Art Payola

It's definitely worth blogging about my fave raves on this blog, as I have just been given a fantastic gift for writing about a friend on this blog. Helen Ralli, who designed the cover for Crushed, my YA novel, and is one of the geniuses on her current BA Graphic Design course at Camberwell has just posted me a beeeeautiful etching titled 'Our Lady Sally'. Thanks Helen, I shall treasure it always!

When I dutifully asked Helen the history behind her etching, she said:

'The character is based on a friend of mine called Samuel Parker, a first year drawing student at Camberwel, who has recently created a female alter-ego for himself called Sally Donovan. We are currently collaborating on a project together that explores the role and relevance of gender in modern society. We also exploring the theme of Pandrogyny (positive androgeny) a term coined and executed by musician Genesis P-Orridge, cult icon and singer in the bands Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV. This term describes when two people merge themselves together by the physical and aesthetic manipulation of their bodies in order to create a 'third being' , the 'pandrogyne', a state of exsistance that only exists as a result of the union between two individuals. His philosophies were creatly inspired by writer William Burroughs, and artist Brion Gysins, use of the cut up technique that they applied to literature, as well as audio and visulas. In regards to the etching, the image is of Samuel, dressed as a female... I wanted to try and represent this as an image that would be very traditionaly beautiful. and ambiguous. This is in contrast to the reception that a man dressed as a woman, or any other sort of unusual behaviour, would normally recieve from the general public as a whole, as they would certainly not generally be considered beautiful, rather being judged for being different.'

If this is a description of intellectual art, I like it!