Season's greetings

I just wanted to wish all visitors to this site a very happy Chanukah and Christmas (insert the midwinter festival of your choice here).... have you seen the 'goodgifts' website if you're worrying about what to buy for the friend who seems to have everything? www.goodgifts.org
all the best
Fiona

'Then to the rolling Heav'n itself I cried' (1942) 

A new title for an old picture

I have had various requests for 'new' prints of old Hannah Frank pictures during the year, and decided to get a set of them done recently. But what I didn't think would happen would be that Auntie Hannah would come up with a new title for one of the pictures! What happened was that when I showed her the proofs of the one she'd done in 1942, to which we had given the uninspiring title of 'two figures' in the book, she immediately remembered the verse from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam which had inspired the drawing:

Then to the rolling Heav'n itself I cried, Asking,
"What Lamp had Destiny to guide"
Her little Children stumbling in the Dark?" And--
"A blind Understanding!" Heav'n replied.

Here is the picture....

Bopo goes to Glasgow

Bopo Phillips, Lancaster University MA Consultant to the Hannah Frank Project, with Hannah Frank, Glasgow, November 2004.

november news

Lots of news since my last update.

I've just received the video of the booklaunch from my videoing friend who's done a beautiful edit on it. It made me cry, to see Auntie Hannah declaiming her poem, Faerie ... "I stood me there in tall trees' shade".... Phil has cut in some footage of her original drawings and artefacts in her room (which Ed Horwich photographed last year), and it finishes with a longshot on her selfportrait in 1925, when she was 17.... a lovely evocative piece of video.

We've just been offered an original Hannah Frank from an owner who has nowhere to put it - this is great news! the website is obviously doing its job.

But the biggest news is that we've been joined by Bopo Phillips, who's doing an MA (Consultancy) at Lancaster University, and she's going to be spending two days a week for the next six months, working on helping to make Hannah Frank a household name along with the Jack Vettrianos of this world.... we're going up to introduce Bopo to Auntie Hannah this weekend. Bopo is already licking me into shape (have a look at the improved website with info about costs of sculpture recasts, for example!) and I've been doing lots of filing and sorting this week ready for our next meeting.

In the meantime, here is a task for you all. Please go to your local LIBRARY, and ask for a copy of 'Hannah Frank, A Glasgow Artist: Drawings and Sculpture' - edited by Fiona Frank, published by the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre, ISBN 0951320556

And email me when you've done it, and let me know WHERE! (fionafrank@hannahfrank.org.uk)

thanks so much....

a la prochaine!

Fiona

New feature in Kent magazine!

I am ecstatic to find that last Sunday (24th October) there was a FRONT PAGE feature on a colour magazine - Kent on Sunday Review on Sunday - which is linked to a book review written by Brian Stewart, curator of Falmouth Art Gallery (where a couple of Hannah Frank original drawings were exhibited earlier this year). We have already had some orders and interest from Kent because of this..., the front page features 'Sea Story' - fabulous - and the WHOLE PAGE review gives lots of detail about Hannah Frank and says:

"This revised edition is magnificently produced and a joy to look at. It is a book you can return to again and again. The illustrations are just stunning".

So that's pretty good!!

Today we did the booklaunch in Lancaster, at the closing day of the city's Diversity Festival - on the 'Jewish Stall. ' I must say booklaunches and free food don't go very well together, but on the whole it was a great day.

goodnight!

Successful Speaking Engagement and Personal Appearance!

Today, Hannah Frank, venerable 96 year old Glasgow artist and sculptor, and the last living link with the Glasgow Mackintosh and Arts and Crafts era, made a personal appearance at a talk which her niece Fiona Frank was giving at Newton Mearns 'Probus' speakers' club, about her life and work. She arrived, on the arm of local Probus member and cousin Mickey Green, five minutes into Fiona's talk. And as one, the 60 members present rose to their feet and gave her a standing ovation.

The talk was a great success and many of those in the audience purchased copies of 'Hannah Frank, A Glasgow Artist - Drawings and Sculpture' - which Hannah signed and dedicated for them individually.

Fiona accompanied her talk with many examples of Hannah's work - drawings, sculptures, sketches, and copies of Hannah's personal albums and diaries. She is now available to talk to speakers clubs anywhere in the UK about Hannah Frank's life and work, and about the story of the latest edition of 'Hannah Frank; A Glasgow Artist - Drawings and Sculpture' - but unfortunately can't guarantee a personal appearance by the artist every time!

Miriam Margolyes with 'Hannah Frank: A Glasgow Artist - Drawings and Sculpture' 

October update

We're going to be launching the book in Lancaster at the end of the month, on Saturday 30th October at St Martin's College, and I was interviewed on BBC Radio Lancashire AND on Lancaster's Diversity Radio 87.5 about the book. I have talked to the Enterprise Unit at Lancaster University about some students helping me with the promotion of the book... and here is a photo of Miriam Margolyes with the book!

more and more

Yesterday received a lovely big order for prints and cards from a gallery in Scotland - and heard that there's a nice article with a photo (of me and my aunt) in the Glasgow Jewish Telegraph - great! Packed up loads of books and cards and prints yesterday and sorted out a small binding glitch with the printers. Still sorting out a large Post Office Box glitch with Royal Mail (apparently about 15 letters got sent back to their senders between April and June... if that's you, they and I are sorry, and please re-send your order to the address on the Hannah Frank website!)

Mainstream Bookstores!

