Sweet Home Alabama a la Russ

This is just too good not to pass along.

The Leningrad Cowboys (a Finnish rock band) singing Sweet Home Alabama with the Red Army Choir

And besides, Sweet Home Alabama is not all that different from The Motherland Calls, is it.

Le Monument aux Morts

From these last two posts you'd think I have an abiding interest in sculpture, particularly war sculpture, but...well actually, maybe I do.

I recently had the opportunity to visit the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia, a rather remote place about 30 minutes from Interstate 81 in Southwest Virginia. Bedford has the unfortunate distinction of being the community that lost the most boys on D-Day (nineteen).

The D-Day Memorial is a basically a memorial park, conceptually similar in many ways to the WW2 memorial in Washington. There are a number of sculptures around the site, which I'll leave to you to check out on your own here: www.dday.org, but there was one particular piece that caught my eye, distastefully at first, brilliantly on reflection.

It's called Le Monument aux Morts (which apparently means "war memorial"). The statue is a replica of an original memorial statue by Edmond de Laheudrie, that was dedicated in 1920 in the town of Trevieres, France in memory of 43 French soldiers from Trevieres who were killed in World War One. The statue is a classical female victory figure in pseudo-Poilu garb holding a sword.

Twenty-four years later, on June 8, 1944, Trevieres found itself in the the middle of not only a war, but a battle, during which the memorial itself was struck in the head by shrapnel, removing its jaw and most of its throat. After World War Two ended, the town elected to not repair the statue, but to keep it as it was, a mute and disturbing symbol of the fragility of the peace.

In 2002 the original Laheudrie statue was recast, battle damage and all, and presented by the Wildenstein family, the mayor of Trevieres and the Consul General of Calvados to the D-Day Memorial, marking the second time that the nation of France has presented a statue to the United States.

My companion described it as "very creepy and wonderful," which it is, and a most fitting memorial to the D-Day invasion and World War Two in general.



A United States M.P. and a Trevieres resident examine the fallen statue in the Summer of 1944.

SmartFlix

Those of you have ever considered buying instructional art videos should go check out SmartFlix.com.

They have an extensive collection of those usually super-expensive DVDs that I always wanted to see, but always cost too much to buy (and of course the library never has them).

They have all of Richards Schmid's landscape DVDs, which are great (I've rented them all), and they have Burt Silverman's (my favorite figure painter) DVDs. I own one of Silverman's programs on VHS, but it's such a pain to get that player to work, I just rented the DVD.

They have an affiliate program, too. So if you click through here, I get some sort of credit (so by all means click through here).

They have a bunch of non-art stuff too of course (car repair, home repair, etc) and a huge collection of Digital Art DVDs--photoshop, illustrator, flash, etc (speaking of super expensive).

Great resource!

And by the way, if you see something cool that you'd recommend, please let me know!

The Motherland Calls

"The Motherland Calls" is the name of the giant statue on the hill called Mamayev Kurgan, in the city of Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, Russia (note the scale by the person standing on her base)

Today I decided it would be nice to have a statuette of this famous sculpture to put on my desk as an inspiration. In case you haven't heard (and most in the west haven't), "The Motherland Calls" (also called "Mother Motherland," or just "The Motherland," Rodina Mat) was the tallest statue in the world when it was built in 1967 (279 feet). It sits on Mamayev Kurgan, the hill overlooking Stalingrad and, in 1942, offering control of the city to whichever army could take it. Ultimately the Soviets took it, and this statue was erected 24 years later in commemoration of their victory over the Nazis.

I never found a souvenir statue for my desk; perhaps the Russians take their monuments more seriously than we do and won't demean them by turning them into souvenirs. Or maybe I just didn't look in the right place. However, I did find the following story; an interview with the woman who originally modeled for "The Motherland Calls."

From www.gateway2russia.com

***

15 November 2003 01:45

Statuesque beauty. It took six months for artists to persuade Valentina Izotova to take her top off for the Motherland. Now she`s glad she did:

When the sculptors asked me to model for a statue to commemorate the tremendous sacrifice of our Red Army boys at Stalingrad, how could I refuse? But I was horrified when they insisted I pose nude. This was the early 1960s and respectable girls simply didn't take their clothes off for anyone other than their husbands. Artists - even revered and famous sculptors such as Lev Maistrenko, who was working on the memorial - didn't mean anything to a woman of 26.

It was Lev who approached me. I was working as a waitress at the city's top restaurant, the Volgograd - it's still there today - and usually worked in an area reserved for top Communist Party functions or visiting delegations. Lev told me I was beautiful and embodied all the physical and moral qualities of the perfect Soviet woman. Of course I was flattered - who wouldn't be? Curiosity got the better of me and I agreed to model.

Of course none of us had a clue how famous Rodina Mat would become. Today Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) is as famous for this statue as for the terrible battle that took place here. My husband didn't like the idea of my posing for a group of artists sent from Moscow. He was terribly jealous and drove me to the studios they had set up in an old gas appliance factory for each and every session. After a while it became like any other job - I barely thought about standing there in my bikini and certainly welcomed the three roubles a day I was paid, which was a decent sum of money then. But it was six months before I finally relented and gave in to the sculptors' pleas to take my top off and bare my breasts. But that was all. I never budged in my determination to retain some modesty and never posed entirely in the nude. That was unthinkable. No one outside my family and immediate circle of friends ever knew about it.

