A photograph from a photo shoot I did for and with gloomth.com …

and a little movie…

We’ve been hiding,
Hiding under the snow.
We are pale and chilly and frost bitten.
We are ghosts rattling your tea cups,
Whispering in your hall.
Here is a photo of our friend Lovina Yavari. She is perfect.
Today she is Gilles de Rais, part of a diptych in the planning,
One half of Gilles et Jeanne.
One seventh of our new show that we’re not going to talk about.
Just yet.
We miss you.
Tell us your secrets, one day we’ll tell you ours.
One day.

Hauntingly,

- Sarah

Photograph of Lovina Yavari © Sarah Pomegranate 2011

Good Afternoon,

We are ever so pleased to announce that the St. Gloomth Academy for Boys and Girls is finally open and all the little monsters, or should we students are hard at their studies, drinking hot chocolate and feeding their pet spiders.

We are proud to be a part of the academy and proud also to have a certain, shall we say influence on the curriculum!

And although not everyone can attend (the lectures really are fascinating and the sports, are … so sporty!) you can certainly dress the part. Why not be the first on your block to be decked out St. Gloomth style?

Contact the registrar here.
You can see more photo’s of the line here.

Hauntingly,
- Sarah

Good Magical Evening,

I am writing to you from our attic studio and although the full moon was a week ago, the front lawn is still aglow with lovely, magical moonlight. Looking down I can see that most of the pumpkins are still lit; it is Halloween (or if you must be more hardcore, Samhain), the end of our year and the start of the next. I believe that everything is possible, though more so tonight. (sprinkle of magical dust)

I hope this finds you well. We miss you and as a little festive gift we have made a short film of which we are rather proud. You can find it here on the blog. It features our parent’s house and stars the very mysterious, alluring and lovely Yi. Our friend Emma Pill’s band The Sitwells did the music. I so hope you like it, please let us know what you think.

As I’ve been grumbling, we took this year off but now with the new year dawning it’s time to wake up from our sleep, dust off the moss that grew on us and cast again the magical Pomegranate spell on everyone and everything. So, we happily announce some of our plans for the coming year (in no particular order): a new show of paintings, with life sized dolls, more twigs, moss and cherry blossoms, and perhaps even a band; the publication of a collection of short stories and a novella written by a very lovely friend of the family who, sadly, was lost at sea; the release of The Sitwells first full length CD (we are so proud)…

…and in collaboration, we are ever so thrilled to be helping our good friends at Gloomth.com with a new line of clothing, the St. Gloomth Academy for wayward boys and girls. It’s so exciting at the academy, think Gomez Addams goes to Oxford. And there is also talk of putting all Elisabeth’s House of Pomegranates odd sizes and samples into one big discounted jumble sale! For more information visit here.

And now, how are you? Please write and let us know. For now we wish you a very magical Halloween/Samhain and a safe, warm, magical, inspiring and good food filled New Year. With love always,

- Sarah

The World is Scary
The World is full of Monsters
The World is Beautiful

Welcome. What you have before you is my two year art project. Or I like to think of it as such. God, so much has gone on and changed in two years, flipping through this I am amazed at all that I’ve seen and experienced, all the amazing people that I’ve met and talked to, all the places I’ve been. My sisters and I started this blog in April 2008. We had great plans. We were three crazed sisters in our attic studio designing, drawing writing and painting. Since starting we’ve launched a fashion line, had a part in a few books and had an incredible show of our paintings, dresses and art with some friends. It’s been an amazing and magical ride.

But so much has changed since we started; Alice has all but disappeared, off somewhere writing a novel and, we suspect, a vampire; Elisabeth is in Paris, an apprentice, sewing fantastical dresses and I’ve become, hm, not disillusioned with blogging, more, I feel I’m saying more with my art … words have begun to fail me. In fact, aside from the Questionnaires which I am terribly proud of, my two years of writing cannot match one single issue, in terms of content, some of the more fascinating glossy magazines like Lula, Pop, An Other or Corduroy. Who am I kidding? I’m a painter, I live in a world of stripy stockings and ookpiks and penguins. I never go out unless forced, I go crazy in crowds, I never pick up the phone, in fact I even don’t own a cell phone. I am forever misquoting Shakespeare.

