News
Release Summer 2006 |
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Lilliana
Didovic (painter),
artist in exile. We are very pleased to have Lilliana as
our featured artist for Memorial Day Weekend! Lilliana's
website is: www.lillianadidovic.us |
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ART
IN EXILE by
Liz Eaby |
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The
Creative Collective will again present and sponsor the Craft
& Fine Arts Fair at Headhouse Square. This will be the 38th year
of artists exhibiting their works in the old historic Headhouse Shambles
open air marketplace at 2nd and Pine Sts. in Philadelphia. The Creative
Collective is a small not-for profit art group, whose commitment is
to support the creative arts in this City. The Craft & Fine Arts
Fair is a show run and produced by artists. Most of our members are
college degreed artists and teachers. Our many thanks go to the Cultural
Fund of Philadelphia, for helping to further our work with free children’s
workshops taught at Headhouse Square every sunday afternoon during
operation of the craft fair. These classes have been taught in the
Shambles for 38 years as of this summer, 2006. We are grateful for
the opportunity to be able to give a touch of Philadelphia to the
community and visitors from all over the world, be it a photo of Philadelphia,
a small piece of jewelry, a painting, or just a creative moment to
carry home. In the past we have had diversified artists from many
parts of the world appear in our show. Their stories are many, showcasing
the struggle to preserve artistic ability on many levels.
(Lilliana Didovic, artist in exile) Lilliana will be the featured artist at Headhouse Square for Memorial
Day Weekend. She is a painter who whimsically portrays our fair city
with a slight abstract and figurative approach. Having lead a tragic
life in Bosnia, and survived the war there, Lilliana escaped to Sarajevo
airport with her husband and sick child. “ I loved my Bosnia,
my mountains and rivers and especially my people. My friends were
Muslims, Serbs, and Croats. Little did I know or could I ever believe
that our world would disintegrate into the horrible nightmare of the
war. Infantry battles were very frequent. I will never forget April
22nd 1992, my son's third birthday. Shelling began in early morning
hours and lasted for thirty hours as we hid in the basement of our
apartment building. In May and June we spent 60 days in the basement.
Sometime later Serbian soldiers entered the basement and ordered
all Muslims and Croats to lye on the ground and lick the dirt and
then” We will kill you!.” My husband who was half Croat
was lying on the ground. We were not destined to die. A friend at
that moment came and forced the soldiers to leave. We were witness
to murder, rape, and massacre. We got out of Grbavica alive, only
by a miracle. Before the war we had come to the United States to seek
help for my child Gordan, who was blind. My father had been a doctor
in Bosnia. After our escape to America I knew that I wanted my child
to grow up in freedom. Gordan progressed to have serious disease which
called for a liver transplant. The doctors in Philadelphia saved his
life. Although still seriously ill and needing round the clock care,
he survives with the diligent care and love of his parents.
Lilliana has a masters in marketing From the University of Economy
Sciences in Sarajevo. She was a city planner there. She started to
do drawings of Philadelphia to fill up the time that she spent caring
for her child. These sketches developed into paintings quite unusual...
Lilliana is an untrained artist whose consistency and hard work has
achieved something far beyond her first sketch. “I am so grateful
to be here with my family and the wonderful doctors in Philadelphia.
Here I will stay and honor Philadelphia with my pictures!” Come
view her works at Headhouse Craft & Fine Arts Fair, Memorial Day
Weekend and many other weekends when she will exhibit. If you can’t
find her at Headhouse she also has a booth on weekends year round
at the Antiquarian’s Delight at 6th and Bainbridge Streets,
Philadelphia. Her web is www.lillianadidovic.us
This year the Creative Collective has donated
award money to the “Young Artists” awards program. This
upholds the commitment of the Creative Collective to support the arts
in the Philadelphia school system. Philadelphia students will be exhibiting
their work for the 50th year. Over the past decade, the Creative Collective,
has been involved with supporting and acknowledging the works and
artistic talents of thousands of young students.
This season at Headhouse the artists and craftpersons will exhibit
and share with you their expertise in the fields of photography, fine
arts, ceramics, glass, fabrics, jewelry, crafts from other countries
and much more.
Come join with them and reinforce how important it is to carry on
a tradition of arts and crafts in Philadelphia. |
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