ArtSmelter

David Howard : Studio Work

2012-01-27T09:03:00.001+10:00

Snapshot from the studio of artist David Howard, who is currently working towards a show in May 2012.

Liberty

Blue Vogue

Camera Big Head

2012-01-04T10:32:00.001+10:00

Magazine : PoetsArtists #27

2011-11-30T20:54:00.000+10:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More art

X-ray Infinity Hole

2011-11-29T00:03:00.001+10:00

Digital Fiddle

Exhibition : 15 Artists

2011-11-17T22:16:00.001+10:00

Here are a few photos from the 2011, ‘15 Artists’ competition, that was recently on at the Redcliffe Regional Art Gallery.

Susan Mullen

Jamie Congdon, David Howard, Dai Li

Photos courtesy of Redcliffe Regional Art Gallery.

Harmony

2011-11-02T10:43:00.001+10:00

I found this free experimental online drawing application – ‘Harmony' a procedural drawing tool by Mr doob. He has an interesting web site - http://mrdoob.com/

This is my 2 minute sketch, using an artist brush on my HP Touchsmart PC – it has a touch screen and I used a real artist brush.

Here is a YouTube clip on Harmony.

And another video showing paintbrush on HP Touchsmart PC.

Harmony is available also as an APP on IPAD 2.

Exhibition : Explicitly Graphic

2011-10-27T22:36:00.001+10:00

One year after their launch, the innovative art group Explicitly Graphic (where fine art meets graphic design) is putting together their second art event. This time, they’re bringing down the house at the White Canvas Gallery in the Fortitude Valley on October 28 from 6pm.

Explicitly Graphic are : Evangeline Cachinero, Anita Pettinato and Tiffany Atkin.

The exhibition is entitled ‘Double Entendre’ and continues until November 6.

For more information visit:

http://www.explicitlygraphic.com.au

http://www.whitecanvas.tv/gallery/

Go Ben!

2011-10-24T10:39:00.001+10:00

ArtSmelter did a small promotion/review on animator/artist Benjamin Drake, back in 2010.

Since that time, Ben has been very busy, developing his already impressive skills on various projects.

Here is one of Ben’s animations used by the band Gotye – the song is ‘Easy Way Out’ and is from Goyte’s Youtube channel.

Ben has also been asked to design the cover for a vinyl release of the album.

Check it out.

I think it’s time to throw the Beret away and let the next generation, drive on through – great work Ben!

The Outlandish Watch

2011-10-09T22:34:00.001+10:00

Back in August, I checked out the 2011 Queensland Poetry Festival, at the Judith Wright centre in The Valley, Brisbane.

The Festival – Spoken in One Strange Word – was a three day event with over 30 contributing poets . I particularly went to see Nathan Shepherdson, Pascalle Burton and David Stavanger perform ‘The Outlandish Watch’. Here is a bit of a blurb from the official website -

The Outlandish Watch: Is there such a thing as reversible poetry? Poet/sonic artist Pascalle Burton not only set out to find an answer, she found co-conspirators in poets Nathan Shepherdson and David Stavanger.The Outlandish Watch documents this collaboration and new work. Grafting with Lewis Carroll’s Sylvie and Bruno, where a device allows the protagonist to reverse scenarios, the poets experiment with words in different sequences. The Outlandish Watch will be available on limited edition 7″ vinyl and features contributions from The Stress of Leisure.

Just for fun and to play with a borrowed camera, I videoed ‘The Outlandish Watch’ and Nathan’s solo reading. Below are the first 5 minutes or so of ‘The Outlandish Watch’ and most of Nathan’s poem.

It was a stormy, wet, crazy day and I was high on coffee but I found the poetry / performances very intriguing and dare I say entertaining – It was just a pity I didn’t attend the whole weekend – maybe next year.

Favourite section in ‘The Outlandish Watch’ is the bit about the Post Modernists.

Black is Black

2011-09-25T11:07:00.001+10:00

Here is another Ann & Andy Scott performance. This time a cover version of ‘Black is Black’. I have created a bit of animation to go with the music. The animation and video software I used was Reallusion’s Iclone 4 and Magix Movie Edit Pro 17.

Black is Black : Ann & Andy Scott

Mini Promo : The Submariners, Angharad Drake and Ann & Andy Scott

2011-09-14T22:05:00.001+10:00

I am slowly gathering quite a collection of Sunshine Coast musicians CD’s, so here is the last three artists that have tossed me a copy.

The Submariners – Siena / Bass and keys, Nicholas / Guitar and Leigh / Drums. All songs written by Nicholas Hew.

Nicholas Hew was reviewed on ArtSmelter back in October of 2008, since that time he has had plenty of experience performing live, writing songs and developing his sound. Now with a small band and a recent release of an EP of three songs, this emerging artist is one to watch out for.

Not to forget Siena and Leigh, who contribute greatly to the over all sound, their musical skills fill out the songs, adding structure and texture to the material.

Check them out here and here.

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Angharad Drake – Songs by Angharad Drake

As an emerging singer songwriter Angharad’s artistic output is quite impressive. Writing, performing and composing all the songs on her first CD is quite an accomplishment.

A tender folky sound, with touching personal lyrics, Angharad is a great songwriter who shows great promise. Currently she has teamed with another musician, Jake Smith, fusing her folky sounds with electronic sounds as the Marcy Prospects.

Check it all out here and here.

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Ann & Andy Scott – Musicians and performers, semi -retired but still being creative.

Ann & Andy were until recently performers on the Sydney scene, but now reside on the Sunshine Coast. With many years experience and incredible skills and talents, Andy & Ann have now compiled a collection of songs on their own CD’s. On this disc is a photo of Andy’s guitar collection – some guys have all the fun.

If you like The Shadows or classic early Rock and Roll music then drop Ann & Andy an email : a.dscott1@bigpond.com.

Here is a cover of Apache

Art for my rent : Evangeline Cachinero

2011-08-24T22:21:00.001+10:00

A few months ago Evangeline Cachinero quit her job at an advertising agency to pursue a career as a visual artist. Without a backup plan and a little out of desperation, she wrote a single blog post aiming to sell one painting for the exact cost of her rent. This painting sold instantly.

A friend suggested, “that’s a blog right there. Not just a post, but a whole blog!” Two days later Evangeline had the new blog www.artformyrent.com designed and ready to launch. The sole aim was to cover her rent. “I figured it was a good, feasible place to start. A roof over your head is a basic need and covering rent is a great load off my shoulders. Next year I’ll worry about buying groceries with my art”, she adds jokingly.

Evangeline’s blog covers everything about her art from inspiration and process to ongoing frustrations. She talks openly about how difficult it is to make it as an artist, and writes about her ups and downs in this journey she has embarked on. Her latest Vlog (video blog) is a skit on gallery rejection letters, which many artists can relate to. “Since starting the project I’ve received countless letters from other artists who have been inspired and motivated by the project”, Evangeline says. “If I can inspire just one artist to make more art, it’s worth it”.

Alternative ways to try and carve out an arts career are becoming ever more important, as artists move away from the gallery circles and try to forge new ways of succeeding independently. There is a prevalent belief that art and money don’t mix, and therefore artists who are trying to make a living must be less of an artist than those doing it for the ‘love’. Projects such as this one test that ideology and push artists to empower themselves and inspire others to choose arts as a viable career choice.

Evangeline has opened herself up to a journey into the harsh reality of the art world, where most artists are chewed up and spit out. On the way, she’s learning to carve out her own little piece of the art world in order to do what she loves while being able to pay the rent.

CONTACT DETAILS:

Evangeline Cachinero
Ph: +61 (0) 438412356
website: www.artformyrent.com
email: van@evangeline.com.au

BIOGRAPHY

EVANGELINE CACHINERO is a visual artist living on the Sunshine Coast, born in Wollongong and raised in Spain and America. A bit of a creative tornado, Evangeline is always into new projects such as: artformyrent, artist by artist, monobrow creative and Explicitly Graphic. She loves working with mixed media, multimedia, social media and collaborating with other artists. Some of her favorite tools are raw canvas, paper, pencil, charcoal, enamel, acrylic, oil, oil pastels, markers, lace, a camera, books, a mac, felt tip pens, sharpies, masking tape, rulers, photographs, video and the internet. When she writes her juicy life bio it will have stories that will embarrass her family, piss off ex-boyfriends, may incriminate her in several countries for various reasons and question her decision-making abilities. [Watch this space].

http://www.evangeline.com.au

Magazine : PoetsArtists #25

2011-07-13T09:06:00.000+10:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More art

Quandamooka : The Coming of the Artists.

2011-07-05T16:34:00.001+10:00

David Howard – Quandamooka : The Coming of the Artists. – 2011 – Acrylic on MDF - 160x90cm

Showcase Review : Mark O’Neill

2011-06-22T14:33:00.001+10:00

Fire , Magic, Stone, Ritual, Politics, Scars, Power, Poverty, Love, Hate, Dust, Death, Environment, History, Mystery, Dreaming – this is the stuff of Mark O’Neill.

Ritual 1983

Rambling Response as Worlds Collide.

By David Howard

Teotwawki attacks planet earth, great holes appear in the fabric of space and time – scary monster devours trees, rocks, animals ,men, women, babies, that disappear forever.

Tradition forged by fire, reality scraped from stone, anger and fear, blood, sweat and tear. Yelling at the top of my voice, heart beating strong, whips on my back, a boot in the face – take me back, take me way, way back.

Teotwawki now walks planet earth, beware the two witnesses, fire from the sky, apocalypse now.

Weather gone crazy while manic pollies eat truffles in underground caves, shooting lasers to other planets and burning the coal face.

I don’t care who you are, where you are, or what you know – I just care – so don’t mess with me.

Judgement comes on those who would destroy the earth and retreat from the life, the blood, the way.

Small, fragile, meek, broken, contrite heart, needy, weak, humbled, salvation, salvation, salvation.

So be it.

Ritual 1983

Mark has been a sculpture for over 30 years, as well as recently trying his hand at video, he occasionally creates a few enigmatic 2D art works – like this one below.

The End

Some of Mark’s ceramic work at a 2010 show at Macchia gallery.

Mark has a fascination with fire – it’s effect, it’s presence, it’s transformative power and symbolic resonance.

Some of Marks’s recent work – small figures, heads, Orks, torsos, obliterated figures with symbolic headdress.

Island

Janus

Ork 4

Birth of TEOTWAWKI

Mark has just had a show at the Ground Zero Gallery in Nambour with Greg Windsor – here is a video from the closing night – Take Aim.

For further INFO on Mark O’Neill and contact details go to his web page here.

Showcase Review : Boben M. Mammem

2011-05-18T14:08:00.001+10:00

Below are some examples of Sunshine Coast artist Boben M. Mammen’s work from his ‘Mindset Series 2008’. Boben immigrated to Australia from India in 2007. The text is from the artists ‘Mindset Series 2008’ catalog. His work has recently been on show at Ground Zero Galleries at Howard St, Nambour.

Believes
by Boben M. Mammen
Acrylic on Plywood - (Size 14” x 14”)
Profoundly moved by his experiences in the Middle East, the artist created Believes as a reflection on the powerful impact that political, spiritual and religious beliefs can make on an individual mindset. From the richness of a simple conversation with a new friend in a marketplace to witnessing strangers enjoying gruesome evidence of a beheading, the artist has been exposed to the extremes of human behavior, each directly shaped by the doctrines of belief systems.

