construction in space..a new brief..dum dum DUM

So today was the first day of our new brief, 'Construction in Space', which is focused mainly on sculpture. Looks like its going to be completely different from the last one we did, waaaaaaaaaay more contextual studies than practical studio stuff. Yay. (sarcasm). It was fun today though. We split into groups and took photos around the centre of what we deem as sculpture then we built 'shelters' out of cardboard boxes being the homeless people that we are. My team, the B team, won. Of course. Nah, we CVA are all one love!! But here are some bad quality pictures..

The B team's structure..

The house that fishy and me built..just coz were cool kids..

Kerryn Quirky chillin' in our hut..

It even says 'Home Sweet CVA Home' AND it has a chimney!!

My fav picture from today.. twins? nah. 

So yeah..guess thats an update.

peace

xo

K

'Sensing the Surface' final works.. and pizza!

Thought I'd post some pictures of my final works.. I used Edgar Degar and Robert Ryman as inspiration? I won't even bother trying to explain the thought process behind my finals..lets just say I paint texture through an accidental experimentational serendipity type process..yeah. Sorry about the tragic quality of the pictures..
And THANK-YOU MSVA for the feed of free pizzas!! And because I'm cool, here are some more bad quality pictures of CVA late Friday night chillin' in the life drawing room..

 Hemi and bonez the supermodel..yeah

 Smurphs adding minor details to a ghetto booty girl I drew for him..

 Bonez the supermodel..hand signaling..

peace
xo
K

texturistic facial..

up close and personal with it..reckon it would look coolys if it was the size of a wall so that when you look at it, you get lost in it.

Response:
The process in creating this painting was, shall we say, experimental. I started by making a frame in the workshops, then I shredded a curtain and stretched the strips of fabric across the frame. The result was a bandaged/ball of string/layered looking canvas. I then painted the surface with gesso to seal any gaps. I spent the next day or two trying to find an image to paint on it though. Took ages because I could do so much with the canvas and wanted to use it as best possible. Eventually I found an image of a face painted with technicolor sqiggles and decided to paint it on. I also found a painting done by Evelyn Williams called 'the dark' and really loved the style in which she had painted it. She placed the paint really thickly on her canvas, so it made you want to touch it. That was the feeling I wanted in my own work so I kind of borrowed her style??? I used oil paints to create a thick, textured feel. My idea was more focused on trying to bring out the texture in the canvas than painting an actual image. I mean sure the image was important, but I really love texture and wanted to experiment with it. I guess the painting convention is both figurative because of the face and abstract because of the lines of the fabric..
peace
xo
K

Will paint. For food.

Okay so I feel like blogging about the awesomeness of the last couple of nights.. Just because I can. Several of us were a bit behind or were having trouble with creative ideas. Or both. So when the usual time to go home on Friday evening came around, we ended up staying at course. It was coolys. Hemi, Smurfs, Jakeybabe, and Apple (chris) were chillin' in the studio with Nathan (tutor). While Tegan, Quirky (kerryn), Nat, Shaqi, and me were painting in the workshops.. well.. painting, playing around on the wheely chairs, and checking ourselves out in the toliet mirrors..yeah. We chilled there on Saturday too, well, after a minor jump fence issue with the security guard (...) anyways the atmosphere in the studio was artsy as.. we were all in our zones painting away with just the music making noise. Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd the world didn't end after all which was nice lol. Two late nights. Two mean feeds. Lots of painting. And Music. Good times. Love you CVA late nighters!!!
peace
xo
K

-pretty buzzy header huh, mucking around with photoshop lol

Originality..

I really like this quote from the 'Ways of Seeing' tv series, "..everything around the image is part of its memory. its uniqueness is part of the uniqueness of the single place where it is. everything around it confirms and consolidates its meaning. It marks the place of meaning. But now it has no place. You can see it anywhere. Through photography the meaning of a painting becomes transmittable." The way he explains it is so easy to understand.

Anyways heres the business..

The meaning of an artwork does not die or carry over when it is reproduced, it is altered or distorted.  For example, in Heather Straka's work 'The Asian', the originality of her painting has become hazy. 

