Paris, Africa and Otto Dix’s war paintings

Ruth HartleyBook Launch, Graphic Novel, Southern Africa, The Tin Heart Gold Mine, Visual Arts4 Comments

I have just returned from two nights in Paris where I visited a museum exhibition about Africa, saw paintings, and was reminded of Otto Dix’s war paintings — and his paintings of war injuries in particular. We travelled there by train, which gave me many lovely hours of dozily dreaming and reading. It was a foggy, misty day so staring […]

Writing and Art – Therapy and Resistance

Ruth HartleyArt Process, Creativity, Visual Arts, Writing ProcessLeave a Comment

Corpus “Corpus”, my art installation was shown at Peleyre in September 2016. Its theme may be summed up as the search for the spirit in the flesh. It was well received which pleased me no end as my work is sometimes regarded as challenging and unconventional. I always hope that my art will be the start of a conversation between […]

Mixing art and writing – can it be done?

Ruth HartleyComic Strip, Film, Graphic Novel, Visual Arts1 Comment

Hello again! How many of you do what I try to do? My website — the one you are looking at now — is about both my art and my writing. The fact that they are both on my website and mixed together in my work is something I take for granted these days but I didn’t always. Maybe some […]

The challenge to write The Tin Heart Gold Mine

Ruth HartleyPolitics, Southern Africa, The Tin Heart Gold Mine, Writing Process4 Comments

My life in Zambia was a challenge but wonderful. I was lucky to have extraordinary and enriching experiences. It gave me respect and love for its people, its wilderness, wild animals and beauty. There aren’t many stories written about this period so that was an opportunity to write something new. It was a time full of confusion and conflict as […]

The Tin Heart Gold Mine

Ruth HartleyBook Launch, Colonialism, Politics, Southern Africa, The Tin Heart Gold Mine, Truth, Visual Arts4 Comments

I am delighted to tell you about my latest book! The Tin Heart Gold Mine is the story of Lara, a young and gifted wildlife artist. She lives and works in Chambeshi, a fictional African country whose increasing destabilisation by the Cold War results in riots and a coup attempt. Success has come early for Lara but she is not […]