Inspired

Chatting to friend and artist Clay Sinclair today he suddenly announced I should take a look at North London artist Kelly O’Gorman’s new website.

I was introduced to Bachelor and Masters of Art Graduate O’Gorman a couple of years ago and have always admired her freestyle approach. Working mainly in ink and with no set plan, “No pencil is laid down beforehand” she sets about drawing. Each piece is an evolution of thoughts, narrative and “working with mistakes”. Many of her works start as small drawings, which then evolve, as she continually introduces new images and characters, expanding it until it becomes a fully developed bigger finished piece.

Inspired by the contents of her mother’s handbag and images from 1950s knitting patterns, O’Gorman’s latest body of work is entitled ‘Lady Luck’. It is a series of glorious illustrations made from carefully selected images that O’Gorman has scanned then “drawn over and around” and placed into a new situations. Both thought provoking & exciting I urge all who read this Blog to seek her out at www.kellyogorman.co.uk

A blend of styles

In one area of Christine O’Sullivan’s home based studio sits an Apple laptop computer surrounded by an array of pencils, books, cuttings and sketches of different sizes where she captures a never-ending stream of ideas which flow from her mind.

O’Sullivan is an Oxfordshire based artist whose work is best classified as abstract. She is concerned with colour and space and the relationship between the two: the structured and unstructured. Working in series she “experiments with a changing palette and pushing one colour above others”.

This interest is expressed vividly in the many paintings on canvas that adorn her studio walls. Whilst studying them I was immediaitely struck by the reconciliation of the opposing coloured shapes and their seperation by a series of visually energetic vertical stripes. Her work could possibly be considered to be a blend of two of Americas greatest abstract expressionist painters, Ellsworth Kelly - the juxtaposition of bold colors and Barnett Newman - the characteristic lines. Indeed, like Newman the linear elements, or 'zips' are made by masking off areas of the canvas with tape, which is then removed at some point during the painting process.

Since graduating in 1998 from De Montfort University with a BA in Fine Art & History of Art, O’Sullivan has continued to develop her abstract vocabulary. She exhibits widely across Oxfordshire and regionally and her paintings are in collections around the world.

Your art is what you eat

Think twice before flushing your number two down the loo. These are hard times (economically that is) and as an artist what passes through your behind may be your salvation.

In 1961, the Italian artist Piero Manzoni did more than fling a pot of paint. He offered art-buyers 90 tins of his own excrement, at a price equal to their weight in gold. The Tate shelled out £22,300 for one in 2000, and recently another went for £84,000 at auction in Milan.

But surely canning is a specialised and expensive process I hear you say. Well one way to circumvent this process and prove ‘authenticity’ at the same time (something that is very important for an artist) is to jar the specimen in glass like American transgressive writer William Burroughs. I am not sure if Burroughs intended it to be art or not, but two “bioartists” Tony Allard and Adam Zaretsky somehow got hold of this jar and extracted DNA from the poo to make an “art gun”. They then shot his DNA into cellular nuclei to produce what they refered to as a “transgenic mutation”!

If you need further encouragement to use your excrement as a medium of expression, then you need look no further than the work of Spanish artist Santiago Sierra and Cuban artist Grethell Rasua. In 2007, Sierra exhibited in the London Lisson Gallery 21 huge blocks made of excrement gathered in the Indian cities of Delhi and Jaipur, in an effort to raise awareness on the situation of the “untouchables”, an Indian caste that has traditionally cleaned the bathrooms and latrines of the country. Grethell, however is moved by other aesthetic ideas, using the excrements of the people who commission her works of art, making use of its qualities of colour, texture and form. In many cases she uses it without disguising or isolating it, or hiding it behind other materials, as US sculptor Daniel Edwards did with his famous “Suri’s Bronzed Baby Poop” (2006), a bronze sculpture that supposedly contained the first bowel movement of the baby of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.

If like me you now feel inspired to give it try but not sure if your ‘jobby’ is up to the job or not, then you may at this point wish to consider seeking the advice of renowned Scottish poo analyst Gillian McKeith, former telivision host of the UK Channel 4's You Are What You Eat.

Letterpress Revival

I have noticed more and more great #letterpress cards, gift tags, prints and stationery sets popping up in recent years. The growing demand from designers and artists to go back to the letterpress as a reaction against computerised type has long been recognized by Oxfordshire duo Brian and Karen Clarke who started #Balscote Press early in 2000.

