Saatchi

I'm not usually that modest when it comes to my art. I figure you've got to just go for it and see what happens (hopefully something!). However have just been looking at Saatchi Online where you can upload your work and sell it and I feel well intimidated! I wonder if there is somewhere a little less prestiguous for artists who are not quite that confident...

I have taken a lot of pictures of my paintings today, trying to get some professional looking shots. I have uploaded them in the Gallery section, check out the link above.

The plan is to put them all on there. Something to add to the to do list!

Emancipation

Today I came across a snippet from a diary, written 100 years before I was born (1879). The lady writing the diary had moved to Paris hoping to become an artist. Here's what she wrote:

What I long for is the freedom of going about alone, of coming and and going, of sitting in the seats of the Tuileries, and especially in the Luxembourg, of stopping and looking at the artistic shops, of entering churches or museums, of walking about old streets at night; that's what I long for; and that's the freedom without which one cannot become a real artist. Do you imagine that I get much good from what I see, chaperoned as I am, and when, in order to go to the Louvre, I must wait for my carriage, my lady companion, my family?

It's easy to take for granted some of the liberties we have today. Freedom is an important condition for the artist. This morning I went out and collected flotsam and jetsom in a bag. I don't think this lady would have been able to do that!

British Art Show 7, Plymouth

The British Art Show 7 will be showing at Peninsular Arts in Plymouth until 7th December. Somerset College students have the chance to submit a piece of work, to be shown at another venue, in response to the key themes of the exhibition.

I'm hoping to show a piece I made last year. I had recycled some of it for a new sculpture, so I've had to recreate it. It's a structure made out of wood, with the text from two genuine SMS messages in two of the 'cubicles'. It can generate lots of different interpretations. The cubicles are analogous to days and also mobile phone screens. I used wood, because its a material with warmth and history. The materials our personal, electronic devices are made out of are much 'colder': metal, plastic and circuit boards. We've been asked to submit 50 words. See below.

‘Heart On My Sleeve’, 2011, Mixed Media

My piece is about the passing of time and the fluctuations of relationships. It's also about how reliant we are these days on technology, conducting much of our communication via devices, like mobile phones and computers. The themes I relate my work to are 'the order of things' and 'parallel realities'.

Update

Spent today, 25.11.11, down at Royal William Yard in Plymouth where we had our show. Its a really lovely area - a former naval victualling yard, which has been developed into a mix of studios, restaurants and businesses. The views across the sound are stunning and the weather was great today.

  

                                                                                                                                                                              

The show was inside the Mills Bakery building, unfortunately a bit too tucked away to make it easily accessible to the public. Still, the unit was very nice and it was interesting to see the work of other colleges. Also, when your work's up amongst that of your peers you get to see how loudly or quietly it resonates and whether you want to tweak your aesthetic or not. I felt my work came off pretty subtle. Maybe I'll make it a bit louder for the next show.

 

Wise words from John Berger.

Here is a quote from Episode Four, Ways of Seeing, which I watched today, in which Berger tackles the subject of advertising.

In our urban world, in the streets where we walk, in the buses we take, in the magazines we read, on walls, on screens, we are surrounded by images of an alternative way of life. We may remember or forget these images, but briefly, we take them in, and for a moment they stimulate our imagination, either by way of memory, or anticipation.


But where is this other way of life? It's a language of words and images which calls out to us wherever we go, wherever we are.


Where do they exist, these fabulous rewards and objects and people? Where do they belong to? Here? There? or Nowhere?


They come with us everywhere. We take them away in our minds. We see them in our dreams.

To me this says, the world depicted in the glossy adverts in our sunday papers and between our tv shows.. doesn't really exist.. otherwise we'd know someone who lived in that world and do you? Do you know anyone with the looks of a model, who is impeccably styled while simply sipping an expresso in their fabulous home, a slight smirk of knowing superiority on their faces? No? Thought not.

Sloppy research..

This summer, I'm having so much more fun just looking into names dropped during an end of term lecture, rather then trying to digest a horrendous reading list which features vocabulary such as.. psychoanalysis.. semiotics.. I would go on, but it sends a chill down my spine!!! Through this alternative research, I have encountered Marina Abromovic and John Berger.