Quick peek

Finally, here's 3 or 4 images of sections of the last of the big drawings for 'Words emerge like birds'. Too big for a single shot, I had to lay them on the floor to take the photos. Enjoy.

Flick of the Wrist

Back today from a whirlwind visit to Nelson yesterday - and straight into work this morning so I'm feeling a little skitzoid zoid zoid.

Last night was a bit of fun, I was glammed up and shining like a rhinestone from another place (always good for a girls confidence).

Seriously, the work looked great in the gallery... the environment suited it so well.

Framed up in cream deep concave frames, glassless and mountless; there was nothing between the painting and the viewer and people really responded positively to that.
As a body of work, it viewed as an integrated whole, (my fears that it wouldn't were just dumb) with the new works mixing in seamlessly and quieter work supporting the smokey more complex ones. I received copious amounts of feedback for the boldness of the colours, the textures and the bravery of the mark making.

I met some lovely people - and made some new friends (connections connections, life is rich and wonderful) and I forsee a few welcome studio visits from them in the near future.

And happily, I sold some. Well... 5!!

There weren't that many Nelsonians there - but one in 5 bought a painting, so those that were went home happy and enthusuiastic. The local Grenough Chardonnay was delicious... and I left this morning happy as a sand boy.

I'll process the feedback and think on where to next (if anywhere) for this work.

Meantime Peter McLeavey downstairs from me is previewing Bill Hammonds new works tonight - so I'm about to poke my nose in and soak him up - 4 metres of unstretched glorious canvas.

Wow ! I just had to edit this post - Bill Hammond has added caves ! Eagles in caves, flying with brains (or are they hearts?) in their beaks back to their eeyrie. The new images are a nice new turn. I like it. Such a privilege having him downstairs.

Pebble in my Shoe

I've been thinking some more about that last post - specifically the emphasis on 'imperfections' in that quote ... and it pisses me off ! What was I thinking ?!

Reflecting on it today, Misters Bayles and Orland have rather a negative and myopic way of looking at potential growth, don't you think? (I'll leave the post up though, it may work like a pebble in a shoe for me - she says with chagrin)

I think maybe the key is 'unresolved'.
Taped beside me on the wall next to my drawing is a positive list of things I want to explore further. Much better.

Inspiration and dreams

”The seed of your next art work lies embedded in the imperfections of your current piece. Such imperfections (or mistakes, if you’re feeling particularly depressed about them today) are your guides - valuable, reliable, objective, non-judgemental guides to matters you need to reconsider or develop further.” - David Bayles and Ted Orland.

This quote is so true. Today I'm thinking of the work I've made to date, what went well, what I've struggled to express, and where I want to take my work next this year.
Not just what I want to say... there are heaps of ideas around that, bubbling up all the time - but how BEST to express them and what path I want to take next.

I'm mentally reviewing the drawings and asking myself whether I've described the ideas well enough; if having two threads to this show 'Beyond Words' is fragmenting or distracting from the ideas I had originally, and if I should make ONE MORE large work and see if I can travel further with it.

I feel vulnerable about this work too - it's close to my heart and so it lays me bare a bit.

I've been thinking a bit about dreams recently - both kinds. Waking dreams, and sleeping dreams. I reread 'Longing' recently and I'm walking about with the mantle of it still over me. Such beautiful language - such brutal truth.
We each have a personal Patagonia - a place we imagine is our 'fresh start' we want to get to - as an artist it's the beginning of each new project.

I went to the Sleep Wake performance on the weekend. It was full of weird and wonderful imagery - dreamscapes made real in a minimalist setting with soft reduced colours for costumes and set, reminiscent of waking in the middle of the night and padding through a quiet house. I loved the images of water projected onto 3 surfaces... the swimmer sinking the depths and the huge heartbeat/white noise 'music' score that went with the frenetic nightmare dance piece.

It was inspiring. Why does dance excite me so much ? Something about muscles and taught sinews in motion, balance and counterbalance, the grace and daring of the dancer. Humans are just so beautiful in motion.

