Original Handmade Bags - Agnes van Gaalen - Atelier Faubourg

Recently I found a way to combine my artwork with a utensil, the results are my original handmade bags made with French vintage lace, textile. Mixed media with screen prints, tranfers, embrodery, beads and buttons.

France has an old culture, and is rich in hometextiles like tablecloth, lace, kitchentowels, bedlinen, but also buttons and beads. I live and work as an artist in Burgundy and I am so happy to find all those items at the Brocantes here.

First I used these vintage items in my paintings and monotype prints and due to our pop-up store called “Art en Loire” in La Charité sur Loire, the idea came to me to create these little bags. I love to give this french history a second life in a new look! For sale in our Boutique: art-en-loire.boutique

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Original Handmade Bags - Agnes van Gaalen - Atelier Faubourg

Original Handmade Bags - Agnes van Gaalen - Atelier Faubourg

Symbols

Monotype – Mixed Media painting on Lokta paper from the Himalaya. 36 x 50 cm.

I have worked with Symbols in my paintings for some years now, it fascinates me, and it is a binding between the Past, Present and Future. Like Music, Symbols are older than Words in Human History.

This painting has 9 Symbols on it of different countries / cultures.
Some of the Symbols everybody knows; like birds or animals, sun and moon. They can be more than 5000 years old! They appeal to our instinctive brain. Pioneers like Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustaf Jung already had the opinion that the Human Brain always has communicated by Symbols. The language of Symbols is of all time and all cultures. Or as Oscar Wilde once said: “All Art is Reality and Symbol in one”.

Explanation about this latest work “Symbols”
From the top left to the bottom right:

Cloud:
Cosmos and Sign of the Gods
Symbol of Rain, Mystery and Change
Lets the Sun comes through for Thrones of Heaven

Crane bird or Hsi Wang Mu:
Mother Goddess of the West
Immortality
With her you see often her 2 guides:
1 is the carrier of her fan and the other one carries peaches
Stands for long Life and the messenger of the Gods

The Lotus, symbol from the upper Egypt:
The Blue Lotus flower has its roots in troubled Water,
it opens its Flower in the Sunrise, and closes it at Sunset
Is the Source of Life from the primordial Waters
Fertility and resurrection from the Death

The Fountain in European Art:
Is often the sign of Knowledge and Inspiration
The Water coming from the Fountain is the Source of Life,
Creation and Healing is its power.

The Circle is the Queen of the Sun, or Amar Terasu in Japanese Shintoism, the Wheel of Life from Buddhism, and my own version:
The Aureol around her Head which means the Sun, the Mirror of her is her “Shintai” or Mind, Spirit. Often seen with Sword and Jewels, they are the symbols of Power, Beauty and Wealth. The Wheel of Buddhism has 8 spooks, they stand for the Path of Enlightenment. My own version has the Flower for vulnerability and the 9th spook I added stands for the Flexibility or 9 lives of a cat.

Peach is known in the Chinese Taoism and the Japanese Shintoism:
One of the most powerful sign of Immortality and rejuvenation and long life is the Peach. T’ao also means Marriage, the peach grows in the Garden of the Palace of the Mother Goddess of the West and carries Fruit ones every 3000 years. Sign of Eternity. Fukurokuju is the Japanese God who carries a Dear, a Turtle, a Crane bird and a Peach, they all represent a Long Life.

The Hand or Hamsa/Hamesh the figure 5 in Arabic and Hebrew:
With an Amulet of a hand of Fatima,
you are protected against the evil eye.

Circle (plains of the Indian Warriors like Sioux, Crow, Blackfeet, Arapaho, Comanche, Cheyenne, Pawnee):
The Circle is the Sun, the Feathers for the contact with the Gods
and Masters of the Universe. Also it can stand for Protection and the
feathers of the Headdress of the Indians.

Erzulie or the Loa of the Voodoo (slaves from Africa brought this to Amerika):
This is a Feminin Loa, identification with the Moon, Pretty, Sensual, Vanity and Caring for the Good things in Life, such as Richness, Property, Love.
It carries the Heart in it, the Symbol of Love.

Source of Symbols: The Guide for Symbols from Clare Gibson.

Drying the Lokta Paper

Creation of Lokta PaperLokta paper is handmade and comes from the Himalayas in Nepal. It is made traditionally by Nepalese families near a river from the Lokta plant or Papyraceas. This plant grows in the mountains at an altitude between 1800 and 2500 meters.

It is cooked on a wood stove to get the smooth material to make paper. This material is beaten till pulp and this will go on frames with cotton. It is sun dried and each paper sheet is different, unique. When it is dried it will be taken from these frames! Lokta is a kind of grass with a so-called Daphne-fiber, which makes it strong. You can see the structure in every sheet when you hold it against the light, which makes it so interesting to work with.

Years ago I found this kind of paper in a Spanish shop and I fell in love with it, but after some time I could’t find it anymore. It took me some time to search. I made small cards on what was left of the paper with my phone number on it, and added the text: “If you find this kind of paper, please call me.”

One day a client came and I gave her also a piece of this Lokta paper, and she said that she had a stock of paper in various thicknesses….wow……

It happened to be that she had a hotel years ago, in Kathmandu (between 1985-1991). Nearby her hotel was a small plant where this paper was made with traditional skills. She bought this paper to take to the Netherlands to support the Nepalese families.
Willemijn van der Maesen is her name, and we soon became friends, I am still very thankful to have met her. Besides the inspiring paper, she is a very nice person.

She still had a lot of this beautiful Lokta paper left and it was kept in a warehouse. I’m now fortunate to have this paper to work with. Was it there all that time waiting for me to paint on?….