Soon after I had completed my modelling duties I left to study for the first of my two degrees - I'm trained as an economist and an engineer. Later I left Volgograd altogether to live and worked in the polar mining city of Norilsk. After the statue was unveiled in 1967 I didn't give it much thought and just got on with my life. I came home in the early 1990s. I clearly remember that long train journey because hyper-inflation was taking off and the considerable sum of money that I set out with was practically worthless by the time I arrived. It was not an easy time. I, like many others, put my trust - and money and share vouchers - into money-making schemes. Of course it all turned out to be a scam and a lot of ordinary people lost everything. That's how I turned to social and political activism.

Today I am director of a charitable foundation to protect the rights of cheated investors and am running in December's State Duma (parliament) elections as a candidate for the United Russia Party. It's for this reason, mostly, that I decided to break nearly 40 years of silence. In the past few years the statue has become increasingly famous - you see its image everywhere. Now people recognise me in the street - not straight away - I'm not the slender young thing I was, but my features are still recognisable as those of Rodina Mat. She has stood there for nearly 40 years, her sword symbolising the defence of our homeland, one arm beckoning our men forward, mouth open in a cry of defiance. It's not me precisely, but I suppose there are elements of me in her. I no longer feel any shame in having taken off my clothes - I'm proud of what I did, proud of the sacrifice Russia made to defend itself during those dark days of the war.

I was very young during the war, but I shall never forget being evacuated from Stalingrad, along with my mother. We spent two years in Ukraine, sleeping in barns, a miserable time. The shock of coming home in 1943 to a city obliterated by war is still with me. That first winter, studying in school buildings with no roofs, I shall never forget. The Russian people still need defenders. I don't suppose that I shall be elected in December - but at least I can use what little fame Rodina Mat gives me to fight for the rights of ordinary people.

-- As told to Nick Holdsworth Valentina Izotova, a 68-year-old grandmother, was the model for Russia's most famous Soviet war memorial, Rodina Mat (Motherland Mother). For nearly 40 years she kept silent about her part in its creation

Figure Painting Classes Coming Soon!

Starting February 6th, I'll begin teaching a six-session class on Painting the Human Figure through U.T.'s non-credit program. This is a class for beginners, but there are usually a variety of skill levels represented. This session I'll be revising my syllabus a bit from the previous years. Typically the class begins with a monochrome painting from a mannequin (because she sits very still), followed by a portrait and then a figure. This session I plan to begin with gesture drawings of the full figure and try to move more quickly to full color paintings, and I'm probably going to try to end the class with a clothed pose using either a dancer or a Yoga practitioner. Should be interesting.

Here's the official class announcement:

Working from live models, this introductory class will focus on depicting the human form through a naturalistic use of light, shadow, and color. Emphasis will be on simplifying the complex human form and developing a process by which it can be realistically portrayed. Instruction will be geared toward the use of oil, but other mediums are welcome. Knowledge of your chosen medium will be helpful, but no previous experience with figurative art is required. A materials list can be found online at www.outreach.utk.edu/ppd and a model fee of $25-50 (depending on enrollment) will be payable to the instructor at the first class.

A materials list can be found on our web site at www.outreach.utk.edu/ppd A model fee of approximatedly $25- $50 (depending on enrollment) is payable to the instructor at first class.


And here's a link to the signup page at U.T.:
https://aceweb.outreach.utk.edu/CourseStatus.awp?~~282218

Dr. Anderson, I presume?

Dr. Maurice Anderson, was the surgeon of the Independent Company of South Carolina while garrisoned at Fort Loudoun in the Overhill Cherokees, near present-day Vonore, Tennessee.

Dr. Anderson was present at the start of the French and Indian War, being at the Battle of Great Meadows (and Fort Necessity) with the Independent Company and George Washington, who was then a Colonel of Virginia militia.

Anderson was later assigned as surgeon of the troops headed to Fort Loudoun, and served there with great distinction until 1760, when he was ambushed and killed by natives who were besieging the fort.

The model for this portrait of Dr. Anderson is Sam Reed, Tennessee State Park Ranger, who often portrays Maurice Anderson during the living history programs at Fort Loudoun State Historic Area.

For a schedule of upcoming events at Fort Loudoun, and the opportunity to see Dr. Anderson in action, visit the Fort Loudoun web site at http://www.fortloudoun.com.

Moving pictures

I'm working on getting the actress series of giclee prints ready for prime time (which won't be long). The scans are done and color-corrected, and I'm currently trying determine the best paper to print the whole set on (I'm leaning toward a smooth Crane drawing paper). They're looking very cool, if I do say so myself.

In the meantime, here's a blast from the not so distant past. Last July (of 06) "Alive at Five," a show on WBIR-TV did a brief feature on my work while it was hanging at the Blount Mansion gallery in downtown Knoxville.

So no sense missing an opportunity for some multi-media blog-o-tainment.