Julia: Studio visitors

Today we had three film-makers Kyle, Andy and Zak with us making a documentary about our experience with The Enterprise Group and Net 315. Only three of us were available Matt, Adam and myself, Julia but hopefully they will return in September to speak to Debi and perhaps Joan as well. However it gave us an opportunity to extend our thanks to Net 315 and particularly our mentor Chris Wiles. What we tried to convey on film was how the support we have been given since our graduation has been invaluable. .the transition from graduate to working artist has been considerably eased by Net 315’s support.

I wanted to express my feeling that the artist as outsider is an outdated concept. Nobody is an outsider if they ever really were, in reality the artist has a place in society and always has done. Contrary to the popular myth that art is easy and artists are lazy it is actually a very intense under-rated career choice. Of course it is a joy on one level to make art and to have the opportunity to do something we love but it is always a challenge to put into practice what we see in our minds eye, the output whilst important is only part of the story. To develop and promote our work we require a disciplined approach and regular constructive feedback and we cannot live in isolation because we have to take on board what is happening around us. It takes a lot of self discipline to keep going against the tide of opinion as many an artist has discovered in the hope that at some point the population at large will get it.

I experienced real satisfaction when I visited the Metamorphosis exhibition at the National gallery and discovered that I was not the only one to be inspired by Titians Diana and Actaeon series of paintings. The voyeuristic quality of art has always fascinated me and to see Mark Wallinger’s Diana, Conrad Shawcross’s Trophy along with Chris Offil’s paintings all responding to Titians work in differing ways from my own  work A Four panelled  Screen was quite thrilling. I enjoy other people’s art and want them to enjoy mine. So in the year ahead I plan along with my fellow artists to try and get my work out there as often as possible. And on that note I want to say I have now completed the Wedding painting of Porth Sele beach, not perhaps what I usually do but it has been an interesting subject matter and I hope will bring pleasure to the bride and her family.

Julia: Warhol Workshops

Debi and I were particularly busy during June preparing for our workshop at the Ferens which was a major undertaking as in the end there were only the two of us from the studio available to do it. However by enlisting the aid of my son Owen we were able to make a pretty good job of it. The actual workshops took place from Monday 25^th June to Friday 29^th, two days in the Ferens followed by three in Park st. workshops. Our premise for the workshop which was to coincide with the Warhol exhibition was concentrated on portraiture. With only the three of us we decided to include as much experience of differing approaches to portraiture as we could without overstretching ourselves. We were fortunate to discover that the Ferens had organised a long time freelance art worker to help us out for the week. Bill was fantastic and worked well with us whilst still following our lead.

 On the first day we introduced ourselves as artists using power-points about our work and generally broke the ice with the group of students we were working with over the week, 24 in all from schools throughout Hull. It became immediately clear that they were an excellent group who had a specific interest and talent in art. By talking about our own work we were able to give them an insight into how an artist works and realistic impression of the problems that the artist encounters.  I hope we conveyed that the life of an artist is ultimately fulfilling but not an easy option. To engage with art requires commitment and discipline just as much as any other career choice.

We had decided beforehand that we did not want to approach these workshops as a teaching exercise but as an enjoyable experience for all concerned. Within the limitations of time and skill requirements, the work produced by the students was extraordinary. Our first project involved Owen taking photos of all the students as a resource for the ongoing workshops. Initially we worked with collage on the first day which was a fun activity and produced hilarious results showing that the students had a flair for imaginative interpretations of the face.

On the second day at the Ferens we used the images procured on the Monday to project, Owen spent a lot of time the previous evening making sure the images correlated when projected, sufficiently for us to create a fusion of all the student’s faces. This worked extremely well with the projected images simply outlined in felt tips. The resulting large drawing was very interesting and we assured the students it was worthy of display in any contemporary gallery. Their confidence grew and while this event was taking place I engaged the students in making very competent self portraits using small mirrors. They took a very serious approach to drawing themselves quite unlike the previous days collage. The resulting drawing were threaded together reminiscent of the Warhol stitched photographs.