Fear
by Boben M. Mammen
Acrylic on board – (Size 14” x 18”)
“Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom” (Bertrand Russell, Analysis of Mind: 1921). This work illustrates the destructive effect that fear, in all its perverse forms, has on the individual mindset and the natural movements of the human form.

The Analysis of Mind
by Boben M. Mammen
Acrylic on board – (Size 14” x 18”)
The Analysis of Mind is the fountainhead in the artist’s Mindset series. The artist explores the concept of mind both from the point of introspection and of external analysis of observable behavior. The Analysis of Mind conveys the labyrinthine depths of meaning that reveal so much about human nature, yet are routinely ignored unseen due to apathy and self-indulgence.

Prison of Uncertainty
by Boben M. Mammen
Acrylic on board – (Size 25” x 25”)
With Prison of Uncertainty, the artist draws on his own difficult experience of leaving a successful career in India and Bahrain to fulfill his dreams in Australia. The work is also a broader portrayal of the social anxiety caused by recent national and world events: unemployment, financial turmoil, natural disasters and tenuous security all collaborating to insidiously impound our confidence and create misgiving.

God’s Perspective
by Boben M. Mammen
Acrylic on Plywood - (Size 14” x 14”)
Raised in a Christian family, the support, security and freedom which the artist educes from his faith are reflected in God’s Perspective. This work features the human skull at the centre of the piece as seen from a bird’s eye view.

The One who, himself without colour,
By the manifold application of his power.
Distributes many colours in his hidden purpose…
Svetasvatara Upanishad 4.1

The rich, thematic quality of Boben M. Mammen’s work is a product of a profound physical, spiritual and cultural journey. Since establishing himself in Queensland in 2007, the Indian artist is receiving recognition for his instinctual and introspective sensibility that mines the expansive diversity of his trans-national experience.

Mammen’s career as an artist was written on the riverbanks of Kerala in south west India, where he would gather driftwood and pebbles to furnish his creative imagination. The child of a Christian family with Malayalam as their mother tongue, Mammen witnessed the dramatic shift in traditional values, politics, religion and culture of the Malayali people as they were often forced to flee a stagnant economical climate to seek a more secure lifestyle elsewhere.

Utilising a variety of medium to ensure a fluid approach to his subjects, Mammen’s work reflects the thematic concerns that surround the shift from one cultural sphere to another, as well as universal themes of identity, mindset, conflict and faith. His work challenges the temporal boundaries that constrict insular viewpoints, while offering a rich, meditative quality that rewards the audience with its multi-layered dimensions.

Exhibitions
1988 - 1995 Kerala Lalithakala Akademy Exhibition 1988 to 1995.
1998 Uvajanamela Exhibition at Idukki
1989 National Exhibition of Arts by Kala Samscarika Kendra, Cochin
1993 Solo show at Jahangir Art Gallery, Bangalore
1994 Exhibition of Purogamana Kala Sahitya Sangam, Mahi, India
Solo show at Indian Fine Art Sociey, Bahrain
1995 Group show sponsored by Kalakshetram, Coimbatore
Solo show at Muscat, Sultanate of Oman (part of Indian
Independence Day Celebration)
Participated in Kerala Samajam Art Exhibition Tour in Salalah, Sur,
Sohar, Muscat in Sultanate of Oman
1996 Participated in Oman National Day Exhibition in Muscat Inter Continental Hotel
1996 Outer State Exhibition of Kerala Lalithakala Academy in Madras
Exhibition at Ooty by Central Lalithakala Academy Regional SOLO
Exhibition Centre, Madras
1997 Participated in Al Shabiba National News Paper ‘Annual Art Exhibition”
Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
1998 Solo Exhibition at Al Omaniya Art Exhibition Centre, Muscat Internationl
Shopping Festival, Seeb, Sultanate of Oman Participated Salalah Festival,
Sultanate of Oman
1999 Group Exhibition at Al Harthy Complex, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
Jawahir Oman Art Exhibition, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
Participated in Kargeen Art Exhibition, Ruwi, Sultanate of Oman
2000 Ahlan Wa Sahlan Art Exhibition Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain
Bahrain Fine Arts Society Annual Exhibition Manama,
Kingdom of Bahrain
2001 Kerala Samajam Onam Exibition, Kingdom of Bahrain
2003 - 2004 Surya Fine Arts Society Exhibition, Kingdom of Bahrain
2009 Solo exhibition, Sunshine Coast Library, Maroochydore

Boben can be contacted by email - boben_m@yahoo.com

My Mactini and red lipstick on my icollar.

2011-05-03T10:29:00.001+10:00

The Stranger Again - Acrylic and pencil on paper – 81x57cm - 2011

Showcase Review : Ground Zero Gallery

2011-04-13T12:48:00.001+10:00

I checked out the Ground Zero Gallery which included the work of Greg Windsor and Adam Obscene. Ground Zero is part of SCAIP (Sunshine Coast Arts Industry Precinct) which is situated at Nambour. SCAIP also includes: The Black Box theatre, ENKO design, Artist Studios, and provision for video and music production/performance.

Overall, the quality of the art on display was very good and the gallery space itself has a lot of potential for large works, installations, performance and good size openings.

Greg Windsor’s recent works are currently on display – large drawings related to a collaborative sculpture project and a kinetic sculpture that comments on and explores the nature of energy and technology in our time, especially those that are alternative and sustainable.

Greg Windsor drawings.

Greg Windsor, Mark O’Neill and kinetic sculpture.

Greg Windsor drawings

Some of Adams work.

Stencil work.

Adam Obscene – Artist and Big Boss of SCAIP.

Some other work also on display at SCAIP.

SCAIP aims to support emerging artists and create an environment that is conducive to establishing an energetic and engaging art culture on the Sunshine Coast. SCAIP can be found at The Old Ambulance Station, 80 Howard St, Nambour.

Contact SCAIP on Facebook or on their webpage.

Showcase Review : Gabrielle Turnbull

2011-04-07T14:40:00.001+10:00

I went for a drive down to the Redcliffe area a few days ago, looking for the local museum, taking a few photos and checking out the lay of the land. Redcliffe downtown seems to be in a period of transition with road works and street development. The old is making way for the new: which has probably been the norm for that area since Matthew Flinders first landed. The old landmarks are in various states of repair, neglect or rejuvenation – like this old theatre.

There are still a few shop arcades – favorite areas of mine for finding something different or interesting – under and between the older shops, connecting the two main streets. As I wandered about I found an artist gallery, down this arcade – columns and flags leading down to the grand entry.

Galleria Gabrielle: Fine Art - a gallery of works by artist Gabrielle Turnbull. The show consists of 22 works of drawings and paintings.

Coincidently, the curator of The Redcliffe Gallery (Karen Tyler), just popped in as I was talking to Gabrielle about her work, so I cheekily asked them to pose for a photo.

Karen Tyler and Gabrielle Turnbull

Gabrielle, had a show opening at the gallery during March. It must have been a reasonable success, as there were quite a few red dots (sold works) around the walls – which is great. It’s not easy to sell art in the current economic climate and so sales are a testament to Gabrielle’s skills, confidence and the quality of her work.

Gabrielle’s work is full of intricate, energetic mark making, with a few symbols thrown in for good measure - being web like and interconnected, creating an abstract visual personal statement. Gabrielle states in her media release, “This exhibition explores the notion of stability and vulnerability in relation to the human condition via the personal journey the artist has recently travelled.”

More of Gabrielle’s work can be found at her web page, where contact details are also available. Her gallery is in Comino’s arcade off Redcliffe Pde, Redcliffe.

Check it out, have a coffee and take a walk on the pier.

Magazine : PoetsArtists

2011-03-26T11:04:00.001+10:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More poets

I came across this magazine on the online publishing site Issuu. The internet of course is totally out of control – you can pretty well do what you like. This means that clever and aspiring artist / poet / publishers like Didi Menendez can create these great magazines, showcasing very good artists and poets. Didi has kindly allowed me to embed ‘PoetsArtists’ into ArtSmelter – thanks. The embedded magazine has it’s own little controls and can be blown up to full size – great job!

Sometimes, I just feel like giving up art: especially, when I see the skills of artists around this planet – but I don’t think that’s gonna happen. Arts not a competition, although it’s a bit of a fight, it’s more an individual thing happening in a communal way or a communal thing happening in an individual way - what the heck, what am I writing?

The landscape bares my TAG

2011-03-21T22:08:00.001+10:00

SquareScape 9 – Graffiti Acrylic and Ink on MDF 120x120cm 2011

Showcase Review : John Thompson

2011-03-15T09:49:00.001+10:00

War games – Collateral Damage

Drawing, painting & Print Exhibition @ White Canvas Gallery

10th march – 23rd march 2011

War games continues Thompson’s pre-occupation with war and accumulated damage done. These works concentrate on the children of families affected by armed conflict around the world. The drawings and paintings talk of the emotional struggle to understand and come to terms with the loss, dispossession, incarceration and trauma of war victims.

John Thompson is inspired by the rich tradition of photojournalism and by drawings of the old masters. His paintings, drawings and photographs come filtered through a lens on the human struggle and the harsh reality of their behavior with a sensitivity to what is beautiful and poetic.

War games is at White Canvas Gallery, Fortitude Valley until the 23rd of March.

More of John’s work and contact details can be found at his Crazy Dog webpage.

Windwells: Channelling + Divining

2011-03-09T13:12:00.001+10:00

Here is a video from the Windwells: Channelling + Divining installation that was in Brisbane in late 2010. The installation was by Pat Hoffie and Stefan Purcell. It’s interesting the word, “channelling”, it has two spellings. Wikipedia has this to say - “Channelling (physics), the process that constrains the path of a charged particle in a crystalline solid.” + “Channeling (mediumistic), a term used in reference to the esoteric process of receiving messages or inspiration from invisible beings or spirits”. Maybe both meanings apply and add to the base idea of water moving in channels, drawn from wells. The word “divining”, has a similar connectedness to water and the spirits. There is something archetypal about the windmill (windwell), an icon of the landscape – something that connects to my childhood, but also resonates with technology of the past, present and future.

Another SquareScape painting

2011-03-05T20:37:00.001+10:00

My old, blow spray gun.

A few garden leaves.

The beginnings of a SquareScape painting.

Ink blown over the leaves and allowed to dribble.

A close up of the effect.

The next stage will be to build up the painting in transparent acrylic washes, defining shapes, establishing depth and colour schemes. There is torn masking tape, edging the blue areas, which when removed will create it’s own effect. I may use some other masking effects, as the painting progresses, trying to build up layers of shapes, colours and textures. The good thing about the SquareScape series is: that I have allowed myself the joy of experimenting.

NASA series is now finished

2011-02-25T15:29:00.001+10:00

NASA 30 – NASA at the End of the World

NASA 29 – NASA Meets the False Man

World in Spin

2011-02-22T23:32:00.000+10:00

The Last NASA painting is ‘NASA 30 – NASA at the End of the World’. The process of creating a NASA painting has always been a 5 step process, except the very first painting which was immediate and totally unplanned.

Step 1 – Make up a title. (Normally, I would create a title after, or during the creation of an art work.)

Step 2 – A very quick sketch, based on the idea of the title. ( very free, and loose, barely discernable and drawn in less than 5 minutes.)

Step 3 – A quick sketch on the canvas. ( Drawn in black, and fiddled with until the main elements are apparent.)

Step 4 – Colourisation. ( Three colours and white, applied very loosely.)

