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May 22, 2013 04:56
Les Monstres du placard
I have become slightly obsessed with the work of Phillipe Caza. Playful, captivating images.
You can read more here on this wonderful page www.50watts.com/vintage-caza
Image courtesy of www.50watts.com/vintage-caza
Posted May 22, 2013 04:56
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May 6, 2013 19:54
April 23, 2013 22:40
The Story Behind: Only One Frida
Close up of 'Only One Frida'
Pigment ink, Chinese ink, Acrylic. April 2013
The Story Behind posts will give some insight into selected works from my portfolio.
Today’s pick of the bunch is my latest work, Only One Frida. It’s a portrait of Frida Kahlo, one of my favourite female artists and greatest inspirations of late.
After studying Frida Kahlo’s painting 'Two Frida’s', where she expresses her feelings of recent divorce to Diego Riveria, I felt inspired to create a drawing in her memory. Hence the title, ‘Only One Frida’.
Frida Kahlo opened a raw window into her world with every brushstroke. Expressing the painful times in a bold and uncensored approach. I can identify with the need/pleasure she found in creating art when in pain from fractured bones. It's a bit like writing your thoughts down. Once it's on paper you can see it and come to terms with it in your head. For me the ability to make marks on paper enabled me to comprehend and escape the madness of my accident. It's also been an incredibly satisfying experience, creating with the same vigour I had at art school.
My drawing took around a day complete. Frida’s heart is black as she is no longer with us in body, but the marks surrounding her heart show she still has a heartbeat today.
That heartbeat certainly reverberates all over the world, you can even find her on postage stamps in the U.S.A.
Viva la Frida!
BLH
Posted April 23, 2013 22:40
4 comments
April 22, 2013 02:08
Overjoyed
I made my first trip to the local art store Overjoyed this weekend. It took about fifteen minutes to walk there and as a result I had a swollen foot, a new membership card and wonderful materials to keep on creating.
The staff were so helpful and welcoming - I really came away feeling 'overjoyed'. Having stocked up on supplies, I now have the means to introduce colour into my work, which is a very exciting prospect indeed.
Iv'e been looking at Roy Lichtenstein for inspiration and wish I could hop on a plane over to the Tate Modern to see the Lichtenstein Retrospective they are currently showing. However, I still have memories of the collection of his work in MOMA New York. Firstly I remember being completely surprised at the size of some of the works, they completely hit you in the face when you enter the room. It was an exciting visual surprise. The familiarity of the comic book world in his images, to me was inviting, it played with your mind. It forced you to think about what he was saying as an artist in today's society, behind these chosen characters, their speech bubbles and dots, because what you were looking at was a painting. Not a printed comic, a skillfull methodical portrayal of the reproduced.
All in all, it always feels modern, new, like a freshly squeezed orange.
The colour research has also brought me back to personal favourites such as the Futurists and Vorticist Wyndham Lewis as well as some of Paolozzi's screen prints.
So it's time to get started...
Posted April 22, 2013 02:08
April 12, 2013 05:57
Loserville
I discovered "Loserville" today.
Adam Cullen 'Kelly' 2009 Image courtesy of www.artequity.com
It certainly woke me up.
The works you can see in this post are all by the Australian painter Adam Cullen.
'Loserville' was his world brandished with death, decapitation, limbs, erections, animals, clowns, cowboys and guns.
I was immediately drawn in by his bold use of line and colour. The weird yet alluring juxtaposition of humour and anguish only pulled me in further.
I had to ask myself, just what exactly was I looking at and why have I not heard of this artist before?
Adam Cullen 'Anything I say or do' 2001 Image courtesy of Art Gallery NSW
I don't think I would have discovered him unless I had been living on this side of the world. The more I begin to see & read about this artist, the more I am interested. That's when I discover he died last year.
His life was a concoction of fire arms, drugs & alcohol. In art school he chained a dead pig's head to his leg for a performance for two weeks. He apparently listened to the Meat Puppets and Black Flag (hell yeah!) when he painted.
I'm sitting trying to get my head around this person when really all I need to do is look at the art work.
There's an illustrious sensitivity to what he creates. Yes there are bold gestural marks, which some may find harsh and overwhelmingly unpleasant but these are the same marks which made me look at this artist. Made me 'wake up'. This is perhaps his intention. The sensitivity to me lies in the choosing of subject matter and in his portrayal of said subjects such as masculinity, human/animal behaviour and murder in society today.
