Freedom of speech

For some reason I was put in mind of this collage I made some time ago, by recent events regarding freedom of speech.  It is under threat, everywhere, here included it seems.

How dare she?

Sensory Drawing 5

Collage imagery, acrylic paint, ink, 17 " x 24" .



Last day of the course, was pretty much a free day to work on something relative to the week. I did two large collages, about 20 x 30". Magazine imagery, acrylic paint, indian ink. One is titled "News" influenced greatly by the turmoil in the Middle East and fuel crisis - isnt it about time we had alternatives??!! The other .. well... in my mind I titled it "Breathe" but not 100% sure about this. Not quite finished yet.

On my way this morning I stopped at a nearby beach, and got out to watch and photograph the surfers. Good swell at the moment. The beach is very close to Wellington airport as you can see.

The course was a demanding one, as artists we need to be able to 'see' but this week was practice in seeing not just visually but using our senses to 'see' and then creating works to describe that. It will take a while for this to work through in my mind and inform my work, I know it will.

Mixed media collages

So different from my current work but similar to what I've done in the past. Magazine imagery, ink, acrylic paint. The faces are quickly sketched with a thin bamboo stick dipped in sumi ink. Just playing.

Mixed media collage

As a break from my current work I started making collages for Dale Copeland's ICE. The upper one does not have a reflection on it, is part of the imagery. This is so different from what I've been doing over the last six months which is materials and process based, non derivative, and something I used to do. I quite enjoyed it, is rather random. No particular meaning. Hand painted papers, magazine paper, acrylic paint, sumi ink, pencil.

Playing with material 17.11.10

Continuing to play with PG, sumi ink & gesso. Is portable & I took the materials with me to a day @ Alison Gordon’s studio for a regular monthly gathering. I’m also uploading some sections o previous work photographed with a viewer and want to find some good quality paper to create more simplified works, something that won’t stretch & buckle. I am using a good gsm weight of paper for these but need even heavier.

Mixed Media Collage

A3 size, collage, sumi ink, gesso, paint on 180gsm paper.

Mixed Media Life Drawing 10 December 2008

Our group met for the last time this year and again I made some took some collaged printmaking paper along, A2 size. I spend so long picking out particular pieces of paper that I want to put on these, forgetting that much of it will be obscured with paint and then dry media.

I used compressed charcoal and conte mainly.

Guardian - 13th collage for ICE 2008

I'd forgotten to take a photograph of this last collage before sending it for the exhibition/exchange. The recipient, American artist Jean Tock, kindly took a photograph of it and emailed it to me. The centrepiece of the collage is a photograph of mine that I named "Guardian", hence the name.

Mixed Media portraits

This is a mixed media collage I created while working with Years 5 and 6 students at school. The activity was to create a portrait in mixed media using magazine imagery, paint, pastel, ink and maybe some other materials because we're continuing on these next week. We spent some time drawing with large crayons first - exercises like drawing the person opposite you in one minute without looking at the paper, then drawing with the other hand - that kind of thing. The next day I provided them with big pieces of nice cartridge paper, and the materials and we spent a whole morning on the portraits. Some students pick through the imagery looking at what is printed on it while others "get" the idea of looking for dark and light and colour. Some cut pieces and use it like mosaic, while others tear or cut larger pieces and just lay them down, overlapping sometimes. Some students like to leave some pieces of the paper unglued so it will curl up from the surface. The paint is thin so as not to obliterate the collage, and they're also stamping onto their work with paint on corrugated cardboard, and drawing on it with oil pastel and coloured felt pens. Most have got to a similar stage as mine, and next week we'll continue to add more media.

10th Annual International Collage Exhibition & Exchange is online

It's always a thrill to see this exhibition go online. 159 artists from Japan to USA, from Denmark to New Zealand, from Australia to France & Romania, make 13 collages - one is exhibited online and at the TART Gallery in New Plymouth, New Zealand. It then travels overseas to be exhibited at and become part of the collection of the Amarillo Museum of Art in Texas. There is also an online exhibition of one collage from each artist that is for sale - do take a look!