Step 5 – Black Outline. (The final stage, to re-emphasize and re -energise the work.)

Although, NASA 30 is not complete (it soon will be), the following images are steps 3 to 5.

The series will be shown in April at the Art Factory Gallery, South Brisbane. Opening night will be announced soon, and an invite will be posted on this blog. As for the meaning of these works, I hope to conjure up something to say on opening night. The series is meant to be displayed in a large grid, together but separate – like the following image.

As for me – I am setting my mind now to the next three works – three panels, like an altar piece, inspired by Max Beckman and focusing on a particular place and it’s culture– in a similar style to the NASA stuff but different.

Me 2011, sitting in the studio, working on the invite designs for the Art Factory Show.

Foot noose and spring limbs

2011-02-09T23:16:00.001+10:00

NASA 28 – A Quantum Leap for NASA

NASA 27

2011-01-31T11:44:00.001+10:00

NASA 27 – NASA and the Money Lenders

NASA wall mock up

2011-01-24T15:28:00.001+10:00

If your in the area…..

2010-12-14T18:12:00.001+10:00

Your invited to an art opening at Peregian Hotel, Peregian Beach at 6:00 pm on Friday the 17th of December 2010.

Saturn Devouring his Son

2010-12-01T22:46:00.001+10:00

GOYA

Michael Zavros

2010-11-23T08:48:00.001+10:00

NASA and the Priestess of Mostess.

2010-11-18T21:49:00.001+10:00

NASA 20 – NASA has a Length of String - 2010

The Priestess of Mostess – almost finished.

A few images.

2010-11-03T20:25:00.001+10:00

DuoTone One

The Faceless Fool Deconstructing away from the Light

Sand Blow Holiday One

Sand Blow Holiday Two

NASA 19 – I Dream of NASA

Skin of my Teeth

2010-10-27T17:10:00.001+10:00

Another experimental music video – I have been playing with Alpha mixing in Magix Movie edit pro, and multi-track recording in Magix Samplitude – it’s all a bit of fun and experimenting, but what you learn along the way can be taken into bigger, more polished projects.

Sorting out the next series

2010-10-21T20:59:00.001+10:00

This image is a try out for my next series of paintings – the 16:9 series. The top version has been processed with a bitmap tracer, which converted the image into a vector image. Currently I am trying to work out the technical process and type of images that I want, that will carry me through the whole series of 10 paintings. The bottom image is actually a lot darker in it’s painted form, and only 80x45cm in size - the final painting will be 160x90cm.

I quite like the effect, of both versions, but am wondering, if I should blow up a vector version to full size in outline mode, transfer the image onto the canvas, and then colour it in. Each 160x90cm painting will be based on the smaller sketchy try out version (study), so there will be 20 paintings in all, based on 10 images. Another option, but more expensive would be to have the images printed as vector images onto canvas or paper.

Whichever way I produce the series, it will be a significant break away from my NASA series.

Requiem, NASA and the 16:9 series

2010-10-16T17:52:00.001+10:00

NASA 18 – NASA Sings, Requiem for the Rockets.

The above NASA painting is the 18th in a series of 30 paintings. Each work is painted in acrylic on a 90x70cm canvas, using three vague primary colours, black and white. The works each have three characters and a range of recurring motifs and props. The theme is loosely about western culture, metaphorically represented by NASA. Another 12 paintings and the series will be complete, and the story told.

Black gesso on small and large 16:9 paintings.

The next series is based on the idea, and format of the 16:9 ratio used by current HD television and DVD. The format was designed as an all encompassing format to cater for all previous film and television formats. The series of 10 will actually be, twin small and large paintings, making up 20 works in all. The black gesso background, is similar to the black no picture state of television. Colour will be added to this field of black, just like colours are switched on in a screen. The content of the image will relate to film/video ideas and terms – so far I have been working with a few ideas, but they are only nebulas at this stage – the small painting is meant to be the study for the larger work. Eventually, I will put paint to panel and post the beginnings on ArtSmelter – at least the supports are built and ready to roll.

Youtube : Important Australian Artists

2010-10-07T20:11:00.000+10:00

Video from Eva Breuer Art Dealer - Youtube.

Just another funny drawing.

2010-09-27T00:11:00.001+10:00

The Faceless Fool Deconstructing Away From the Light

This drawing on paper is almost finished – the back wall has some work, then take another photo and shove it in a pile, with the rest of them.

Showcase Review : Benjamin Drake

2010-09-23T17:32:00.000+10:00

Benjamin Drake is an illustrator and animator from Queensland. His work speaks for itself, with it's beautiful flowing lines, accurate representation and sometimes quirky sense of humor.

More of Ben's work can be found at Benjamin Drake's Art Blog.

Angry World

2010-09-17T13:52:00.001+10:00

NASA Series 1-17

2010-09-01T10:28:00.001+10:00

YouTube is better than TV

2010-08-30T12:47:00.000+10:00

A quick search around YouTube, and you will find an amazing collection of stuff. Just like the internet, one can find literally anything on anything. This video below is from the sixties, and has interviews with Australians living in London – the first interviewed is Brett Whitely.

This second YouTube is an early art video from the seventies by Bill Viola. This one I found on a list of the 50 greatest art videos on YouTube as listed by the Guardian/Observer in the UK. That list was from 2008, but by now I suspect there are thousands more art clips to be seen, including all the contemporary artist who see this as a platform to release and share their own work.

Of course there is a lot junk out there in You tube land, and obviously one doesn’t have time to sift through it all. But in saying that, if you know what you are looking for or need a place to store videos to share, then You tube has a lot going for it. Here is a dubious art video – Burger Grease Art – in some ways it says a lot about You Tube, McDonalds and sensationalism.

But one thing I watch on You tube more than anything else, is music videos. Why wait for a good Doco. to come on television, when you can dial up a music clip or interview from practically any time on any artist. Here is ‘Turn up you radio’, by the Masters Apprentices from 1970, Australia.

The good thing and bad thing about You tube is that it constantly changes. Good, because it remains vibrant and interesting, but bad, if a video has been removed, or the link works no more – sort of like life really.

Film Review : 1408

2010-08-23T14:13:00.001+10:00

Review by Simon Kiorgaard.

Directed by Mikael Håfström

Main actors : John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson.

On the outset, this film looks like any regular horror movie. Man enters a haunted house – hotel apartment in this case – and is challenged to come out the next morning mentally and physically well. Over the night a series of supernatural events occur which present the possibility of mental and physical harm. But you would be mistaken if you thought that this would be a mere regurgitation of Hollywood crap.

What makes this not just your regular horror movie; is that it’s genuinely frightening, psychologically demanding, heartbreaking and overall executed with supreme elegance.

Mike Enslin is a middle aged novelist with a troubled history; in the past his daughter died from disease, he split up with his wife and descended into an obsession with the supernatural. It is important to note however, that he is by no means a quack, he is in fact a critical and obscenely cynical skeptic; driven to write horror novels about supposedly haunted rooms he has personally visited and stayed the night at. It is indeed his self-professed goal to encounter a real ghost or poltergeist. His hunt leads him to the Dolphin Hotels’ room 1408, which is where the main course of the film takes place.

This all occurs over the first fifteen or so minutes, and in this short space of time one becomes hopeless attached to the main character, one emphasizes with him, and so the trap is set.

From this point forward we have been acquainted with the two main characters, Mike Enslin and room 1408. And I cite room 1408 as a character, because that is what is. 1408 isn’t haunted by a ghost, a poltergeist or a demon, in Samuel L. Jacksons words – the hotel manger – “its just an evil f##### room”.

And so the stage is set, 1408 a malicious, cruel, malevolent, evil and utterly sadistic hotel room, versus, Mike Enslin, a sekptical, hard willed, novelist and recent divorcee.

Elegance... There is no time wasted with blood, gore, chainsaws or cheap thrills, this movie is about the psychological breaking of a single man.

I went for a drive around NZ.

2010-08-12T14:36:00.001+10:00

Big Hand sculpture, Lake Wanaka.

On the West Coast.

Outside Christchurch Art Gallery.

For what it’s worth…..

2010-07-19T12:21:00.001+10:00

Film Review : ERASERHEAD

2010-07-14T11:31:00.001+10:00

Review by Simon Kiorgaard.

Eraserhead by David Lynch

“A dream of dark and troubling things” – David Lynch. In a single sentence this is possibly the closest one can get to describing the film (it is in fact the only description of the film you will find on the DVD case, if you were so inclined to buy it). Here is a film completely in and of itself; inspired not by some other work of art but inspired by the imagination of the genius who conceived it – a dream as it were. And as dreams tend to be, this film is bizarre, unnatural and completely raw.

Any attempts at discerning a clear and flowing plotline from the film would be entirely futile. Furthermore, any attempt at finding objective meaning from the film would also be entirely futile like so many of Lynch’s other films. This movie is about a feeling, macabre, vile, anxious, fearful and wholly obscene.

From the very first sequence which goes for a whole ten minutes, we are immediately drawn into another world not by an intense action scene, a fast paced conversation or even an unusual soundtrack. One becomes immersed in a dark and mysterious atmosphere which exists through a series of unintelligible images and sounds.

We are acquainted with a middle aged man who sports a weirdly shaped haircut – who will later be revealed as the main character Henry Spencer – superimposed upon a small planet in outer space. As his head slowly drifts across the screen our point of view gradually focuses on the planet till we arrive at a crater. Inside of which we are introduced to a beastly man who proceeds to pull a series of levers which result in a small alien like creature crawling out of our main characters mouth. So ends the opening sequence and already one can tell that this film will be slow, deliberate and entirely unconventional.

From here we are presented with what one can infer will be the setting of the rest of the film; a rundown industrial zone teeming with urban decay. Henry Spencer who we previously saw floating in space is seen to be bustling through the streets as if someone were following him.

After a series of grotesque scenes involving Henry’s girlfriend and her family, Henry is informed that he is the father of a new born child. Or is it a child? The ‘thing’ in question could scantily be considered a child at all; in fact it could barely be considered even humanoid. Rather a grotesque devil spawn of which the movie is famous of. And so the movie descends into complete madness – one can never be sure whether a scene is part of Henry’s imagination or reality – until its vile and dramatic finish.

Here is a film with minimal dialogue, very few characters, a dark and mystifying setting, a bizarre soundtrack and an omnipresent atmosphere both intense and subtle all woven through and around the single immensely complex central character Henry Spencer and what appears to be combinations of his fantasies, desires, fears and deepest anxieties.

Not for the casual movie-goer; to truly enjoy the film one must be willing to immerse themselves in it’s ‘world’. Shutting it out or watching it from an objective stance will more than likely result in one coming out of the film thinking, “well that was a big waste of my time, not only was it extremely difficult to follow and boringly slow, but it was also obscene and offensive”.

It is no small wonder that Eraserhead is a cult film.

Dark smoke rising

2010-07-05T21:34:00.001+10:00

NASA 16 – The NASA Crisis

Work in Progress

2010-07-01T20:30:00.001+10:00

Halfway through Hell

2010-06-21T11:56:00.001+10:00

Holes in the ground and things underneath the surface. A few of my art works over the years have holes and people coming out of holes, or standing in holes or going down into holes. NASA #15 which has a hole is now finished.

NASA #15 : Dante, Virgil and NASA

The title relates to William Blake’s art works that were illustrations for Dante’s The Divine Comedy. Here is an example of Blake’s work, from the 102 illustrations he made for The Divine Comedy – Dante, Virgil and the Minotaur.

