and thus we begin photography

  Decided I'm going to post on a weekly basis otherwise I feel like some kind of blogging freak...will make these posts a lot more like reflections of my course content too as I reckon I need to seriously write more about what I'm studying.

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                                                             me..

 So on Monday we began the second part of of course, Photography in the Community. We had to fill out a paper with our thoughts on the Drawing from Nature part of of course too, kind of felt like a nark but anyway.. We watched a film/documentary called 'Born into Brothels'. The name says it all. I found it really emotionally deep and kind of depressing. I was kind of hoping for a happy ending, but instead I was left feeling kind of empty. I mean how do you respond to such a stark exposure of poverty? Sadness? Depression? Anger? The discussion we had afterward was interesting, hearing everyone else and their points of view as we critiqued and broke the film down was a buzzy eye opener for all of us I think...On Tuesday we watched a music video and critiqued it. We then paired up to share a camera and set off on our assignment, to take a series of photographs representing the alphabet. We could use anything we wanted and I found it fun and challenging. Wednesday was a lecture on the history of Portraiture. We also did some practical in the dark room where our tutor Will taught us sun, pin-hole, photogram, and contact prints. I love it in the dark room, with the sound of flowing water and the dim light, its a really peaceful place to be. Its trippy watching your exposure turn into a photo as you develop, stop, and fix it. Perfecting the right amount of light exposure for the picture is fun too. In some ways its almost magical.. Thursday was pretty chilled. A couple of us went to a lecture Leilani was doing with DVA about semiotics. Leilani had already covered the basics with us the other day so she kept saying how her CVA students already knew stuff so we felt pretty brainy lol. I like how semiotics are pretty much a break down of anything and everything and what things symbolize. Its like every object can be a language just by what it represents? I hope that makes sense.. Today, Friday, we worked on our responses then headed into a computer suite for a lecture on basic photoshop skills. We were then left to catch up on stuff. I was pretty much sussed and felt like going for a walk so borrowed another camera and headed out armed with an umbrella (it was raining) and this random camera (my usual was already booked). I really enjoyed just buzzing out by myself in the rain taking photos of what I found interesting. I'm finding the more I tutu with these cameras, the more I understand them, and thus I'm getting some trippy shots.. I'm loving it. Got a little bit sidetracked by Chris and his 'friends' so yeah, I didn't get many shots.. I'm really enjoying photography and love hearing the tutors points of view. Its been a long and sometimes emotional week, but yeah so far so good. Have a mean weekend CVA!
peace
xo
K

the scream of munch

"The Scream" by Edvard Munch, 1893. Oil on Canvas, 91x73.5cm.
*Meaning.. "Suddenly the sky turned blood red-...there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city- my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety- and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature". A sunset stroll along a road above an Oslo fjord, a blood-red sky, a sensation of nameless dread. This is how the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1863-1944) described the visionary experience that inspired him to create The Scream—his most famous work and one of the most recognizable images in modern art.
*Context.. The artist was considered an early expressionist. He was influenced by primitive art to create dramatic artworks that communicated raw emotion. The experience that caused the painting happened high up on the only point from which one can look across and see the city of Oslo, spread across the water, almost as Christ saw the city spread before Him from a high place, when the Devil tempted Him. What looks like a road in the painting was actually a path, and the bridge is actually a safety railing.. The city's slaughterhouse was up there, and so was  the city’s madhouse, in which his sister had been incarcerated.. The screams of the animals being slaughtered in combination with the screams of the insane were reported to be a terrible thing to hear.


