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.

Loose and lush - permission to paint he said

V Bank (conversation) by Steven Hemmens

VIII Seven sisters (The Women of Jerusalem) by Steven Hemmens

These 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?

Postcards

Wilds 305 x 405mm

I forgot to mention, I've begun to paint the small postcards that I made late last year - and in particular the one in the Joy of Line header. I'm interested to see if they'll stand on their own, if they'll develop or if they remain pleasing abstract landscapes and small maps.
Think 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?

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' ...

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

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.