I was back in the artshed tonight, paints and assorted materials out, several different sheets on the go at same time. I’ve hardly been in there recently – all those fine evenings in the golden summer we had and now that it’s turning to dark and cold in the evenings I feel the urge to be there – warm clothes on, artificial light, operating with difficulty in the awkward mess. What is this urge, this drive for thrawn isolation?
I am really getting into construction – or assemblage, collage, bricolage, montage etcetera. Nails, stones, bone, wood, wire, wool, thread – I just like materials and seeing what I can do with them. The stuff I’ve done so far is fairly simple and I know I haven’t even scratched the surface of what I can do with it. The problem is that there are so many directions it can go. I was sketching earlier and was reminded of some covers I used to make for compilation cassettes (remember those?) about 16 years ago. I used to get old copies of National Geographic magazine from the Oxfam shop and cut up the interesting textures and paste them in a formal way with black ink borders around them. I may need to revisit and update this method for my current work.
I’m pleasantly surprised by the high number of likes for my Mousetrap Man in the last post. Thank you – it’s made me realise that I shouldn’t neglect the blog.
Finally, I submitted my digital folio for art college today. Hopefully the images will engage the selectors enough to grant me an interview – It’s going to be a bit tense and nervy until I hear back about it.
Found the wee green man from the ‘Mousetrap’ game on the beach yesterday – so I build this wee construction around him – loosely connected to The Shallow End – a track by Grant Lee Buffalo. I am enjoying construction, assemblage, Bricolage – call it what you will – I’m hoping to bring it into my college work more.
Just a couple of recent pics – nothing else to say. Hope all is well with all who see and you’re not just clinging to the orange crate in the flood.
I’ve beef fooling around with worked cardboard, a candle and some handy flame-killing snow. And this is an attempt to rescue a page that I had a major ink spillage on.
I had to share this – my new iPad wallpaper courtesy of Molly – she knows her way around the Sketchbook Pro app better than I do.
I haven’t really been inspired to draw (or write) lately so here are some links to sites that I frequent and enjoy…
…until I feel the motivation to draw again.
It’s 5 to midnight so I’m squeezing in some late words. Think I’ll break it down.
Nice time in town with my daughter today – picked up my unselected painting and went to the exhibition to see what success looks like. And it looks alright – although the prizewinners left me cold some of the work was lovely. If I’m ever to get in then I’m going to have to make my work a bit more refined. Not that I believe in compromising to get into an exhibition.
Came across a fab artist online tonight – Julie Mehretu – she is very successful but I just hadn’t seen her work – big abstract detailed drawing and painting. Makes me want to go big – bigger than I’ve ever done – I’ve always worked on a relatively small scale.
I’ve been sketchbooking a little but taking a break from the commissions for a couple of nights. Back to it in the week. Still doing too much in-head painting but I’ve a feeling this will change.
And finally music. You can keep your dubstep, electronica etc – just give me guitars, drums and a good vocal – head on over to You Tube and get a load of Alabama Shakes ‘Hold On’ video – top tune. I’m a little old school in my tastes though – only started listening to the Decemberists this year and I totally love their work.
I was in HMV today and the music has all been moved upstairs to make way for the shallower pursuits of DVD and gaming – sad times for music in many ways. And what is it with young kids wandering around with £200+ big headphones listening to the crap that is MP3? Neil Young reckons that it only replicates 5% of what is played in the studio.
Anyway, my rants are many and you don’t wanna hear them. Time to head for bed.
Yay – I got myself onto a one year NC art course at Aberdeen College today. Got enough stuff together to show the tutors and they seemed fairly impressed with it. So now I’m working on the piece for the Aberdeen Artists Society Exhibition – hand in is tomorrow.
I have no pictures to post so I’m just going to rave on – ok? Ok.
I’m taking a break from doing art tonight – had a pile of ironing which ate up the bulk of the evening, leaving time to slouch, channel flick and aimlessly browse the iPad – this kind of browsing is usually fruitless but tonight I found a gem – the Tunein Radio app – basically a searchable Internet radio gizmo. I punched in my fave band of the moment, The Decemberists, and it came up with all sorts of fab broadcasts – I don’t actually own any Decemberists material – only accessed them through podcasts, YouTube, Hype Machine and Internet radio – is this bad? Do I feel guilty? Nah – id love to buy some CDs but money is thin on the ground just now. The net just makes music so accessible.
I do have plans for art in April – I’m working on a piece for entry into an exhibition and I’m also going to take it to my interview for an HND in art in design I’m hoping to do after the summer. I’ve also got a tattoo design to finish that I’ve been dragging my heels with a bit. I am also full of…
Doubts. Nothing major, just the usual am I good enough to develop a saleable product through my image making kind of doubts. Ok I’ve sold to friends but never to the great unknown. I know I’m not that stage just now and that I need to work on it a lot. I just enjoy making images – I don’t think ive ever done it because I think I’m good at it – so I may fall flat on my face- who knows.
Ok it’s creeping towards midnight so it’s time for the arms of Orpheus for me. May write more tomorrow, then again I may not.
the artshed 