*Response.. I chose this painting from our 'History of Portraiture' assignment because it appeals to me. The meaning really drew my attention as I reckon it gives the definition of art without having to know the real meaning of it and I know how he was feeling. In researching the painting, I found Edvard Munch's background explained a lot about it. Born in 1863 and raised in Oslo, Munch's father was an impoverished army doctor with a hellfire religious Christianity that placed a great fear in young Edvard. He lost his mother and sister to tuberculosis, his father died soon after, and his other sister went mad. He decided to pursue painting and came under the influence of an immoral friend that led him into a life of mad corruption. He wished to paint the life of the soul and that tragic phase of his life and the tragedies of his past helped to produce a series of paintings known as "the frieze of life". This painting,"The Scream", was the last of the series and showed Munch at his most despairing. A lot of people have different perceptions and interpretations of Munch's painting. Some think the person in the image is screaming a silent scream that cannot be heard; others reckon that as the person is covering their ears, maybe the scream is coming from the anxieties of life which only they can hear. With the vast expanse of space that seems so overwhelming and the feeling of screaming portrayed on the persons face I feel close to the painting because in many ways I can relate to it.. It perfectly portrays the feelings I have when I wake up from the nightmares I have a lot..and makes anyone looking at it feel slightly afraid. I think that is what I like about it, it symbolizes a world-wide emotion we all feel and experience. The final breaking point of the soul.

assessment day...dum dum dum

So today was our first formative assessments...we all cruised in tired as from camping in piha only to remember all we still had stuff left to finish. It was a pretty intense atmosphere, all of us quiet as trying to get everything up to 'A' level.. We worked hard until our deadline when the tutors kicked us out lol. We then all needed to blow off some of that pent up arty-ness so spent the afternoon hanging out in the rain. Got soaked to our skin dancing around and just chillin' and doing other 'stuff'. Took us girls two hours to get home though, confusing bus drivers and we were still soaked. Good times, good times. Love you CVA, yous cheer me up when I'm on a down buzz and love me when I'm flying high. Looking forward to chillin' at poly with you all. Am trying not to think about assessments...hope I pass.
peace
xo
K

my assessment piece..

our glimpse of piha

Piha though Louise's camera. Lion Rock 007. a pic I took when I was on a buzz by myself. my wannabe postcard picture.

our Ngati CVA waterfall. some of us chillin' in the freezing water. Tegan climbing the stairway to Heaven.

this is what happens when you take a bunch of art students to Piha beach. wilson and peace are by me.

titanic posing. Ben stalling, Chris doing something (?), Kerryn and me. me with our tutor Nathan in the background. pretty Louise and me.

 

drawing with string. Nancy and her buby Sienna. Ben, Chris, Kerryn, Nat, and Hemi. Chris looking Stan Walker-ish.

 

CVA class of 2011 minus Shaq, Paul (Bolo), Jakob (Jakey, CVA President), Stirling, Nancy (Minaj, Jolie), Rocinda, and Melsy. Clockwise from top: Murphy (smurphs), Nat, Golf, Luma, Chris (stalker), James, Ben, Ema, Kerryn (bunny), Louise (girl who is scared of bees), Tegan, me (hippy, bugs, kevin, kayls..), Liam (moo-loo, little cow), Sonny (not sunny), and James (Hemi).

love yous all, good times good times.

CVA + piha = buzzy times

So the last three days have been buzzy as.. loved chillin' with CVA class of 2011 (the best so far and to come) at Piha. Which has got to be the best art studio/classroom ever, right? Its trippy how its only been three and a half weeks since orientation day when we all sat there shy as, yet now we are like a fambilly, "Ngati CVA" as Paul puts it. The last three days have created many memories and fun times. Chillin' in the lounge eating doritos. Swimming in the waterfall where its so cold you go numb and begin to feel a slight burning sensation. Wasp-Dodging. Making headdresses from nature. Taking trippy pictures at night of us bush-clubbing with torches. Chillin' on the floor in the dark, empty dining hall at 2am, listening to music and sharing history. Using Piha beach as a huge canvas for our random doodles. Exploring (...) the bush. Munching mean feeds. Drawing with string through the bush. Sand sculpting a 'giant' (cheers Louise) sea turtle on Piha beach then riding on its back for a photo our paparazzi, Nathan, climbed Lion Rock to take. Buzzing out on fanta (...) and laxing out on each other in the lounge at 3am. Doing CVA washing and dishes at 4am. Whipping our hair back and forth (coz were sexy like that ae Tegan). Learning the tricks of a set-zoom, flash-as-tripp camera from Nathan and Dion and laughing at their argumentative mocking about each others views on how to learn them. A ton of tickles (Chris, you idiot ;p ). Ping-pong matches. And more mean munching. Its been a trip of laughing, mocking, artistic, looooooooooove. Lol. I love my new CVA buddies very muchly and am looking forward to our next camp later on in the year (Am thinking we start a petition, everyone chuck in $50 to pay for food and accomodation, whatcha think Jakob?). Formative Assessments tomorrow! Thank-you Lord that I'm almost done with my final piece...just a bit more to do. Thanks Chris, Tegan, and Kerryn for your input lol love yous.
peace
xo
K

the life of a struggling artist..

