This time last week I was heading down to Nelson to open my exhibition at Red Art Gallery.
This week I'm back at work (have a look on Picture it so to see what I've been up to) and looking ahead to the next creative project or job on my books.
That odd and over-used phrase 'onwards and upwards' delivered with an Irish lilt and a heavy sigh, springs to mind. Although it makes me inwardly smirk, I do feel as if I've barely caught breath this year before lurching towards the next deadline.
Regardless of being a little time impoverished, I can't let this event pass without posting about it - it's too special and working towards it was sometimes so hard to fit in.
I want to write about how warmly I was welcomed and hosted at Red and how much I appreciated seeing my work hung and lit so beautifully there. It was a pleasure to see the tiny paper works on the wall, which Jay framed with such a light touch that they were allowed to speak for themselves and be delicate.
I'm sorry, I didn't take a camera - I'll have to ask her for a picture to post here.
I really enjoyed chatting to those friendly Nelsonians who came last Tuesday evening, who came to appreciate seeing a bit of new art in their city and greet a visiting artist warmly or who bought my work because they loved it. Thank you to you all for coming, you were lovely.
If you're heading to Nelson in the next 3 weeks do call in to the gallery at No.1 Bridge St - they do a great lunch and a superb tea or coffee in their café too.
So... although most artists like to sell our work, it's not all about sales is it?
It's as much about completing a creative project and having it received by others, in order to let it go and move on to the next creative endeavor we're bound to explore.
And what would that be ?
Always there's room to reflect about why I make the work I do, the difference between drawing and painting - and this time, the contrast between the scale of the works on show. I've come away with plenty to ruminate on.
My pillow book this year includes:
• textures that make your fingers twitch - not necessarily larger than life, but intimate, barely there or conversational textures.
• marks that have genuine depth and meaning
• images that sing to souls - some of mine do, some don't (why is that?)
• scale that is both accommodating for rooms and expansive enough to allow freedom of movement
• colour that's allowed to shout or be subtle. (Its about time for subtle I think).
• supports that suit the medium. The old paper versus canvas debate again!
OK that's about it for now - there's plenty there to keep this active brain busy and experiment with in the days to come. As Fifi says, it's time for some head down work now, so it might be a bit quiet in here for a while.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Wanganui Summer School
Now that my paintings are boxed and sent off with the courier, it's time to assess the fallout here in the studio.
Brushes are standing stiff and irretrievable in solidified varnish; the boxes left over from the Storylines Festival and the Spinning Gold conference are tripping me up daily, and piles of papers are dotted about, their contents a jumble and a mystery. Somewhere in there is my ACC invoice- but where?
In the mess I have found the brochure for the Wanganui Summer School. You can download it here if you don't have it.
Summer School is a week of stimulating classes and artists talks for professional and emerging artists, with whiskey tasting (if you're me) and sunshine in the company of like-minded artists. It's stimulating and exciting enough to keep you going as a practicing artist, if you're thorough with your post-summer explorations, for another 8 months at home. If you're lucky you'll bring home the bones of your next show too. It's not to be missed really and Rob McLeod is tutoring again too (though I hear his class is probably full already).
This year I'm not attending, and although that's a bit disappointing, the holiday I know I need from the crazy full year I've had to date, will be more replenishing in the long run.
There's a time to push the hell out of yourself (and I know when I need a good kick!) and a time to rest and breathe slower. This year I just long to be still a while and not have to be anywhere or meet my own tough expectations.
I'm looking forward to next week though - to being in Nelson and seeing my work hung outside of my studio, to having it received and to wearing my new Spanish shoes!
Saturday, October 03, 2009
Quotes to be remembered
Here's a quote from Picasso that resonates with me today.
The artist goes through states of fullness and emptiness, and that is all there is to the mystery of art.
Pablo Picasso
I've been varnishing paintings this week - and learning a lot in the process about the fickle nature of varnish. After one piece clotted up and gelled alarmingly in the warmth of my studio and I washed it off hurriedly, I also learned a lot about the outer limits of acrylic to be soluble!
Glazes that I'd made with a dilute solution of paint just melted off the surface of my canvas and trickled own the sink - and those I'd worked with glazing medium stayed behind. It was a good lesson. Consequently here I am back in the studio today, to paint a new last last piece to complete my 10 canvases.
Mary Cassatt said:
I doubt if you know the effort it is to paint! ...The trying and trying again and again and oh, the failures, when you have to begin all over again!
The artist goes through states of fullness and emptiness, and that is all there is to the mystery of art.
Pablo Picasso
I've been varnishing paintings this week - and learning a lot in the process about the fickle nature of varnish. After one piece clotted up and gelled alarmingly in the warmth of my studio and I washed it off hurriedly, I also learned a lot about the outer limits of acrylic to be soluble!
Glazes that I'd made with a dilute solution of paint just melted off the surface of my canvas and trickled own the sink - and those I'd worked with glazing medium stayed behind. It was a good lesson. Consequently here I am back in the studio today, to paint a new last last piece to complete my 10 canvases.
Mary Cassatt said:
I doubt if you know the effort it is to paint! ...The trying and trying again and again and oh, the failures, when you have to begin all over again!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
How things grow...
A seriously bad stitch up photo that shows these little paintings as they stand today - another week and the collection may look a little different depending on which eyes I'll be wearing!
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Terrain in Nelson for the Arts Festival
Well here it is - the invitation to Terrain. Nice to be moving towards having this body of work finished and lovely to be showing during the festival at Red Gallery. If you're in Nelson over that time call in. I'm also showing the last 2 large paper works and small framed postcards - so there will be a mixture of scales and media. I'm getting excited now !