So here I am, Sarah Pomegranate, whatever I am, lets say artist. And as a person who speaks better visually, who needs to wave her hands about, I thought I would move to a gallery page format (I will add the link once I have it) and say this chapter is finished. You know, we get so bogged down, there is just so much noise, I love this blog and am proud of it, and it will always be here, but this is the next step, I’m jumping back in to the mirror.

This was our two year art project and you, gentle readers, were a wonderful and magical part of it.

Lastly, as a kind of aside, we are struck by all the deaths so close. Just this month alone, our dear decadent friend Sebastian Horsley and the very wonderful Tracey Wright and what of the macabre and ill-timed death of Tobias Wong? And what of Mr. McQueen or the luminous and magical Daul Kim? If this keeps up the world will truly just be filled with monsters (and YouTube sensations) Please, everyone, take care, stay with us for the art, stay with us for the anarchy, there’s still so much to do, and still so much to clean up. Okay, on to the next sensation. On to art.

In the mean time!

Scary/Monster/Beautiful – The Catalogue

The book, a spread of which you see presented here, and in the hands of our stunningly lovely model Crystal Wan above is a most gorgeous, glossy paper, hard cover catalogue of the Scary/Monster/Beautiful show, it to me is the period at the end of this grand art experiment. It is so beautiful and I am so proud of it. The first 25 copies will come with a signed original print of a new work by me, plus a CD featuring the AudioGuide from the show and three short films, plus a handmade ookpik keychain! That’s pretty exciting I must say. And all for $45.95 plus $15 for postage and handling. To purchase you copy click on the button below, if you truly hate PayPal email me and I will send you details.

Photograph of Crystal Wan © 2010 Sarah Pomegranate

Saint Saya of Okinawa © Sarah Pomegranate

Yesterday was a moonday for me. I know, unromantically we can blame it on PMS, but I like to think of days like yesterday as moondays. Lunatic, the state of being struck by the moon. And I don’t mean being a buff first nation’s teen defending the chastity of some dull girl that smells odd to shimmering yet just as dull vampires. I mean diving in to the waters deep and swimming out in to a night black sea. I mean setting sail in a silver ship, just you, an owl, a bottle of wine, your journal, a fountain pen and a photograph or two. I mean those days when you write poem after really bad poem, and you think them … brilliant. Earth shattering, in fact. In fact, you’d read them aloud if you had anyone to read them to. Because lets face it, people suck sometimes.

So yes, yesterday was a moonday. Welcome to my world.

In my blood many countries swarm much like parasites. I have a skill which I call ploughing, the ability to just sit in a chair and do the same thing over and over and over and over and over again. 98% of hand book binding is this, so much of pure craft is just tedium and repetition. The English in me gives me that stoicism, Stay Calm, Carry On. I admire the English and their carrying on, the stories of during the air raids of the second world war, “That was close. How about some fish and chips?” But on days like yesterday, when I am struck by the moon, my mellow turns dramatic and my quiet bubbles over in to a kind of rage and some other country in me takes hold.

In 1971 Leonard Cohen released the song Famous Blue Raincoat, he sings -

And what can I tell you my brother, my killer
What can I possibly say?
I guess that I miss you, I guess I forgive you
I’m glad that you stood in my way.

Mr. Cohen, you just know, was having a moonday, standing as he was in the cold New York rain, wearing what was left of his heart on his sleeve.

In 1971, the top 5 song was One Bad Apple recorded by the Osmonds, Donny Osmond sang -

One bad apple don’t spoil the whole bunch, girl.
Oh, give it one more try before you give up on love.
One bad apple don’t spoil the whole bunch girl.
Oh, I don’t care what they say, I don’t care what you heard.

On Sunday night singer Lhasa de Sela died of breast cancer, she was only 37. I never met her and missed seeing her when she played in Toronto, but her CDs always transported myself and my sisters to other worlds with silver seas. Her voice spoke of moondays. Of swimming in the dangerous waters out to sea to be free. Wherever she is right now, floating high above us, shower down your stars, we will catch the fire in our skirts to light our way.

