When I arrived at the Haight Ashbury area, I was amazed & delighted by the great crowds of talented people who had the energy & dedication to make change. I joined the Oracle staff & found that my previous skills as an etcher and typographer enabled me to design and color as well as illustrate for a unique publication. It was a joy and a delight playing there, one could not call it work although we sometimes labored through the night. Everyone was so charming & we had fun.
When Allen Cohen left, so did I, & worked at the East Village other in the same capacity until I went to India with my husband, the poet, Angus MacLise & our young son, Ossian, who much to our surprise was recognised by the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa as an incarnate Lama called Sangyes Nienpa Rinpoche. We remained in Nepal for about 18 years & for five years in Woodstock, NY, I have been painting. Now I am heading back to the East & my future.
Hetty at The October
October 23-November 17, 1982
Somewhere around 1969/70 she showed 'somewhere' on 5th Ave. New York -- hanging between a Braque & a Chagall. 'It held its own'. (Her own favorites are Botticelli, Samuel Palmer, Edvard Munch & Stanley Spencer).
Otherwise it is 20 years since Hetty has had a show of paintings in a gallery: fighting shy of the wheeling/dealing of the art world -- "I'm not interested in painting." -- & opting for the informality of pubs, bars, & nightclubs: "People are much better at buying paintings after a few drinks." She has had much success.
Watching people diving headlong into their own trips -- Hetty looks up at the airplane passing in the sky -- wonders why she's not on it then remembers there's no place else she's wishing to be. But she does get nostalgic for tea & cucumber sandwiches on the lawn -- English style -- as well she wears mother's fantasy white lace & muslin dresses from earlier on this century.
Hetty's talking is a jeweled landscape of extravaganza carved with hilarity, horror & the agelessness of first sight. A Bonanza.
In her recent drawings & pastels it's a head on attack -- no extras. Uncluttered, succinct, simultaneously far-sighted & close-up, she works on a direct line to her objective -- her colors the clarity of an inner light.
"If the drawings don't speak for themselves they're not up to much."
Through Hetty's eyes one slides from Oxford to Swayumbhu to Hampstead with the greatest of ease. Energy coming from child-like exuberance & the steady gaze of the survivor. Mostly her portraits are somewhere else than malicious. Granted the pause between sentences can be as relevant as the sentences themselves -- her work speaks for itself.
Hetty's sincerity & Hetty's humor are walking hand in hand.
-Corinna MacNeice
Kathmandu, Nepal
October 1982
Biography:
1939 Born In London, U.K.
1952 Shown at Roland Browse & Delbanco, London.
1953 Etchings at Hon. Robert Erskines Gallery, Cork St London.
1955 Etchings bought by M. Valerie Radot for Bibleotheque National, Paris.
1961 Huge show at Lord Timothy Willoughby de Ereseby's Lali Lali, Torremolinos Spain.
1963 Show at The Parade Bar, Tangiers Morocco.
1967-68 Art Editor of "Oracle." San Francisco, USA. Merry Prankster. Chet Helms' house Berkeley California, & at the Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco.
1969-70 7 paintings in a 5th Ave. New York Gallery, mixed show along with Ira Cohen. Angus MacLise, Bob Levigne and many talented others the film "The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda". Music of the same era: "The Epiphany Festival of the Magi" St. Mark's Church, the Bowery, in collaboration with Angus MacLise, Ira Cohen, Lamont Young, John Cale, Gerard Malanga, Terry Riley, John Giorno & cast of thousands. "Brain Damage in Oklahoma City" organ & poster, Cinamatheque Wooster St. New York. "Birth-Earth Rituals" with Bob Masters & Jean Huston, Mary Mount College N. Y. church organ.
"Sixth Face Of The Angel Of Death" with Angus MacLise at St. Mark's Church the Bowery, church organ & poster.
"Hetty's Birth Ritual", Alice & Ray Brocks' church, Berkshires.
Organ and drum recital, Hetty and Angus MacLise St Mark's, Bowery.
"Radio Mix", Angus MacLise, John Cale, John Cage, Hetty MacLise.
"Video Voices" Angus MacLise and Hetty, Chelsea Hotel, N.Y.
1971 Auroville Pondicherry, music for a performance of the Big Veda and Savitri, performed in both.
1972 Katmandu, in collaboration with Angus MacLise, Ting Pa Magazine, and in collaboration with Ira Cohen, and Dana Young Bardo Matrix Publications.
Paintings in collection of el Duque de Alba & the late Duke of Windsor.