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Dali at the NVG
A week or two ago, on Fathers Day (what were we thinking?) I visited the Salvadore Dali exhibition 'Liquid Desire' at the NVG in Melbourne. (13 June - 4 October)
I'm not a Dali fan, but it does hold a certain retro fascination for me. I was looking forward to seeing a broader range of his work than those familiar pieces we all associate with this somewhat 'outre' artist, especially his drawings, sculptures and photographic experiments with space.
It's the first time I've really come up against a large show where the experience of the art is so plainly influenced by the quality of the curating.
Aside from the size of the crowds - which were pretty unbearable and snail paced, I thought the design of the exhibition did no favours to the enormous number of works on show.
In the first 'room', ceiling to floor small works from Dali's early years were hung as close as postage stamps. Delicate and bizarre little drawings were displayed about a foot or two from the floor, or higher than eye level and crammed together so that appreciating their simplicity or individuality was difficult.
Large, closely spaced tracts of dense wall information were everywhere, to tell the unedited story of his career. Their indigestability served to prevent crowd flow or conversely deterred people from taking in the information at all, and the walls of further round rooms were carpeted in vertical 150 mm wide striped grey and charcoal plush fabric.
It was difficult to separate the experience of the show from the artwork - and intensely claustrophobic.
In all a disappointment. I didn't see any elephants on stilts - my favourite piece, and the jewelery though beautiful was mounted in view cases at breast height (which made for rather comic visions of visitor interaction). The sculptures dotted about were fascinating, though few.
I really wish I could be more positive about the show - it was a major one and there were some stunning pieces in it.
My partner loved it, so of the 4 of us one was content that he'd seen an amazing exhibition on Fathers Day - the rest of us were happy for that !
I'm not a Dali fan, but it does hold a certain retro fascination for me. I was looking forward to seeing a broader range of his work than those familiar pieces we all associate with this somewhat 'outre' artist, especially his drawings, sculptures and photographic experiments with space.
It's the first time I've really come up against a large show where the experience of the art is so plainly influenced by the quality of the curating.
Aside from the size of the crowds - which were pretty unbearable and snail paced, I thought the design of the exhibition did no favours to the enormous number of works on show.
In the first 'room', ceiling to floor small works from Dali's early years were hung as close as postage stamps. Delicate and bizarre little drawings were displayed about a foot or two from the floor, or higher than eye level and crammed together so that appreciating their simplicity or individuality was difficult.
Large, closely spaced tracts of dense wall information were everywhere, to tell the unedited story of his career. Their indigestability served to prevent crowd flow or conversely deterred people from taking in the information at all, and the walls of further round rooms were carpeted in vertical 150 mm wide striped grey and charcoal plush fabric.
It was difficult to separate the experience of the show from the artwork - and intensely claustrophobic.
In all a disappointment. I didn't see any elephants on stilts - my favourite piece, and the jewelery though beautiful was mounted in view cases at breast height (which made for rather comic visions of visitor interaction). The sculptures dotted about were fascinating, though few.
I really wish I could be more positive about the show - it was a major one and there were some stunning pieces in it.
My partner loved it, so of the 4 of us one was content that he'd seen an amazing exhibition on Fathers Day - the rest of us were happy for that !
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Hidden routes
I've been playing with using varnish as a medium to make images or to add information to my paintings - it's fun to explore. Gloss over matt has the most obvious success, but semi-gloss is a more subtle sister and may be useful to layer too. I like that it's a light painting - or to be more accurate, a shine painting. These small works are coming along...
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Gonner
The painting on the extreme right in my last post didn't earn it's place, so on Saturday I replaced it. With a worse one! Oh well... it happens.
Recently I've been rereading from the pages of What we Ache For by Oriah Mountain Dreamer;
I know, it sounds a little mystical doesn't it, but trust me it isn't - there are gems in there and on second reading I still think so.
She talks about the fertile silence required as a vital component of the creative process. How ensuring there is enough empty time in your life to come to some stillness and just be is often what facilitates the flow - and with it the joy of the unexpected outcome.
'We cannot begin our creative work if we do not have an idea of where we are going, the intent to write or paint or compose, and a practice that takes us into the process.
But we cannot continue in a way that is faithful to the creative process unless, after beginning, we loosen our grip on the original idea and allow room for something else to happen, something that produces more than what we could produce from our knowledge and will alone. And we cannot let go, cannot surrender to the creative process itself, unless we can find some stillness to allow ourselves to stay there where the creativity of a fertile and abiding emptiness can find us.'
I think I've been so busy working lately and so focussed on it, that I haven't cultivated enough time to do nothing - and to stay with it for more than a moment. Preconceived notions, anticipated outcomes, necessary planning and deadlines all crowd in from my working week to occupy the creative space - and in order to claim it exclusively I need to make the time I have more 'sacred'.
The answer to the question 'what if empty time, time without plans, tasks, or scheduled events, is a necessary prerequisite for accessing your creative imagination, doing creative work?' is not within my power to action - at least not for the month of August.
Recently I've been rereading from the pages of What we Ache For by Oriah Mountain Dreamer;
I know, it sounds a little mystical doesn't it, but trust me it isn't - there are gems in there and on second reading I still think so.
She talks about the fertile silence required as a vital component of the creative process. How ensuring there is enough empty time in your life to come to some stillness and just be is often what facilitates the flow - and with it the joy of the unexpected outcome.
'We cannot begin our creative work if we do not have an idea of where we are going, the intent to write or paint or compose, and a practice that takes us into the process.