Sorry, this posting doesn’t make much sense. I’m sitting here in Paris, alone in this cold now empty apartment waiting for Elizabeth to come home. All of Aunt Charlotte’s things have gone, there’s nothing left but my two bags, my laptop and Mr. Murakami’s daughter’s piano. Even Albert the cat has a new home. Today is my last day in this haunted apartment. Elizabeth is moving to her own flat and I’ve decided to travel a while and then return to Canada.

So for a month I will be away. I will try to post when I find an internet café and I know Alice will be posting. In February we’ve decided to redesign the blog. Alice will have her own and I will focus this on my art, it will be more like a gallery um, blog. Elizabeth isn’t sure what she wants to do, she is so busy being an apprentice bee.

Thank you for being so magical and travelling this distance with us. Thank you for your kind letters and emails and photos. Thank you for coming to Paris with me and making me feel safe. I promise to not disappear like everyone else seems to. Let’s all set sail now, you and I, and see what we can see. Thank you for everything. Thank you to Deane Hughes and Gillian Holmes who helped so much with designing this site originally, thank you to all the amazing, wonderful and fascinating people who answered our questionnaire, thank you to our parents, Mr. Flowers and all the fashion designers, artists, bands, rogues, vegans and vagabonds who inspired so much of this world of wonders and thank you so much to you. I promise to be back soon.

Love,
Sarah

Drawing for Clockwork © Sarah Pomegranate

Before I boxed Aunt Charlotte’s apartment away I photographed as much as I could. I took thousands of pictures, but could not capture what it felt like to be here, the odd warmth from the old iron radiators, and the damp cold that creeps in when they are off. The smells of incense that is permanently here, plus the wet, rot smell of a very old building, yesterdays cabbage seeping under the door, the smell of warm bread from the bakery below, not to mention Elisabeth’s scent (patchoulie) which comes and goes like a ghost. With this there is also the sounds of Paris, the morning sounds of people starting their day, the traffic, the shuffle, the whir of bicycles, the low buzz of scooters, churchbells and horns. The nighttime sounds of tires on wet pavement, echoing footsteps, hints of conversation. The ticking clock. The floorboards creaking.

I thought I could capture it all, but it’s just impossible. So here are but a few of the pictures for us to walk through if you’d like, I will be your guide, put your boots there by the door … follow me.

This is Aunt Charlotte’s study, this is where she sat writing her novels and letters listening to old jazz and opera records. It’s a magical suffocating room (in the colour of pomegranate!), there is a molting stuffed peacock and a zillion books and pillows.

Aunt Charlotte called this her art deco cabinet. Inside are hundreds of books on magic, witchcraft and, oddly, Victorian fiction. There are also stacks of playing cards and her Viewmaster collection.

Aunt Charlotte’s taxidermied albino raccoon Basil.

Aunt Charlotte’s main decorating themes were twigs, tiny lights and drapery. This is the view above her bed.

This is our favourite corner of the living area. I will miss that couch. You can see just some of her vast book collection, also, faintly, her vampire deterrent kit which alas, we never had cause to use. Two mallets from one of seven croquet sets rests in the corner.

No surface was left uncluttered.

This is a view to the dining room. Aunt Charlotte had 76 obelisks. You can also see a number of cases which contained a trombone, a child’s accordion and a glass bell piano.

Open any drawer, you never know what you will find. Not one was empty.

Aunt Charlotte loved the work of our friend, artist Magda Trzaski. Here are two heads (you can only see one) by her that she suspended in the door way – very practical.

She loved Venice and Fortuny lamps.

One of her museum cabinets filled with glass eyes and things in jars. (all labeled and dated)

Twigs above her bathroom cabinet.

Thank you so much for taking this little tour with me. There’s tea in the kitchen if you’d like some, I must get back to packing.

love,

- Sarah

There is nothing like the festive season to make one think of the dead. Or as our father often says as a toast, “To friends no longer with us.” Here is a very haunting video of our parents dear departed friend Mr. Keyes’ song Misfits shot in his apartment in 2002 by Annie Smidt and edited by Gillian Holmes. It’s hard to believe he lived in such a place.

To friends no longer with us and happy festive what have you, love,

-Sarah