Guess who's coming to dinner?

Really the most important thing might be to ask what's for dinner!?

For my uni course I had to choose a non-art material from a list and make art out of it. It started out as a particularly large men's suit purchased on half price op-shop day.

A good coat of blackboard paint and a little chalk and it became 'Dinner Suit.'

I think the only thing to worry about is what I will wear to my next exhibition opening (if and when) and what will I write on it!?

Garden Hose

Gosh, where to start! So much to catch up here!

I'll start with 'Garden Hose', created as part of my uni course. At the time I was very concerned and upset about the situation with the bushfires in Victoria. This is my response.

I collected Norfolk Island Pine leaves. When I got them home I sorted them into graded colours, from green, gold, through red brown to grey and finally black. Then I joined them end to end to create my 'hose'.

The green leaves were the start of it and were wound around the hose reel. The black leaves made up the end of the hose. When I began I had no idea what I was making. The next time I make this piece I will begin with more of the greens so it is more obvious on the hose reel. It is amazing how like a hose this looks, only with far more texture.

The 6th in the 6th

melanie tagged me. I don't usually do memes. Not because I'm against them or anything. I usually have the intention of doing them. But then I just don't get to it. But this one had me checking my folders and before I knew it I was at the point where I may as well just post it now.

I took this photo when I was working on the composition for an exercise in my uni course. I wasn't that happy with the final result so I didn't post it here. May as well now that I've been outed! Actually I think it is just the colours I'm a little disturbed by...
And what's the meme? You have to post the 6th photo in the 6th folder in you Pictures folder and blog about it. I've got a Mac so I don't have 6 folders in my Pictures folder. So I chose the 6th folder in the photos from this year. I'm assuming there are no meme police.
I'm not going to tag anyone specifically, but if you'd like to do this please post a comment so I can see what you found in your folder! I'd like to see!

My first stop motion animation

'Too Much Fennel' was made as part of my uni course, inspired by my favourite artist William Kentridge. Not that it is anything like his animations! But he draws them with charcoal. Here ends the resemblance.

Distortion towards abstraction

I like this photo of Larry Poons.
I chose it for my 'warping the grid' portrait. He got grid lines drawn on him. Then I used the painting in the background as inspiration for how to warp the lines for my pencil drawing below.
Yes, not only pencil. I forgot which exercise was which and began with charcoal. I rubbed most of it off and continued with pencil. Size 500mm x 700mm. I will crop the height to 600mm at some point I think. Well that was the intention. The grid began and ended 5omm from the top and bottom. But I quite like the voids and how the drawing encroaches into them. Now I've got to warp-the-grid again by drawing a straight grid on this drawing and warping it on the new one. Can you tell the next exercise will be abstraction?

Reflected Self Portrait

Three posts in one day is a bit much, I know, but I've been really busy lately!

One thing about studying online as I am is that there are no breaks. You finish a unit on Friday and begin your next one on Monday. If you want a break you have to take the whole study period off. Well, as I've had so many off in the last year I'm keen to catch up a bit, so here I am at the beginning of a drawing unit having just finished a painting one.

The first exercise was to do a self portrait reflected in something round and mirror-like. I chose our slightly egg-shaped stainless steel wine cooler. We could use black and white paint or textas. As the image had to be A1 I opted for paint. My drawing is actually bigger than A1 as I had some really strong paper 100cm x 70cm.
Ha! It makes me laugh every time I look at it! I really enjoyed doing this. I find the distortions in the final image fascinating. I love the way it slims me down and stretches me at the bottom so for a moment I could forget about how much weight I need to lose. The exceptionally long pinky finger is a bit of a give away though. The rest of the distortions I find deeply disturbing, so be careful what you say in the comments please!
This is how I worked, with the cooler propped up so I could see myself without moving or having to hold it. The exercise did call for me to hold it, but I thought this worked just as well.
And this is me trying to look like I did while I was painting, while I am taking the photo. Not overly successful, but you get the idea.

