Before Easter I did a painting workshop with Jessie, the main objective of the two days was to create as much work as possible and for that work to be diverse and experimental. The main thing that Jessie really pushed was working outside of your comfort zone. One of the students was creating a large scale piece using acetate to create interesting and diverse shapes and forms. I decided to give this a go but still trying to incorporate portraiture. It was a very interesting way of working but on that occasion it did not work for me. The work, I believe is too fragmented and is confusing to the eye. However, it taught me a lot about paint and how diverse it can be and I think it helped me loosen up a bit. The painting on the left was created in under two hours - it just seemed to flow out of me. I decided to limit the colours to only two; the background being a turquoise colour painted in acrylic and the face in a pinky red in oils. I think that working in this restricted way allowed me to completely absorb myself in the form and the emotion of the face without having to worry about getting the perfect colour and the perfect placement of that colour. I enjoy the way that in some areas I have rubbed back into the turquoise background. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being among a group of painters - there was a mutual appreciation for paint (even though it was a very diverse bunch of people) and the atmosphere was buzzing. It was incredible the volume and the quality of work that was created after only two days. It got me thinking about the way in which I spend my time - I do a lot of thinking whereas it might be better spent just doing! Some photos of the workshop. Doodles and ExperimentationRecently I have been feeling a bit uninspired with the painting that I have been doing and have felt the urge to relax and get more in tune with my subconscious. I have been looking at the work of Ida Applebroog, an artist who moved from video art to painting. I am particularly interested in the quality of her lines and in particular the works in red. There is something about them that is very basic and primal yet complex and provoking. I have also been really inspired by the drawings of Tracy Emin and Louise Bourgeois and again, especially the ones in red. I have collected a selection of inspiration that I keep in a folder on my phone. I began to doodle in my journal and the doodles quickly progressed. It became apparent that my subconscious was creating what appeared to be a collection of fetuses about to emerge from a womb. I started to work on large scale and began playing around with shapes. I was still very interested in the deep blood-red colour. I painted a line connecting one of the blobs with another. The blob at the bottom was open and there were three faces inside. Again, this could represent a womb and fetuses about to emerge. The painting then changed and two of the blobs became one. This way of working almost mimics cells in the body splitting. I rubbed back some of the blob with turps to reveal what could be the veins in a lung or heart. I then added some yellow in the shape of a melancholic figure. I wrote the words 'I am just an echo of your belief' which popped into my head as I was working. I believe that the work is about the body and the base anxieties that we have as human beings, for example, the fear of losing or being separate from the people that we love as well as the understanding that we all must grow and change and that we don't necessarily have to take the path that is expected of us.
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I Blessed are the fatted calves for in them exists our salvation from hunger and sadness, forever happy with our Holy meal.
II Blessed is our Lord who comprises such divine cupidity looking down upon us from His lofty throne, amongst the angels of business. III Give praise unto Him who brings forth joy to the children of the world and offers charity t the weak and sick with Coca-Cola, which helps us to enjoy thirst, and the Happy Meal which loves you as much as you love it. For these generous gifts we give thanks unto Him. From Cow to Cup 'As long as greed is stronger than compassion there will always be suffering.' - Medal for the British Art Medal Society. ‘As long as greed is stronger than compassion there will always be suffering.’ – Rusty Eric.
