NEW BLOGS

i have started a new art blog for what's left of this semester and for next year

sthawardvisual2.blogspot.com

and my essay blog is

sthawardvisualessay.blogspot.com

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Pot Reconstruction and where I'm at

So I've made a lot of progress in reconstructing my pot, and it's coming along pretty well, I think.

I've decided to give it a lip where you can see the inside of pot where it's flesh coloured - kind of like it's leaking, maybe.

Ive started to make my film, but Final Cut is really confusing... I think I'm starting to get the hang of it... but I'm beginning to stress!

Chris Jordan

I absolutely loved the Chris Jordan pieces. I especially loved the piece with the Barbies and the tigers (below). The tiger one is such an eye opener, and the Barbie one was inherently clever.

The pictures of the albatross' shocked me. I saw in one a Kinder Surprise container. 'What if that was MY Kinder Surprise wrapper?'

Ever the narcissist, but it still made me think.

BODY OF WORK

the destroyer

my body of work will consist of the following things:

- the rebuilt pot sculpture

- my ninefold mixed media piece

- triptych

- film of the pot being destroyed

- three stills (the pot before smash, a still of the smashing, and one rebuilt)

THE POT SCULPTURE (not yet smashed)

So far I have my pot painted with the body on it and am glossing it. I have decided to use the lid, but I'm not really a fan of it. I'm thinking that when I rebuild it, I can put the collar around it to tie the pot back to the triptych and the mixed media piece. Kind of like that collar holds everything together or something... just an idea.

NINEFOLD MIXED MEDIA

I'm working on this at the moment (while my pot dries) and I'm thinking that, where the heart is down the bottom, to get the same image (but maybe scan it and turn it into a negative to bring some more light into it) and then turps it onto some tissue and tear it into a few sections like a destroyed heart? Then stick it over the other one, but so that the whole can still be seen.

Trying to think how to make that work, but it might also give me a way to fill in the empty section in the corner. Below is how it's looking at the moment.

TRIPTYCH

I had my triptych kind of nearly finished... but I'm wondering if I can start again because I think that they aren't really working how I want them to. I am hoping I can re-photocopy my piece this week and then do a new triptych? I'd be willing to put in the work to catch up.

FILM OF POT DESTROYING

I have a model (a friend of my mother) who is willing to let me film her smash my pot. I am going to have the pot on a black tablecloth with black sheets up behind her, and the woman will be standing behind her. The camera will be straight on getting a shot from her torso to her hips (that's where the table will be ... hopefully). Mum's going to help with lighting and stuff.

The model will enter and the pot will already be on the table. She will be holding the hammer (already painted a kind of purple) and will approach the pot and face it, hitting the hammer on the palm of her hand. She will raise the hammer and strike the pot and continue to do so until it has shattered enough. She will put the hammer down and stand with her hands on the table.

When I edit this and play around with it and stuff I might alter some things. I think I'll put like a heartbeat in the background, getting faster as she hits the hammer on her palm and then slowing right down when the task is done. I also have a turps rubbing of the heart that's got a red tint over it (going to add some shading) which I will baby oil or Vaseline onto her body.

THREE STILLS

I'm either thinking of doing this as photos which I will blow up on cartridge and then work into or sketches that I will work into. I think if I do photos and then gesso into them and work back it would work a bit better than sketches, because I'm a hopeless drawer. The pictures will be the before, during and after that will tie the whole thing together. (the pot will unify the three images, the collar will unify the triptych and mixed media piece with the pot, the heart will be on the destroyers' chest in the second image)

linde ivimey

some of her pieces are a little bit creepy, but i kind of like how twisted they are - especially the ones that illustrate bible stories. she's an interesting lady ... i think i'll do her for my podcast.

Ai Weiwei

ai weiwei

Chinese artist and architect (among other things; extremely talented man), who is an advocate for democracy in China.

While this image is lovely, it's irrelevant.

broken pots, broken dreams

ai weiwei did a body of work called 'broken pots, broken dreams', where ai weiwei painted on different pots and then smashed them to pieces in order to 'save humanity'. an example of this is a pot from the Han dynasty that he painted the Coca Cola logo on, which (moreorless) made the pot worthless and was used as a metaphor for humanity.

other pots he dropped (mostly from the Han dynasty) which was mostly to make a statement along the lines of 'youll destroy it anyway, i'll save you from yourself'.

lovely. (this body was called 'dropping the urn')

i think i like ai weiwei, but i cannot find many pictures that i can paste here (theyre all in little slides on websites), but im sure you've seen it all. i like him a lot.

The Assemblage Unit

At the Op Shop I had no idea what to buy. I looked at lots of different things and had a lot of trouble choosing what I wanted to pick. I ended up buying a green-y urn/pot/thing and I am in the process of painting it flesh colour and the inside a murky red. I am then going to smash it up and reconstruct it.