My Studio

I've just finished a painting unit in the degree I'm doing and I thought I'd show you the final exercise. It was about transformation of a space that we spend a lot of time in. I chose my studio as my subject. I started work in my journal. First I had individual photos of areas of it and journaled fairly usually about them. Then I decided to string the photos together, an 'analogue stitch' if you like.

Then I did drawings, sitting in the middle of the room on my swivel chair. After looking at them a while I decided to 'stitch' them together too.
I still didn't know what I would do, but I worked on each drawing individually, abstracting the main horizontal and vertical lines and creating shapes. I had an idea that I wanted the whole thing to have gentle greys with small areas of high colour, a visual symbol for how most of the work I do in my studio is fairly ordinary but at times something good is completed or a surprise occurs. I wanted these to be represented by intense colour but there to be few of them. After painting these new abstract sketches I found my pale colours were really quite intense anyway. I would need to go paler. Just for fun and to keep the whole process going I strung these larger works together too.

The final painting is 40" x 30" and titled The Studio. I challenged myself further by not using a brush, well not after the first white wash layer that knocked back my line drawing. I looked at each of the painted studies in turn and drew directly onto the canvas, adding the sections of each study that were the most successful. I didn't add them in visual order, sometimes working backwards and sometimes rotating the canvas. I kept looking at the work as a whole and trying to get it all to marry.

I used woolen blanket, sponge, glue spatula, palette knife and sandpaper to apply the paint. When I tried to add the intense colours some of the areas 'worked' and some didn't and needed to be painted over. They don't stand out now but they are there. This painting taught me something about what's important. It isn't those intense coloured 'spots' of creation, but it is the ordinary work that achieves nothing more than itself that is most important to me. I have tended to focus on my occasional 'stars', their colours can be distracting, but ultimately it is the muted but colourful greys that fill my day and create their own kind of beauty.

Temperature's rising...

...it seems to have curdled my brain.


Firstly I suddenly had to go away for a week. It was a bit crazy. I was either flat out, exhausted or had lots of time to kill. It resulted in some journal doodling which I haven't had time to do lately.
Secondly, I made a new 'artwork' today...
This is the view from my lounge/dining into the kitchen...
No comments on the mess you may or may not see here - I didn't clean up for the shots!
Ta Da! And here are the after shots...
Thermometer creates a dialogue with the adjacent room which has shape and colour as it's dominating theme...
It also 'speaks' of the function of the room itself... (it gets hot)...
...as well as linking the Aboriginal art objects (I bought from a local artist) to their natural environment...

...yes, I did it as part of my uni course. I'm a shocking house painter, but I quite like it!

Painting and studying painting

I am finally back to studying after a prolonged break caused by a little black eight-legged not-friend!
Yep, that about describes what I've been doing lately. These little black and white detail shots are of some of the mark making I've been experimenting with. Above is using mediums and a broad knife. Below is using a piece of toweling as the applicator.
And this next one was done by applying the paint with sandpaper. Feel lucky I didn't show you the one that I did using... I'll let you guess!
I've also been painting things other than for my uni course. I am really in love with these cup and/or vessel images I've been making. This one is for a dear friends birthday.
And this one went to a lovely couple for their engagement.

Death of the Heart (and a couple of Spades)

In my uni course I'm reading Roland Barthes 'Death of the Author'.

The 2 of splits

Meaning is made in the seeing not in the drawing.

The 3 of hopping

It's all in the context of the seeing.

The 3 of thought bubbles

Truthfully, I can't tell you these aren't Hearts and Spades.

Inside

This is a drawing I did earlier this year. It is of my daughter's bedroom. It's ink done with big brushes on a large sheet of paper (A1). I'm posting this because I'm working slowly at the moment and don't have anything finished yet to show.

I've had a lovely few weeks with separate visits from my two daughters. We've had a lovely time including playing a lot of board games. We are big on board games here and have recently begun playing Carcassonne. Lots of fun.

