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Keep up with the latest art and adventures from Rene Shoemaker Art!

Saving the Jewish Children in Crocq

As a follow-up to my July newsletter and art exhibit in Crocq, I have learned more about the exhibition hall that I described, which was so fascinating to me. After fact-checking my understanding of the information, I now want to share this story with you. 

I noted that Crocq was an interesting village in the French department of La Creuse. But the real story—besides the rabbit skins (another new fact: it was rabbits the tanneries of Crocq were processing) and the medieval towers overlooking the town—is that the exhibit hall, which now houses an elementary school on the ground floor, was originally built as an agricultural school, then became a hospital of sorts, a Maison de cure climatique, or health resort for children.

Ecole élémentaire, 8 rue Jean et Robert Judet 23260 Crocq

From 1939-1942, the schoolhouse was used as a refuge for Jewish children during the war, providing a safe place for them to hide in rural France. Limousin, including La Creuse, is known as a seat of the French resistance. Here in La Creuse there are still many discussions and reminders of the reality of the Seconde Guerre mondiale (World War II) on French soil.

"Jewish Children at the Crocq Refuge - 1941"

Louis Aron and his wife, along with a tireless team of staff, were responsible for running this refuge and maintaining a sense of normality for the children under their care. Aron was the director of the La maison israélite de refuge pour l’enfance, The Israelite House of Refuge for Children, and it is believed that 400 children were saved there by his refusal to declare the children of the refuge as Jews, since only their parents could have done so.* 

A monument outside the school declares:

Qui save un homme sauve l’humanité toute entière. L’oubli c’est l’exil, la memoire le secret de la délivrance.

“Whoever saves a man saves all mankind. Forgetting is exile, memory is the secret of deliverance.”

In 1942, the children were moved to another safe place seven kilometers away in Mainsat until 1944, when the Refuge became known as the “Foyer Israélite”, a center for Jewish immigrants.

 The Journal of Louis Aron presented by Serge Klarsfeld

The citation is as follows:

Klarsfeld, Serge 

Journal de Louis Aron, Directeur de la Maison Israélite de refuge pour l'enfance: Neuilly-sur-Seine 1939, Crocq (Creuse) 1939-1942. Édité et présenté par Serge Klarsfeld avec la collaboration d'Annette Zaidman. Association “Les Fils et filles des Déportés Juifs de Franc” et “The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation.” 1998

 

*Worldcat note, From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism

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The interior of the elementary school, upstairs gallery space

The exhibit in Crocq has ended. My painting of the Felletin library sold (thank you, Jon!), but there are still eight paintings available from that collection. If you are interested in owning one for yourself, send me a message and we will work out the details together.

Regarding the shop, it will be closed from September through December for renovation. I am happy to assist you with commissions - in fact I delight in working on them, so please send me your ideas of what you would like to order for the holidays.

A Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page will be added to the online shop, so please comment below to let me know what questions pop into your mind that I should address: Shipping policy? Postage costs? How artwork gets mailed safely? How to care for your paintings on silk? Your input is invaluable to maximize the helpfulness of the FAQ page future visitors to the site.

I will also be updating descriptions, adding new artwork, and removing some of the older pieces on the site.

Collection of my artwork that was on exhibit in Crocq

A new exhibit in Aubusson is planned for September! I will send the details as soon as they are confirmed. The Aubusson gallery will be handling sales of my artwork through December 31; I’ll provide that contact information in the forthcoming exhibition announcement

Galerie Des Marches, 31 rue Vieille, 23200 Aubusson

As always, thank you so much for being part of my life.

Expanding your art collection? Contact me for commissions and/or a private tour of my art, which is available in many sizes & price points.

In Athens, my original art, paper goods and small gifts are carried by:

KA Artist Shop,

Community, and

Athens Art & Frame,

and in Aubusson at the Office of Tourism.

Sustainable packaging courtesy of

noissue .

Thank you for supporting the arts in Athens and beyond.

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More Photos of My Neighborhood

This week I'm using pictures rather than words to share my everyday experiences with you!

Beautiful blue skies, walking paths, flowers and old cars; cinema in the sky, barns, 13th century church and bicycle rides.

If you like more words, you can read more about it here.

If you’d like to hear more about my adventures, and see my paintings and process, you can sign up for my newsletter. I’d be happy to see you there! Have a lovely week, wherever you are.

