by A.R. Menne’s art
VVOI at New Art introduces new-to-me artist A.R. Menne**. I was immediately struck by the compelling images that are beautifully drawn, sometimes etched, sometimes with watercolour and the compelling writing, with some excellent quotes by others.
From entry 03-27**: (From journals:) Last night was my first of a series of etching classes, and at one point, while she, slender as bones from a lifetime of filing and polishing and rubbing and blotting and pulling, demonstrated the proper way to scrape the edge of a copper plate (at 45 degree angles) with a metal file, she admonished us against turning our heads and averting our eyes from the burring copper: and she unveiled for us three aquamarine green dents in the square knuckle of her thumb, three marks side by side, copper filaments embedded in the flesh and oxidized the color of cheese mold, like a faded tattoo….
And you must read Entry 04-03**, about extracts from the 1999 diary of Czech film-maker Jan Svankmajer. I love the quote selected here.
But who is this artist – the site has no personal information? Googling revealed this item in April/May 2004 issue of Plum Ruby Review:
Menne is a 24 year-old artist living in Seattle “with a wee circus of rodents and a musician.” Her graphite drawings seem to echo this description; they are whimsical, disturbing and yet they have a sweet lyrical quality to them. Each drawing seems to manifest a bit of that same, nearly disturbing, fantastical quality–H.R. Giger meets Cirque du Soleil. Her characters are beautiful, even when terrible, even when empty-eyed, missing-limbed or creature-entwined.”
** links removed as they have been taken over by a commercial site.
July 17, 2005 in Other artists by Marja-Leena
You are a great truffle-hound for finding tasty links. The zendinou site appears to be down (under pressure I suppose). I’ll definitely follow her up on the basis of your quote, as much for her prose as her graphics.
Snort, a truffle pig, you mean?! Yes, I noticed Menne’s site hasn’t been working as well as an older one of hers that I had come across. Hope that it will be back soon for your enjoyment and mine!
I am a constant lurker of zendinou.com and I came in hopes to find what has happened to the now down site. I miss relishing Menne’s work. She is my muse.
Hi Fee! Her site seemed to have gone down very soon after I posted this. I keep checking from time to time but it’s still out. I miss it too – her work is wonderful!
i know the husband of your zendinou and have learned a little about her habits. she is extremely commited, working many hours each day and lately has moved strongly back into traditional forms. she get a tremendous amount of attention for her work and is taking a break from the public eye, hence her down site. recently she pulled the main galleries and switched to only keeping a sketch-journal on zendinou. since then i believe she may have decided to stop the sketch-journal as well. hope this helps!
Thanks for the information! I guess it was odd timing on my part to find her site, post about it, and then she abandons it. Seems that she’s even more of an introvert than I. Anyway, I do wish her well in her work and hope to see her on the web again soon. Let me know when she’s back, please.
Yes..thanks for the info. I hope to see her works again! She is a great inspiration!