But we cannot continue in a way that is faithful to the creative process unless, after beginning, we loosen our grip on the original idea and allow room for something else to happen, something that produces more than what we could produce from our knowledge and will alone. And we cannot let go, cannot surrender to the creative process itself, unless we can find some stillness to allow ourselves to stay there where the creativity of a fertile and abiding emptiness can find us.'
I think I've been so busy working lately and so focussed on it, that I haven't cultivated enough time to do nothing - and to stay with it for more than a moment. Preconceived notions, anticipated outcomes, necessary planning and deadlines all crowd in from my working week to occupy the creative space - and in order to claim it exclusively I need to make the time I have more 'sacred'.
The answer to the question 'what if empty time, time without plans, tasks, or scheduled events, is a necessary prerequisite for accessing your creative imagination, doing creative work?' is not within my power to action - at least not for the month of August.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
A collection of postcards
This little collection is currently hanging in my studio and growing slowly. When you look at them together, it's interesting to note similarities and developments in these little works (all 305 x 405mm). I'm quite liking the scale these canvases - it's do-able with everything else I have on in my life right now.
I'm not sure if the one on the extreme right is finished yet - I'll leave it on the wall a while and think on it - I'm sure it'll come to me why it jars a bit. I think they'll look great all hung together like a patchwork, especially once they're varnished.
I bought 3 varieties of varnish (gloss, semi, and matte) and I want to experiment with lifting keynotes out of the works, or even making work where the information is on the surface texture. That might be fun.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Embodied in paint
Last year in the film festival I saw a movie about Edith Collier, a Wanganui artist of the 1920's who was a friend and fellow painter of Francis Hodgkins and Dorothy Kate Richmond.
What hit me hardest, and the saddest thing; was that once she returned from Europe and London where she explored and mastered her modernst style; she was faced with her community's parochial ideas and her appalled fathers' displeasure at her bold nudes. After an episode where he burnt her paintings, she stopped painting entirely.
It's not just that she stopped that saddened me, but that after she died, the family found a whole trunk of art suppiles she'd gone on collecting throughout her life.
Hopes and dreams embodied in canvas and tubes of paint.
I thought of that today, as I came back to the studio weighed down with the promise of brown paper bags filled with new paint and an arms full of canvasses, and I promised myself to put them to good use, whether or not the results turn out as I hope.
I've been playing with new colours all afternoon. Happy as a sandboy.
What hit me hardest, and the saddest thing; was that once she returned from Europe and London where she explored and mastered her modernst style; she was faced with her community's parochial ideas and her appalled fathers' displeasure at her bold nudes. After an episode where he burnt her paintings, she stopped painting entirely.
It's not just that she stopped that saddened me, but that after she died, the family found a whole trunk of art suppiles she'd gone on collecting throughout her life.
Hopes and dreams embodied in canvas and tubes of paint.
I thought of that today, as I came back to the studio weighed down with the promise of brown paper bags filled with new paint and an arms full of canvasses, and I promised myself to put them to good use, whether or not the results turn out as I hope.
I've been playing with new colours all afternoon. Happy as a sandboy.
Monday, July 06, 2009
Flights of Fancy
An exhibition of new works by Rosalind Atkinson and Leilani Isara
Thistle Hall August 4th -11th
If you get a chance, pop in to Thistle hall and have a look at this show. Rosalind is a recent Massey graduate and her artwork and illustration is very delicate and assured.
If you get a chance, pop in to Thistle hall and have a look at this show. Rosalind is a recent Massey graduate and her artwork and illustration is very delicate and assured.
Sunday, July 05, 2009
The mystery of what's underneath
Under painting reminds me of all things 'under' - mysteriously necessary to give shape and structure, a tantalising glimpse of what's to come (or sometimes a big disappointment if viewed before the beguiling and descriptive top layers are added). Wearing only under painting a painting is colder, flatter and sadly lacking definition.
In order to be complete, you have to have it and so you plough on adding layers over the scrappy flimsy underpinnings that define your idea(l).
Today I got stuck at the under painting stage - incredibly frustrating and a little disappointing since tomorrow's Monday again.
If it was formed of clay, I'd return my work to the mass, throw it into a dark bucket and begin again. Instead, it'll stay on the easel, I'll come in tomorrow and squint with fresh eyes at what it is I'm struggling to express.
There's the soft red of the background for a start; traditionally a dominant colour, I've been forcing it to recede all day and wanting it to be a foil for the many whites... it isn't happy ! Then there's the skin tones, the motion blur that isn't and various stickiness experiments. Sigh.
I think today might be one of those days - full of creative learning and some momentum but no visible progress.
It's been nice to be in the studio nevertheless, and now that the light's finally slipped away I will too.
In order to be complete, you have to have it and so you plough on adding layers over the scrappy flimsy underpinnings that define your idea(l).
Today I got stuck at the under painting stage - incredibly frustrating and a little disappointing since tomorrow's Monday again.
If it was formed of clay, I'd return my work to the mass, throw it into a dark bucket and begin again. Instead, it'll stay on the easel, I'll come in tomorrow and squint with fresh eyes at what it is I'm struggling to express.
There's the soft red of the background for a start; traditionally a dominant colour, I've been forcing it to recede all day and wanting it to be a foil for the many whites... it isn't happy ! Then there's the skin tones, the motion blur that isn't and various stickiness experiments. Sigh.
I think today might be one of those days - full of creative learning and some momentum but no visible progress.
It's been nice to be in the studio nevertheless, and now that the light's finally slipped away I will too.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Stillpoint
Stillpoint 750 x 500mmHere's my painting from Sunday - I'm still deciding whether to reduce all the busyness from the background... at the moment I'm OK with it because I like the way the eye scans the painting for sense before it rests on the face of the dervish - which is so still.