When I identify my next project - I'm sure you'll be the first to know.

minusland plus plus

Friday! Love it.

Not much to add this week, just that I've added two new blogs to the sidebar today - minusland and Mighty Mouse pronounced. Nice. Go check them out. It's nice to have you back Sam, and the other one's Vin's artwork, which is lovely to see all together.

I met some great creative folk today at Capital E, had a good conversation about what fires kids creativity and felt really energised by it. I'm looking forward to being in the studio this weekend.

Chilling in the studio

It's so nice to be here tonight ! Watching as the sky turns midnight blue, I can see the lights coming on up at the University... Pigeons on my roof clattering about and clouds scudding past. It's hot so my window's popped and propped against the wall.
Just being here around my brushes and paper, my inspiration board and art books is replenishing.

Last week I went to life drawing with Bob and it was the best class I've ever been to - light, roomy and unpretentious. I took a whole bag of tools, intending to be loose - the scribblier the better. My favourite tools ended up being a rainbow coloured pencil and a fat sharpie pen (mmmm the smell!) I've promised myself to do it more this year (no, not sniff pens - life drawing!) That and go to more art shows and creative events.

I'm going to miss a cool Sleep/Wake seminar tomorrow night ( I'll be in Auckland for work - and stopping to catch the galleries and a couple of new friends - a good trade off ) - I booked it a while back at the Art Centre - it's part of a Fringe show that'll be on from the 30th Jan - 10th FEB check it out here

"Sleep/Wake blends dance, science and performance design to explore the world of the unconscious, revealing those things that lie dormant within us: hidden performances of the self - obsessions, ambitions, and dreams."

It sounds just the kind of thing I might love, that would inspire drawings or paintings (says the woman casting for her next focus). Never mind - I'll get to the Fringe performance instead. Anyone in Welly interested ? I booked 2 free places to the floor talk/seminar and it includes free food ! Call me - you can have my spaces.

Hey but there's good news - The show in March 'Beyond Words' has been moved ahead a couple of weeks to start on the 10th March. That means it's on during the international festival of the arts - which is a really cool coup ! I feel so lucky.
Ok here's a drawing from thursdays class sorry about the scan wiggle I got impatient ...

Resolutions schmesolutions!

Since it's a new year - I've been reviewing my resolutions from last year with a wry smile or two - yeah I made them, and yes I tried.
I didn't paint or draw as much outside as I'd have liked ... pity that (but the wind's a bit of a problem anyway).
Being hard on yourself comes with the territory I think - but I know I believe in myself more than a year ago, which is pretty positive, so I'm happy with what I aimed for mostly, and the rest's an ongoing project.

This year I want to apply for a residency somewhere other than Wellington - and preferrably overseas (though to be honest holing up to paint in the Far North wouldn't be all bad!) I'd like to experience the sense of 'otherness' that only comes from displacing yourself for a time, and I think I'd benefit from the challenge and the extension it would bring.

On that note, I went to a cool exhibition on my way home from the farm this summer, called 'The museum of inherent vice'.
(Inherent vice is an art historical/curatorial term to describe art objects with the potential to degrade or change over time).
Matt Couper had a residency at Tylee Cottage in Wanganui last year, as part of the Sarjeant Gallery's residency programme and his work is currently on show at the Sarjeant until the 10th of Feb.

I was impressed with both the scale of his paintings, and the diversity and complexity of his work. His symbolism is powerfully strange - and the image of Prometheus depicted as an artist, chained to the rock and painting with his hands and feet cut off and brushes strapped to his wrists has stayed with me a long time.

Mostly I connected with the wall of small tin ex-votos he made over the year, which describe his year as a resident, the struggle to stay focussed and be creative and to trust that what he was doing was valuable and 'good'. He made himself vulnerable - and I respect that. If you get a chance, go and see his work (or look at his website here).

Red red red show (Nah actually it's orange!)