The Minotaur – William Blake

Here is another work, with hole, by Blake that influenced my drawing entitled "White Lies Last Dream”.

The Simoniac Pope – William Blake

White Lies Last Dream

The imagery in Blake’s work is fantastic, although I am not quite sure on his theology – but he does seem to be a fired up man. Here is NASA #11 – The Great Fires at NASA – it also has a hole.

NASA #11 – The Great Fires at NASA

In fact, I think all the NASA paintings have holes, but most of them are filled with water.

Flaunt Magazine : Katherine Bernhardt

2010-06-16T14:58:00.001+10:00

Katherine, based in Brooklyn, New York, is known for painting portraits of women based on pictures from glossy magazines and well-known consumer symbols using acrylics, all in an expressionistic, almost abstract style. The images below display the further abstract style which she has embraced more and more in recent times.

Images supplied by Flaunt magazine : Issue 109 – The Census Issue.

Showcase Review : Ron Mueck

2010-06-13T15:29:00.001+10:00

I checked out the Ron Mueck show at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane last Friday, and fortunately you can take photos of the work – as long as you have your flash off. The following photos are by Wendy Beuster, who managed to get quite a few good shots. I first saw Muek’s work back in 2005 at the Queensland Art Gallery – a giant pregnant woman – it was very impressive, and I have been a fan of his work ever since. The realism is amazing and uncanny, one gets a sense of life emanating from these works and a feeling of intimacy.

Anyway, here is a walk through of the show :

Dead Dad 1996-97

A Girl 2006

A Girl – feet detail

Wild Man 2005

Wild Man – hand detail

Woman with Sticks 2008

In Bed 2005

Two Women 2005

Old Woman in Bed 2002

Drift 2009

Mask II 2002

To check out the rest of Ron Mueck’s extraordinary work on show, you have until August the 1st 2010 at GOMA Brisbane.

16:9 moving composition to music.

2010-06-09T19:45:00.001+10:00

The above video is a composite of a still image, and a very short movie clip of an artist painting. The still image slowly glides across the 16:9 screen, while the superimposed movie clip has been slowed down. The music, from Simon Howard, has been added to create tension and acts as a timer for the whole transition. The idea is to have everything moving so slow, that the composition stands out. The idea of the 16:9 painting series is to create works that are informed by film/video, montage, collage, television and special effects, all within a 16:9 aspect ratio. I am thinking about using black gesso instead of white – which relates strongly to how television and video work. The background screen is black and then a light emerges to form the image. So, this video is the beginnings of a new painting series – the hard part will be translating what I find, as I experiment, on to a physical support using paint.

Deep Cycle vs Rinse and Hold

2010-06-04T21:02:00.001+10:00

Maze

2010-06-01T21:59:00.001+10:00

Multi-Dimensional Maze 1981

When I was in primary school, when I wasn’t running around the bush and climbing trees, I would spend quite a bit of time indoors creating complex mazes, for myself, and others to solve. Sometimes, I would create large mazes by joining lots of mini mazes together – lots of note paper and sticky tape. In high school I was quite interested in Op art, especially Bridget Riley’s stuff – I think I could see that my mazes had developed an optical effect. In grade nine and ten I started to experiment with little optical art works – none of which survive. The above maze was drawn at art college for an assignment on game making - it is what I call a multi-dimensional maze. Below is two close-ups of the above complex maze – the maze is actually about 90x60cm in size and drawn with a Rapidograph pen on illustration board.

Over the last 30 years, my interest in mazes has declined as my interest in art has grown, but I have drawn the occasional artwork that contains a maze – either in the background or as a feature – here is one example. EE Pencil (now Staedler 9B), and acrylic paint on cartridge paper.

East West 1987

Both of these mazes are solvable – the multi-dimensional maze is solvable on a few different levels.

Ratio 16:9 sample abstraction

2010-05-26T10:43:00.001+10:00

16:9 Close up blur.

Well, the next project in art, after or during the NASA series is the 16:9 series. 16:9 being the HDTV aspect ratio, that has now become very common. This next series of art works, will be based on 10-160x90cm paintings and 10-80x45cm collage paintings (mixed media). The smaller works will be the launching platforms (studies) for the bigger works. I haven’t decided on the subject matter yet, but I am leaning towards semi-abstract samples of real life, based on video stills and photos, mixed in a collage way.

16:9 Squarescape crop.

The 16:9 images here are just quick experiments with the format - photo and paintings altered and cropped to the 16:9 ratio, abstracted with various filters and colour settings using a variety of art programs. The smaller paintings, most likely will have a variety of sampled stuff plastered onto the work. The emphasis will be on sampling, especially as aspect ratio is about cropping, formatting, presenting, limiting, windowing, editing – everything in the 16:9 world. This article in Wikipedia explains how the 16:9 format was developed – basically the format encapsulates all other formats – TV, Photo, and all the other different movie film formats.

16:9 Video still altered.

The above video still is from an old movie camera film – Single 8 – I converted the film to video using my 16:9 digital Video camera, then dumped a single frame as a .jpg image. A few alterations were made in an art program. The sampled images I am hoping to push towards abstraction – just as the 16:9 is a form of sampled abstraction.

16:9 Photo crop altered.

In the process of cleaning up around the house, I decided to use some of these MDF boards below as supports for the 16:9 series. Both sizes can be seen here – so far I have enough free materials to build six of each – these are old packing sheets – some had broken corners and marks here and there, but fortunately they are now in a useable condition. I normally use 3mm MDF or 3mm hardboard, glued to a 31x19mm FJ pine frame, painted and sealed all round with acrylic primer/sealer/undercoat. The timber in the photo, I ripped into 31x19mm lengths on my table saw, used to be a an old water bed frame – nothing like free and recyclable.

16:9 The cutting boards.

our house 2

2010-05-23T23:14:00.000+10:00

This is just so you don't worry aboout the fish

our house

2010-05-23T19:29:00.000+10:00

A rhino drawing of our house - everything to scale. Detail added progressively.

This is a drawing of my house (roof off) and outlying buildings. The brown one on the right is my studio, it also has the gym equipment and my bikes in it. It is currently occupied by a black hole that devours any thought that enters it. The little building behind and to the left of it is the garden shed. It is being consumed by bougainvillea and honeysuckle but I havent drawn that in yet. The roof which is held up by a thick dowel curtain rod and a couple of bricks is collapsing under the weight of afore-mentioned plants; it leaks and everything that is stored in it gets wet in winter. The door closes only occasionally. consequently the floor is covered in a layer of rotting bougainvillea leaves - the pink ones.
There are more trees than the one that I have drawn and I fully intend to put them in sometime soon. The ground level of the area inside our fence has risen considerably over the last 14 years due to the amount of leaf litter that has fallen. Soon our hose will have a bank around it on top of which we will be able to erect fortifications - That is, if we are diligent in sweeping the patio and other areas immediately adjacent to the house. If we fail we shall be buried alive. Slowly.
The Patio, as shown, does not exist. The one that is there was put up by a couple of dodgy blokes who had little idea of what they were doing. When it rains the gutter in the valley between the house and the patio overflows and water cascades down in front of the windows. This is mainly annoying but does have a bright side being that it waters the patio pot plants and fills the dog's water bowl. A real labour saver.
We are getting a new patio which will require that I take on watering duties as above. It will have a wide box gutter which I have drawn in.
By-the-way, the principal reason for the drawing was to design the patio and see how the furniture would fit. It fits well. All the rest is superfluous. I have drawn some superfluous fish in the two big tanks but you can't see them because the lounge-room wall is in the way - same sort of thing applies to the pantry door knob. You can, however, see the doggy towel drapped over the back of one of the patio chairs. This towel is more-or-less a permanent fixture. An observant person would note that the colour changes from time to time. This is due to the resident towel becoming a bit horrid and having to be replaced with a fresh one. All the doggy towels are old and scratchy and many have holes in them.
On the superfluous fish - they are superfluous to the patio design but retain a value intrisic to themselves. Each fish is non-superfluous to itself - not the ones in the drawing, the real actual ones in the tanks. The ones in the drawing are signs to something other than what they are - they indicate that fish exist in tanks which the surrounding block of colour in turn are indicative of.
Its a pity you can't see them on account of the lounge-room wall being in the way. It was a toss up between showing the patio and doggy towel or the fish tanks. If I had gone for the fish tanks I would be left having to explain the irrelevence of the doggy towel rather than the fish. Six of one and half a dozen of the other really.
Anyway, stay tuned for regular enthralling updates to OUR HOUSE.

The Running Man.

2010-05-19T23:20:00.001+10:00

Pencil, biro, collage, felt pen on white paper, scanned and altered on computer – I will have to learn how to paint like that one day – photo touch up programs, have a certain way of suggesting new ways of painting.

Be still and know.

2010-05-17T22:57:00.001+10:00

It’s not a question of whether painting is dead or painting is alive, but rather, it’s about our sense of experience. In some ways, it could be said that painting is dead, because it cannot hold our experience for very long. But on the other hand, it is one of those essential, expressions as experience that one should find time to enter into.

Furry Headphones

Is the electronic image the height of artistic expression as experience, or an example of the narrowing capacity of ones ability to truly enter into a substantial experience? In some ways those who are learning to paint or beginning to experience any art form, are entering in to the experience at a slower rate, and therefore are having a substantial experience. But generally those who have had greater art exposure can experience more broadly and with greater understanding. It’s not that painting is dead, but our sophistication, knowledge and ability to see so much art now, is fragmenting our experience.

Scratch my Eyeball

The proliferation of images, sounds and words via electronic media are distorting our sense of time and experience. We search for more and more, which wearies the flesh, and leaves the soul wanting more and more experience. Maybe, the stillness of a painting will become the resting place for a generation, who has exponentially hurled their souls on to the burning heap of electronic collective experience - just as many people feel the comfort and stillness of a paper book – compared to the fleeting knowledge pipeline of an Ipad or computer screen.

Glasshouse Knose

What is materialism? What is an object that you keep? What is information? What is experience? Collectors, collect things that give them a sense of joy. The objects embody for them, an experience they want to return to – they want to prolong the experience. Too many material possessions can bind us up, which in turn, limits our experience. Throwing things away, normally leads to a great sense of relief. Too much information can also limit our ability to enter into our experience. Instead we lose control, and begin to fret - due to the fact that we cannot hold onto our experiences long enough to make any sense of them.

Painting is secure because, an art form solely based on oblique and intangible ideas that flirt with art, can only lead to a superficial experience. Painting is still, it is us that is moving. The problem for us now, is that the art is now moving, and moving very quickly.

All this makes me wonder about music and the nature of experience.

By the time I get to 30.

2010-05-11T16:36:00.001+10:00

NASA 14 – NASA and the Time of the Rockets - 2010

I think by the time I finish this series, I will want to paint some paintings a little less spontaneous, and maybe, also a bit more realistic. But then again, by the time I get to NASA #30, I might have totally destroyed myself and become like one of these little astronauts or worse yet like the larger more nefarious figure. Anyway, NASA 14 is finished and is posted in the Blogosphere for all 6 billion of you to see.

For those who care, or don’t know, or have an incurable desire to explore links (like some sort of itch, buried deep at the base of your cerebral cortex) NASA is a series of like looking paintings – a series of 30 paintings loosely rotating that sovereign and extra earth fixed planet called NASA – all this of course is a metaphor and smudgy allegory for our own journey as survivors of the 20th century, traversing through time like wandering sheep following the shepherd of the west.

