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Sandra Robinson with Dreaming of Cream Cakes |
Forget pills, why not try art?
When illness struck, a retired window dresser turned creative
A VOLUMPTUOUS, pouting lady in red, mouth-wateringly entitled Dreaming of Cream Cakes, will be the centrepiece of a remarkable new exhibition at the Our Space Gallery in Clerkenwell from Thursday.
The bosomy lady, one of 50 works by artist Sandra Robinson, is part of a collection entitled Art Saved My Bacon.
One critic said of the striking painting: “She seems to be saying: ‘Sod you, I’m going to enjoy...’” It is described as the perfect antidote to society’s obsession with being thin.
Sandra, 62, who has exhibited at the Royal Academy, is a retired window dresser who never went to art school.
Her artistic talents were discovered when she was being treated for bipolar disorder, a form of manic depression in which the sufferer experiences extreme highs and lows.
Born in Stoke Newington, Sandra was a pupil at the Jewish Free School when it was based in Camden Town. She now lives in Barnet and has a grown-up daughter living in Finsbury Park.
Her mental health worsened after the death of her tailor husband, Gerry, 56, from a heart attack 14 years ago. She was put in touch with a mental health support organisation, Community Link, based at Barnet College, which encouraged her to use painting as a form of therapy. She now helps run art classes for people with special needs.
Her painting of children, called Watching Punch and Judy, which exhibited at the Royal Academy, was the result of a visit with her daughter to a puppet fair in Covent Garden about 20 years ago.
“The children have various expressions and they look mainly unhappy,” she says. “They were all looking at Punch beating the Baby. I’m not sure if Punch and Judy could even do that today.”
For her life-size sculptures she uses recycled materials, including newspapers, and makes many of the clothes worn by the sculptures on her sewing machine at home. One character, top-hatted Sebastian Twigg, is based on an eccentric character Sandra met while out shopping.
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