A Painting for Karajini

Karajini National Park 2007

Remarkable beauty reigns as the land has the power to draw you in and remind you that you are a passenger on this earth. 

I was thirteen when my family planned a trip to northern Western Australia to explore Karajini National Park and the Ningaloo Reef. The beauty of the land in all its scarred formations and sun burnt colours left a deep impression.

Centered in the Hamelsly Ranges in the Pilbara Region is where Karijini National Park lies, it is the traditional home of the Banyjima, Kurrama and Innawonga Aboriginal people. 

words from the Irish

An Irish art enthusiast loves these artists

Barrie Cooke

 Neil Shawcross

Colin Davidson

 Francis Bacon

 Frank Auerbach

Howard Hodgkin

Lucian Freud

Basil Blackshaw

 Breon O'Casey

The accent of an artist. A particular articulation specific to the individual artistic speculation. Space. Colour. Exploration.  

I'm interested in finding more out about Hodgkin, Freud and Auerbach.

PAINTING A SURFBOARD

SK8 BOARDS

NO. 1

NO. 2

NO. 3

ITS HOLIDAYS

Where has this year gone? - most asked question of December am i rite.

I had a brainwave and realised that I haven't been doing something that is VERY important for my process. Which is documenting and writing. Words cement my thoughts. Without my written words I am in a constant fleeting direction! Oh alphabetical sequences how you keep me sane.

In order of how I want my thoughts to go:

1. Use the Camera from Belf!

2. Create a concept to begin a series of works - I feel like they want to be paintings. Maybe they could grow from the photos

3. Volunteer at places you might like to spend you future. galleries, museums, artlab, desart

4. Go to shows with Uni frunds.

5. Observe. Interpret. Record

In starting using the camera I want to think about what is inspiring me at the moment and what is driving my brainy modules.

WARNING PERSONAL RANT - I want to feel connected to the world. I want to understand how it works and why. I am curious about the nature of everything, from the level of the atom to the level of the biosphere and everything in between. I want to learn. I believe that I can cement my knowledge through my practice. My practice is a process. Which I am still discovering.  

I will organise each post as a project. the post will be constantly updated as the project develops it will include research, ideas, responses and outcomes.

The function of my blog and journal.

Blog = documentation + refined responses to the assignment questions + Artist Research

Studio Diary = brainstorming + idea sketching 

FINAL WORK AND ARTIST STATEMENT

ARTIST STATEMENT

Facing Waves

In response to Ian North’s painting The Wave I have created a work titled Facing Waves, it is a performance based video. I involved myself in The Wave entirely and in doing so found myself acting out being submerged by a wave. In shaping and resolving the ideas for this work I have drawn upon several aspects of The Wave and transformed these elements by adding my own perspective.

Upon first gaze of The Wave I was captured by the scene that played out on the canvas. The canvas is a panorama dimension, in which an enormous wave occupies a space stretching between the left to the right, its presence is pervasive. What was noticed secondly was a ship, appearing insignificant in the presence of the wave. The combination of these two images could be read as the futility of man in the presence of nature. However, I began to question more thoroughly as I realised that the ship was facing towards the wave, it changed the feel of the painting completely. Suddenly I was struck by this scenario in which this small ship is facing the enormous wave, this calm encouraging sense spread through me as I realised that this ship is going head on into what is out of its control. This idea filled me with courage.

I began to think about the waves in my own life. The biggest wave I am challenged with comes from a personal place, I have a tendency to create anxieties about the future. I realised that whilst looking at The Wave I was imagining myself as the ship and facing a wave of my own. This sparked the idea of a work that involved myself emulating this situation. I explored ways of which I might be able to simulate this and I resolved upon a performance based work.

The use of a mirror allowed me to record facing myself, with the camera positioned behind me I am viewed in the first instance from behind and in the second instance in the reflection of the mirror – emulating the position of the ship and the wave. I intended to reference the dimension of the canvas by using the same dimensions for the video. In making a video I transform the The Wave from its two dimensional sense into a performance work by enacting out the situation. 

In acting out this scenario I suggest that I have been engulfed by the wave, to do this I cover my body in paint - I tried to match the colour of the body paint to the colour palette of the painting. In the video I avoid showing the whole process of covering my body as it is time consuming, so I show a small fraction of this. The next part of the video involves me taking a step back away from the mirror, this felt quite bizarre for me as I fell into staring at my own reflection. The longer I stood staring, the deeper I found myself in contemplation of my anxieties and where they come from, why I have them and what their impact is, the disadvantages of them and the advantages of them. I just stood there thinking and the performance began to really take a path of its own. I did not come to any conclusion about the future or life but it felt really good just to stop and think and be comforted in the idea of facing something head on.