Quiz

So i got my boyfriend to do it too, and he got

"The Warrior defeats the villain and rescues the victim. Warriors are courageous and disciplined, imposing high standards on themselves. At worst, they run roughshod over others. At best, they assert themselves appropriately to make the world a better place."

Since when does a destroyer need a warrior? Wouldn't they end up killing each other?

Quiz

I did a quiz online to see what archetype it said I was and it said destroyer, which was kind of buzzkill. I didnt know what I would get, but destroyer sounded a bit negative.

Destroyer

When the Destroyer is active within a person, what we see are the effects of tragedy and loss. At best, this initiatory loss leads to a greater receptivity to new ideas, empathy and compassion for others, and a deeper knowledge of their own identity and strength. At worst, it simply decimates a personality, and we see before us simply a ruin of what was.

Donna Marcus ... and a little more

So I realise I have not posted on my blog lately, and there's a fair bit to catch up on.

Donna Marcus! Well, she is just the most adorable and sweetest little lady, and I think she's a very creative woman. In a way I find it interesting to lament on the stereotype (as different to archetype ;)) of the typical modern day woman, belonging in the kitchen, etc, and the funny way that Donna has taken all these stereotypically womanly objects and taken them out of the kitchen and turned them into clever works of art. I particularly liked the salmon jelly molds (or whatever those were) and the steamers. When Miss Hampton showed us the images in class I had no idea how clever some of these things were.

Now Donna had a lot to say in terms of assemblage and turning things into junk. Tomorrow we got to the Op Shop to get a piece for our assemblage unit, and we have now been told to link this to an archetype. I thought I should take this time to have a look at some of the archetypes that most appeal to me. (in the quiz we were given, I mostly got the Magician and the Orphan. This didn't really surprise me, because I know that I'm an incredibly needy and vulnerable person, but I also know that I am quite broad-minded. I also really like dragons.)

So my favourite archetypes are:

Enchantress - I have found a lot on this idea of an "enchantress" - who is not so much of a femme fatale or anything like that as I had previously thought, but more as a morbid, slightly melancholic, but more of the kind of wicked queen kind of image in fairy tales. I always think we treat them worse than they deserve- they're mostly just old and cranky.

The sage or the magician - They probably aren't really, but I imagine them as very similar characters. Both smart, I suppose.

Miss Hampton also said that we are attracted to people who will make us feel how we want to, etc, and kind of complement us how we want to. So I thought about that, and then I thought about my boyfriend who I've been with for about a year now, and the characteristics I attribute to him.

I mostly think of him as like a dog kind of person, like all you have to do is feed them and rub their belly and they'll love you forever, and he's kind of like that. Reliable. Low-maintence.

He's not much of a bad boy really, so I guess I'm not after femininity.

He's smart, so I guess I'm not looking to feel really intelligent.

He's very tall, and I always like to feel short and small, but that's less psychological. I guess because he's all tall and can like lift me over his head I feel pretty safe, and I have some deeply stemming safety issues.

He's very polite.

I don't know Miss Hampton, you might have to give me some help with this one, because I'm not really sure what this one means.

SEE YOU TOMORROW FOR ASSEMBLAGE

Some words on the current piece

My current piece is (so far) a painting of the collar that my dog, Bella, used to wear. I am now trying to work into it with some oil pastels, working back and rubbing, and the application of tissue paper. This technique is called palimpsest, and it the idea of layering through art. One of the artists I explored for my essay, Nicholas Hutcheson, is one artist who employs the use of palimpsest to build his artworks.

I really wish I could elaborate but my maths assignment is stressing me out and I should make headway on that before I asphyxiate myself with anxiety.

Michael Zavros

I really like Zavros. In the film we watched in class of him, where he showed his house, I used to live on that street- i know exactly where that house is. I could walk there right now if I wanted to.

I like how he captures such simple ideas, like the Balenciaga bag in timeless fashion, and the faceless model, and makes them look so elegant and easy to understand. He has such a beautiful hand, too.

I love the way he uses tone to create the illusion of form, especially in the horse drawings he does. He seems to have a real affinity with his pencils and charcoal.

Unlike the other two artists I have looked at, he has a much more realistic style of making art, but it transcends the notion of realism into being something so impressive and beautiful.

I really love his art.

Jenny Saville

Jenny Saville... So where do I start?

I'd like to say I like her work, because in many ways I do. Honestly, though, she freaks me out. A lot.

I like the way she interprets the body and the mutilation of the body... but the way she expresses it sometimes makes me feel very uncomfortable.

The blood, and the dismemberment is startling, but gets her message across.

"It is interesting to note that Saville once worked in a plastic surgeon's office in New York and frequently visits a London medical museum as member of a pathology group. She shares with Francis Bacon a fascination for collecting pictures found in old medical journals of bruises, scars, gun shot wounds, pictures of deformities, and traces of disease which leave inscriptions on a body over time, like a memory, or a mark on a canvas."

http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/24th-street-2003-04-jenny-saville/#/images/4/

the picture above scares me the most ^

i can't put it on my blog, but there you go.

the way she paints can be nice, but i don't personally like it. the strong tonal contrasts are too abrasive, and i do not personally like the overwhelming-ness of the warm colours.