I recently visited the couples rural studio in the sumptuous grounds of #Upton House and was mesmorised by the range of relief printed cards, gift tags, invitations and prints on display. Each had been printed entirely by hand on their Alexandra Albion printing press on beautiful 100% cotton, tree-free paper. Operating one of these machines is a highly developed skill that takes time and commitment. Those, like Brian and Karen,who have devoted themselves to this art form are able to create unique prints with a texture, a handmade feel, and a personality that cannot be found in ordinary digital printing. “This centuries-old practice” says Brian “is now able to blend with modern graphic design technology, creating a new appeal for a new generation of operators”.

Long live the revival.

Balscote Press is part of artybonbon.com a partnership of husband and wife, Brian and Karen Clarke since 2000.

MOWING THE LAWN

The amount of tenderness a lawn is given is evident in the cruelty of its shape and texture. Compiled over the months and years since 2001 the GPS mowing series have captured the endless bathos of a banal suburban act.

The Seasons drawing is a limited edition work from an annual series of prints made from the GPS tracks captured on a lawn mower. It charts the growth cycle of a lawn throughout the four seasons of 2008.

Jeremy Wood started GPS drawing to explore the expressive qualities of digitally tracing his daily movements. For over ten years he has been exploring GPS satellite technology as a tool for digital mark making on water, over land, and in the air. His work binds the arts and sciences by using languages of drawing and technology to present a personal cartography. By revealing ones tracks the technology can introduce new approaches to travel, navigation and local awareness. GPS drawing engages a range of creative applications and challenges perceptions of scale by travelling as a geodetic pencil.

Wood specialises in public artworks and commissions with an original approach to the reading and writing of places. His work is exhibited internationally and is in the permanent collection of the London Transport Museum, the V&A, and the University of the Arts in London. He has conducted numerous GPS drawing and mapping lectures and workshops in schools, museums and galleries and continues to make drawings and maps of his daily travels with GPS.

He holds an MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martin’s in London and a First Class Fine Art Degree from the University of Derby. He was born in San Francisco in 1976 and grew up in Berlin and England. He is currently based somewhere between his studios in Oxfordshire, England and Athens, Greece.

I am a fan of of GPS drawing and more specifically the work of Jeremy Wood. The above article is from his excellent website which can be found at www.gpsdrawing.com.

Renewed demand for art creation?

All of us are worried about the economy. All of us know people who have lost their jobs, or young people who can't find jobs. Savings and retirement funds are down and university fees are up. As each day passes life seems just a little bit harder and to make a bad situation even worse it is even harder for artists.

Recent research has revealed that many artists have experienced drops in income with more than 50 percent of those surveyed saying incomes were down by 50 percent or more. But hey- ho, the greedy investment bankers and hedge fund managers whose blood lust for money caused the worldwide recession are also suffering! But guess what? They are looking for a reprieve from the market volatility by playing the art market, even if they can't tell a Rubens from a sandwich.

This is nothing new of course . Damien Hirst's 22-ton infamous shark (real name: The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living) could hardly be in better company than among the traders at one of the world's top hedge funds. It was purchased by Steven Cohen a hedge fund manager and the founder of SAC Capital Advisors. Cohen also has in his collection signature works by famous artists including Pollock, Warhol and Picasso. He also purchased Marc Quinn's Self, a head sculpture made of frozen blood, which is displayed in the SAC lobby.

But there is hope. As you etch out a living in a freezing dilapidated studio a hedge fund manager may come knocking. You can then strike up a mutually beneficial exchange - thus the economy would benefit from a revived fund asset class and renewed demand for art creation?

Itchy Fingers

I cannot be the only person who is continually frustrated by not being able to pacify my itchy fingers by touching, caressing and studying sculptural forms in museums and galleries. Well that urge was truly satisfied today when I embarked upon a photographic shoot of fantastic smoke fired ceramics by Oxfordshire artist Crabby Taylor.

Crabby's work is created with a specific ceramic firing process that uses both fire and smoke to create unique patterns and designs. Indeed, her reputation is fast growing as a practitioner in Raku ceramics and the way in which she has transformed the process into a vibrant and contemporary art form.

As I handled each of the forms, carefully positioning them to be photographed, I could feel the raw ingredients. This sensation was then immediately followed by one of discovery and excitement when seeing the colours and patterns enhanced under the studio lighting.