Investigation & Inquiry

One moment I am in Limousin, France, the next moment I am casting my vote for President-elect Joe Biden, and the next moment I am deep in reflection in solitude in the Southeastern USA.

Village Pet Cow by Rene Shoemaker
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We can finally exhale, knowing the U.S. is on a clear path of recovery. America can begin to right its wrongs.

And we can now continue our creative endeavors.

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I arrived at AIR Serenbe on November 1st, the recipient of the 2020 Fiber Forward Focus Fellowship and a month-long residency. It is exactly what my soul needs right now. 

Quiet. Contemplation. Investigation. Inquiry. Focus.

My days at Serenbe are full of inspiration and energy. What I find so interesting is that even in solitude, life continues. Before I arrived, I imagined the days would seem endless. But in fact, I still have to eat, bathe, and sleep, and the matters of the everyday take time out of my waking hours and away from art creation. 

I quickly discovered that a schedule of a five hour work block allows me the space to move into flow. After that, I must walk, I must check messages, I must sweep the cottage. It is wonderful to really have the time to investigate and discover the world through books. I am researching the artist Agnes Martin (1912-2004), whose work I mentioned in an earlier newsletter. I now have the opportunity to delve more deeply into understanding who she was, what motivated her, and the body of work she created. I am reading more of her own words and exploring her work through the Tate Modern catalog of the 2015 exhibit Agnes Martin.

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Agnes Martin, The Islands, 1961, oil and graphite on canvas, 72" x 72" (182.9 cm x 182.9 cm) © 2019 Estate of Agnes Martin/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

By reading about Martin, I am recognizing how important it is to express my thought processes and visions on paper. In my days at Serenbe, I take copious notes and create numerous sketches. I have a new notetaking system that is helping me organize my ideas. I’m setting up the dye baths to begin dyeing, but I have also committed to using this time to follow paths of discovery I rarely have time for while preparing for an exhibition. The residency allows me not only the space to allow ideas to flow, but also the time to follow a path of exploration in my own work.

I am continuing to find my artistic voice by questioning myself, my motives, and my instincts. I am intrigued by what I am drawing and creating, which piques my curiosity to explore ideas further. I have so many ideas and design concepts swirling around in my head that sometimes I cannot write fast enough to get them all down and I feel like I really have to pay attention. I just have to step aside and let the ideas land in the sketchbook. 

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I look forward to sharing with you the ideas and discoveries that emerge from this month of contemplation and creativity. Thank you for being there.

With gratitude,

-René

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PREPARING FOR THE HOLIDAYS?

I have new items for sale on my website, including gifts for everyone on your list: limited edition fine art prints, original art, baby gifts, stationery, and home decor. Take a look and feel free to contact me with any questions or words of advice of what you would like to see in the shop.

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"Normaltown" Fine Art print of original serigraphy


Artist-in-Residence:
November 1 - 30, 2020
AIR Serenbe:
Fiber forward Focus Fellowship
Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia
USA

Expanding your art collection? 
 Contact me for commissions and/or a private tour of my art,
which is available in many sizes & price points.

In Athens, my paper goods and small gifts are carried by:
 KA Artist Shop .

Sustainable packaging courtesy of 
noissue .

Thank you for supporting the arts in Athens, and beyond.

With gratitude, 
-René

A Day in The Life

In my last post I promised you a look into my process while in France; here we go!  (select any image to enlarge)

I wake up about 6am when I have art projects going. It’s easy to get up that early; the bedroom windows face the rising sun, and those windows are wide open almost all of the time (no bug screens necessary here!!!).

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My well-loved planner and a favorite spot :)

and another view

Bonjour!

My dog Dexter climbs up the stairs while I am descending; he gets extra snooze time with my husband Harvey while I get quiet time, which is very important to my creative process.

Stretch, drink tea, plan my day using my paper-based journal, a beloved vintage Franklin Planner. 

I try to stay away from turning on the iPhone or computer, so that my head stays clear.

. . .

Begin work. Again, I try to stay away from the computer and start working on my art right away. If there is a silk stretched and ready to be painted, that’s what I do first. And/or mix colors, because that process is long; when I create a color, I put the new color on a test grid, and then I need to wait until the dye is completely dry to really see what the color is! That often leads to a new adjustment of the color, another drying spell, etc etc - you get the picture.