I leave it to the organiser and curator of the exchange and exhibition, Dale Copeland (see my links) to choose which of my collages she would like to exhibit and put up for sale - so it's always a surprise for me to see which of the 13 she has chosen. She chose High Dance of Innocence for the exhibition that will travel to Texas, and An Appropriate Contract for sale.

At some stage I'll receive a large envelope containing 11 collages from other artists. Dale is incredibly organised and in the past we've received a list that cross matches our collages to the receiver. I'll be waiting for that list because the very last collage I made wasn't photographed. I was working at night and meant to photograph it in the morning, clean forgot about it, and now I can't even remember the title! So hopefully the eventual owner of that collage will be kind enough to send me a photo of it.

I haven't painted for a while. The first part of the year my thoughts were only on making the collages. Now I've started life drawing and again it's taking me a while to settle back into paint. Lots of ideas in my mind though.

I'm also booked into a printmaking workshop at the end of the month (Design is one of my majors and printmaking will be part of that work). This is not convenional printmaking though. The course is described as "Experimental Printmaking with an organic approach". The title and the list of materials is very interesting. The tutor is Bev Truloff. Click on her name to see some of her work.

More Collage

These two are titled "Dream vs Concept" and "Another Earth". The first is magazine collage and the second has hand painted papers with a little magazine collage.

Once a month I spend the day at Gordon Base Studio with a group of artists - we each take along some work and have an enjoyable, relaxing day socialising while working on our painting/drawing/collage. Three of the artists recently participated in a sculpture symposium in Matamata (New Zealand) and you can view the works here.

2008 International Collage Exchange - ICE

Today I finished the last collage for this annual exchange run by Dale Copeland. I didn't think I was going to make it. It's odd how sometimes I agonise over a piece, and it takes hours to finalise. Other times the collage goes together smoothly and quickly. Naming them is quite a lot of fun too. Three collages I've already uploaded to flickr as I created these some time ago - "The Imagineer", "Radioactive Eden", and "Stories to Tell". Two others ("A Proposal in Blue" and "Elegant Seductress" were also on my blog a couple of posts ago although I've written all over the latter. It'll be on flickr shortly. The words are from an old song I found in a bundle of music in a charity shop. An interesting collection of all kinds of songs someone had collected and been using in a retirement home.

I mostly put these on canvas boards because when I've received collages in exchange, the standard size and solid base seems to be easier to frame. Otherwise I use a heavy art card.

If you're unfamiliar with the ICE we create thirteen collages A4 or less in size, and one is exhibited in New Plymouth and permanently online before being sent overseas (this year to Texas, USA). Another collage is in an online exhibition where each piece is for sale. The other eleven (or twelve if your sale piece doesn't sell) are sent out to participating artists around the world. We each receive a package of wonderful artwork.

The four collage works above are titled "An Appropriate Contract", "High Dance of Innocence", "Religious Scene with Fossilised Plant" and "It was never in your control".

The textural topography of my mind at the moment

These are collage works in progress. They all relate to current issues, oblique though that may seem. This little town of Waihi where I live is at present waiting to find out if the open cast gold mine will be extended in westerly and easterly directions. There are those for the proposals and those against. Some residents are employed by the mine, and some local companies receive work from the mine and of course they might be keen to see these new extensions proceed. Others are stressed and tired from living with the open cast mine (and some may receive some money towards this...see today's front page of the local newspaper above) and would like to see the open cast operation end as required by all the various legal consents etc. Tonight the Hauraki District Council is holding a public meeting in Waihi to explain the council's role in any application by the mining company (I don't believe an application has yet been made) and the process of acquiring consent and objecting to any consent. The Council stated in their "HDC News" in the Hauraki Herald of February 26 2008 that "The meeting will not be to discuss the proposal as we have no information to share but when the process has been explained, those who wish to share concerns can have their opinions noted for passing on to the mining company." ??? Does the Hauraki District Council not care about the concerns and opinions of their residents and ratepayers? Is it their job to gather such information for a company? Who is running this town?