Nicholas Hutcheson

Nicholas Hutcheson

I love the way he uses line and crosshatching to create texture, and his colour schemes are generally so muted it leaves all the focus to the silhouettes and the lines.

The Three Graces

After our conversation in class today, I decided I had to get the truth about bodies from a man, to get an idea of the context.

I rang my friend, and got him to look at the picture of The Three Graces.

What do you think of those girls? I asked.

They're curvaceous, was his first response.

In comparison to the girls you see in magazines and pictures now?

I like these ones better.

Do you think they would have been pretty girls?

I reckon they would have been beautiful.

GOMA TOMORROW

APT6

My favourite work from the APT 6 so far...

Sopheap Pich, 'Buddha' (from the 1979 series)

Rattan, wire,

dye sculpture

His series of sculptures titled 1979 is inspired by Pich’s childhood memories of his family’s journey across Cambodia, at the end of the Khmer Rouge era (1975–79). As an eight year old, he remembers having been confused by the strange objects – mines, bombs and shells – he saw littering the countryside: ‘I didn’t know where they came from. From the sky? From the war?’

After many days of walking, Pich’s family settled temporarily in the grounds of the Wat Ta Mim temple in Battambang. He recalls his experience of entering the temple:

. . . there was a feeling of fear, of haunt. Inside the temple, on the ceiling, and floor, red all over. On the other end was ghostly, shadowy shapes of different objects unclear to me at the time, but this was a place where statues are located.

God, I just think this is magnificent. I love the fluidity of the lines as they unwrap. It's beautiful. I'm still contemplating the meaning of the piece a bit, but I'll get back to you. For now, it's a stunning installation, so different to everything else I saw on the website. A lot more simple, I think, than a lot of the other pieces.

The Greatest Question to Face Mankind...

Where to place that red dot?

The ultimate question.

One that I answered in todays art lesson.

I loved so many of the other students artworks - I loved the fluidity in some of the works... a fluidity I can't seem to muster in my own art. I'm beginning to think my arm just doesn't go like that... I watch Bonnie work - her whole arm in motion, gliding across the paper, hardly touching the paper with her charcoal - and my arm would never do that. I find it difficult to apply such minimal pressure to the page. Try?

The labyrinth has a path built into it, but there appear to be many ways to take that path. Following one pathway, and turning back is all part of the journey, so it looks like I'll be experimenting with vigour to expand my personal aesthetic - or, at least, play around with it.

Labyrinth, labyrinth, labyrinth. Should everybody's path be the same?

2010... TIME TO ENTER THE LABYRINTH

"Please somebody get me out of this labyrinth!"

Simón Bolívar's last words (Venezuelan politician. Led the Latin American community in their rebellion against Spain, circa 1815-20.)

"It's not life or death, the labyrinth."

"Um, OK. So what is it?"

"Suffering," she said. "Doing wrong and having wrong things happen to you. That's the problem. Bolivar was talking about the pain, not about living or dying? How do you get out of the labyrinth of suffering?"

an extract from Looking for Alaska, by John Green.

Until this unit, I never saw the metaphor of the labyrinth as something to embrace. The labyrinth... since I saw that movie with David Bowie in it of the same name, I saw it as a place or monsters and of suffering and turmoil (don't even get me started on Pan's Labyrinth... that movie is kind of scary...). My reading led me to continue with this mindset. When I read Gabriel Garcia-Marquez's account of Simon Bolivar, The General in his Labyrinth, the labyrinth was used as an unspecific metaphor throughout the text whenever Bolivar considered taking his own life.

Looking for Alaska dissects this particular text and analyses the theme of the labyrinth in depth, first thinking of it as death or oncoming death, then as life itself, then as suffering (as seen above). In all respects of the labyrinth, however, it is seen as something to get out of, to escape, and to forget.

According to the almighty Wikipedia, the primary difference between a maze and labyrinth is that the purpose of a maze is to lure and capture, and a labyrinth is constructed with a path to follow. I think this idea of "oh god, just somebody get me out of this damn labyrinth" comes from the endlessness that an elaborate labyrinth would encompass, and also a lack of patience within the labyrinth created by fear. I think that life, death, or suffering could be used synonymously with this idea of the labyrinth. Death is simple without fear. Life is simple without fear. Suffering, and the labyrinth are simple when we do not fear it.

After looking at the labyrinth as a vessel of suffering for so long, it was a bit difficult to enable myself to embrace it. So, what is the labyrinth?

Is it a passage, a road? Then why take it- to walk in, get lost, and walk out again?

Or is it a journey? One to suffer, to live, to die, all in one single manifestation?

Do we ever really get out of the labyrinth, and are you sure we entered just this year?

This year will be a journey through the labyrinth, but as an artist or otherwise, I can guarantee it's not my first time I've walked through this space.