Adam Cullen 'She must have known' 2001 Image courtesy of www.terminartors.com
There's something about the bold marks which make me think of Francis Bacon. Though Cullen is slightly more acidic in colour scheme, he and Bacon both try to examine what exactly it is that makes us human's human.
Adam Cullen 'Auto Portrait' 2007 Image courtesy of kollektor.com.au
Which makes me think about Margaret Thatcher famously calling Francis Bacon "That man that paints those dreadful paintings". I wonder what Baroness Thatcher would think of our Adam Cullen today? I guess we will never know.
Adam Cullen 'Kelly with Seargent Steele's Horse' 2010 Image courtesy of www.artequity.com
Image Credits in ascending order: www.artetiquity.com, Art Gallery NSW, www.terminartors.com, www.kollektor.com.au, www.artequity.com
Posted April 12, 2013 05:57
April 4, 2013 06:50
Where do I get inspiration from?
For my first blog post I feel I should give a backdrop into my practice and tell you all what inspires me.
Experience
Almost every artist draws from experience for inspiration. My current work has been made either on my couch or sat at a table this year. Having broken my ankle, I have had to make work in my home environment, pain and dislocation is an element that comes across frequently. You can see this in not only in the titles but also in technique and the placement of shape & form.
Imagination
I love getting lost in thought and I certainly have had a lot of time to do this. That's why some of the work leans towards the surreal. In the work titled "Screwed Up Foot" you will see a lion gnawing down on a gammy foot with screws coming out of it. The lion however represents Singapore, ripping my foot off for it's breakfast. Singapore's national symbol the Merlion was the main inspiration for choosing the king of the jungle & because they used to roam freely in this land before we humans took over.
Story telling
Who doesn't love a good story? Sometimes a title is all you need to convey a message in a work and in doing so you can create a character, a place, a new world. I love creating new characters in my work and hope to create a zine or comic in the future centred on these messed up/sad/beautiful/happy creations.
I love myths & legends including the movie Legend and Labyrinth and any other film with puppetry and hardly any CGI. Why CGI? It's like putting ketchup on everything. Sugar you just don't need.
Tattoo Art & Experimentation
I love the wonderful world of tattoo and the artwork that comes from it. I would love to attempt to tattoo at some point but until then I'm happy to draw for people wanting inspiration for a design. Someone once said (can't mind who) 'Tattooing is the most impermanent form of artwork' due to the person dying and not outliving a painting or sculpture etc. Brilliant.
The notion of impermanence was an area I touched on within my sculptural work. My degree show work - the large white bulbous sculptures you can see on this site - they all went into a giant skip after the show. It was about the moment, everything that led up to that moment & the interaction for that period of time. I had to put that experiment to bed eventually, as quickly as the tutors marked it, so why not directly after the year that was the end of art school. Done.
The Others
No not that pants ghost story with Nicole Kidman >>> all the other great artist's/creative's/minds living or dead that inspire me daily inc the above are as follows. Louise Bourgeois, Isamu Nogochi, Frida Kahlo (the last two had an affair by the way - which made my next fav a very unhappy husband), Diego Rivera, Simon Periton, Henry Moore, Joy Division, Matisse, Picasso, Martin Boyce, Cathy De Monchaux, Kendell Geers, Victo Ngai, Haruki Murakami, Studio Ghibli, Heather Gabel, Leonardo, Raymond Pettibon, Phillip K.Dick, J.R.R Tolkein, Jake & Dinos Chapman...my Grandmother Penelope, my Jimmie, my cats MJ and Miss Mona May.
This list is only a snapshot into my world - but this is why I have a blog, so we can always be delving a bit deeper.
Lastly Environment, which relates to experience but anyway...
It shapes our world & shapes our brain. The world I am in at the moment reminds me of a totally tropical, very clean New York City. Singapore - my home for the better part of the next two years is steeped in inspiration for the likes of a little lass from Scotland. This multicultural haven has india in one corner and china in the next. I see gold temples, geckos, fruits, ants, swimming pools, palm trees, lanterns, the rain, the sun, lighting, tall odd shaped buildings, lights. I smell sweat, cumin, new suits, chlorine, hot rain, hot air, hot cakes. I can't wait to discover more, My eyes are open and my hand is drawing...my right foot is still doing absolutely nothing.
Thank you for reading,
BLH
Posted April 4, 2013 06:50