Each little painting (90x70cm) is one sector of a larger grid – with the right device one can ascertain ones position in this grid and delve into the mysterious of the last 50 years – it’s sort of like a painters talisman – NASA roulette for the spooky.

This NASA painting has a interesting double exposure thing happening on the left side – like a roll of film caught between two slides. Another cosmic happening in this painting is the reference to the water canopy theory and the weird behavior of the clouds.

Oh, well back to NASA 15 – NASA and the not so Shuttle.

It maybe hot in Surfers paradise......

2010-05-10T12:32:00.000+10:00

.....but it's Cool-in-gatta.

Brisbane and Glasshouse : early works.

2010-05-10T00:38:00.001+10:00

Before I left Brisbane in the mid eighties, I was painting the Brisbane Suburban landscape. The work above was from around 1988 (just before I left to move to the Sunshine Coast) and describes the red, corrugated, steel roofing, dotted amongst the treed hills - typical of Brisbane's old Queenslander house style. It is drawn in acrylic and EE pencil on paper.

This one is another old Queenslander house, that some friends of mine lived in at Morningside – they have the painting and this is the only surviving image I have – I am not sure if it still exists.This would have been painted around 1984 – I think by memory it was acrylic on canvas.

After moving to the Glasshouse Mountains region in the late eighties, I started experimenting with bigger canvas’s again – the above work, was one of the first . Up to that time I had been, producing works on paper for around 5 years straight. At the time I was trying to reproduce what I had done on paper onto a larger format in paint only, sans pencil . The work is executed in acrylic on hardboard.

Skin head

2010-05-07T22:26:00.001+10:00

Well, I have changed the URL of ArtSmelter and I hope everyone can still find it. This is just a test posting and not a new series of paintings that I am working on. Actually it’s my new look - the bald headed wigs are so sweaty and itchy when your out in the street – but no one cares – but really it’s just the latest thing in artist looks to replace the old beret style.

I have inserted two bits of HTML coding onto the old ArtSmelter HTML template. One to re-direct to the new ArtSmelter URL and the other to tell the search engines to ignore the old URL. I hope it all works – anyway, this time next year, it won’t even matter.

If you got here then leave a comment so I can see it all works.

Flaunt Magazine : Music Video

2010-04-30T10:34:00.001+10:00

Video by Flaunt magazine and DJ MartyParty

Video includes :Charlotte Gainsbourg, Terence Koh, Vincent Cassel, Diana Al-Hadid, Lizzi Bougatsos, BOXeight Studios,Tim Kent, John Baldessari, Eikoh Hosoe, Tracy Emin, assume vivid astro focus, Kurt Iswarienko, Masaharu Morimoto, Sam Bassett, Gilles Bensimon, Yinka Shonibard, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Jim Shaw, Skingraft, Jeffery Sebelia, Louis Verdad, Rami Kashou among others.

In the studio – state of flux.

2010-04-20T23:25:00.001+10:00

NASA #13 is now finished – for those who don’t know, I am working on a series of 30 paintings, called the NASA series – I have another 17 to paint. Below is the last three, the rest of them can be seen on my website here.

NASA 13 - The Principle of NASA rises in the East

NASA 12 – The NASA Space Odyssey

NASA 11 – The Great Fires at NASA

drawings

2010-04-20T23:12:00.000+10:00

I love the feel of a sharp pencil on paper, it doesn't much matter what it does

Henry Moore

2010-04-18T23:43:00.001+10:00

Reclining Figure - 1951

I found this great photo on Wikipedia. The photographer was Andrew Dunn.

It really shows how good this Henry Moore sculpture is.

2010-04-16T12:26:00.002+10:00

The daily studio stuff……

2010-04-13T22:31:00.001+10:00

Having a hot chocolate drink, looking at my latest painting on the easel, picking up the STUDIO book for a bit of inspiration and listening to JJ Cale.

The beginnings of NASA # 13 - The Principle of NASA Rises in the East. And then a bit more paint ……

Moved the boat, added the third tube of paint, and then thought….. this NASA painting has a different type of composition. But then again….

Let’s not panic, I think it might turn out OK in the end, and besides a new thing happening might sustain me for a few more works. The figures on the rope/poles might need a few issues sorted out – limbs look a bit out of whack.

This is one of my don’t waste paint pads – any excess painting from an easel work is transferred to the nearest bit of paper, then slowly built up into some odd work. This one has a title – Paint on my Hands but that's OK – here’s a close up……

I have been painting on the back of some old vinyl, using acrylic and masking tape – it works well and has a built in dimpled texture. I like the blue one the most – it could become a Squarescape painting, using torn bits of paper as the masking.

The rejection or failure of the American/Australian dream seems to create a vacuum that leads people to the arts – maybe that's why there are so many artists nowadays – a quasi spiritual quest to find ones own meaning and purpose away from the dictates of the ruling class. But then again ……

……it might just be fun being in the studio, with your own thoughts.

ABC ARTS : The Edge

2010-04-08T12:13:00.002+10:00

ABC Arts blogger Marcus Westbury visits The Edge, the State Library of Queensland's new digital cultural centre. Video from ABC ARTS.

Flaunt Magazine : GREG LAUREN

2010-04-02T18:59:00.001+10:00

Fabricating façades of masculinity

written by Paul Oshima

For the artist Greg Lauren (nephew to Ralph), the particulars of his life are inextricably linked to fashion. Delving beneath the power of the tailored surface, Lauren builds upon a more nuanced understanding of the personal as political. His recent New York exhibition at 28 Wooster Street, “Alteration,” consisted of works that deconstructed recognizable social artifacts, ranging from the now-ubiquitous comic book superhero to the bridal gown. “It’s really looking at identity and image development,” Lauren explains, “how we become who we are and what shapes what we think we should be.”

Though fashion is a major theme in Lauren’s life, it is by no means the heart of his work. Based in Los Angeles and New York, Lauren has found that his preferred painting surface is a specialized, textured paper, which imbues his paintings with an emotive and sculptural quality. For “Alteration,” Lauren used similar paper to sew 40 iconic men’s garments (primarily suits and jackets). Constructed out of paper, the pieces, drained of color and made functionless, became fragile, curious, and lucid. The associated ideologies are deconstructed. “It’s very, very hard to figure out who we’re allowed to be,” says Lauren on this transference and morphing. “Especially with younger people, there is so much pressure to be a certain kind of person, a certain kind of man.”

Lauren encourages negotiations with identity. These are evident in the additional elements of “Alteration”: cloth garments—created with regalia gathered during major points in his life—and an operational workstation. The pieces feature various touches, such as journal entries sewn into the fabric, offering an experiential and personal foil to the propagandistic nature of the show, which included, for example, Superman comic book pages inlaid into a paper military jacket. The workstation, too, refines identity into an ongoing, perpetual process. To leave the comfortable confines of acceptable social mores for a better, although uncertain, manner in which Lauren suggests, the work will never stop.

For more information visit GregLauren.com.

Article kindly supplied by Flaunt magazine.

Just for the heck of it.

2010-03-31T23:14:00.001+10:00

Persistence of Degradation – The Misogynist

Acrylic and Ink on MDF - 122 x 94 cm

David Howard – 2010

The above painting was based on a series of quickly drawn nudes from a stint of life drawing episodes, from a few years ago. In this work the figures are in various stages of obliteration – sort of a loss of information, leaning towards stylising and becoming iconic.

In some ways this loss of information becomes new information added, as the images take on new meanings. Originally the concept of the nude studies was to take the figure drawn and elevate them beyond just studies into something else.

This re-contextualising the figures takes the focus of the sloppy drawing (as a study) and in turn generates interests in the situation or event depicted.

Two male figures surrounded by females who are in various stages of degradation. The halos, are sort of like a quadruple holiness or a transcendence that magnifies. And just for the heck of it (because I didn’t have much else to sacrifice at the art altar) I have entered it with a few other obscure David works at the local competition. I will be surprised if I get a hanging – but really, I just don’t know what these people want – so, I will try anything.

This is a detail from ‘Judy’s Last Wave’ – I just had to take this photo because it’s as plain as the nose on your face, that I never finished drawing the nose. This of course, for me, makes the piece have tension and will forever be some sort of irritant – until it is destroyed, long after I have died by someone, somewhere, who no doubt thought they had been cursed by this drawing.

Flaunt Magazine : Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster

2010-03-27T21:21:00.001+10:00

Written by Heather Corcoran | Photographed by Rishad Mistri

It’s a rainy November morning when I show up at the Museum of Modern Art. I find myself nervous to meet Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. Just 12 hours ago, I attended her insanity-inducing “K.62” performance piece, a collaboration with experimental conductor/composer Ari Benjamin Meyers and part of the Performa performance art biennial. This is how it happens:

You get a call telling you to show up at a bookstore at 8 p.m. No earlier, no later. There you meet your company while a violinist plays something vaguely familiar. You’re handed an envelope that says “K12” and told to get in a cab that drops you off outside a nightclub. You walk through the door and into one of the most common nightmares in the collective unconsciousness: you’re onstage facing a packed house and you have no idea what the hell is going on.

That’s one way of experiencing it.

And then there’s another, and that’s how it happened to me. I show up at the Henry Street Settlement on Manhattan’s Lower East Side with my sister. We’re each given a ticket—mine blue, hers red—and sent to separate theaters. Every once in a while some riffs on an oboe come from the back of the room. After 30 minutes, a headset-wearing, clipboard-carrying assistant type apologizes—we’re in the wrong room. We’re taken to reunite in a larger theater where the waiting really begins.

I resist all urges to claw out my eyeballs as I patiently wait for something to happen onstage. After an hour, wide-eyed bodies start to emerge from the door at the back of the stage. Gonzalez-Foerster shows up and mimes her way through a Spanish guitar solo before giving a soliloquy on Martin Scorsese’s After Hours, one of two Kafkaesque films that inspired the evening (the other was Orson Welles’s interpretation of The Trial). The film “irritated” her, she explains, but 20 years later, she can’t get it out of her head. An orchestra shows up from the audience. They play. Meyers does a magic trick and talks about The Trial, and the frightening feeling of insanity that comes with having no idea what is happening around you. Some people get up and leave.

The show ends and we we’re all invited to a club called After. After getting past the velvet rope, we find ourselves standing on the very stage we’d just spent the last two hours staring at. A very friendly guy with a video camera tells me there’s someone he wants me to talk to and from what I can piece together from the conversation, 20 people have been stripped of their names and given “K-numbers” (a nod to The Trial’s Josef K.) and sent to locations from After Hours, where a member from the orchestra waited. Scattered throughout Manhattan, the 20 musicians simultaneously (but separately) played music from the film’s soundtrack, which was piped into the theater through the occasional phone call.

In Gonzalez-Foerster’s hyperliterate work—whether installation or film, or a mixture of the two—time and space are the media. She doesn’t set out to prove something; she’s more like a scientist building an experiment. The hypothesis behind “K.62”: “What if the time you spent going to the theater was, in fact, more important than the performance itself?’”

The piece, with its if-a-tree-falls-and-no-one-hears-it ambiguity (it seems Gonzalez-Foerster’s answer is yes) and cross-cultural references, is emblematic of a lot of her work. The artist builds environments layered with personal memories and cultural citations. Her short films have turned the spotlight on cities through a series of seemingly mundane experiences. She turned the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern into a dystopian vision of London’s future where you could pick up a copy of H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds and read it under supersized versions of a public sculpture by Alexander Calder and Louise Bourgeois. At the Dia Foundation’s Hispanic Society, she built dioramas, with the help of the Natural History Museum, filled with books instead of fauna.