This issue can have its effect on friendships, personal and business relationships. Even a husband and wife can have different opinions about it, and it's not something that's going to go away in a hurry. "There's gold in them there hills" you know, and companies are actively hunting for it using ever improving technology to find it and extract it. The companies are doing what they're in business for. What is the Hauraki District Council in business for?

So, back to the collages. They each express something about how I feel about this ongoing issue. Names tentative at this stage - "A drained life" is what I'll call the blue and gold piece with the eyes - representing the layers of the land, and because I think of the land as the 'earth mother" it is her eyes and white face with the life drained out of it. The next one could be called "Blue Proposal" - see, he's holding a wedding ring in his fingers. The green piece is again related to the earth mother, crying out, powerless and petrifying. She is actually an ancient statue of Eve and was described as the "Elegant Seductress"and I think I'll call it that. And she is, in some ways - hasn't the promise of finding gold been seductive over the centuries? All on heavy art card, magazine imagery with some ink and paint incorporated.

Playing around with some collage

and it doesn't take a psychologist to see what was on my mind. Currently I'm working on collages for the 10th International Collage Exchange. These may not end up in the 13 that I send but it was a thoughful and enjoyable process putting these together. 'Reduction Method' contains one of my own photographs - it's taken in the main street of Waihi. My poor son had to stand in the road holding a piece of fence netting so I could take the shot through it - we have lots of fences around mining property and I think you will get the message of my photograph. "Warning - Worry People" also contains pieces of two of my photographs. The third one I think I'll call "For more information please call". I'll probably work further on these with other media, ink, paint....

Travelling journal

More than a year ago six journals set off travelling around New Zealand to six artists who were to complete a double page spread and send each one on to the next artist. The project turned out to be more of an undertaking than some of us expected, and some journals were lost for a time. Mine arrived home yesterday...what a thrill! One journal is still lost and I hope that it one day returns to it's owner - Amanda.
A group of us worked in a journal for one artist initially, and by the time each of us had created at least two pages of artwork in it, the journal really was a thing of beauty. Some of us enjoyed it so much we decided to repeat the process with each of us having a journal. 2006 was a pretty tough year for some and yet beautiful work was created and I'm sharing pages from my journal here. It will take two postings as blogger only permits 5 pictures per posting. These three are:

1. My own pages that I started the journal with: "Woman under construction is the text in the portrait, around the edge is a quote from Carmen ('Harbanera') which, in English, translates to: Love is a rebellious bird that nobody can tame and it's all in vain to call it if it chooses to refuse. Nothing helps, not threats nor prayers. One man is smooth tongued, another silent and he's the one that I prefer. He says nothing but he pleases me." The printed page is from a very old book ..." Edith opened her window to see if there was any hope in the distance; but the mist was full, and the world ended at the first terrace. She dressed, putting on her oldest skirt, for she knew there would be walking that day, went down shivering as she touched the damp woodwork, looked out of the dining room window. The clump of monk's-hood had not been disturbed; the spikes of bloom nodded reassuringly. It was strange, thought Edith, that so much beauty should arise from the roots of a deadly poison. She was calm and strong again; and as she stood at the window, an idea occurred, she could..."

Make of it what you will!

The orange pages with deadly looking flowers was from Ali:
2. The text reads "but Edith, isn't it odd that so much poison should arise from the root of such beauty. There are layers of art paper beneath paint glazes, and beautifully delicate text among and around the painted flowers and foliage.
The next spread after Ali's is from Denise:

3. Created in, I think, paint, collage, ink and the text reads:
Truth not seen
Truth not spoke
Under roof
Or out
No sweet poison fruit
to living death
condemned
but bitter poison
sprung in
labyrinthe hearts
took as mother's milk
in broken hope
alone
truth not seen
truth not spoke
under roof or out
And the words" Open your Eyes" and "it's just a fairytale".