Drawing up a storm

These two drawings were done as part of my drawing course. This one, "Warming to Warming" is a satirical look at the issue of climate change. I was thinking about how ridiculous some of the politicians 'solutions' seem; the 'solution' you have when you're not having a solution. I began to extrapolate that ridiculousness. I came up with the idea that if we could get used to the problem, and even work with the pollution to create a new kind of beauty - decorative smog - that would be a 'solution' too."Grey Greenhouse" is a work with similar inspiration. I found a recent quote from Prime Minister John Howard - "...economic growth should take precedence over emissions cuts". I silhouetted key words from this quote with smog coloured paint and added some of the 'decoration' I had included in the above drawing. These images were then cut up and shuffled in an effort to emulate political process.

Both of these drawings were done on pages removed from an old book from the "Teach Yourself Building" series, JE MacFarlane's 1945 "Electricity in the House".

In the news yesterday, John Howard promised to commit to greenhouse gas targets - after the election! Seems my artistic motivation wasn't too far from some kind of twisted reality.

Rebound Artist's Book

Another artist's book. This one made by rebinding the reworked pages of an old library book "Logarithms". The artist's book is titled "Tidarithms".



The theme of the book is the mangrove near my home. (If you missed my previous post on working with these mangroves click here.)

This book looks at the tidal level at 3pm each day for two weeks in April/May this year. I chose the Logarithms book because I felt it was appropriate. The maths behind the tides escapes me. (And what I may have once known about logarithms has left me.) I know the tides are governed by forces that are understood, but they seem strangely random to me.

I used a date stamp to 'draw' the mangroves aerial roots. The rest is pencil, acrylic and collage.

The original pages have been rebound in a Japanese fold block that is detachable from the covers. Click here to see more images of this book on Flickr.

When is a banana not a banana?

Once, Twice... Three times the reason

I've wanted to go ahead and post my response to Eric Maisel's second incantation - "I expect nothing", but I'm sick at the moment and I thought I wouldn't be able to. Actually, when you are sick, I discovered, is a perfect time to practice the Ten Zen Seconds incantations and reflect on what they mean, personally, and how they affect me. So, there I was, expecting nothing, and...*bing* ...I realised I was expecting myself to create something new for this (yes, I know that is obvious, but at that stage it wasn't to me!) and a split second later I realised that this drawing I had already done actually 'said' "I expect nothing" to me anyway. So here it is. And that's the first reason for this post.


The second reason is for me to be able to say THIS IS MY HUNDREDTH POST!!! In honor of this momentous occasion I've actually spruced up my links a bit. Yes, I know you can't tell, so that's why I'm saying it here. And it's worth a look because there is some good stuff there. I've got rid of a few dead links, I've added some new blogs (unfortunately they're mixed in, but you'll find them) and a couple of fun sites to the 'frivolity' section, and a whole new section 'Artists'. In this section you'll find some really interesting people and their work. Some you will know and some will be new. And its not just painting and drawing. There are some exciting book artists, fibre artists and sculptors too. Some of them have long been my favourites, but some I've only found recently. It's not meant to be a representative list. And I'll keep updating it.


The third reason was to show you these three drawings. Once again, these were created in response to an exercise in my drawing course. Firstly, I had to experiment with mark making with non-traditional tools - about 20! Then, having narrowed it down to 3, do three tonal studies using those marks only. The top one was done with the metal part from a floppy disc. The middle one with a gluestick - yes, the sticky end! And this final one with the open end of a pad of post-it notes.