In situations like this, ideas of beginning and end are meaningless. Her work relies, instead, on an audience to activate it. She presents the situation, and then it’s open to the audience to play the role of detective.

But what about those people who left the performance? If they didn’t make it all the way to the big reveal, did they fully experience the piece? “It’s one of the possibilities,” says Gonzalez-Foerster. “It’s also one possibility that’s given to any audience at any show—to leave; why not? Maybe the person who left, she got out and then she did something else that she wouldn’t have done… it’s still connected. I would say this is the beauty of that structure. At one point, the way it’s set, it can include almost any accident or event.”

If you follow that logic, then the community created with “K.62” includes the audience in the theater, all the Ks, and every one of the people they pass on their journeys. You could probably say that about everything—the idea of the unfortunate butterfly who flaps his wings in China causing a rainstorm in Central Park—but how often do you think about it? That’s the space where Gonzalez-Foerster works.

To get to those questions, those elemental experiences, you have to shake things up, change some parameters, and maybe even get a little uncomfortable, she explains. It’s an artistic sentiment that spills into her real life, half of which is spent in her native France, the rest in Rio. “This is why I like to live in Brazil and, in a way, I would say ‘less-controlled’ environment—because the fact that certain things are less predictable makes me feel that I have to be more awake. It’s almost like something uncomfortable wakes you up, but then it means you’re also more conscious of nice things, you know?”

That doesn’t mean she enjoys playing some sadistic game of puppet-master. It’s more of an Andy Kaufman-like attempt to wake people up. “At one point, yeah, you feel a bit evil, but then you also know it’s for the beauty of something.”

This attempt to shake the status quo is why her work frequently references others, whether through appropriation or collaboration, with an audience, or with other artists. (With Balenciaga designer Nicolas Ghesquière, she deconstructed and rebuilt the concept of a retail store; she frequently works with the likes of Pierre Huyghe and Rirkrit Tiravanija).

“I don’t believe in style and identity,” she says, suggesting that what she finds interesting instead is revealing those things that she is made of—the books and films and people and places that she’s encountered all her life. “For me, the whole thing is an endless chain. At one moment, as a person, you are one possible editing of all this material.”

Details on the artworks can be found in the original article by clicking here.

Article kindly supplied by Flaunt magazine.

Talent is a curse

2010-03-24T17:21:00.001+10:00

by Blair McNamara

talent is a curse - and I have it

I am talented, now please get out of my way

talent is what you do for a living

talent is pain, please cure me

talent has no plumbing or switch

talent is a nuisance…go away & let me get on with creating

talent is useless for wants instead of needs

talent is of no use to the working man (or the plan)

talent is free

talent lies idle

I have more talent than you

I have no more talent to give

I just discovered my true talent

talent is a curse if you explain how you make money

talent is of no practical use

will the last talent to leave the building please leave the light on

talent is best kept for those secret occasions to surprise family guests

talent is useless without the brand

talent is a label

is there a drug to cure talent?

am I addicted to my talent?

talent stings my eyes

I cannot afford to be talented

this is no time to be using your talent

take one step backwards and talents unite

a talent scout is wearing the davie crocket hat

being a talent is a good way to burn your way through the village

there are no sweet dreams with talent

take this talent away from me so that I do not give you any ideas

Childish = Now

2010-03-22T20:57:00.001+10:00

I have been roaming the whole world looking for an art that stirs my soul. I have been arrested on the streets of Pompeii, for calling out before that fateful day. Why have we become so childish: myself not wanting to offend the young, who believe with a pure faith?

I call out in the streets, “Where is the gutsy art”? Is a way of life a substitute for the real thing? The echoes of past heroes, bounce along the electronic band wave like pawns, brutally abused: not by gods or goddesses but by illegitimate terrible enfants.

Helicopter Day

And so Duchamp’s last painting brutally descends, as old man Dylan, mourns in a croaky voice, “the only thing we know about Dylan, is Dylan was not his real name”.

Circus Camel

I wish I could find an art so pure, an art so mature, an art so sincere, an art so real, an art that meant something, an art so now that it lasted forever and was always in vogue. An art that reached down into the depths of my soul and ripped asunder the impoverished childish bloat and transformed me into an innocent child, who gleamed with eyes of wonder.

Alas, childish = now.

Instant Child

Flaunt Magazine : Diana Al-Hadid

2010-03-19T09:22:00.001+10:00

Written by Maxwell Williams | Photographed by Dorothy Hong

I met Diana Al-Hadid during last year’s Art Basel in Miami, where I helped her deconstruct one of her pieces—a manatee-sized skeletal tower made of crumbly-looking polymer gypsum honeycomb with a metal and wood infrastructure—in preparation to ship it back home to her studio. Heavy and colossal as it was, the sculpture seemed so fragile. We watched it rumble down the road and then Al-Hadid drove to Disney World.

We next met at her studio, a cathedral-sized space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where we ate falafel and listened to R&B hits while building shelves to house her sizeable working materials and molds. And though we’ve been in touch since, there’s a lot I don’t know about her. I know she was born in Syria, but not that she lived in Saudi Arabia. “Then we moved to the suburbs of Cleveland,” she says over the phone from Florida, where she is working on a residency at the Institute for Research in Art at the University of South Florida, Tampa. “We eventually moved to North Canton, Ohio, which is where my parents are still.”

That the most recognizable building in Canton is the pigskin-shaped Football Hall of Fame is severely at odds with Al-Hadid’s work; her sculptures resemble monuments seen while traveling by dream to far away destinations. “Self Melt” (2008), for example, could be a Tower of Pisa turned upside down, inside out and melted in a microwave. An earlier series of pipe-organ-cum-shrines evoke mutated church basements where hunchbacks and phantoms roam and take turns bashing out haunting arias. It seems at times the organs could shuffle away on their own. “People tell me that [my work] could come to life,” says Al-Hadid. “Or that it died.”

Al-Hadid’s more architecturally-focused works are less animated, yet they’re still imbued with a sense of humanness and unsaid presence. “The body is implied not just in architecture,” Al-Hadid intones, “but in sculpture, generally. You understand a sculpture viscerally. You compare it, psychologically, by the scale of your own body.” One can walk around Al-Hadid’s work and sense that it’s intended to be explored like a ruin from another time, to be studied, to extract information about human interface with objects.

Despite the invitation from her pipe organs to be played, or her towers’ beckoning for human interactivity, Al-Hadid, a bit embarrassed for allowing magic into such earthly works, eschews them with literal figuration. “Part of the reason that I avoid working with the fully formed figure is—and I’m not a practicing Muslim—but it’s really superstitious. Sculpture has that anyway, when it’s doing a good job. It is alive. But I would avoid making the figure look alive because there’s this superstition that I have where I would risk something actually getting up and moving. I don’t think that’s actually going to happen, but if anything I would want the non-figurative work to be alive.”

Mystic sensibilities in her work are inspired from a variety of angles. Recently, Al-Hadid reunited with a former high school acquaintance who had just moved to New York. He happened to be a world famous magician. “He does ‘close-up’ magic; it’s very intimate. Magicians: these are people that have secrets about the other side of the universe. It feels like [it, anyway]! They have presumably solved the laws of gravity. That stuff that you want to have power over, as a sculptor.” Motivated by a newfound sense for achieving the previously-thought implausible, for her residency in Tampa, Al-Hadid built a spiraling tower of what appears to be playing cards—a visual wink to the precariousness of her creations. In another recent work, “Actor” (2009), Al-Hadid returns to veiled figuration; her examination of the classic form of a woman in repose collides with her newfound interest in illusion and magic. “They both portray a sense of levity,” she says. “The ground that she’s sitting on is a spiral galaxy. You can’t really tell [she’s touching the ground].”

Al-Hadid appears to be pushing away a little bit from the towers she’s become known for, though her work is still monumental. “I’m still young in my career,” says the 28-year-old, “so I can work on something for one year. I have had a year of really, really studying pipe organs and music and architecture, and the next year [I studied] architecture as ridiculously absurd ambition. This year I just want to try to make more constructive things and to try to introduce the character into the narrative again.” And hence the woman in repose? “I guess it’s a critique,” she explains. “I’ve always had this thing about the dramatic women that faint. There’s this dizzying vertigo. I’m not concentrating on the figures; it’s really about the clothes on her. It’s me trying to sculpt how someone would paint the fabric. With that posture, the clothes take on this mountainous landscape.”

When Al-Hadid shares about her process, one begins to realize why her work appeals to the rugged, largesse-fetishizing, blowtorch lovers in the art world. She’s nearly giddy explaining the history, the sizes, the leitmotifs and so on. There is a sort of grand dance of nature in her words, which explain the massive dynamic that she evinces so well. “There are a lot of materials that melt in my work,” she laughs. “[And one] looks almost like it’s shredded. It’s something between constructed and de-constructed. It is pulling it apart, but it’s distilling it in a way—locating all the fragments. It’s breaking it down. It’s like how you pull a chicken apart, fragmenting. But it’s not like I work with one thing and then pull it apart. I’m actually constructing it, which is a weird irony. I’m adding more than I’m removing.”

Article kindly supplied by Flaunt magazine.

Showcase Review : Blair McNamara

2010-03-17T12:06:00.001+10:00

By Blair McNamara

My artwork is a chronology of changes occurring along the coastal plain.

Title: SURF COVE

Year: 2006

Medium: mixed media on canvas

Size: 100 x 110cm

Price: AU$5,200.oo

Through paintings, drawings, collage, photography, montage, installations and musical compositions I record the relationships between the visual and sound landscape. My fascination with the grid, the play-of-light, the layering of surfaces, the inherent energies found in nature, the abstraction of the shoreline and cultural diversity all inspire me.

Title: POSITIVES / NEGATIVES # 9

Year: 2002

Medium: acrylic on canvas

Size: 140 x 120cm

Price: AU$5,200.oo

With the coming of mass car ownership most Australian families had a car by the mid 1960’s to get to the beach. Around that time I was born the youngest in a family that went surfing all year round. My dad was an active Surf Lifesaving official and worked away a lot as a traveling salesman. He took us everywhere in that company car, even out west occasionally. Back in the 50’s my mother was apparently a page-3 beach girl a couple of times before she became a devoted housewife with 3 boys.

Title: GOLD COAST INDY #1

Year: 1993

Medium: mixed media on arches

Size: 66 x 51cm

Price: AU$2,100.oo

By the 1970’s and 80’s Australia’s coastal towns were well and truly a wonderland destination. I had evolved into a surf addict, taking annual safaris down the east coast, running around to Granite Bay during a cyclone or thrashing an old car up the beach to surf Double Island.

For over 25 years I have been consistently producing and presenting my work. Having grown up immersed in surf culture, my art is a life of observing, recording and researching the rapid spread of coastal urbanization. My personal philosophies about livability and sustainability have been informed by experiences of the global beach, from Bondi to Brazil.

Title: TOBOGGAN HILL

Year: 2000

Medium: acrylic on canvas

Size: 200 x 120cm

Price: AU$5,800.oo

By 2005, my life-long artistic observations of Coolum Beach were assembled to create the “coodabin/shoodabin” art exhibition at the University of the Sunshine Coast Art Gallery to ponder the paradoxes of the current construction craze brought on by the ‘sea-change’ phenomenon in my seaside community.

