An illustrated living.

Living with three Illustrators really drives home how hard I should be working but also how much fun it is to make art. They are constantly thinking of new ways to communicate ideas and makes aestetically beautiful images. Sometimes the aestetics in Fine Art can take a back seat to concepts and meaning.

For the Summer, my lovely Illustrators had to keep a diary every day in the form of a sketchbook. The challenge of finding something every day to interpret as an image seemed interesting.

I'd like to start keeping a similar sketchbook diary as often as I can. I'm excited to get back to drawing and not taking myself too seriously. Hopefully this will be more personal, theraputic and fun!

Incase you were wondering, here are my housemates blogs.

Hannah Lane: http://hannahnomiddlenamelane.tumblr.com/
Marina Brayfield: www.marinaforillustration.blogspot.com
Nadiah Sweilem: http://nadiahsweilemillustrates.blogspot.com/

I'll show you how I get on...

Sketchbook sketchbook sketchbook...

A couple of pages from my sketchbook.

Got lots of new ideas from these and can't wait to get making some work.

Frieze. 15/10/10.

Yesterday I was saturated to the max with British contemporary art after spending a few hours at this years Frieze Art Fair.

I couldn't sleep so stayed up and wrote a page about how Frieze had left me feeling suprisingly positive about the prospect of being apart of the contemporary art scene.

I may share that with you another time, for now here's a few favourites from my notebook.

Damien Ortega

Thomas Locher, 'Frame, framed' 2007
(Example shown)

Erwin Wrum

Lorna Simpson, 'Cloud' 2005
(Image pinned in sections and grain effect of print relevant to my work)

Katja Strunz

Ellen Gallagher
'O.K Corral' Ink, varnish, cut out printed paper
(Different example shown)

Walid Raad 'Sweet Talk- Beruit'
(Different example shown- 'Mappings')

A few other names for future research:

• Sharon Ya'ari, 'Camels' photograph
• Cyprien Gaillard
• Ginny Bishton
• Bernhard Flichs, car photographs
• Daphne Wright, Swan made from resin & marbledust
• Donald Moffett, Oil paint like fur

Shapes from my Window.

Not sure if I like squares...

Switched on.

My parents are more in the loop than I am.
My Pops just sent me these links.

http://www.photofringe.org/?page_id=847
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-genius-of-british-art

From this I have found:

http://waitingforthebus.co.uk/ (Art created from and exhibited in bus stops around St.Leonards & Hastings)

www.flickr.com/groups/unfrastructures (A pool of photos to be exhibited in November highlighting your local 'unfrastructures'. Get submitting!)

http://projectpopularcamera.tumblr.com/ (Personal alphabets created by artists with learning disabilities in Brighton)

Drawing with Light, White Night Event. (Photography competition, go along take some pictures around Brighton at Night and upload them in Pavillion Gardens for a Nightime outdoor slideshow.)
(Enquiries: email info@photofringe.org)

http://www.oneweekinmoscow.com/ (Photographic dairy of Gabriella Rizzello and Murray Ballard's time in Russia earlier this year during the midst of winter, their book launch is tonight at Marward Studios)

One Week In Moscow.


I shall add more of Pops tips as they come in...

Finding notes.

I have just found a piece of paper that a Printmaker who had exhibited at uni last year gave me a few months ago. It has names of artists that he recommended to me. We spoke for 10 minutes and i'd never met him before.

I hope i meet him again, i'd like to chat more.

Bernd and Hilla Becher
A german artist couple best known for their photographic images of industrial buildings (Wikipedia)

Absolutely beautiful photographs. I like the variation on repetition, it enhances the shapes.

Latz & Partner, Duisburg

Peter Latz best known for his landscape design for Landschaftspark public park in Duisburg, Germany, 1991.

I love that the design of this park is to 'understand the industrial past, rather than trying to reject it'. And so the industrial structures of the past (specifically the steel and coal mill) as well as its' agricultural history, are incorporated into the modern design of the park.

I find it beautiful that industrial structures can become pieces of art in their original form.

Plain Sailing at Home

Thought you might like to see my stash of handmade cards.

Will you get one?

Rachel Whiteread, where have you been all my life?

...hiding behind huge resin houses apparently.

Yesterday (1/10/10) I took a day trip to London to see the finest of Peckham and the Tate Britain Gallery, of course.

I have seen a number of Rachel Whiteread's house sculptures in the past but yesterday I was blown away.

The exhibition of Rachel Whiteread's drawings ironically offered a whole new dimension to her work. She describes her drawings as a 'diary of my work' yet they are exquiste art pieces in their own right. As a 2D artist myself, I found the translation of her sculptures into 2D paper pieces incredibly insightful.

I loved her use of titles, i.e 'Tables and Chairs' and 'House, room, stairs'. Personal, everyday life can mean different things to each viewer and I liked that she leaves her themes to be explored by the audience without too much direction.

The idea that her drawings were functional to producing her sculptures was interesting. This was quite clearly hinted at by the use of graph paper. A piece entitled 'Heatcore test for monument' 2001, consisted of mechanical drawings presented in a circle.

Whiteread's drawings have inspired me to think about the following:

- filling in shapes (absent shapes?) with colour - watercolour/enamel paint
- grey tester paint
- red pen, blue pen, blueprint (idea of practicals/measurements)
- use of varnish, tipex on photocopy
- larger sketchbook for photocopies (A2)?
- white frames

Edweard Muybridge, Tate Britain, 1/10/10

Postcards from the exhibition

I knew very little about Edweard Muybridge before this exhibition and found his photographs, particularly the early ones of the Californian landscape (pictured above)very beautiful. The mystic, almost abstract effect of the reflections of the landscape in water seemed very modern.

Moving onto the second half of the show I found the 'Motion' photographs very beautiful.

Although they were for scientific purposes I found their pattern of repitition, the monochrome and their simplicity, artistically stunning.

There were some slides on show towards the end of the famous motion horse. They were placed in a wheel with squares cut out. This inspired me to think about presenting sections of my work as transparent. I.e. creating my own slides of interiors, or printing onto acetate.