Well this sucks. I had ideas, but I can't seem to put them down on paper. Seriously, I don't know where to go from here with my assessment piece.. Am struggling majorly. All I know is that I am doing a sunflower, from underneath.. I thought maybe Van Gogh style, but have moved to a watercolour perspective. Yeah  I don't know what to do about it and am extremely frustrated with myself. Argh. Trying to incorporate what I've learned into my work is hard too. What to do? Hopefully I'll get it done over the weekend..
peace
xo
K

a few pictures..

Felt like posting a few pictures seeing as I'm doing nothing..

This is my mosaic-y piece I'm working on. The picture in the corner is what I'm enlarging it from using different mediums.. not sure I like it and the camera is crap but yeah..

First time using dry pastels (my drawing is on the right). Kind of proud of it.. lol

A picture taken today of Jakob and Chris that I edited.. lol sorry Chris, the wings just kind of happened..

My fellow class citizen and studio neighbour, Louise, working on an idea for her assessment piece, mint idea huh? and yup that is a lollipop in her hair, she fancy-dressed as lollipop girl lol

A picture of what I did to one of our studio windows. I was bored on Wednesday evening, figured I'd add a little 'something something' to the window. Did it with masking tape and mirror-image stuck it on the inside of the glass so people outside could read it and laugh at us artists stuck inside.. It's funny watching people trying to read it from the inside too.
   
                                            

cool kids Chris and class president Jakob.

annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd this I just found on the net, I find this funny on so many different levels..

a piece of assessment..

So we are, at present, preparing a work for our Drawing from Nature final assessment. We have to find and research an artist(s) then incorporate their style and techniques with our own to create a piece that focuses on a plant of nature. Man that was a wordy sentence.. Anyway, I'm still finishing off my mosaic of some sunflowers using different mediums, so at this point I'm just throwing ideas around in my head. Am thinking Vincent Van Gogh meets me meets Banksy/street art? Yeah. Like I said, throwing ideas around. The atmosphere in class is a lot more serious as everyone is trying too get their work up to date, but everyone coming in fancy dress today kind of loosened things up a bit lol. I'm thinking electing Jakob as class president was a good idea. So yeah that's about it at the moment, things are pretty intense so the Piha road trip next week is going to be a sweet distraction from assessments. Three days of sun (hopefully), sand, and art. Mintys. I smell like cheese popcorn. Icky.
peace
xo
K

viewpoint of fiction

 Yesterday our tutor, Leilani, took us to see her latest exhibition at the Fresh Gallery in Otara. Frankly, I loved it. Yup I just wrote frankly...odd. Anyway I've decided today's post will be the response I wrote in my Visual Diary.. Here goes nothing.
Women. Water. And the Moon.
Nga Hau E Wha - The Four Winds by Leilani Kake.
In viewing Leilani's work/exhibit, I felt confronted in a peaceful sort of a way. That may seem to contradict, but it's honest. When I first walked into her exhibition, I felt lost and unsure about my surroundings. It was pitch black and haunting sounds filled the air around me. As I walked around the corner and saw the beautiful moving images on the four walls, I felt a dislike or really a felling of the unknown. I think the bareness and such a stark exposure of the women caused a slight felling of discomfort. But as I looked more, I found I loved it; the water and shadows playing on their bodies was beautiful. I went back to the gallery during lunch by myself, just to experience it alone (I hear you now Jakob, yes I am a freak). I felt surrounded yet so alone in a sort of watery darkness. I focused entirely on each image one at a time. I loved the different figures of the women and how they represent different moon cycles of life or womanhood. It was spooky, yet stunning. The purpose and emotional impact behind Leilani's work leaves you thinking and causes you to consider your own body..

