pentonville, London.
Back in my sketchbook, Daniel is my momentary subject, yet I can not quite get his likeness; he seems so youthful, hardly containing an excess of energy as he recites his lines, yet on my paper is inscribed a soul that has weathered more years than would be admitted by his actual age.
Abruptly, it’s a good thing that our time has just run out, as the portrait version of Daniel is rapidly approaching octogenarian. It’s as if my eyes and my pencil obdurately insist on seeing different things.
Giving up for now, I pack up my supplies and it’s back through umpteen gates (locked unlocked locked again), more corners and corridors, the visitor’s pass is returned, and I am glad to join the city air and waning sunshine again.
It’s that time of year again and maybe it’s the weather… but I’m sure I’m not alone when I say, I am in a deep blue funk. So for Valentine’s Day, I’ve decided to give myself a little gift: an envelope of time that contains a kind of “love note to me”, by which I will remind myself daily of what love looks like – by gazing in a mirror and drawing what I see.
For in order to really see, one must spend time really looking.
I’ve chosen to create self-portraits (instead of, say, making selfies on my iPhone) because in these creative sessions, I must take the time to really look in order to draw what’s looking back at me…and maybe, after 365 of these love notes in a row, it will become easier day-by-day to see through any of the dark days, with positivity, confidence, and joy.
In today’s image, I see quirky, bright, and fun-loving; now, I don’t know what other forms my selfie-portraits will take over the rest of the year, but in words of one of my heroes, RuPaul, here’s what I do know for sure:
“If you can’t love yourself, how the hell you gonna love somebody else?”
from 365 Love Notes to Self, Day 365, 14 Feb 2018, collage, paper, and glue.
In order to give myself a brief respite from technology, I recently spent some time in my studio exploring movement and light with some quick figure drawings in ink on paper.
(My scanner turned everything bright turquoise, which I tried to colour-correct but in reality, these are really be more of an ultramarine blue…)
Posing nude (female 10), 2016, ink on paper, 5 x 7 inches. SOLD.
Posing nude (male 3), 2016, ink on paper, 5 x 7 inches.
Recinging nude (female 1), 2016, ink on paper, 5 x 7 inches.
Standing nude (torso and legs), 2016, ink on paper, 5 x 7 inches.
Posing nude (female 5), 2016, ink on paper, 5 x 7 inches. SOLD.
Posing nude (male 4), 2016, ink on paper, 5 x 7 inches.
Posing nude (female 9), 2016, ink on paper, 5 x 7 inches. SOLD.
Standing nude (back 2), 2016, ink on paper, 5 x 7 inches.
Posing nude (female 8), 2016, ink on paper, 5 x 7 inches.
Posing nude (male 4), 2016, ink on paper, 5 x 7 inches.
Posing nude (female 7), 2016, ink on paper, 5 x 7 inches.
Standing nude (back 1), 2016, ink on paper, 5 x 7 inches. SOLD.
Posing nude (female 4), 2016, ink on paper, 5 x 7 inches. SOLD.
Posing nude (male 2), 2016, ink on paper, 5 x 7 inches.
Recinging nude (female 1), 2016, ink on paper, 5 x 7 inches. SOLD.
Reclining nude (male), 2016, ink on paper, 7 x 5 inches.
Posing nude (female 6), 2016, ink on paper, 5 x 7 inches.
Standing nude (draped 2), 2016, ink on paper, 5 x 7 inches.
Posing nude (female 3), 2016, ink on paper, 5 x 7 inches. SOLD.
Posing nude (male 1), 2016, ink on paper, 5 x 7 inches.
Posing nude (female 2), 2016, ink on paper, 5 x 7 inches. SOLD.
Standing nude (draped 1), 2016, ink on paper, 5 x 7 inches.
Posing nude (female 1), 2016, ink on paper, 5 x 7 inches. SOLD.
Standing nude (draped 3), 2016, ink on paper, 5 x 7 inches.
At first glance, this is simply a different way of drawing, in which I am performing the act of drawing, but not making the marks with my hands, but rather with my feet. I.e, By carrying a smartphone whilst exercising, through use of an app called Nike+Running, I create a recording of the activity – the route, the distance run, and the time elapsed from start to finish. Thus, the running activity is recorded as a line drawing superimposed over the satellite imagery of the location.
I made the gesture, the movement with my body, and Nike+Running software made the mark.
At another level, these drawings question the agency and intention: who really is the author here?
These abstract images are also about recording and memory in that, much like marks on paper, these digital drawings are the only record of my having been there at that moment, in that place. But wait… current technology and insta-culture allows another means to state “I was Here”… through a smart phone and social media.
Symbols begin to emerge from abstract shapes, asserting themselves with hashtags…suggesting a deeper meaning, they try to become something more than just the length of a line… a starting point, an ending point, a shape, an object, an animal…
17 Chelsea MA students (12 MA Fine Art, 5 MA Curating & Collections) enter into a week-long cooperative exhibition in which the curators, who see the show for the first time mid-week, will reconsider curation and transform the space. The project is an experiment which aims to “…challenge the ‘occupancy’ inside the regimented frameworks” such as may be found in the academic or gallery setting. From 7-10 April 2015 at Chelsea College of Arts.
Re-examining the relation between artist and curator
The basis of Housed: was about the relation (some might say “hierarchy”?) between artist and curator, firstly in a gallery/exhibition setting, secondly in academia. In the first half of the week, the dozen artists installed the show, collaboratively of course, installing their work with consideration for the siting as well as “conversations” between the nearby pieces.
My proposed work, ‘memoirs of a stone (Part I – The flight from Hyrcania)’ was an installation of drawings on paper, a short looping film with sound, and several found objects, most importantly, a small piece of red shale about 1 cm big.
