artverbs: September 2016

Art, Coffee, Tea and blogs

Founded in 2011, The Public Domain Review is an online journal and not-for-profit project dedicated to the exploration of curious and compelling works from the history of art, literature, and ideas.” Focusing on works that have fallen into the Public Domain this site alternates between collections, essays and a curator’s choice to present a treasure trove of information to view, build upon or just use at you like for your own projects.

The essay Harry Clarke’s Looking Glass is Halloween timely with its exploration into the ghoulish tone of this Irish artist. His most popular book Faust which uses many images of the artist face takes on an incredible array of stench and loathing. But don’t let me influence your judgement, check it out along with many other wonderful items on this site.

What happens when a 12,000 lb. steamroller meets up with an inked MDF board covered in linen? The members of Articulate Ink decided to find out. According to Michelle Brownridge, Articulate Ink’s co-director, “We thought that Culture Days would be a really fantastic opportunity to do an activity like this, engage the public with printmaking in a rather in your face way,” Check out the Barb Pacholik’s coverage of Culture Days in the Leader Post out of Canada for the result.

Articulate Ink was formed in January 2010 by four graduates of the University of Regina Print Media department, It has grown and today is an artist run facility with a passion for printmaking and a consistent dedication to being involved in the community.

Ever wonder what the palette of Gauguin or Whistler looked like. Or maybe you’d like to see Pollock frozen in time as he throws paint, or look over the shoulder of Thomas Hart Benton as he takes a moment to survey the development of one his famous murals. That’s what the work of Joe Fig gives you. He’s an American artist and author best known for his paintings, sculptures, drawings and photographs that explore the creative process, the working lives of artists, and the spaces where art is made. As an artist I love to see how other artists work. It helps to calm that crazy feeling of isolation you get as an artist.

David Hockney says, "I think the first person to draw an animal on a wall would have perhaps been watched by someone. And then, when he'd got the animal down, the person would've grunted or something, and said, 'I've seen something like that.' " This falls in line with his idea that looking and showing are as old as time.

National Public Radio, (NPR) explored Hockney’s ideas in a recent Morning Edition hosted by Susan Stamberg. The text of that show with the 80 year old artist is insightful and surprisingly straight forward. It contains great links to an upcoming documentary and information on the Tate Museum retrospective coming in early 2017. Someone send me airfare and I’ll gladly go and cover the opening.

Art, Coffee, Tea and Blogs

So after a short summer hiatus I'm back on track with my blog giving you links to art stuff around the web that you might not have seen or cared about that is, until now. I was in Chattanooga (stayed at the Cho Cho Hotel, the old train station.) spent time looking at art, talking to artists and all sorts of folk. There are two things I want to mention to you about things you should definitely put on your agenda if you're in that area

First up is The Passage. This permanent art work is a pedestrian link between downtown Chattanooga and the Tennessee River. It marks the beginning of the Trail of Tears. If you don't know, the Trail of Tears refers to the forced removal of the Cherokee tribes from Chattanooga to Oklahoma which took the lives of 4000 Cherokees before the reached their destination.
The visitors guide says about the Passage"...The Passage is a permanent outdoor exhibit, with symbolism of the seven clans of the Cherokee Nation. There is a 'weeping wall' representing the tears shed as the Cherokee were driven from their homes and removed on the Trail of Tears. Seven, six-foot ceramic disks tell the story of the Cherokee Nation from hundreds of years of Native American habitation in the southeast. Seven, 14-foot tall stainless steel sculptures of stickball players will grace the wall facing the river, educating visitors about the game and its importance to Cherokee culture."

Being originally from the north, we are always on the search for a good Diner. And Chattanooga did not disappoint. This little out of the way place The City Cafe, was on the route of the free electric trolley that ran across downtown. Forgive me for sounding like a food critic but the menu was extensive and was served on vintage, Fiesta ware. The portions, well we ordered one dinner and split it, and the dessert, remember those giant cakes you used to see, I mean the really big ones, well they had them, probably about 40 of them.

I know you're probably saying "Hey where are those great links you always have?" Okay so here are a few;

Here is a listing of exhibitions from MOMA covering from 1929 to the present

http://moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/history

And while we're on the subject of museums Thepoke.co.uk a totally irreverent website, has put together an off beat group of photos showing you how to enjoy your next museum trip. But don't let the kids see it

http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2015/09/18/15-ways-to-enhance-a-cultural-trip-to-a-museum/http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2015/09/18/15-ways-to-enhance-a-cultural-trip-to-a-museum/

That's it for now but remember, as always

Imagination is never still. The marks we make are verbs.

Monotype Landscape Ink Washes

There are times as a monotype artists that I fight the wall, the blank page and the empty canvas. And like other artists, sometimes it all seems to be just beyond our fingertips. And then something catches our eye; a bit of news, a painting, something someone says or in my case, a video. I came across the video Lotus Flowers: Explore the Plexiglass Monoprint Techniques in CBP with Henry Li ( https://youtu.be/H0wL5pKLzOk ).

There was something about the ease of work in his Monotypes, the serenity and at the same time the decisive moves that created images, though fraught with accidental characteristics, still had a sense of structure and control. I had to try it. So I grabbed some paper that I found at a flea market. It’s 9 ½ x 11 buff linen resume paper with a deckle edge on two sides. It was heavy enough for the monotype process. So I set to work exploring ink washes. I used a spray bottle to add moisture to the area for the sky and watched it blur and run and incredible designs. Then I used an eyedropper to run a horizon line. What I created was a series of India ink wash landscape monotypes that I printed off of a glass sheet. Sometimes by using thin and thick layers of ink on the glass I was able to manipulate clouds and ground to create depth.

There were many happy accidents and some not so happy along the way. I've posted what I believe are successful artworks on Monoprint-Monotype.com and on my facebook page Monoprint-Monotype at http://bit.ly/2csaLIR Even the pressure I placed on the paper created differences in the resulting image. My next step will be to try acrylics in washes as well as printing inks. Though I think I’m going to stick with just the black.