I might go see Anna at the French Art Shop and talk to her about 'stickiness' mediums for my paint though, I'm not ready to relinquish the acrylics yet, but I wish I could push and blend the paint more before it dries so that some of my my marks are more blended. Sorry my photograph is so average - it is actually very rich like this though.
I might go see Anna at the French Art Shop and talk to her about 'stickiness' mediums for my paint though, I'm not ready to relinquish the acrylics yet, but I wish I could push and blend the paint more before it dries so that some of my my marks are more blended. Sorry my photograph is so average - it is actually very rich like this though.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Painting in the flow
"Only let the moving waters calm down, and the sun and moon will be reflected on the surface of your being." -Rumi
While on the subject of Sufi poets and rituals, this quote describes my day.
Painting stillness in the midst of movement is a lovely challenge.
A whole day at my easel is the best kind of nourishment you can have after a late Saturday and a broken night .
I spent the day painting in the flow today, (not just moments of it) and it raced by while I worked on oblivious. Now I feel as if I can face my week - my piled up jobs, patiently waiting clients and urgent tasks will go easier... I'll see if I can photograph my painting from today, but I'm not sure about the background just yet so it might be a work in progress still.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Spinning out of nothingness
Photo still from video footage by Marcel Baaijens (and the rest by me!)
Eastern music, haunting ancient Persian prayers, the wind of the whirling skirts as they pass and the stillness of the cloaked turners 'in their graves' ... the experience I had last night was both enchanting and haunting. I'm moved and inspired to paint.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Turn Turn Turn
On the day that Michael Jackson died I'm going to a Mukabeleh to watch whirling dervishes turn.
Sounds like a great first line of a novel doesn't it?
Through a nice turn of events (yes, I'll stop now) a small design job for a group of Wellington sufi's has enabled me to attend their ceremony with my sketch pad a camera and my friend Marcel with his video camera. I'm hoping I can come home with some imagery to draw from - dervish turning was on my mindmap a year or so ago, as a form of non verbal communication that I might investigate - in part because of the wonder at the movement.
I do like serendipity don't you? I'm looking forward to it and hopefully I'll have some images I can post here soon.
“We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust” Rumi
Sounds like a great first line of a novel doesn't it?
Through a nice turn of events (yes, I'll stop now) a small design job for a group of Wellington sufi's has enabled me to attend their ceremony with my sketch pad a camera and my friend Marcel with his video camera. I'm hoping I can come home with some imagery to draw from - dervish turning was on my mindmap a year or so ago, as a form of non verbal communication that I might investigate - in part because of the wonder at the movement.
I do like serendipity don't you? I'm looking forward to it and hopefully I'll have some images I can post here soon.
“We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust” Rumi
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Roughing out an idea
Well that's done it !
Yesterday I had a call from Red Gallery in Nelson because NZ House and Garden magazine are doing an editorial on the Nelson Arts Festival for their September issue and I needed to describe my coming show at Red in October for the editorial... Yikes! It's creeping up fast and I need tying down.
Think quickly, be decisive Adele !
...So yes, focusing on working up the little postcards, and thinking about the 'cartography of the body' as Ondaatje so beautifully puts it... I came up with a title for my upcoming show, and a theme which allows me to explore either the huge seam of the body markings (with all it's possible textures and oubliettes for the brain art) or if time turns against me, the little terrains.
And that's what I'll call it - Terrain
Here's my description.
The subjects of her paintings are imaginary maps, places evoked by emotional
journeys or travels and suggestive of postcards or fragments of abstract
cartography. Adele is interested in the maps we leave as indelible marks on
those we meet and the lasting impressions we take on and add to ourselves.
These smaller paintings are the first foray into a larger body of work to come and
though their scale is intimate, her characteristic mix of line and mark making is
still present.
That should do the trick I hope.
Yesterday I had a call from Red Gallery in Nelson because NZ House and Garden magazine are doing an editorial on the Nelson Arts Festival for their September issue and I needed to describe my coming show at Red in October for the editorial... Yikes! It's creeping up fast and I need tying down.
Think quickly, be decisive Adele !
...So yes, focusing on working up the little postcards, and thinking about the 'cartography of the body' as Ondaatje so beautifully puts it... I came up with a title for my upcoming show, and a theme which allows me to explore either the huge seam of the body markings (with all it's possible textures and oubliettes for the brain art) or if time turns against me, the little terrains.
And that's what I'll call it - Terrain
Here's my description.
The subjects of her paintings are imaginary maps, places evoked by emotional
journeys or travels and suggestive of postcards or fragments of abstract
cartography. Adele is interested in the maps we leave as indelible marks on
those we meet and the lasting impressions we take on and add to ourselves.
These smaller paintings are the first foray into a larger body of work to come and
though their scale is intimate, her characteristic mix of line and mark making is
still present.
That should do the trick I hope.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Small works
Crossings 305 x 405Another little painting by me, this one is more a map of an emotional terrain. It's from the Postcards series.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Gallery crawl anyone?
I picked up this little flyer recently for a show that's just opened at Solander and I can see I'm going to have to do a bit of a gallery crawl this weekend. These hand coloured prints by Manuel Lau look lovely and I want to see them for myself.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Loose and lush - permission to paint he said
V Bank (conversation) by Steven Hemmens
VIII Seven sisters (The Women of Jerusalem) by Steven HemmensThese paintings are by Steven Hemmens from his show Some Stations on the Way to the Cross and they're at Bowen Galleries for a few more days. This morning my mate Paul insisted I went to see them with him. He took my hand - 'close your eyes' he said - 'now open ! ' Permission to paint he said. And they are... I feel very moved. When a good friend says you need to get out of your head and paint from somewhere else - it gives you a jolt. Enough said - except see them if you can before they return to the UK with the artist because they are lovely.