Janey got me

Yep, I been tagged. I'm not really a tag type but for Janey I'd do (just about) anything.
1. List 7 random facts/habits about yourself.
2. Choose another 7 bloggers to tag and list their names in your blog.
3. Leave your 7 tagged bloggers comments to notify them of their tagging and to direct them to your blog for tag instructions.
OK
1. I'm addicted to coffee. I've long suffered from the eternal curse of the quest-for-a-perfect-cup-of-coffee syndrome. I have recently gained relief from the curse with my Nespresso machine (a perfect cup every time!) but it has done nothing to help the addiction.
2. I don't have any piercings or tattoos, which these days is a slightly unusual.
3. I have never mowed a lawn in my life.
4. I'm afraid of grasshoppers.
5. I'm an incurable Johnny Depp fan. I have a special section in my DVD collection. My latest addition is "Cry Baby" which I'd heard was crap but bought anyway. I love it! It is a wonderful spoof musical, all very tongue in cheek.
6. My favourite author is John Irving. If I find out someone I meet loves his books too, then I will love them as a dear dear friend and equal. I think anyone who doesn't love his books is crazy.
7. I love stationery. I need a minder in a stationery shop and I am unable to go past one without going in, just to look at the pencil cases (I love clear plastic best) and pens (I think I own every pen there is).

OK, who to tag?
1. Jade at spectrescope. Jade is one of the most exciting Australian artists I've seen in a long time.
2. Alison at scribbles adagio. Alison is another fabulous Aussie who creates to most charming interesting memory paintings of her interesting and sometimes surprisingly familiar childhood.
3. Hawk over at Pile of Index Cards should be interesting. His passion for stationery exceeds my own and visiting his blog is always interesting enlightening and a little confusing. I'm trying to understand Hawk!
4. Ty in Wales over at chasingtigers for another male perspective on this whole tagging business and some great sketches.
5. Ronell over at Africantapestry should also be interesting to ask. She lives in France.
6. And Linda at Quotidian Curiosities is another blogger who posts great drawings and paintings and is now tagged!
7. And I'm going to give Rob a go over at Sumosays. He always amazes me by the apparent amount of time he puts into his work. Check out what he as done with The Empire Strikes Back!

And on another matter, I haven't updated for a while and I will be a while longer before I post my latest pic for Eric Maisel's Ten Zen Seconds incantations. I'm sick and taking it easy until I'm better. In the mean time enjoy this Paris scene I drew adding myself to it!

Mania in the Mangroves

My spare time is limited these days. I've mentioned I'm doing a course but I've never said what. It's a Bachelor of Arts (Art) (online delivery through Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia) and I'm loving it. Any spare time I have is swallowed greedily up by the exercises for the units I'm doing. I'm currently getting close to the end of a drawing unit and a textile unit. The textiles unit has been a big surprise. It has involved a lot of installation art and 3D work (as well as work with actual textiles!) I've been working with the themes 'time' and 'space' and a beautiful patch of sand down behind my house next to the mangrove trees where their aerial roots rise up to breath.

Here I'm playing with the tide itself, first creating a hole in the tide by using the low tide mark inside a glass cylinder at high tide...




























and then creating a cylinder of high tide water at low tide.















Then I needed to create another installation using only what lay within my area of sand. I stood all the hermit crab shells up vertically to mirror the extreme verticallity of the aerial roots.













I also played with the photos of my site in Photoshop, changing the roots into lush grass and the trees into spectacular autumn trees in a fabulous garden.




This gave me another idea...





Mangrove areas are vital to ocean ecology. Most ocean fish are born in mangroves. But mangroves are often not valued by humans who sometimes think of them as dirty (they collect our rubbish in those spikey roots), inaccessible and a waste of good waterfront real estate. I thought of the cute endangered animals who end up with droves of humans championing their cause while more unappealing animals slowly fade away. I wondered if mangroves were more cute and/or appealing, if we wouldn't look after them better.


With these concepts in mind I collected leaves from the nearby trees (nice healthy ones with no blemishes because we humans like that) and attached them to the tip of the aerial roots to make a faux lawn area. Why? To indicate that if mangroves were more human-friendly we might look after them by default, the way we look after vegetation or animals that serve us well.




P.S. I've played with these images in my recently downloaded drag & drop widget on my new Mac. What do you think? Is it a good tool, or are the images too small?