Video: How a single mother with "crystal bones" conquered the world with psychedelic drawings: Laurel Burch and her colorful cats
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Everyone has seen Laurel Birch's work, and many will have things with her prints - even if the name of the author remains unknown. Pensive cats of psychedelic shades, running horses, fabulous flowers and trees - the world as the "flower children" saw it in the 60s. She went from being an unemployed single mother to a huge business owner, becoming the first American woman to be invited to China. And it all started with an attempt to overcome a serious congenital disease …
Laurel was born in San Ferdinando, California in 1945. A radiant look, a sweet smile and … abnormal fragility of bones - congenital osteoporosis. From an early age, illness poisoned Laurel's life. The cause of the fracture could be literally anything - a light blow, an uneven road, a jolt in the car.
Laurel's parents divorced. Mother was engaged in costumes for the singer Peggy Lee and was a real fan of her craft - often forgetting about parenting. Laurel's relationship with her mother was complex, in which love and disappointment were painfully intertwined with each other, and at the age of fourteen she left home - with one paper bag in her hands. For some time the girl lived with her father, but after a while he just put her out on the street. To survive, Laurel cooked and cleaned in other people's houses, sat with the children, but her fragile body could barely withstand the load. And yet she was happy, because it was the sixties - the time of the hippies, the blessed days of freedom.
At the age of nineteen, Laurel met a jazz musician named Robert Burch, fell in love with him and soon became his wife. And then - and a mother of two children, which with her illness was a real miracle. Both times the doctors convinced Laurel to terminate the pregnancy, because bearing a child can negatively affect the state of bones in a healthy woman, and even in such a fragile girl … However, Laurel twice managed to emerge victorious in the battle with her own disease. And now she is … a single mother with two children. Yes, Robert turned out to be an unreliable companion in life.
Laurel had no education, no profession, or the ability to do heavy ancillary work. Trying to find something worthwhile - or even just keep herself busy with something until she could handle it - the girl began to make jewelry. Pieces of metal that she found almost at the dump, assorted beads, coins … At first she made them for herself and put them on before going out. But soon people began to ask her where she gets such unusual things, and Laurel began selling jewelry on the street. Soon, local small shops began to take them.
Once the unusual earrings made by her were seen by the businessman Shashi Shingapuri. He invited the young single mother to organize a common cause - and soon Laurel Birch jewelry was on sale all over America! The business existed quite successfully until 1979, and then Laurel went on a free voyage, creating her own brand of jewelry. Gradually, handkerchiefs and bags with her illustrations were added to the jewelry.
When illness pestered Laurel too much, she painted, creating on paper a bright, psychedelic world full of joy and love. I drew in bed, in a wheelchair, drew when analgesics did not work … And the pain receded. Laurel never learned to paint, but she intuitively found color combinations and images that captivate everyone who sees them. She drew plots of her own dreams. Running horses, women, as if performing ancient rituals, animated celestial bodies, but most importantly - cats.
Stylized cats of fantastic shades, like aliens from a distant feline planet, looked at the viewer, as if smiling, and seas of distant worlds splashed in their green eyes. She tried to give her characters individuality and said that she loved them like her own children. The artist adored purple and turquoise, and these colors are especially common in her work. She always dressed brightly, wore rich makeup, and her children and pets were always smeared with paint and became like the heroes of Laurel's paintings. "Everything in my life should be beautiful!" - Birch said and consistently implemented her ideas. She began to work to order - for cafes, clubs and private collectors, her work and products with her drawings sold well. And then Birch was invited … to China.
And it was just amazing. In the 70s, China was closed to US citizens. Laurel became the first American woman! - who was officially invited there as an artist and entrepreneur. In China, Laurel discovered the cloisonné enamel technique and created a collection of jewelry in her own unique style. Her products appeared on the pages of Vogue and Bazaar magazines, bags and mugs from Laurel Burch were just snapped up.
She continued to experiment with metal, wood, fabric and ceramics. In the 1990s, she sold licenses to use her sketches to twelve companies around the world. Some of them continue to produce products with Birch drawings today. Russian consumers are also quite familiar with bags and key chains, where Laurel Birch's Cheshire cats smile mysteriously.
Although Laurel's health deteriorated over the years, this did not affect her performance. When Laurel was in her early sixties, she broke her jaw twice - when she yawned and then when she ate. So she lost the ability to feed on her own, and her speech suffered. The artist laughed that now she would cease to be as chatty as before. But Laurel's drawings only got brighter …
She died at the age of sixty-three from complications of a disease that she had struggled with all her life. However, once everyone thought that she would not make it to thirty. Birch's creative heritage is over fifty thousand unique works. Her drawings are still - often with copyright infringement - used as prints, she is copied, imitated, and most importantly - loved. Laurel Birch never wanted to become rich, she wanted to make the world brighter and more beautiful. And this, of course, she succeeded.
Recommended:
Plumbing, Civil Rights and Technology: What the World Lost When the Greeks Conquered Troy and the Aryans Conquered the Dravids
The legends of the dark times in Europe and Asia are full of admiration for lost civilizations, developed so highly that listeners of these legends could hardly believe. Much later, with scientific progress, Europeans began to treat these legends with increasing skepticism: it is clear that the world is developing from simple technologies to complex ones, where can complex technologies come from to simple ones? With the development of archeology, mankind again had to believe in lost civilizations. At least compared to the narrator
Why Gala's daughter did not communicate with her mother, and how her life turned out: "child of surrealism" Cecile Eluard
As you know, Salvador Dali did not have children. But his muse and wife Gala had a daughter, who was born in the first marriage of Elena Dyakonov and Paul Eluard. Cecile Eluard lived for almost a hundred years and throughout her life she diligently avoided publicity. Was the fate of this girl, who received the nickname "child of surrealism", happy, and why did she never give interviews either about her mother or about her shocking husband, the brilliant Salvador Dali?
“There were always two of us - my mother and me. She always wore black ": How Yohji Yamamoto conquered European fashion for his mother
The life of the widow Fumi Yamamoto was filled with hard work. In post-war Japan, the owner of a sewing workshop found it difficult to stay afloat. Her husband died in 1945, and since then she preferred one color to all clothes - black. Her son Yohji, whose childhood was darkened by memories of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, began to help her unusually early. Many years later, he became famous as a designer who abandoned the bright palette in favor of the color of his mother's dresses
Why Vivien Leigh's only daughter lived for a long time away from her mother, and how her adult life was folded
The talented actress, who shone on the screen in the twentieth century, for many years has remained the standard of femininity and beauty. She was called a Hollywood legend, she had thousands of fans and one big love. And Vivien Leigh also had an only daughter, Suzanne, about whom the star mother did not talk too often. The girl had to live for a long time away from her mother, who was enthusiastically building her career, and having matured, Suzanne Farrington (nee Holman) never tried to receive dividends from fame
8 millionaire cats and furry Instagram stars who conquered the world
You don't have to show off your own talents to make money. As practice shows, sometimes it is enough just to be a cat to become a millionaire. Some cats were initially lucky enough to be born under a lucky star and live with wealthy owners, and some, on the contrary, helped their owners to significantly increase their capital. So who are they - seals who are literally swimming in money?