Influenced by landscape and nature, Crabby's ceramics resonate and echo with the eroded, geological quality of worn pebbles, rocks, paths and trails and the contours of dry stonewalls. Her work is not illustrative but a representation of the wonderful man made and fostered Oxfordshire and Cotswold landscape. It is a landscape and nature that gives direction and orientation to her ceramics.

If you want to see work that captures the imagination then I urge you seek out an exhibition of Crabby's work, but be careful of those itchy fingers.

High rise residents

I was sorting through a stack of books when I discovered a 1979 #Whitechapel Gallery exhibition catalogue promoting Stephen #Willats: Concerning Our Present Way of Living.

A pioneer of conceptual art Willats has created work concerned with extending the territory in which art functions and has situated his pioneering practice at the intersection between art and other disciplines such as cybernetics, systems research, learning theory, communications theory and computer technology.

In the work featured he introduced an elderly woman resident of a high rise apartment block (Skeffington Court in West London) in three panels — “Living within the confi nes of my new home”; “Living with the present day limitations of a small income”; and “Living without the certainty that I will see someone tomorrow.” The panels presented her in her apartment, moving through her daily routine, both inside and outside the multi-story brick building. As part of the display, a photograph of the woman’s rectilinear U-shaped apartment block was placed in the center of each panel as the defining reality of her existence. Each panel then posed a question to prompt viewers to think from her vantage point. For example: “What do you propose is the way for me to form new relationships within this isolated tower?”

Whist studying these pages I was reminded of the time when as a kid the family moved to our new home on the #Hattersley overspill estate in Greater Manchester. Built during the 1960’s on poor quality farmland - it was described in 1792 as a veritable puddle! - the government offered the local authority huge subsidies if they would consider building high-rise accommodation, so 7 high rise blocks were built (the 7 Sisters) with 65 flats per block to take advantage of the subsidy.

Whilst elements of Willats work reflected on the “dark side” of these buildings, the hidden, segmented structure of their interiors, I was always envious of the high rise residents and dreamed of living on the top floor.

Stephen Willats (born London, 1943) is a British artist and lives and works in London.

Generated Mythology

Debbie Doyle
Liberated
Flip Chart marker and Acrylic on Canvas - 7ft x 6ft








I came across the work of contemporary artist Debbie Doyle just recently. Her work is both humorous and thought-provoking, often prompting debate surrounding the definition of what art is.
What is intriguing about Doyle's work is its diversity and its sometimes surreal qualities. Talking about her process she says" I start by drawing on jotting block paper using an ordinary black felt tip pen. I carry my drawing tools in my bag, so it’s always a bit messy inside." She continues "I then scan the drawing into the computer and get a large format template printed which I then use to recreate the image on canvas using acyrlic paint and flip chart markers."

Doyle's most recent body of work explores the liberalisation in the late 1960s and early 1970s, for example abortion, gay rights, equal pay and the birth of the women's liberation movement the latter of which generated mythology almost before it was born such as bra burning.

Untitled Artists Fair, Chelsea Old Town Hall, Chelsea, London, UK

Start: May 30 2009 - 09:00
End: May 31 2009 - 16:00

Taking place at Chelsea Town Hall, the annual Untitled Artists Fair exhibits artworks by around 170 artists. Galleries and agents are not permitted, therefore all sales income goes directly to the artists, and customers can buy pieces at discounted prices. For more information visit www.untitledartistsfair.co.uk.

*Event details can change. Please check with the organisers that the event is happening before making travel arrangements.

Art of Engagement

A smog-filled sky, a drought-ridden landscape, deforestation and a neon sun have all emerged as popular subjects in the work of contemporary artist Diana Homer when responding to the relationship between mankind and his environment.

Whilst many of her works are based on her personal experiences whilst on her travels (wherever in the world Homer roams you will find her taking photographs and sketching) others are a direct response to an image seen in a magazine, newspaper, television news report or documentary.

For Homer, who lives in Oxfordshire, this fragile relationship is her inspiration. It feeds her creativity and enables her to continually create works that prompt viewers to question their relationships to the world in which we live. “Both nature and man, shape land and seascapes.” says Homer ”The result can be beautiful, frightening or a combination of both.”

Her two most recent paintings ‘Outer Hebrides’ and ‘Tsunami 11.3.11’ are testimony to her passion for her subject. She says “ I look forward to expanding the dialogue with new audiences on the future of our planet.”

Homer is a member of the artist collective Alchemie who will be exhibiting at the Cornerstone Arts Centre, Didcot, Oxfordshire from 20th October to 27th of November.