The exhibition’s title, ‘Could-Have-Been / Should-Have-Been’ is a metaphor for what people generally discuss about change. This cultural-map of Queensland’s built environment is recognised by some of the country’s best academic, government and architectural institutions.

As a unique record of Sunshine Coast history, “coodabin/shoodabin” embodies the textures, stories and spirit of Coolum’s evolution and sets up a seminal dialogue that artistically portrays the dynamics at play in this contemporary culture of speculation.

Title: SURF OPTIQUE

Year: 2004

Medium: acrylic on canvas

Size: 200 x 150cm

Price: AU$5,800.oo

From both the exhibition and my later involvement with Sea change Taskforce Australia came a community arts project. In 2008, I was accepted as 2009’s artist-in-residence at the Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery to experience the wonders of the Coral Coast region and formulate my ideas into a solo “coodabin/shoodabin – coral coast” art exhibition which concluded 24th January 2010.

My personal presentations of “coodabin/shoodabin” or art workshops are available to community groups, educational institutions, corporations or clubs.

Title: WINDOW

Year: 2007

Medium: acrylic on board

Size:153 x 125cm

Price: AU$3,800.oo

For further information or your enquiries are most welcome through my website: www.blairmcnamara.com

4960

2010-03-13T09:56:00.000+10:00

I think this is finished - well, almost. It is 1.9 x 1.3 m or there-abouts and it is my entry for the Vasse prize.

spiral

2010-03-11T23:46:00.000+10:00

this was drawn in Rhino 4 WIP for Mac. It is very cool software and is getting better with each new release - the updates usually come once a month, sometimes twice and its free until they finish it. There is a version 5 in progress for pc but I don't know if it is free to download like the mac version.

Early

2010-03-05T21:52:00.001+10:00

Early is fun and always free from constraint.

Early is full of hopes and dreams.

Early is always on time because time doesn’t matter.

Early is awkward and doesn’t care.

Early relishes even the mad thoughts.

Early is pretty well full of innocence.

Early is pretentious when it matters.

Early doesn’t mind being seen in the street.

Early will fight over principles, then change the rules next week.

Early falls in love and does crazy things.

Early lasts a short while.

Here are a few early works ………….

River Rocks 1981

Little No Exit Altered 1982

Family Slide Altered 1980

Crazy Guy messing around.

2010-03-03T12:18:00.001+10:00

I finally settled on a new web page using Weebly. After lot’s of searching and hacking around in the dense jungles of the internet, I found a system that comes very close to making me happy and not going totally crazy. And of course it’s free unless you want to make it into a full domain like ‘dehoward.com’, instead of a sub-domain like ‘dehoward.weebly.com’. The picture below will take you to my new web page.

Also, I have finally added a new posting to my ArtProofer blogging site. I am currently looking for co-conspirators to write articles etc. Let me know if your interested.

On a final note, I have started a blog called Pandanus which will initially just be photos , but may include other art or related items down the track – let me know if you want to be a contributor.

NASA

2010-02-11T11:28:00.001+10:00

The series so far: 1 to 10 in a series of 30.

Twister at NASA

Baptism at NASA

NASA Lost in Space

NASA and the Giant

Major Flood at NASA

NASA in a Time of Peace

Romance at NASA

The NASA Control of Culture

NASA in a Time of Drought

Space Oddity at NASA

Showcase Review: Shift

2010-02-05T22:46:00.002+10:00

What can I say, my head is full, and needs to me milked – so crammed with concepts and crazy ideas, about what is art, what is an art career, and what the history of a single artist life in a complex world might look like.

Cycling backward, towards Lewis Carroll, and then reverberating through the troller’s mind catching glimpses of paradigms and eons. Icons floating and emerging spontaneously and then resting, dissolving from their iconic status.It’s not all about pretty pictures: it’s more like, wheels within wheels, and tumbling statues into the abyss, resurrecting into new forms, new thinking: a shift – a total quantum leap.
I have read the manuscript, and heard the sacred words, but find I am left alone to conquer my own thoughts and reconcile the incoming through my portals.

Chicken Fox, shy but sly, always looking, always finding, her eye is delicious and her mouth viscous. How can one keep up with a thinking artist, whose work emerges on flat panels from millions of words, scraped and sanded, washed away like the changing sands. Then deep penetration, Ernst like, excitement builds but slowly – spontaneity sets in as the chicken becomes a fox and the image arises almost without thought and so the dialogue begins.

I had an idea, a keen idea, I almost laughed out loud as my hands adroitly shifted space and time – little objects tumbling down the worm hole and remerging as if tossed back out by a mad hatter. I can do it, I really can do it, I can really do it well – how does it not break, this golden cord that stretches between objects and myself. Duchamp's mystic creatures, the clashing of the found and the ageless, death and life, solid and rusty like rock and old chromed metal, all told in a whimsical and confident tale.

I searched for my name, on what I thought was the sacred cow, only to discover that only the famous are allowed on a dead but living beast. I thought of the harlot who rides the beast in revelation, when worlds collide, and all is revealed, when the secrets of hearts are laid bare and the riches of the world are trampled under foot like magazines of despair written to justify anything but confess.

Then, I wandered back through time, to what I thought was an innocent time, but the writing was on the wall. I became a rabbit and leaped for joy, but the future the only future, emerged from the future of past writings, and spontaneously combusted in my head – I am no longer bound, but see promise in being a failure and jettison the life, I thought I owned and impart it’s trust to another – a sacrificial love.

Shift: an art experience. by LM Noonan and HEW Che Fong at the Sunshine Coast University Gallery -

1-27 February 2010.

More photos and commentary can be found on the …failed painter.

“to those who have ears let them hear”

my survey entry

2010-02-01T14:43:00.004+10:00

The south west survey is an annual exhibition that is normally run on a bring in your piccy and pay an entry fee; they have a selection panel and hang what they feel is the best of the bunch and someone wins a cash prize.
This year they have done it differently - the gallery has appointed Brown Art, an art consultant business to curate the show. Pippa and David are Brown Art; they have toured the southwest, visiting artists' studios, or whatever workspace they have, and selected the artists rather than the art. Each selected artist then cracks out a work specifically for the show. This is my effort; its 1800 x 1200 mixed media on mdf. There is no prize for the show and if I haven't been deselected at the last fence, i should get a $250 appearance fee.
Yesterday i fell off my mountain bike (twice) and broke my collarbone, so, i am typing one handed and have just gone off doing capital letters. hurts like billy-o.

I don’t like it when people look at me that way.

2010-01-31T21:28:00.001+10:00

I have almost finished NASA #10 – the great and long series of Caspar David Howard – the little white ghost of the art nether world. So here is a shot from the unfinished end of town – that’s the rough end of the studio.

This one has only taken a week so far – 5 minutes here, 20 minutes there and very few little worries. I suppose there is a point where I will have to think of the ultimate way of showing them. If I can do one a week (dreaming) then in 20 weeks I should be done – hmmm, maybe I should try and do two at once (nightmaring). I need a big white wall in a populated area, or thirty T-shirts and then write a paper on the joys of art as told by a small man in a Hardware uniform.

Here is a close up – it’s starting to energise a bit now and loose some of it’s simple cartoon feel. The little astro-priests need a final solution to finish them off.

One day I might paint some work that has some sort of practical function – i.e. is sellable or reasonable enough to put on a wall – problem is I lack ambition in the business side of things and prefer to plod along on my own terms.

I found another snake yesterday, this time only a few metres from my studio. Fortunately it was so small it could fit in the palm of my hand. But, from small things, big things grow, so I better finish my renovations and plug the holes.

This is a really tiny snake, about as thick as my little finger at it’s biggest.

I went to a great art opening today – LAWRENCE DAWS, “The Promised Land”. He was one of the painters that inspired me as a teenager, before and during my art college years. He was also the specially invited judge in my final year of my painting major – about 28 years ago. He had many of the qualities that I aspired too in an artist: symbolism, technique, mysticism, biblical references, the poetic, and the ability to emphasize and imbue an object or subject way beyond it’s normal reckoning. At 82 he is still a great painter and mentor: much can be learnt from his art and career.

Also, I bumped into quite a few other artists, who sometimes come out of the woodwork to take a little peek and pick up a few crumbs – aren’t we a cute little species. Some of the artists I had not seen for quite a few years and had an opportunity to catch up and trade web stuff.

Well, off to another show on Thursday, which should be a hoot. Loretta (The Failed Painter) and her partner Hew Chee Fong have a joint show at the Local University entitled “Shift” – can’t wait.

Hey, I might use this part of NASA #9 as inspiration for a future Squarescape painting – that’s as soon as I finish the current one.

Face me or facsimile.

2010-01-29T23:54:00.001+10:00

I am just starting to think about an artists talk that I will be presenting in a few weeks at Redcliffe Regional Gallery. The associated exhibition is entitled ‘How Artists see People” : so I thought I would focus on faces.

I am considering compiling a whole series of face pictures from the last 30 years of my artwork – if one can call it that. Just the faces only, compared and then discussed, bringing in references to other artists and so called art movements – whatever that means.

Generally I think of an artwork as whole thing and consider every part playing of another part. But, just isolating the faces, especially as mock Polaroids, does bring to light some interesting stuff.

Already, I have noticed a sense of character difference between the faces. Some artists, paint and draw like illustrators – they are great draughtsman but there figures are without soul. Other artists are all over the countryside stylistically and far less formal in their approach, but there figure work is full of life and expression.

Looking back over my drawings and paintings is something a self interested artist like myself does on a regular basis. This should prove to be not only an interesting and fun exercise, but also illuminate another way of looking at myself and other people, Yada, Yada, Yada.

I will punch…….

2010-01-28T12:40:00.001+10:00

Well, I finished the paling fence and yesterday I re-organised my tools, building materials and storage areas – this is in preparation for the next jobs - I need to put up some guttering and finish my studio space. The above photo is me discovering that my camera can be controlled by windows XP automatically – that’s my stunned mullet look.

We had a busy Australia Day – family members over having a BBQ and swimming in the pool – as usual for this time of the year it was hot and humid. Amidst all the preparations and projects, I found time to start NASA #10 which is almost finished – I really need to start pushing these works out to get the series finished before I get bored or too stale.

Here are a few progress shots -

The painting is actually a bit further progressed than this now but I we will keep that photo for later. The work was more dynamic as a sketch: the more colour I put on it the more it loses power – hopefully the black scribble outlines will create a bit of life. The work is looking a bit two flat and cartoonish as well – I am just dealing with those issues at the moment too – but all in all it is a typical NASA painting and should be finished in a few days.

The whole series is meant to be seen as one collective work, which hopefully will be a future show in a cool and supportive gallery. I will a post a composite of all ten paintings soon with a list of titles and a brief explanation of the concept.

Contradiction has become the promised land.

2010-01-19T21:23:00.001+10:00

NASA 9 – NASA in a Time of Drought – 2010

This one is a bit of a worry because the landscape is so green when the painting title states a drought. I have been wondering about this issue while applying the paint, and have come to the conclusion that this dilemma well represents propaganda.

The little astronauts are encircled in dry parched ground, while the surrounding landscape is green. The large central figure glaring down is half immersed in water and possibly represents totalitarianism. It reminds me of the climate change debate – those who believe and those who don’t or those who want you to believe and those that don’t want you to believe. I sit more to the middle and generally somewhere else on this issue – like most things that tactic polarise, a false dichotomy is usually in play.