What is it with these two schools of thought about making art and how can I find a middle ground from which to express freely?
Monday, May 18, 2009
Postcards
Wilds 305 x 405mmThink this one has kept the intent of the drawing without losing too much to the paint. I'm happy with it. Wonder if they'd scale up a bit bigger?
Thursday, May 14, 2009
The body as a map
Today I'm thinking about this quote by Michael Ondaatje from The English Patient:
'We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up as if rivers of wisdom, characters we have climbed into as if trees, fears we have hidden in as if caves...' 'I believe in such cartography ... to be marked by nature, not just to label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books. We are not owned or monogamous in our taste and experience...'
And the idea that we are tangibly transformed through learning and through our experiences.
I've been scanning a book online, called Curriculum: Toward New Identities by William Pinar.
Although this book is essentially a collection of essays about learning and the curriculum, it contains some wonderful ideas and a number of the passages simply jumped off the page at me today.
The authors Dennis J Sumara and Brent Davis of the chapters entitled Unskinning curriculum and Marked bodies talk about the sense of self-identity being (I quote)
'not contained within the boundaries of one's skin, but instead, occurs more ambiguously and tentatively amid the interstices of various interacting and overlapping phenomena. What is considered individual and what is considered communal cannot be caught within fixed immutable categories, but unfold through the continual fusing of perceptions, understandings and interpretations. Any conscious sense of self is always an interpretation of lived, remembered and projected experiences.'
... they go on to talk about unskinning or removing recognisable markers - stripping back the boundaries we use to identify ourselves and simultaneous remarking of those boundaries.
It's a concept I'm drawn to - and the associated imagery is lovely.
I'm thinking of marked bodies, of intersections and shared spaces, shared marks or markers (like the cinnamon peelers wife perhaps, who lives with the persistence of presence - ah me everything's a circle... back there again. Maybe this time I'll have more success at expressing the idea), shed skins maybe, (how the dye on the dyers bodies in that passage from In the Skin of a Lion just dropped off in one coloured sheet under the warmth of the water, to puddle like a skin newly stepped out of at the dyers feet) ...of the concept of shared identity and souls and of layers of communally shared iconography and stories - that are somehow 'unidirectional'. The imagery is lovely, and there is much to play with you have to agree.
'she wore a small depression on her shoulder' ...
'We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up as if rivers of wisdom, characters we have climbed into as if trees, fears we have hidden in as if caves...' 'I believe in such cartography ... to be marked by nature, not just to label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books. We are not owned or monogamous in our taste and experience...'
And the idea that we are tangibly transformed through learning and through our experiences.
I've been scanning a book online, called Curriculum: Toward New Identities by William Pinar.
Although this book is essentially a collection of essays about learning and the curriculum, it contains some wonderful ideas and a number of the passages simply jumped off the page at me today.
The authors Dennis J Sumara and Brent Davis of the chapters entitled Unskinning curriculum and Marked bodies talk about the sense of self-identity being (I quote)
'not contained within the boundaries of one's skin, but instead, occurs more ambiguously and tentatively amid the interstices of various interacting and overlapping phenomena. What is considered individual and what is considered communal cannot be caught within fixed immutable categories, but unfold through the continual fusing of perceptions, understandings and interpretations. Any conscious sense of self is always an interpretation of lived, remembered and projected experiences.'
... they go on to talk about unskinning or removing recognisable markers - stripping back the boundaries we use to identify ourselves and simultaneous remarking of those boundaries.
It's a concept I'm drawn to - and the associated imagery is lovely.
I'm thinking of marked bodies, of intersections and shared spaces, shared marks or markers (like the cinnamon peelers wife perhaps, who lives with the persistence of presence - ah me everything's a circle... back there again. Maybe this time I'll have more success at expressing the idea), shed skins maybe, (how the dye on the dyers bodies in that passage from In the Skin of a Lion just dropped off in one coloured sheet under the warmth of the water, to puddle like a skin newly stepped out of at the dyers feet) ...of the concept of shared identity and souls and of layers of communally shared iconography and stories - that are somehow 'unidirectional'. The imagery is lovely, and there is much to play with you have to agree.
'she wore a small depression on her shoulder' ...
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Publicity and the Princess again
Here's the pic from The Wellingtonian out today, by Lucy Mitchell.
It's me pretending to do sign language and smile...despite not knowing any sign (shame!) and feeling silly because I was faking it for the camera. What'd someone call me last year ? Hmmm.
The article mis-spells Sara's name and colours in outside the lines a tiny bit, but the publicity's great, so I let that go. Yes Adele - I let that go.
But Hey - what about last Night ?
The opening at deNada was a real blast last night!
It's such a cool store and a great location. The art looked amazing on red walls, and peacock walls...
Outside the store it was bucketing down with rain and unbelievably cold but inside it was red a nd cozy and stylie and packed with friendly people from all over the show ... and we had lots of fun.
There was great music provided by Nadas CD picks and flowing bubbles, speeches and heaps of gesticulating and grinning by both of us - get the picture? (not to mention the dress-ups)
I sold at least one piece of art (more news on that later, she says optimistically and half patiently) so it was successful on that level too. You know, I really think collaborating on a good idea is some of the best fun to be had, and when it works well it's way more than the sum of the parts. Today I've had texts from all sorts of friends who've dropped in to see it, or enjoyed last night and wanted to say a big thanks.