 

Today's visitor, la vache, is the domesticated pet of a neighbor; when not at home with her, it is often seen wandering the village

Navigate to the studio. To get there, I walk out my front door, turn right and go up the stone steps into the studio. I think it was these very same outdoor steps that made me fall in love with this house immediately when I first saw it.

The steps to my studio.

Outside my studio window with Ganesh.

After at least an hour of creative work, I eat breakfast with Harvey and we go on a walk with Dexter all together. Here we have the option of walking down the Roman road (really!), a footpath that goes through forest and tree-lined fields with cows and hay, or “around the block” (I’ve always been fascinated that the French language has no word for block). This route goes toward a lake and past more fields with mama cows and baby cows and hawks and sparrows, past a castle, then returning to our house. Yet another route is down the road to Léon le Franc - what is now a tractor path that used to be a major foot thoroughfare to the village 2.5 km away - and we love how descriptive the names around here can be!

This is at the corner of my village; if I turn left I am following the Roman road. The woman who lives in the house you see here takes care of the little plot of land on the corner; the poppies are so beautiful here and seeing them always make me happy.

"around the block"

Dexter

Back home, drink tea, and back to the studio. I have work organized and lined up, both on my table and in my head. I try to make between 15 - 20 new pieces of art for each solo exhibit I hang, and that's what I'm working on now. I design, wax, and paint about 3 silks at a time, so as one is drying I can apply the resist to another, etc etc. When I am working on a large (6 ft long) silk, the banner material will take up my entire work table, so I concentrate on one of those at a time. Also, because the smaller works need to be delivered to the framer, and he needs time to measure, prepare, and cut the frame molding (called “baguettes” - the same word as the typically French loaf of bread!), I create the small works first.

Testing the dyes in my studio to capture the very colors I'm looking for.

Beginning the resist process using wax to draw with.

Here I am standing at the door to my studio looking out. That's my yard in the background.

I hold the artwork outside the door so I can see what the colors look like in the daylight and in the sun.

the set-up

In a very un-French way, we eat lunch about 2pm. The French lunch break is 12-2, and all the stores and businesses close during that time — very wise! After lunch I often sit in the yard and soak up some sunshine while doing hand-sewing or reading and remind myself how lucky I am to be here. And then drink a cup of coffee and move back into the studio.

A large part of the process is patience. And coffee. This is a new artwork for my next exhibition in August, inspired by the town of Aubusson. I look forward to sharing more about this soon... 

Break in routine. The outdoor Felletin Market happens every Friday morning, and it is very lively and a great place for socializing. We buy our vegetables, meat, and olives there, and on Saturdays the Aubusson Market is available; our cheese, bread and fruit come from this market. On Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, the Ressourcerie -- the Habitat-for-Humanity-type second-hand shop, is open and this is where we buy almost everything that we need for our house. We visit there once or twice a week.

Once a week, usually on Friday, I set up the steamer for setting the dyes on the art that I have made that week. The silk steams for 1 hour, but the whole process of preparing and washing and ironing afterwards takes about 4 hours total. I have learned not to leave the steaming until the last minute!

For working on the computer, I try to take it in chunks later in the day, setting a timer so I won’t get lost in the fog of the Internet and social media. The internet is unbelievably speedy here! I answer emails, write blog posts, do photoshop work, and check in with family and friends. And search for new places to exhibit my art.

I take another long walk with the dog towards the end of the day, and never plan on accomplishing anything after dinner - the process is long and the good French wine slows me down. If we are having my favorite (anything “bubbly”/champagne-style) I totally write off the whole evening because I tend to just want to sit in the yard while sipping bubbly with Harvey and Dexter and stare at the sky, the beautiful setting sun, the stars that appear, and the rising moon.

Bed about 11.

 
 

- René Shoemaker, Juchefaux, St Maixant. June 30, 2018

Does it even need a caption? Arc en ciel.

The house that is attached to our friend Madeleine's house in a nearby village. It is so beautiful! We were eating dinner in her yard and drinking champagne to celebrate my birthday when I captured this view...

Our sunset.

Look at that moon!

The moon with planet on my Mother's Birthday which was June 21st.



 

PS - A friend in America just commented: “You are so prolific in France!” Yes, I am making the artwork - but now how do I SELL it?!?! - this is the mystery I am seeking to unravel. Send me your ideas and advice, please! And check out my shop, let me know what you'd like to see there...