In the first part of week, a writing desk was situated in the doorway, a small intimate space which may inspire quiet reflection as the viewer may pause and read or handle the drawings. Further along in the exhibition in the next room, one might come across the small red stone on a black velvet jewel block, positioned on the floor.
Kelise Franclemont, installation view of ‘memoirs of a stone (part I – the flight from Hyrcania)’, 2015, installation of video, drawings, collage, and found objects, in ‘Housed’ at Chelsea Cookhouse, London. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont.
Kelise Franclemont, installation view of ‘memoirs of a stone (part I – the flight from Hyrcania)’, 2015, installation of video, drawings, collage, and found objects, in ‘Housed’ at Chelsea Cookhouse, London. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont.
Mid-way through the week, the curators came into the project with a fresh perspective to re-hang the work, possibly creating new conversations and altering the “flow” of the exhibition overall.
‘Memoirs of a stone’ was relocated to another room entirely, which somehow “opened up” the work in a positive way. The little stone, placed next to Paul Abbott’s work (the video/busts on plinths – left image) somehow crystallised for both works the reference to Greco-Roman era, with busts on plinths and the Roman-era mosaic tile. Then the writing desk, even though in a more open space, still allowed for intimacy placed in the corner, adjacent to a large airy window.
Kelise Franclemont, installation view after curator intervention, ‘memoirs of a stone (part I – the flight from Hyrcania)’, 2015, installation of video, drawings, collage, and found objects, in ‘Housed’ at Chelsea Cookhouse, London. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont.
Kelise Franclemont, installation view after curator intervention, ‘memoirs of a stone (part I – the flight from Hyrcania)’, 2015, installation of video, drawings, collage, and found objects, in ‘Housed’ at Chelsea Cookhouse, London. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont.
For many of the artists, the re-curation improved the flow and openness for the exhibition overall, and opened up each work to have more “breathing space”, a marked positive change. If nothing else, the project allowed for a different way to see and experience the works in this very successful week.
Group exhibition in which I participated, Februrary 2014. The work that was shown in ‘Live in your Dreams!’ was a performance and installation entitled, ‘limn reveries’.
in Live in your dreams! exhibit at The Crypt Gallery, St Pancras
Kelise Franclemont, drawings from ‘limn reveries’, 2013. Image courtesy the artist.
From 26 February through 2 March 2014, I’ll be doing a drawing/performance piece called “limn reveries”, in a group exhibition “Live in your Dreams!” at The Crypt Gallery, St Pancras Church, Euston, London. The exhibition is curated by Stéphane Verlet-Bottéro, whose research and interests are focused on curation as well as making his own work related to art and science.
“limn reveries”
Which is just an old fashioned way of saying, I’m recording dreams… Basically, what I’ll be doing is attempting to achieve a quasi-meditative state under which I’ll conduct “automatic” (or subconscious) drawing. The thinking behind the exercise is to listen to meditation sound tracks, whereby I can “open up” my subconscious and access the rich imagery there, and then record or draw what I see.
More info about some of the meditation sound tracks I use when I draw-meditate, including: Shinka Zen meditation collection by Ilias Glenis(I purchased the set of CDs yonks ago, and unfortunately, at this time, I think the original website http://www.mymonkbuddy.com is closed/down, because I can’t find it anymore! So I have no further info about the “Shinka” programme, or its creator, Ilias Glenis…) Music for the Mindful Brain by Dr Jeffrey Thompson I’ve found these on Amazon. From info and reviews, these soundtracks seem to have a similar “technology” as the Shinka Zen collection.
Kelise Franclemont, in ‘Limn Reveries’, 2014, performance and installation, in ‘Live in your Dreams!’ at Crypt Gallery, St. Pancras, London. Photo credit: Thomas Butler.
a two-part project/installation curated by Dominic Head, showing new work by artists:
Dominic Head, Debra Singh, and Kelise Franclemont.
Digital Subversion 1: 5 March 2012
Wimbledon College of Art (PSR) Click here to download the exhibit guide:DigitalSubversion0001
Kelise Franclemont ‘Internet killed the gallery star’, 2012, postcard print on paper. Photo credit Dominic Head.
Head writes:
“Kelise Franclemont’s practice expresses the predicament of art in the digital age through a witty manipulation of canonical works of art using the tools available to digital technologies. Internet Killed the Gallery Star (2012) is a subversion of Da Vinci’s iconic Mona Lisa, displayed at the Louvre Gallery, Paris, whereby the figure is morphed, rotated and stretched to appear as a corruption of already broken data streams. Franclemont reduces the size of the portrait to that of a postcard, embellishing it with a frame that one would consider kitsch, given the content and context of the piece. She asks us to consider the relationship between canonical works of art and exclusivity, and points to notions of ubiquity in the understanding of ‘high art’.”
Digital Subversion 2: 14 March 2012
Wimbledon College of Art (Room 213) Click here to download the exhibit guide: DigitalSubversion0002
Kelise Franclemont, ‘QRitique’, 2012, hand-drawing QR code on paper, framed. Image courtesy the artist.
“Kelise Franclemont’s second work is at the threshold between canonical works of art and all-encompassing cyberspace. The QR Code has become a common marketing device in the consumption of Western products. Franclemont here uses it as a tool for viewing works of art, making the distinct correllation between the art object and the marketplace. Viewers must ‘activate’ the work through the technologies of the smartphone, in turn raising concerns as to the ‘exclusivity’ of art and the identity of its audience. The QR Code becomes therefore a barrier to the truth of the artwork, it becomes the promise of something greater than itself, a link to another world, another space with unforeseeable consequences.”