I have to thank Liz especially for her grand PR job - even popping out mid-show for an interview on Maori radio last night.
You can visit the picture of me again at deNada's blog if you like!
Today it's down to earth day again as I do my GST and hit the event planning job hard. You can read the online story here
Monday, May 04, 2009
International Newspaper Blackout Month just gone
The date by Austin Kleon.
Last month was International Newspaper Blackout Month on Austin Kleon's blogsite.He spent the month writing a poem a day with the help of a Sharpie and an insatiable imagination. I love the idea.
I know it's not April any longer and he's all finished with his 30 poems in 30 days - but go check them out. Such a simple idea - soooo cool.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Publicity and the princess
Well you open the door - and in it comes!
'The Wellingtonian' newspaper interviewed me today about the sign language drawings for the show which opens at deNada on wednesday night next week. They came up to the studio to photograph me with the art and I felt like a performing princess!
It's necessary I know, but it's cringe material and if I dwell on it too long, it's easy to feel like Linus. I wonder if that means I spend too much time her by myself?
The publicity's been taken out of my hands for this show - it's all due to Liz from deNada, and since I've been snowed under with a huge job, I'm happy to have it that way.
Looking forward to wednesday night - I know it'll be a gem.
'The Wellingtonian' newspaper interviewed me today about the sign language drawings for the show which opens at deNada on wednesday night next week. They came up to the studio to photograph me with the art and I felt like a performing princess!
It's necessary I know, but it's cringe material and if I dwell on it too long, it's easy to feel like Linus. I wonder if that means I spend too much time her by myself?
The publicity's been taken out of my hands for this show - it's all due to Liz from deNada, and since I've been snowed under with a huge job, I'm happy to have it that way.
Looking forward to wednesday night - I know it'll be a gem.
New blog
Today I made a new blog - and it looks like this...
It's high time I had somewhere to post up my work and the thinking that goes on around it. I know I said it flows and feeds the art - but for some reason I still want to have some separation. I need some place I can send prospective clients to where they can see the breadth of my work.
I'm hopeless at the building the website, a year in and all I managed to do is put up a deleted odd looking template page! And you know what? I don't really care!
But... I do know how to blog, so I think I'll be able to link to that and send clients there to view my current work.
Anyway, it's overdue, so I've done it today.
It's called 'Picture it so' and you can find it at http://pictureitso.blogspot.com/
Monday, April 06, 2009
Incentive
Nelson is a great place for thinking. I've just had a week of doing very little in the Autumn sun down there and it has been good for taking stock and motivating myself.
It must have something to do with gazing at all that slow moving tidal water and that yellow gold morning light...
I went to see Jay at Red Gallery and we looked at my work that she's holding in her stock room - quite a nice little collection by now - it was good to review it and reaquaint myself with last years efforts.
Best thing though, I talked her through the baby ideas I've been thinking a bit about and she liked them. We agreed that I'd develop them into a show for later in the year. Exhale!
I'm so excited to have the chance to work towards an end date (we're thinking tentatively about the week over the Nelson Arts Festival- how cool is that?)
So in between coordinating the Storylines Festival again, helping to organise Spinning Gold (the childrens writers and illustrators conference) to be held here in Welly in September, and reprising the sign language work in May ... I'll have something new to focus on. I'm glad - I bloody well need it!
I'm looking forward to making 3D work - to experimenting, and working a metaphor, and Suzanne from Konev Leather's keen to offer support wherever she can. I can see this might be a lot of fun.
It must have something to do with gazing at all that slow moving tidal water and that yellow gold morning light...
I went to see Jay at Red Gallery and we looked at my work that she's holding in her stock room - quite a nice little collection by now - it was good to review it and reaquaint myself with last years efforts.
Best thing though, I talked her through the baby ideas I've been thinking a bit about and she liked them. We agreed that I'd develop them into a show for later in the year. Exhale!
I'm so excited to have the chance to work towards an end date (we're thinking tentatively about the week over the Nelson Arts Festival- how cool is that?)
So in between coordinating the Storylines Festival again, helping to organise Spinning Gold (the childrens writers and illustrators conference) to be held here in Welly in September, and reprising the sign language work in May ... I'll have something new to focus on. I'm glad - I bloody well need it!
I'm looking forward to making 3D work - to experimenting, and working a metaphor, and Suzanne from Konev Leather's keen to offer support wherever she can. I can see this might be a lot of fun.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Love your experiments by Wordle
Ah watching paint dry.
Here's a Wordle mash up of one of Bruce Mau's quotes - Love your experiments. I'm thinking the alogarythm's done quite well with it ...
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Reprising a show
So when does reprising a show become a new show?
Do you call it by a new name - and if you do will all your friends expect to see something fabulous and new from you ?! (of course they will)
And will they feel duped when they realise it's a glorious opportunity to view the work they know and love all over again in a new swish location and setting?
I've booked the 6th of May to show the sign language and gesture pieces in Lambton Quarter - at deNada in Featherston St Wellington. Not a gallery but a lovely concept store run by a gutsy and savvy woman called Nada Piatek.
Between us we recognised an opportunity to work together, and I'm looking forward to the chance to have my art hanging in her store for six weeks. Six weeks!!
I've just GOT to paint some more...get those movies off my dratted laptop, pull finger, slap my hand into drawing mode, talk sternly and then dive into it. I want at least one new work in this show, and prefererably a big one. Just what I needed - a push in the right direction.
On another note - do you like the new banner ? I got sick of looking at the plain one !
Monday, February 23, 2009
Oh the 2D Life of Her...
This show was spectacular!
