05/03/2012

On Kawara and another participant

Last Wednesday my tutor gave me feedback from the interim assessment and suggested researching the work of On Kawara -  now I've found out that he currently has work at the Baltic and guess what - I am going up to Leeds in a few days for the Artist's Book Fair, so a trip across to the gallery in Gateshead is possible! I am hoping that I will get to participate in his project there - you can find out more about his project HERE .  This has led me to more thoughts about time and the significance of dates which seems so pertinent to participants in my collaboration 'Painting in the attic' - particularly this one, received this week from another participant, artist Liz Smith

all of this in the same week - incredible!

1973 Liz Smith
1988 Liz Smith 
2012 Liz Smith


 Just last week I read the first few lines in Milan Kundera's 1984 book, the Unbearable Lightness of Being - "The idea of perpetual return is a mysterious one, and Nietzsche has often perplexed other philosophers with it; to think that everything recurs as we once experienced it, and that the recurrence itself recurs ad infinitum!  What does this mad myth signify?".

These words seem to reflect perfectly the situation I find myself in with my current project which is bringing together (ok, synthesising!) transitional objects, Florence Muriel, the dolls, value systems, domestic work, memory triggers on, and on and on and on.  "aha - ad infinitum - infinity - just what I was thinking!"

So here are some drawings - "automatic drawings",  (I must learn to use correct phraseology!)  just scribbles really! and, with their uncovering, memories have surfaced, memories of the precise relationships in my life at the times when the pen met the paper, and maybe also showing how little "the real me" has actually changed over the years!

Anyway enough philosophising - they are just "doodles" after all....?

04/03/2012

more participants

More participants for the 'Painting in the Attic' collaboration - the deadline has now passed.  I am collating the images and words and thinking of the best way to present them all. The words below in bold and italic are the artist's own words.

Liz Davidson

Notebooks/sketchbooks - Liz Davidson 
'I still can't find any really early work although I know I saved a story I wrote about a tree, age about 7, but what I have kept are all my notebooks/sketchbooks, piles of them, rounded corners where various dogs have teethed on them and the striking thing to me, about the notebooks I mean, not the dog, is how much writing there is in them, some, more than sketches for work. And how my writing has changed over the years, alas not my spelling. My art college days were the beginning of having to write ....a lot...about your work. Being dyslexic this was agony, but I love to read and have a great love of calligraphy, marks, gestures, and am a font freak. And it's fun to look back over the years and see how many artist books I've made. So, for me there is a definite link between childhood preoccupations and my work to day"


Diana Collins 
Painting of mother - Diana Collins 





finding one hundred words about my mother...
(the woman or the painting in the attic?)



I speak of her often

sometimes

rarely

never................................


how often do you see your mother?
never
how often do you think about her?



(the woman or the painting in the attic?)


the woman died nearly 30 years ago

the painting has a place in the attic wrapped in a shell of other paintings
I painted her
the woman
from memory 20 years ago
when I re-imagined her

I imagine her still.


I find Diana's words and image very poignant

Teodora Totorean

'At 12 when I painted this landscape, I didn’t know that one day I would be an artist. I wasn’t even aware that there was such a profession. I knew there were people who created art and exhibited their work in galleries, but I never wondered how this actually happened and what they did for a living.
I painted regularly from 5 to 13 years old. Scenes from everyday life, flowers, fairies with long hair and big eyes, the spirits of the trees, everything that inspired me and had meaning to me at that age. 



Autumn Landscape - Teodora Totorean aged 12 years
And then I grew up. 
The mysterious garden - Teodora Totorean aged 33 years 
There are many established artists who encourage newcomers to go back to the stage when they were children, when they drew and painted intuitively. Twenty years later, I decided to take the advice and attempted to break into the arts world.
Since January 2011, after years of wanting to take the brush but finding excuses not to, I started to paint again. Flowers, nature, and emotions – I just felt the need to relieve the creativity within that stayed dormant for too long.
Now, I paint nearly every day with a rediscovered joy and happiness. Every now and then I watch the old painting and I’m thinking “Why did I ever stop?”  and I promise myself that this won’t happen again.'


'The photo is of an oil painting I did in my early twenties. It was the first time I used a
palette knife and at the time I was very pleased with the results.
I look at it now and realize how far removed it is from my current work. I now work with
acrylic paint, mixed media and do a lot of textile work. Colour plays a major role in
everything I create.'

Thank you Liz, Diana, Teodora and Ro for your participation - there are a few more participants to add in my next posts
I am truly amazed by the wonderful, rich contributions I have received and once I have had a chance to reflect on them all in more depth I will post my thoughts!