Removed sketchbook pages figure largely amongst the recovered collection,
accounting for eight of the twenty salvaged drawings. As with the two
aforementioned David Jelish portraits, several of these are marked with
the Archive stamp. If one assumes Ivesmail removed one of these pages
then one must assume that he separated the lot.
Really this should come as little surprise. Even before the Naomi Jelish
story was unveiled at the Saatchi Gallery, Ivesmail’s credibility
had already been queried. The reports from Kent County Council that several
of the exhibits that feature in the Saatchi ‘definitive’ hang
were pilfered directly from the stores of their Archives Department already
suggested that Ivesmail was a less than reliable narrator. Regardless of this, the degree to which
Ivesmail’s capriciousness is exposed by this discovery is surprising
to say the least.
Possibly the most revealing insight that this recovered collection of Naomi’s work provides is in the revised impression of the relationship between Naomi and her art teacher, Ms Anita Demaio. Previously, and according to Ivesmail, this relationship was thought “derisory” and “pernicious(ly) spite(ful)”. Ivesmail details the many incidents and exchanges he perceives to express Ms Demaio’s ill feeling towards Naomi. The most common of these is the “callous draught of red ink” left on the pages of Naomi’s School Sketchbooks. This animosity extends to the detention forms and letters-home Naomi appropriates as supports for several of her Extraneous Drawings.