There is no Switzerland for Clowns : Jill Berry Blog

There is no Switzerland for Clowns

Posted on January 20, 2008 - Filed Under Visual Inspiration

creepy clown I have been trying to use up papers and ephemera from my studio and came across some papers I had decorated in the one scrapbooking class I took with my friend Alice. The papers were decorated in a diamond jewel tone pattern that reminded me of the circus. The circus reminded me that my mother has this revulsion of clowns and anything clownish looking, which has always struck me as really funny. I did some web surfing and found out that on the subject of clowns, almost no one is neutral. I mean that many people have very strong feelings about clowns! Diane Keaton, the actress, is the only one I found who actually loves them. For everyone else, especially Ihateclowns.com, it was bad news for Bozo. In a British survey, 100% of the kids said they were more frightened of clowns than they were of hospitals. Woody Allen said the only thing worse than clowns are clown paintings (his ex, Diane, owns hundreds of them. Yikes!) As I am reading this stuff I am remembering one stormy night in Maine in a B&B with a lobby full of clowns and dolls. Lightening rhythmically lit up their faces as my husband and I stood in that room deciding whether or not to stay. It was so creepy I made him leave, preferring to sleep in the car if we had to. I realized I inherited an aversion to clowns and would express it with the creepiest clowns I could find in this book. You know, working out my stuff with art! I am not going to send it to my mother.

Comments

One Response to “There is no Switzerland for Clowns”

Kathleen on February 3rd, 2008 12:16 pm

The church began using a clowning minstry back in the 70’s or 80’s. The clowns of God they said. I thought it was hideous – not the clowns, but the ministry. I love clowns at the rodeo or the circus, but from a distance. Their costumes seem to represent some hidden aspect of their personality and it magnifys it – pain, fear grief – magnified for all to see – and then approaching us – begging us to see it. It is raw and powerful and frightening and exposes our own fears and pain. From a distance we can stand most human frailty and pain, but up close it is a stark reminder of our own condition.