More red ones

And still more

Busy as

Mark my words

Bein' pretty brushy lately

Happy New Year!

Most of these paintings came from a week of intensive work between Xmas and new Years Eve and Red Gallery in Nelson is showing this work on the 26th of February this year (yay!).
It's been interesting and fun revisiting the ideas; working from the original source material but trying to refine it - and even more interesting attempting to recapture the energy (I was such an angry and frustrated tart that week at Summer School!) that the original work has. I've uploaded the new works interspersed with the ones from Summer School so I can see how they work as a group - can you tell them apart?

I have to write a piece for the gallery to describe the show,here's what I've come up with - I hope it's not too wanky!

"These mixed media works are about breaking through barriers. They are an attempt to distance myself from my need for figuration in my artwork, or to offset it through the introduction of elements of chance.
I began to explore these ideas at Summer School in Wanganui in 2007 and I’ve continued to refine them and allow the insights to filter into my practice since then.

I want to generate energy in these works through contrasting the chance expression of a loaded brush or the simple eloquence of a swift moving calligraphic line with drawing and with deconstructed universal symbols for barriers, obstructions or impediments."

Its so hard describing your own stuff and trying to be honest - hey but naming the pieces...now that's a whole other kettle of fish!

And so this is Xmas

Merry Christmas everyone.

May the seasonal holidays rest, inspire and rejuvenate your creative spirits... and wherever you're gathered, I hope it's with loved ones, good food and fine weather.

Me, I thought I had summer school sussed for my Christmas break - but the class was cancelled at the last minute.
A pity because I could do with the stretch and Carole Shepheard's course sounded like an interesting little leap at this point.

It makes me think though, as artists, how DO we stretch ourselves ....?
I know for me sometimes it takes an objective person (or 6) to help me see what's under my nose - or where I could extend the work I'm doing.

Do we get better at that as we go along do you think? (I wish, says this difficult woman)

At the moment amongst other books, I'm reading Wassily Kandinsky's book 'Concerning the Spiritual in Art'.

He has some interesting things to say about 'art for arts sake'... and the perennial questions of 'what' and 'how' that drive artists who try to express some kind of spiritual depth in their work (and produce something other than a dreaded Nikau palm - though Mr K doesn't mention THOSE).

He wrote the book in about 1911 (off the top of my head) and mostly what he says about the power of colour and painting for meaning (or spirituality as he puts it) is pretty cool - though he's prone to sweeping statements (I suppose that makes two of us).

For me, I'm thinking too often it's easy to get hooked up on the 'how' and lose sight of the 'what' that drives us. In rather quaint language Mr K says...

" If the emotional power of the artist can overwhelm the "how?" and can give free scope to his finer feelings, then art is on the crest of the road by which she will not fail later on to find the "what" she has lost, the "what" which will show the way to the spiritual food of the newly awakened spiritual life.
This "what?" will no longer be the material, objective "what" of the former period, but the internal truth of art, the soul without which the body (i.e. the "how") can never be healthy, whether in an individual or in a whole people..."

I was just talking to Bob - my studio mate, about 'what' and 'how' the other day too.

On that note, I'm returning to my last years Summer School work, trying to recapture the essence of it - the energy and the spontaneity as well as working from the source imagery to create some new works for a show in February.

I remember this orange artwork as a struggle - so NOT what I thought I'd be doing that week, so unexpected and unfamiliar (Hah! isn't that just the point of Summer School?).

Sometimes what we make isn't LIKE us - (what arrogance leads us to think it will be I wonder?) - or isn't immediately recognisable or seem to be where we're at. (Hmmm - this orange work was vivid,bold,decisive and full of warning symbolism as well as dark corners).

I remember looking at the stranger we made when she was born too, and being transfixed by the knowledge of her 'otherness' and lack of familiarity even though she was contained in me...

The learnings from the orange art have been good though, the loose brushwork has informed the under painting on the gesture and figurative Sara drawings, it fed into illustrations this year and taught me what happens when you push something over the edge, or when you push through the desire to screw it up and start over.