I have just had a call from Gardners saying that they would like to order this book...that should mean that the mainstream bookshops (Waterstones, Ottakars, Borders, and Amazon) will improve their service and their stocking policies....
so that's good!

Barry Landman, editor of Newark News, with Pamela Robertson, Senior Curator and Professor of Mackintosh Studies at the Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow University - at the launch of 'Hannah Frank, A Glasgow Artist - Drawings and Sculpture' - Westacres Care Home, 1st September 2004.  

Hannah Frank, August 2004, at the Glasgow Society for Women Artists' exhibition, Torrance Gallery, Edinburgh - with one of her drawings in the background 

Hannah Frank with Fiona Frank at the Torrance Gallery, Edinburgh - booksigning with 'Seated Figure' 1989. 

Hannah Frank signing one of her books in Edinburgh, August 2004 

Hannah's cousin Bobby Rosenberg, at 82, with the sculpture she made of him 50 years earlier in 1932. 

Sunday Herald?

Waiting to see if there's a mention of my aunt in the Sunday Herald today - this is a Scottish paper and I'm in England but I have lots of informants out there. If not this week, then next time perhaps?

Apparently I need to take a sample copy round to every single individual Waterstones and Ottakars and persuade them that there is going to be enough publicity that the books will sell.....

Hannah Frank pic of the week in the Sunday Herald!

Yes - one of my aunt's pix, 'Dance', (my favourite!) is Picture of the Week in the Scottish Herald magazine today - page five - with a little writeup and a link to the website and to Amazon so people can buy the book - this is going well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bookshop orders

I have just had a couple of orders from my first Bookshop.... though I presume that most will order from Gardners (professional book distribution company that deals with Waterstones and Ottakars). I have a nice poster to email to bookshops which will take the book... I wonder how to get libraries to buy it?!

adding a new post

I am sitting in my PhD supervisor's office - he is a technophobe and I am showing him how amazingly quick it is to publish your thoughts on the web. Here goes!

Miriam Margolyes!

I have just had an email from Miriam Margolyes - who played one of the Professors in the last Harry Potter film - saying that she LOVES THE WORK and the website, and wants to buy some cards....I asked if I could use her quote on the website, and she said I could..... so now beginneth the 'celebrities love Hannah Frank' section! Her late father comes from the Glasgow Jewish community, and she'd been emailed about the book by Harvey Kaplan from the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre who have published it.... good stuff! Now I want to find Shell from Big Brother UK 2004 and get a photo of her holding the book or meeting my auntie....any ideas?

Also - I met a friend on the train to Manchester this morning who suggested a solution to a problem that I've had with the printing of the book. There are some copies which are 'seconds' - there are small globs of glue on the inside back cover of some of the books, and I'm waiting to talk to the printer about them. But she suggested that I offer them at half price to people who couldn't afford the whole price book! And then, I realised, I could also offer the 'non cleaned up version' of the print The Mocking Fairy at the same deal! - and she said that actually, people might be interested in buying that one anyway, as it shows the artists' intentions - it's a version showing the ruled pencil lines underneath the black lettering and the moon, etc... you can see the cleaned up version of the print on the Hannah Frank website http://www.hannahfrank.org.uk (and go to 'see the drawings'). She being one of the people who can't afford the whole book but loves the art, was VERY pleased with this idea, as am I! I hope the MD of the printers will think it's a good idea too. I just have to make sure that they will manually check all the books....

Hannah Frank at her graduation from Glasgow University in November 1930: aged 22. 

Hannah Frank in 2003

and here is a picture of my aunt Hannah, in 2003, with one of her sculptures (you could see it so much better if you bought the book, of course! only £21.50 for a 208 page book...) go to www.hannahfrank.org.uk for how to buy it, or www.amazon.co.uk and search for Hannah Frank - buying it through the 'marketplace' is best please!

Here's a Hannah Frank exhibition poster from the Lancaster city exhibition which took place in May this year - which is going to be touring for the next four years.... 

Here is a 1925 picture, Fairies in a Wood, which was done when my aunt was 17 - and which was recently found on the Internet in a London gallery

Fairies in a wood

my first blog

Yesterday was the booklaunch of the book of the complete works - drawings and sculpture - of my aunt Hannah Frank. The book is:

Hannah Frank: A Glasgow Artist - Drawings and Sculpture - edited by Fiona Frank - published by the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre, available from www.amazon.co.uk (go to Hannah Frank Art Sales in the 'marketplace')and by order from Waterstones and Ottakars bookshops.


We held the event at Westacres, in Newton Mearns, where Hannah Frank lives. It was such a great event - loads of people came, and we video'd it and took lots of photos so that when Phil Keen the video man has done the editing, everyone will be able to see what happened. My aunt even said one of her poems at the event. The food and drink was lovely and after my auntie had signed lots of books, she went in for tea and everyone else went upstairs to watch a beautifully edited video of the Lancaster exhibition of my aunt's art. A great time was had by all!

I gave a speech: so did Harvey Kaplan from the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre (who had published the book)....so did Angela Ryan, housekeeper at Westacres; so did Malcolm Maddox, Chief Executive of Newark Care. I may include mine and Harvey's speeches later on this blog - but it's the first one I've done so I'm still learning about that sort of thing!

I've now listed the book for sale through Amazon Marketplace, and arranged with my printers that they will stick barcode labels on the book when needed for Gardners, who do professional distribution to Waterstones and Ottakars etc... there's lots to learn in this book publishing lark.