This work is about the dark side of McDonald's and the meat industry. It illustrates the wilful ignorance that humans have to the suffering of animals. Whilst the industry glamorises the consumption of meat with slogans and mascots, we ignore the suffering of the voiceless individuals. The medal shows Ronald McDonald referenced as Bacchus, the Roman god of agriculture, wine and plenty. The medal contrasts the sickly sweet, overindulging Bacchus-like character with the empty vessel of the slaughtered cow. I have chosen a green patina for Ronald as it represents greed, money and rot. The cow has a red patina which represents the ‘sacrificial’ cow; the real and ignored martyr which Ronald McDonald could not exist without. The flow of blood from the cow to the cup shows how this industry is fuelled by the exploitation and oppression of other beings. This is also illustrated in the way Ronald is convex whilst the cow is concave – suggesting a flow of life and energy being taken from one to feed the other. Entombment, Caravaggio, 1602 I am now working on a piece of work where I discuss the social change from religion to consumerism. I am using the compositional elements of Caravaggio's Entombment, 1602 with the narrative of a real life story of a homeless woman who died in a McDonald's restaurant and is left for 24 hours before someone realises. Read more here. Ronald McDonald Crucifix, 2015 Work so far for The Church of Ronald McDonald. I have adopted a technique of adding thin layers of paint and then wiping away with turps. Maria Carbonell ‘I chose this because I wanted to capture my father in an intimate, personal and even vulnerable way. During one’s life, bed is the backdrop to our dreams, feelings and important experiences such as birth, illness and death.’ This was one of my favorite paintings from the BP Portrait award in London. I am really interested in the connection and complete faith (for want of a better word) that people have in religion. When nothing else is left, there is always religion. Religion is the purpose, religion is death, religion is what people cling onto. It is a very human desire to want to understand the purpose of life and death. Padre, Maria Carbonell, 2014 Ione Rucquoi 'Rucquoi's photographic portraits address the varied experiences of womanhood, exploring key rites of passage - coming of age, pregnancy and motherhood, by looking at the dichotomies inherent in these changes. She examines historical gender roles, playfully mocking antiquated or misogynistic views, whilst simultaneously observing stereotypes and dismantling them with caustic wit.' - ionerucquoi.com Last year I looked at Rucquoi's work a lot and made my own response to it. I focused on themes of religion,virginity and purity; with snails referencing the purity of the virgin birth of Christ (people didn't understand how snails could reproduce through their thick shells). Her work is relevant in my work today as it plays with the idolisation of people and things that aren't considered to be holy in the traditional sense. The Virgin Birth, 2015
My father talking about his personal experiences with death and in particular, viewing the dead.
I emailed Ella Guru with some questions about Grayson Perry (this was for an essay about the mediascape of contemporary art). First I emailed Charles Thomson (the co-founder of the Stuckist movement) for his thoughts on Perry, he didn't have much to say about him but said that Ella Guru was 'quite a fan'. This was her response to my questions. Unfortunately they arrived a couple of days after my hand in but they were extremely interesting and inspiring for the rest of my work. Preliminary photos. Film stills from Nature Vivante. The second video, Nature Vivante, with fruit came about intuitively. After we finished the original video, it naturally progressed that I'd video her eating the fruit. In the background you can hear slurping noises; that is me eating an orange. I find the wavering continuity between the visuals and the audio unsettling but also intriguing. The pomegranate makes reference to Peter Greenaway's The Draughtsman's Contract and the symbolism of the pomegranate (fertility, female sexuality and the maternal): Looking at still life paintings, it is apparent that there is a human need to preserve something that is beautiful. Fruit will rot, the animals will be eaten but a painting will live on.
I have cast a badger skull, a rabbit skull, a bird skull and its legs in bronze and brass. This is my way of preserving something that I think is beautiful. By casting them in a precious metal it increases the aesthetic value as well as the monetary value. Sam Taylor Wood, A Little Death ."A genius work by video artist Sam Taylor-Wood: Take the most simple scenario you get, waive all additions like sounds or visual effects and create nevertheless a breath-taking film. While painter of the 17th century created immutable pictures of objects in their most beautiful moments, Sam Taylor-Wood refreshes the traditional work of still life and tells simple a story about the transient nature of life. The camera catches a dead rabbit which is decompositing rapidly before our eyes, while the mellow peach beside it stays untouched all the time. In an odd, beautiful way it shows how fast a once living being can disappear without any possibility of changing it…" - http://www.ravished-by-illusions.com/post/7010985038/a-little-death-by-sam-taylor-wood Interestingly the name of the video, A Little Death, translates into French as, la petite mort which is often the name given to the brief loss of consciousness experienced whilst a person is climaxing. The connection between death and the sensation of an orgasm is very interesting. This work by Sam Taylor Wood can be related to Peter Greenaway's film A Zed & Two Naughts which was created nearly two decades before hand in 1985. |