So I'm thinking sometimes 'how' IS enough - there doesn't always need to be a 'what' in everything we make, and the learning we need doesn't always come without pain - or obviously.

I'm painting a couple of times a week at the moment - a much needed antithesis to my job these days. It's so much harder to be spontaneous now.

Meantime mark 24th March in your diaries for 'Beyond words' - it should be good, and please.... have a wonderful Christmas OK?

arohanui Adele

Hands up

Aye! it's been a while since I've been in here.

Doesn't mean I haven't been working though heh heh. Just that life's intervened again.

This body of work is gently coming to a close now. I've made 3 large sign drawings in all... since posting the 'birds' one. Each one is different and has a different feel.
The poems still move me and I hope I've done them justice - I chose a phrase from the poem titled 'The manual alphabet'; it talks about 'trees signing in the storm' ... such a stunning concept I think. Sarah's face is very expressive and so this one is less about hands and more about faces - it looks like she's calling up a storm.

Then there's a line from 'The hand as nest' - it goes ' you choose a fruit the size and shape of a heart'. So that's the last big drawing. I'm not so sure about this one - it seems a little 'bitty' in terms of the composition. (I'll borrow Ricky' camera and post up some terrible pics soon).

But then... I decided to move the idea of nesting hands along a bit and I'm experimenting with papier maché using silk paper and twisted ropes of tissue paper to make little 'finger bowls' (yeah cute huh?!) which I'm going to line with hands drawings - like fragile nests - or gifts that you give (which after all is another form of expressing a feeling or speaking to someone without words). I want them to be fragile - and quite deconstructed.

Here's the poems in case you're interested.

The Manual Alphabet

Sculpts. Just look at these neighbours. Who sees with the fingers
sees these things together. I once built a neighbour of light.
We used to read by his skin, the whole town, reciting "Repeat after

until we could decipher branches signing in the storm and
long past the fields now speaking, walking on his hands out of town.

Cole Swensen


The Hand as Nest

What caress?
and who
of slate who made
this flute, you

hollow out a bone with a smaller bone.

You choose a fruit the size and shape of a heart.

Cole Swensen

Words like birds

This is a 2 meter long drawing.
It's the first of the 'Sara' drawings I've made. She is signing 'words emerge like birds'. I've put up a close up too so you can get a better look.

And a continuation of eyes...

The last drawing I posted was about the language of eyes - what we allow to be seen, what we see and what we say. This next drawing is the opposite - still thinking about eyes as windows, and all that they say about us... if we allow it. This one has something of those butterflies that have big camouflage eyes on them - so they appear like owls, you know?

Thoughts on storytelling

I know I haven't spent much time in here lately - just post 'n' run - so here's some real thoughts.

I've enrolled in an art history paper at Victoria this semester, just for fun and to keep things interesting - y'know?
We're being guided through a potted history of art from the 1800's to the present, and this week I've been thinking a bit about how my own art might be influenced by what I'm learning and how critically I'm seeing now.

So far I have to say, it's the story telling that amazes me in the works I admire - the ones that make me shake my head in wonder.
It's probably the single most important thing I could learn right now, that will empower my work and make it better. It's as much what you don't say, as what you do - and the references to myth, allegorical tales, history, the sublime and the narrative tale...Basically any complex means of developing that message you want to say.

The way that stories have been explored by artists through the last couple of centuries is fascinating. I'm drawn to the dark ones at the moment - the dimly lit depths of romantic paintings dealing with madness- or with emotions -overblown and overplayed, or just on view and asking the viewer to experience it.

I have so much to learn it's humbling really.

The Language of eyes

Ok so here's a new one. This drawing's pretty self explainatory and it follows on from the hands - so much is spoken wordlessly, I couldn't ignore it now could I?

More on a theme

Here are the latest drawings on this theme of gesture. I'm playing with the way we view images (in this case of simple gestures) and imbue them with meaning.