In commissioning 59 Chinese artisans (from the Dafen Oil Painting Village in the Longgang District of Shenzen) to copy or reproduce her own painting and then placing them all together on one wall, Straka has attacked the idea of originality. We are left to find her original painting which in no way stands out from the beautiful reproductions which causes us to really admire the different styles. The irony of it is that she herself copied an old Shanghai poster in the first place, although she made it original and identifiable by adding a tiki. I reckon a painting is original even when it has been reproduced because the thing that makes it original is the idea. When someone reproduces an image, they add their own 'twist' to it. It can be obvious or completely subtle, even the artist may not realize it. This twist adds a new aspect to the original idea and in a way creates a new one, different to the first. I mean two works from completely different places maybe almost identical, except they may still be considered original because the ideas and thought process behind the two were completely different.   In saying that, no two works are the same. Even a photocopy of a photo is different. I reckon copying can be unintentional. We all draw on experience to relate to something. We all draw on inspiration in others works to create our own work. We create a new meaning however similar it may be to the original.

Trippy Deepism...

'Deepism' is an art movement that combines contemporary and abstract to form depth within a seemingly flat surface (no lies, I didn't just randomly make the word up). It has a traditional abstract look to it but because it deals with space, it challenges us to interpret it on many different levels. When you think about it, everything has depth; physics, biology, psychology, and even philosophy. All of these combined form our world in which we as humans exist in different dimensions of depth. Yücel Dönmez (a Turkish born American) is an artist who firmly believes and works with the idea of 'Deepism'. He creates an unusual and surreal world that plays with our understanding of space. When you look at this painting, you feel lost in thoughts and emotions and although his work is made up of forms in an abstract style, it has the amazing ability to unite reality and unreality as one in an understandable way. I reckon because he visually touches on so many different levels of our thinking, both mentally and physically(space), he proves the individual art movement known as 'Deepism' exists. I really like his work, especially his use of colors and how he uses the varying brush strokes and textured background to create the illusion of a world within the canvas. It's trippy assssssssssssss.. This is my favorite painting by him because of the tie-dye effect, it reminds me of fans or feathers..or even mussel shells, mmmmm mussels. Yum..

These are a couple more of my favorite ones by him..

Okay William so I admit I've never heard of it until I searched 'art movements' and came across a painting by Yücel Dönmez, but apparently 'Deepism' is accepted as a basic category representative of art in this new era… So am hoping you accept it as an art movement too..? I love it which is odd because I'm not really into abstract-y art, but I reckon I like the buzzy idea behind it and how the art shows it visually..yeah.
peace
xo
K

Nudes and Gallery Hopping..

Woah, its been a while.. break was.. interesting? Talk about dramas. Anyways, we just completed the first week of our 'Sensing the Surface' painting brief. Did life drawing this week..yeah. Never done it before so was a bit unsure, and I found it really challenging. You kind of get over the fact that someone is posing in the nuddy and that you actually HAVE to look at them. I just found myself zoning out and drawing away. I reckon you end up thinking of the model more as an object with shadows and movement than an actual person. We spent today 'Gallery Hopping'; visited three or four galleries. Te Tuhi was coolys. While we were waiting for the rest of CVA to turn up I was being nosy and had a look at an exhibition two guys were setting up. It was a white rectangular room with black elastic cords stretched out from various points on the walls and floor. There were colored pipes holding parts out the cord out from the wall too. It was very abstract looking. Turns out one of the guys (a white-haired old dude who's thoughts were his face) was the artist. He asked me what I thought of the work so I told him how a section of it reminded me of a circus trapeze and that it seemed like the more you look at it or change position, you see different things. It never looked the same. I told him I liked how it came out to meet you almost like a drawing from paper and filled the space of the room. And the shadows formed from the cords as well as tape on the walls created a really neat 3D look. He got really excited and then explained his thought process. He kept stopping in mid-sentence to think and then tried to explain his mind. He was fascinated by the way lines form an image, that shadow defines, and the fact that lines in an empty space cause shadows that create different images. He was really passionate. Then I headed through the rest of the gallery with CVA. The exhibition 'The Asian' was really buzzy. Its interesting to see how different people see the same image and reproduce it. The artist copied a poster in oils then got fifty something oil artists to copy her. It was hard to tell which was the original and made me think about what originality really is.. I reckon they all form in a way, all one artist. We then headed into town to check out the City Gallery. I really liked Charles F.Goldie's 'Night in a Whare' and Alexis Hunter's 'Rivers of the Moon'. Oh and John Loore's 'Tumau'. Loved walking around and seeing the different forms of art. We had a look at this trippy exhibition down the road too, I looked at one image with out-of-focus eyes and it moved!! It was buzzy asssssssssssss. So yeah mean day with CVA.
peace
so
K