I was hooked by it's black and white grainy, wiggly aesthetic from the word go. As the artist Fleur Noble built and explored a world at once 2 D and 3D, we sat transfixed. Images of her and her life size puppets stepped in and out of the paper stage set - merging with paintings on easels, imprinting scribble drawings of themselves by banging their heads onto paper - and at one point talking to each other by speech bubble. She whitewashed them out only to have the puppets tear the paper and almost step off the page.
When the whole set burst into cracking and then roaring virtual flames - and the paper littered floor appeared to ignite and glow with embers we were at once in it and swallowing our instinctive reactions. Bravo for this multi media performance that explored the boundaries of film, drawing, performance and puppetry.
You can check out the interview with Fleur Elise Noble and Melody Nixon of Lumiere Reader here http://lumiere.net.nz/reader/arts.php/item/2016
I was hooked by it's black and white grainy, wiggly aesthetic from the word go. As the artist Fleur Noble built and explored a world at once 2 D and 3D, we sat transfixed. Images of her and her life size puppets stepped in and out of the paper stage set - merging with paintings on easels, imprinting scribble drawings of themselves by banging their heads onto paper - and at one point talking to each other by speech bubble. She whitewashed them out only to have the puppets tear the paper and almost step off the page.
When the whole set burst into cracking and then roaring virtual flames - and the paper littered floor appeared to ignite and glow with embers we were at once in it and swallowing our instinctive reactions. Bravo for this multi media performance that explored the boundaries of film, drawing, performance and puppetry.
You can check out the interview with Fleur Elise Noble and Melody Nixon of Lumiere Reader here http://lumiere.net.nz/reader/arts.php/item/2016
Monday, February 09, 2009
Homily homily hommmmm
This morning I opened the fresh box of Hubbards cereal - and looked afresh at the little news sheet they tuck in beside the cereal... hey I thought - they're all homilies ! and it struck me, we get our little 'life prep' doses in cereal boxes these days, not just from our parents and elders (or church or where else...?). Hmmm... now there's a thought. Saving them too now. What a hoarder I'm becomming.
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
And one more .... This I've gotta see!
The Therepeutic Hour - Art and Art History Explained by Kristelle Plimmer... an illustrated lecture in rhyming verse. 12 -14th Feb
She may not remember morning train rides into town in the front carriage in 1973, (yeah I was in third form alright!) but I'll never forget. It'll be nice to see Kristelle in high voice and action again.
Later ... (16 Feb)
We did go to this Fringe show and it was good.
Very funny in fact. Kristelle managed in an hour of unbroken rhyme to deliver an erudite discourse on the various conflicting and confusing theorem of art historians (Kant et al), and how their approach to art and artists has shaped art history as we know it today. All presented from on high (on stilts) - very appropriate.
Accompanying slides and slide notes just added to the sense that you were sitting in an art history lecture, and at times I had to remind myself that it didn't actually matter if I didn't remember it all - the rhythm of the words was such a pleasure.
2-D Life of Her
I'm looking forward to three things this month ...
The Cuba St Carnival and being able to climb out my very own studio window and sit on my very own hot tin roof to watch the parade, and then to my birthday the next day.
To celebrate my day this year, I've booked some tickets to a Fringe show -
'2 - Dimensional Life of Her' by Fleur Elise Noble.
The show's brought to the Wellington Fringe Festival by the Govt of South Australia, and it sounds amazing. It's billed as 'A theatre production made of drawing, animation, puppetry, film, projection, performance and paper'...
I can't wait!
The pic I've included here is a still from her promotional movie for the show. You'll find the movie preview of the show on Fleur Elise Noble's website www.fleurelisenoble.com . She's done some pretty cool drawings and she plays with 2 -D projections onto 3- D objects in some very clever ways.
I LOVE the Fringe Festival.
Thinking about a comment By Hamish Keith
I'm reading Hamish Keith's autobiography at the moment 'Native Wit' (This is the HTML version of the PDF put out by Random House NZ Ltd). It's a great read (especially now I'm up to where he's working as a junior assistant at the Auckland City Art Gallery with Colin McCahon. I'm thinking on this small piece of commentary at the moment...
" saying you are an artist and believing you are an artist, with however much conviction and passion, will not make you one. There is an equation to being an artist which is beyond the power of an individual to complete however fragile or tenuous it might be, the artist and the work have to make a connection with the culture in which they come from - disconnected is disconnected. The New Zealand official cultural pendulum seems to have swung from denying arts value to a point completely the opposite, giving too much benefit to too many doubts. I sometimes feel that the complete lack of connection between what is claimed to be a work of art and the culture in which it exists is, in some perverse way, seen as a virtue. It must be good because nobody gets it. There is always a case for subsidy and subvention, but it ought not to be a permanent state of affairs"
Hamish Keith 'Native Wit' Random House 2008
I'm not sure I agree with his first opening sentence. I think we are what we want to be and we become what we want to be (whatever our bent) through focusing our passion and having the conviction to follow through and put in the hard work.
But what he says about an artists need to connect with the culture in which they come from is surely wise. His views on art are based on his experience of living and working daily with art; with a group of peers who were artists that shaped and contributed to our cultural identity and have continued to influence New Zealand artists enormously to date.
I'm mulling on what I identify with, where my connection is and (humbly) what I can offer to the culture I belong to with the emergent art that I make.