 So yeah, that is my viewpoint of fiction. Lol. I wouldn't mind getting into video installation art, as I find film and television the future of my life. Watch this space I guess. Right that's me for today, I have to go finish a response and also the work I started (previous post). Plus we got a new assignment today... Yay. (half-hearted mousey yay) Got kind of confused when our tutor was explaining it, but yeah, we shall see. Its towards our assessments so its got to be ninja-ristic..yeah.
peace
xo
K

forgotten sanity...

So today is one of my buzzy days when everyone asks me if I'm on something. I was tripping out over the word loopy (thanks Jakob, am holding you responsible as you said it) and was giggling like a mad person.. Figured it was best to remove myself from the situation as I did not want my fellow class citizens to see me in such a state so soon in the semester.. don't want to freak them out more than I already have. Thus I find myself chilling in one of the computer suites.. just sent my tutor, William, an email with a link to this blog so he can assess that I'm writing, although I don't think this rant is what he had in mind.. Sorry William and fellow tutors, if you scroll down there is actually writing and pictures about art and what we have been learning. Maybe I should write something about that actually.. So since my last post, we photocopied leaves collected from the botanic gardens then cut them out and glued them as a collage. We then traced them onto graphite paper and used different mediums (pencil, charcoal, pen, pastels) to add detail. We also used the photocopier to multiply one leaf by heaps and negativised (yup new word) them, then we traced that onto the background of our tracings on the graphite paper. The finished product was like nothing I've ever done before. We also buried paper in a section of the reserve by MSVA as a practical study of John Wolseley. Weird huh? We dug them up today after a weekend of rain to find some had disintegrated, others looked like mush, and some turned out like strange masterpiece's. We put them aside to dry for tomorrow, actually I wonder what we are going to do with them tomorrow.. When we went to the Botanic Gardens last week (see previous posts) we took a bunch of pictures with the school cameras. Well to be honest Louise and Kerryn did, I figured too much creative picture-taking-energy between the four (Kara too) of us and one camera could become problematic. So I went off on my own buzz and drew thumbnails of native plants.. Anyway, we each chose and printed off one of those picture's today and were told to grid an A2 piece of paper then draw it on the grid. Basically, we were enlarging it, which was kind of trippy considering I had been researching an artist, Tim Maguire, for my response who did just that. Having drawn an outline,we now have to fill each section of the grid with different mediums. As I was having a buzzy out day, I brought mine home to do so I could concentrate..but ended up finishing this post. Go figure. Maybe I will post some pictures of my work when its done, depends if I end up liking it..
peace
xo
K

i like to write/type.. deal with it.

my left brain is dead

The title says it all..
Asking an art student (who generally uses the creative right side of the brain) to partake in a survey/test involving 30 mathematical questions, is to say the least, a bad idea. I'd forgotten how dumb I am at Math, I mean I'm sweet if I've being working math problems out on a day-to-day basis, but after eight months of bumming it around.. It was like I had to perform cpr on my own brain it was so dur! Having a headache didn't help either. In saying all that, I got a high grade in the literacy and writing so it wasn't all a complete and epic fail. Right, now I've had a rant, I shall write about the morning sketches we did..
So we got our pencils and various sketchbooks/papers out and were told that today we would sketch realistically. Last week's drawing techniques were to loosen us up, but today was all about realism. I did a nice drawing of a piece of twiggy grass that had dried and died, and also a few of leaves. Trying to reproduce the texture on paper proved rather challenging, especially as I was having one of those off days when you tend to stare out the window..but it turned out a rather nice morning of doing something we all (fellow class citizens) relate to and enjoy. I'm really loving the atmosphere in our studio/class, knowing that the people around all share a similar interest and see things the way you do. We joke around and chill out a lot, but I reckon, in all seriousness, we are all serious about studying art (even if we don't look like we are). Yeah that about covers today, oh and we unofficially voted Jakob as class rep.. it's gonna be one fun year..
peace
xo
K