Isle of Avalon - Artists in Glastonbury

<BODY> <H1><A HREF="art-nancyfarmer1.html">Artists in Glastonbury - Nancy Farmer</A></H1> <H2>Funny Fairies</H2> <P>Nancys anecdotes concerning the subject of her paintings are so engaging that I want to buy them all. Take fairies for instance. Now a tooth fairy is fair enough (if youll pardon the pun). She hovers in the sky above a mountain of teeth, as youd expect. Fairy honey thieves steal honey, and the Plughole Fairy has one foot down the plug-hole and one arm hanging onto the plug chain. What is interesting is that this fairy bridges the world between the luxury of a hot bath and childhood memories of that mysterious place where the water disappears in a noisy spiral, and where giant spiders emerge. </P> <P>Less innocent is the Absinthe Fairy who lies in a drunken stupor, cocktail glass in hand, evoking stories of a turn-of-the-century ban on absinthe in Europe because it was such a strong drink. Toulouse-Lautrec and Van Gogh apparently imbibed it regularly enough to suffer from absintheism: loss of memory, motor control, and so on. Absinthe reputedly has hallucinogenic properties  it contains wormwood, a neurotoxin. Picasso also painted an absinthe drinker, so were in good company here. </P> <P>Then theres the Tattooed Blue Fairy whose body decorations include lines of piercings. I particularly like the series of gold hoops along the edge of one wing. It is fine work, informed by Nancys previous incarnation as a jeweller. This fairy, who gazes at us with some intelligence, hasnt let her glass of red wine go to her head. </P> <P>Nancy is pretty keen on fairy stories too. Familiar themes are given a twist, as with Red Riding Hood, who emerges form the dark woods with her basket in one hand and a smoking pistol in the other. </P> <P>Nancys Goldilocks seems to share a similarly assertive attitude to life. She has grown up a little and taken on Glamour. Naked but for a pair of gold high heels, she lounges on three bearskins. A bowl of porridge sits in her hand, with a topping of golden honey from her own bees: the hives are to be seen through the window. Naturally she had to defend them from attack by the bears. </P> <P>A frog, a princess, and Rapunzel pop up in other paintings, as do a beautiful snake-headed Medusa wearing a half veil so that the onlooker is not turned to stone. Theres also a Mrs Cyclops, Lately Widowed, who is spending her dead husbands money on her appearance. The Devils Tea Party and The Bathtub move into an area where Hieronymus Bosch is an influence. In these paintings, well made-up women socialise and relax while unclothed men on all fours serve as tables and towel rails. The women dont even notice them, they are literally part of the furniture. Black fetishist garments are <I>de rigeur</I> for these women who smoke, drink, and clearly know how to enjoy themselves. </P> <P>Nancys pictures show a fascination with the clutter of everyday reality; the things that everyone does  gossiping, cleaning, eating, cooking  set against fantasies and the bizarre. Many aspects of Nancys work bring a smile to the face; she takes a wry look at women relating to each other and to men. I like the scope of her referencing too, from myths and mermaids to fetishism and the Bible.</P> <P>Some of these elements appear in Goings On At The Abbey, a photo-montage featuring part of Glastonbury Abbey ruins, and two women of doubtful repute. One is blonde, golden-haired and long-gloved, but her short, front-lacing dress is black, as is her wand. The other has horns, spiky hair and jewellery, red devils wings with fish-nets and suspenders under her split red dress. Through a window opening, green-headed snakes proffer apples. Is there really an Eve here, and does she consider the fruit forbidden? It may be Gothic to us, but the fat cat looking down from above is the picture of nonchalant calm</P> <BR> <P><B>Further works by Nancy can be seen at an exhibition at Strode College, Street, Somerset in September 2005, on <A HREF="http://www.nancyfarmer.net">www.nancyfarmer.net</A> and at the Erotica 2005 exhibition, Olympia (Hammersmith) 18-20 November 2005.</B></P> </BODY>  <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript1.2"> </script><script type="text/javascript"> </script><noscript><img height="1" width="1" alt="" src="http://nht-2.extreme-dm.com/n2.g?login=avalon23&pid=artnancy&j=n&jv=n"/> </noscript>