" saying you are an artist and believing you are an artist, with however much conviction and passion, will not make you one. There is an equation to being an artist which is beyond the power of an individual to complete however fragile or tenuous it might be, the artist and the work have to make a connection with the culture in which they come from - disconnected is disconnected. The New Zealand official cultural pendulum seems to have swung from denying arts value to a point completely the opposite, giving too much benefit to too many doubts. I sometimes feel that the complete lack of connection between what is claimed to be a work of art and the culture in which it exists is, in some perverse way, seen as a virtue. It must be good because nobody gets it. There is always a case for subsidy and subvention, but it ought not to be a permanent state of affairs"
Hamish Keith 'Native Wit' Random House 2008
I'm not sure I agree with his first opening sentence. I think we are what we want to be and we become what we want to be (whatever our bent) through focusing our passion and having the conviction to follow through and put in the hard work.
But what he says about an artists need to connect with the culture in which they come from is surely wise. His views on art are based on his experience of living and working daily with art; with a group of peers who were artists that shaped and contributed to our cultural identity and have continued to influence New Zealand artists enormously to date.
I'm mulling on what I identify with, where my connection is and (humbly) what I can offer to the culture I belong to with the emergent art that I make.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Postcards
So yeah, here are my little territory postcards. One or two I might play with as a full scale painting.
Friday, January 23, 2009
I found these
I love these paintings by Australian Carl Plate. I wish I knew more about him. I can see a trip to the library coming on.
You know when you see something and you pine a little because someone has succeeded in doing work that you aspire to? The little journeys I've been scribbling for example (which I'll bring in and scan tomorrow)... My favourite's the olive green one called 'Spring'.
The nature of ideas
Some ideas are gestated at length; the end results evolving through time spent on exploration, by following a deliberately convoluted path with the end point obscured to retain the mystery. The process is a delight and the results are often enriched by the series of trial and error discoveries and the depth of the research and thinking.
Other creative ideas arrive fully formed as lanky young concepts, lacking grace but full of enthusiasm - or like soft spoken ingenues peering out from behind a fringe. (OK enough of that syrupy prologue...)
And then some spark ignites an idea - and like a small flash, you can see the whole finished work in it's entirety. (Like a Paul Simon song).
Who's to say this is not how it should be done?
I've been spending a bit of time recently surrounded by handbags. No, not my new fetish - just the result of a serendipitous meeting, some interesting work and the opportunity to try my hand at a little creative marketing for a new friend's leather goods store.
She and I have talked at length about what a handbag expresses of a woman, what we carry in them and why... the need to equip ourselves with a beautiful receptacle into which we cram every earthly thing we may need to face the world at our best.
It's led me to think about the kinds of homilies that are shared as part of preparing for adulthood, parenting and dating - the kind of wise (or silly) advice that's passed down from generations to daughters and sons. Has it changed? What wisdom has crossed over? And what about the debunked outmoded or obscure advice? Is it still stuffed into the handbag of things that might come in handy along with the clean hanky?
The studio is beginning to be a place to stash the kinds of stuff I might use one day - you know the sort - paper, paints, wallpaper, handbag handles...
Today I'm seeing a collection of small bags (some of the handles I have acquired are art deco) and recticules made of elaborately pleated, folded or embellished paper - a support for drawing or painting that explores this notion of carrying useful wisdom as a defence against the ills of the world.
I'm not at all sure that attaching paper to these little brass fittings will work - but I'll give it a go.
So, I've begun a notebook of homilies. I want to collect them from a wide range of people and see what results.
Here's one from Sarah's mother : 'you can tell how organised a person is by the way they hang their washing'.
And one from Bob (though he credits it as emanating from certain Catholic boy's schools - and I know he didn't attend one of those) 'don't open your Xmas presents before Xmas'.
See what I mean?
Feel free to leave me a homily here that means something to you - either because you find it comforting or wise (still), or because it's ridiculous and you've exposed it as foolish.
Other creative ideas arrive fully formed as lanky young concepts, lacking grace but full of enthusiasm - or like soft spoken ingenues peering out from behind a fringe. (OK enough of that syrupy prologue...)
And then some spark ignites an idea - and like a small flash, you can see the whole finished work in it's entirety. (Like a Paul Simon song).
Who's to say this is not how it should be done?
I've been spending a bit of time recently surrounded by handbags. No, not my new fetish - just the result of a serendipitous meeting, some interesting work and the opportunity to try my hand at a little creative marketing for a new friend's leather goods store.
She and I have talked at length about what a handbag expresses of a woman, what we carry in them and why... the need to equip ourselves with a beautiful receptacle into which we cram every earthly thing we may need to face the world at our best.
It's led me to think about the kinds of homilies that are shared as part of preparing for adulthood, parenting and dating - the kind of wise (or silly) advice that's passed down from generations to daughters and sons. Has it changed? What wisdom has crossed over? And what about the debunked outmoded or obscure advice? Is it still stuffed into the handbag of things that might come in handy along with the clean hanky?
The studio is beginning to be a place to stash the kinds of stuff I might use one day - you know the sort - paper, paints, wallpaper, handbag handles...
Today I'm seeing a collection of small bags (some of the handles I have acquired are art deco) and recticules made of elaborately pleated, folded or embellished paper - a support for drawing or painting that explores this notion of carrying useful wisdom as a defence against the ills of the world.
I'm not at all sure that attaching paper to these little brass fittings will work - but I'll give it a go.
So, I've begun a notebook of homilies. I want to collect them from a wide range of people and see what results.
Here's one from Sarah's mother : 'you can tell how organised a person is by the way they hang their washing'.
And one from Bob (though he credits it as emanating from certain Catholic boy's schools - and I know he didn't attend one of those) 'don't open your Xmas presents before Xmas'.
See what I mean?
Feel free to leave me a homily here that means something to you - either because you find it comforting or wise (still), or because it's ridiculous and you've exposed it as foolish.
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