Wednesday 30 March 2011

Mirko Tzotschew - "I thought it still had potential. however, I did not get it to meet the standards."

Mirko Tzotschew - CPF927.1 - Digital Photograph

The story is very simple:

I went out to take yet another picture for my t-Scape Series and when I got back I discovered that somehow my camera had failed to take the pictures right. It took the first 30-40 pictures with the right exposure, but then failed to do so for the rest. Even though there were fixed exposure settings and not much change in the light. I worked on the pictures because I thought it still had potential. However, I did not get it to meet the standards. Well, here it is.

Tuesday 22 March 2011

Lesley Guy - "The drawing lost its way"

Lesley Guy - Claude Levi-Strauss - 37cm x 29cm - Ink on Paper

The recent project Obituaries came from an attempt to produce art in a more playful way using found, and random images. I see drawing as a tool for thinking and exploring; I enjoy solving problems of surface, picture plane, illusion and form. However, my original concern was with exploring feelings of loss by collecting, and archiving the obituary pages from the newspaper. I was fascinated with the way that those who were recently deceased had become transformed into images of paper and ink, their lives reduced to a few paragraphs. The project was compulsive but the strategy gradually evolved into exploring the surface of the images, newsprint has a short life, the paper quickly yellows and the ink eventually fades, this is liberating.

There are over 100 drawings in the archive and there are as many different categories into which they can be sorted and displayed. The personal histories of the people depicted have some meaning, but this is often superficial, focusing only on the profession, age or gender of the deceased. Their image is the subject rather than their biography. My own concerns of loss, form, illusion, material or aesthetic problem solving dictate the ways these works come together.

In the case of Levi-Strauss, I was unable to see past the man. Because of my interest in anthropology I got a bit caught up in the idea that this image was important and that it had to work. Approaching the image with this kind of tension broke the spell, so to speak. The drawing lost its way, I tried to recover by using methods that had worked in the past which compounded the failure. Certain elements, such as the hand on the cane, do work for me, but overall it is clumsy and safe.

Lesley Guy's Website

Wednesday 16 March 2011

Dara Alter - "There is no focus and it is so busy"


Dara Alter - Places of Origin - 101cm x 76cm - Acrylic

Places of Origin was painted from memory and imagination. I was hoping to create an engaging piece that brought the imagery of 'the wall' to interact with land mass and passages of a built urban landscape. Instead of a cohesive work, I found myself with a cartoony divisive image separated into different quadrants. It seems like there are at least three separate works on one canvas. There is no focus and it is so busy that it makes me uneasy to look at for more than a few seconds.

Recognizing the problem areas in this work has had a positive impact on work that came later. It made me really aware of considering a painting's unity and overall strength during all parts of the painting process. In this painting's case, I attacked the painting with my idea, and didn't diverge from that plan even though it wasn't working. Now I've learned to remove myself from my plans where I may follow them to some extent, but I realize the necessity of going where the painting takes you.

People agree with me when I point the issues out to them. However, some people actually like this painting.

Dara Alter's Website