What's funny is one astronaut is starting to drill, while the other is ready to start skiing – maybe a bit self delusion going on here as well.

Anyway #9 is finished and only 21 to go – I feel like The Little Steam Engine – “I think I can, I think I can…”

Almost finished the paling part of the pool fence – the above photo (taken at lunchtime) is the post and rails, then I started hammering palings on around about 5:30 tonight. Earlier on at about 10:00 am I ran into a snake that looked like this.

I was upstairs and heard birds squawking, so looked out the window to see this snake disappearing into the side garden. I ran out on the front deck to see where it had gone, and was surprised to see it nearly on the main road.

A car gave it a fright and it tore back into my front yard at a thundering pace – quickest snake I have ever seen – at least running speed. It disappeared around the side again and possibly into the paddock next door – I hope.

It was an Eastern Brown snake : the second most poisonous snake in the world – 12 times deadlier than a cobra. They are quite common in Australia especially on the east coast and around rural home areas. They can be very aggressive when cornered and account for the most snake bite deaths in Australia – as high as 4 a year – did I mention they are really quick.

So my little dogs stayed inside for most of the day and I walked around with my eyes constantly checking the ground – I will probably have a snake dream tonight.

Normally a dog would not have much of a chance if bitten – even vets normally suggest euthanasia – but I came across this website that suggests injecting the dog in the neck with a high dosage of vitamin C . There are a few amazing testimonials on the website.

More is more and don’t let that designer talk mess with your head.

2010-01-17T23:12:00.001+10:00

Well, I have done a little bit more on the drawing on the left – at least it has had some progress, that I think will lead it to completion. The drawing on the right is the next in line on my quest to get a few things finished: not just art finished but all my jobs. Today I worked on a paling fence which should be finished in a few days and then it’s back to completing the studio with another four walls to build and a ceiling to put in. In between these jobs the art is chugging along and hopefully going somewhere – I think it’s time to track down another show – something to work towards – maybe it’s time to move from ‘as’ to ‘shift’.

I have a small show of works in February at an arts community centre, but these will be older works and nothing new. I have a self portrait in a group show at a regional gallery in February as well as taking an artist talk at the same venue.

Some friends are having an opening early in February of all new works, which should be fun and inspirational. Artist are never satisfied and always want more – I personally thrive on art and generally have a pile of art books that follow me around the house. It is hard work to complete art and have a go, but I can’t be satisfied unless I am injecting some sort of new art stimulus into the brain to spur me on. Currently, I have renewed an art book from the local library at least 4 times – I did again yesterday – I threatened the library staff that I was going to keep it this time. It’s a book that shows the artists in their studios, which I find very stimulating – sort of like a visual autobiography laid bare for all to see. The book is called ‘STUDIO’ and features Australian artists.

Here is a quote from the book quoted by artist, Wendy Sharpe -

“If you can bore them in the right way, your reputation is assured”

- Somerset Maugham

I hope I bored you – whoever you are.

Back in Black

2010-01-13T20:11:00.001+10:00

Checked out a painting by Charles Blackman in a show at the Queensland Art Gallery. The work was one of many chosen by Lawrence Daws, from the Galleries collection. The work has vibrant colours on a black background, which is very typical of many of Blackman’s works.

I had a close look at the technique, which comprises of broken brushstrokes of high key colour over a very dark black ground – it’s very dramatic.

Recently, I have been cropping old work and doing a negative thing, which turns the white background black – like all the works on this posting.

Previously on this blog I mentioned the wish of mine to create works as vibrant and dramatic as these crops. Brush marks come alive and figures take on a new presence. Also, old colour schemes are washed away and replaced by some new and alien vision. Making works like these may need some rewiring to my brain to break old schemes – or maybe I should just copy the crops.

These next two paintings are from a very old series called the red man series: they become in reverse the aqua blue boys.

The process of fiddling with work on a computer, changes more than just the colour or heighten the drama – it shifts the meaning. This ex-redman has gone from a more peaceful painting to one with more menace – the dark smudge in the sky and on the head is due to a flash spot from a camera which in this version looks intentional.

Next in line will prance.

2010-01-02T17:48:00.001+10:00

Well the previous post’s artwork is now finished, and is now entitled, “Portal in Apricot Pink”. The above negative crop is from the next unfinished work, that I need to finish. It has a few scribbles on the bottom - “Nothing is really de-constructed only replaced” and “The faceless fool de-constructing away from the light” - these are random notes to myself and possible future titles.

Below is the real thing in a real context – all ready to go and not sure where to go. Maybe if I stare real hard, it will either disappear or some practical stuff will materialise – we shall see – time to work on NASA #9, and get that finished – time is running out – I will be 50 before the series is complete.

I might write an article on the NASA series and submit it to a national arts magazine then try and flog it off to some unsuspecting art gallery. Maybe a little booklet too that I can drop here and there as a wee primer to wet the sacred ground a bit.

OK

2010-01-01T18:14:00.001+10:00

This odd drawing/painting is almost finished – it has a few issues but that's OK. The bulky head sort of reminds me of Gauguin's heads and the scrolls of Gaudi’s or Klimt’s decorative embellishments. The whole work is hap hazard and laid down with very little finesse in a David may care way – but that’s OK it’s just one in a pile of leftovers.

The idea is interesting though, and as I have said here before, “one idea leads into another, creating the next painting”. I don’t think ideas are that hard to come by – but good ideas are harder. In many ways it is the doing that realises the idea – the work defines and proves what is a good idea.

I have met artists over the years who have been frozen unable to work, unable to produce any paintings because of the fear. The fear of what? Maybe the fear of public scrutiny, maybe fear of an imaginary peer group, maybe fear of not being relevant – whatever – the list goes on and on.

Here's a quote by Francis Bacon,

“But when you’re outside a tradition, as every artist is today, one can only want to record one’s own feelings about certain situations as closely to one’s own nervous system as one possibly can”

So all I can say is either create art or don’t create art – don’t get caught somewhere in between – it isn't good for the soul – OK.

Hole

2009-12-28T22:17:00.001+10:00

I finally got my drawing desk into some sort of order and started to work on finishing a few drawings – there is a pile of a about 30 to work through.

Hopefully soon, I will start to accelerate into my NASA series – the last one in the series maybe entitled, “NASA vs. Nolan” – but we will see – this idea might be a bit trite.

The commitment to complete a work, even after not working on it for many months or even a year, has it’s benefits. One is you can see the work with new eyes and two, the new investment invites extrapolation – new ideas are built upon old ideas which in turn leads to new work.

Freshness in a piece of art is quite important, and that spontaneity creates a spark and liveliness which is missing in overworked pieces. But in saying that, spontaneity, and subsequent life and freshness, are really a product of a state of mind and effort that is appropriately rendered.

The above work, possibly entitled “Worm Hole”, or “Portal de Femme” or some such thing, is almost finished – the figure needs some work and a 9B pencil will be used to tidy and enliven the surface overall.

The important thing is to stay committed and think about what you do, while minimising the distractions – whatever they may be.

Progress Report in the Summer heat.

2009-12-15T23:27:00.001+10:00

Just another progress report to the electronic ether.

What follows is a series of photos documenting my new studio construction. From an unpainted stage, to mostly painted and then filled with junk from the old studio. Only half the studio is constructed – the logistics of moving junk around in a confined space plus a few other deadlines all converging, has meant that the studio is built in halves – the last two photos show the other empty half, which is now ready for construction.

And finally, another snake just outside my back door – in a stack of wood that I have to move in the next week – fortunately it’s non-venomous and shy – but it still can bite – “doo,doo,doo”.

Demolition

2009-11-29T22:31:00.001+10:00

Well, I am out of work again – which is great for the moment – time to catch up with a million jobs – and plan for the next thing.

Currently, I have been preparing a few houses for sale and doing a bit of renovation/demolition at my own house. The photo below is under my house and shows the walls coming down.

This is from the opposite direction – the cross bars are house bracing – which I had concealed inside a wall.

This demolition is making way for a new studio space, which will be a bit larger than the previous studio but with a lower ceiling. The next photos show the new walls going up and a bit insulation paper to reduce and act as a secondary water barrier. The ceiling and walls will all be lined and painted white for maximum light – I also had an electrician in a few days ago to add a few lights and power points.

This week I will also begin working on the pool fencing – the old pool area is half demolished and the planning for the new improved area is under way – this time I will use very little second hand materials - that’s for both projects.

It’s a bit hard to paint at the moment – I have stuff everywhere – but I will be keen to start again in the new year – especially in a new studio space.

You can see both my dogs in the above photos – just like my other reno. pictures from two years ago – the last time I was out of work.

DAVID

2009-10-29T23:54:00.001+10:00

David 1978

I Just started NASA #9 using the three colours in the photo below.

It’s been a very long haul this year – not much time for art – but I managed to complete a few more works amongst all the mayhem.

Hopefully, next year will be a different year – the passing of my Father this year and all the subsequent issues involved were very taxing – physically, time wise and emotionally.

Below is the beginnings of NASA #9 – NASA in a Time of Drought. The latest paints were supplied via a gift voucher, for my 48th birthday from my son – six tubes – two blues, two reds, two yellows – perfect.

The fractured sky is already showing possibilities and the images forming are already suggesting relationships that I never planned. After NASA number 10, I will be a third of the way through the series – I am already thinking about how to show it.

I have a small hanging of pictures at an Arts and Community centre in February, but will just draw on old stuff – mostly decorative work to suit the area. But currently, I am still very busy with family issues until the end of the year – so blogging and art are in the last carriage.

4864

2009-08-31T00:19:00.003+10:00

this almost "the latest" incarnation of this painting (in a previous life it was called "bolts" - an older post on my blog) is at a breakout stage. It got caught up with a narrative for a while there, a narrative with which I became bored so I took a hammer and chisel to it which released me to paint in reaction. I feel much better for it - kind of like 8 hours after a good breakfast of branflakes. Phew.

Distortion of the Red Frames

2009-08-30T22:32:00.001+10:00

Another experimental video – old film footage and my old guitar.

Actually this is my grandparents, doing a bit of acting for me in 1980 – they were keen to do a bit of experimenting with art now and then. This footage was originally shot on an old, second hand, standard 8 camera. I recently converted over three old film reels I had from around this time – projecting them onto a screen and then videoing them – the frame rates are out, but I like the effect anyway.

The music is my guitar distorted on a cheap amp with drums added, and then slowed right down – the whole final thing is very grungy.

Culterea

2009-08-29T22:19:00.001+10:00

Just finished NASA #8 – The NASA Control of Culture – Acrylic on canvas – Cadmium Yellow, Phthalo Blue, Cadmium Red, Titanium White, and Carbon Black.

A bit of good and evil mixed up in #8 – just like culture. A cross on a boat on a mountain – a stream of sixes flowing – black bird like creatures flocking – snake like ropes and coils for breathing and support – yellow stars shining – astronauts crumpled and dragged.

I don’t believe in the notion that artists shouldn’t talk about their work: that the art should speak for itself. The art does speak and so can the artist, as long as they are articulate enough to communicate clearly.

Sometimes not speaking is a foil for not knowing anything and other times the speaking is so cryptic and meaningless that all sense is buried. It is important to think and talk about art, especially your own.

What is “culture” but the avoidance of fresh air. Below is a detail from my stagnant pond of blow hard NASA #8 stench. What the heck does it all mean?

Next is - NASA in a Time of Drought – same actors, different costumes, different story.