On Wednesday we all met at Park st. and separating the group into two, one group went with Debi to do screen printing while my group joined me in the computer suite to use photo shop to produce magazine covers featuring themselves as artists. The format was referencing Andy Warhols ‘Interview’ magazine and we began by using their photographs to Warholise and ‘superstar’ themselves. The results well exceeded my own preparations as I have very limited skills on photoshop and with the assistance of the park st. technicians we were able to produce very professional looking covers.

It had been our intention to contrast the way hands on screen printing compares with the present days digital technological approach. We did achieve this to some extent but in the end by scanning in the screen prints were able to combine the approaches by dropping monochrome photographic images onto the screen prints. I particularly liked this hybrid effect combining the best of both worlds. I definitely learnt a tremendous amount myself in a short space of time. As the screen prints were completed in my area Debi was freed up to do some very demanding dry point self portraits using their original drawings to work from and this I feel again gave the students a diverse range of experience. All this took place on the Wednesday and Thursday so that by Friday both students and artists were exhausted.

The final day was creating an exhibition of our hard work and gave the students an insight into curation which is normally not done by the artist themselves although they will usually have considerable input into the way their work is displayed. In the afternoon we celebrated by having a brief preview of their work with parents family and teachers and the work was very well received.

EDIT (15/8/2012): The exhibition of this work is now showing in the live art space in the Ferens.

Signing out.

Last week, I signed out of the enterprise group studios for the last time as I will be refurbishing my home garage, which will be my studio for the foreseeable future. The time I've spent at the enterprise studios has been excellent and greatly appreciated, and the reasons for moving out are mostly to do with the convenience of being able to work closer to home, as my job and work commitments have unfortunately started to wear on my three nights of journeying into town only to have 2 or 3 hours to work before the studios close. Hopefully my new garage studio will allow me to be more productive for longer periods of time without access interruption, despite the fact that I will very much miss the shared environment (an important element) with the rest of the group.
To continue following me and to check out updates on my work and plans -
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Matt.

Adam: My Crit at The Red Gallery

http://personal-space-suit.blogspot.co.uk/

Last month I participated in the Creative Critiques Program at Red Gallery, the committee of which I have recently become a member. I was one of two artist to present work for feedback on this occasion, the other being another new committee Charlotte. I showed some of my latest Biro circle drawings form the studio. They are a series, produced one a week over  the course of 12 weeks. 

My very good friend and fellow committee member Rachel along with a few members of Hull's art scene.

I chose to show my actual drawing in favour of a Powerpoint presentation, I wanted the viewers be able to see the subtly of the delicate textures created by the time consuming process that I employ.

The Crits so for have averaged about 10 to 15 people.

My hanging here deliberately simple,  bulldog clips and map pins.

My drawings are made up of many small circles. The patters grow slowly and organically for a starting point. The variation in texture comes from variation both in applied pressure variation in the pens.

This series is drawn on to heavy, of white, rough textured Water colour paper.

I got some good feedback from people. Can't remember what my friend Cass is asking here though.

Me and Charlotte.  She makes large scale drawings, focusing on the act of drawing as a performance.   I found some interesting similarities in out practices, in some way they seem to be the inverse of each other.

I am often uncomfortable with expressing my ideas in writing, much preferring to speaking about my work. I tend not to plan a structure when is comes to presentation. I enjoy allowing what I am trying to get across to follow what ever path it will. This can lead to a some what meandering journey thought thoughts and patches of sometimes-too-fast-to-understand-slurred-stammering. I find it a highly rewarding endeavour, untying troublesome knots as I express my inner musings. In doing so lay out the path, again retracing my decisions and gain fresh insight into what is most inportant in the in the Artistic Practice that is most Native to me.

Julia: Paintings of Hull historical sites

The two historical sites depicted in my paintings which no longer exist in Hull are the theme of my current work. This pair of paintings which are nearing completion relate not only to Hull but to humans longstanding and ultimately strange relationship to animals. By bringing animals into Hull for the edification of the public, the city was engaging in the highly fashionable Victorian love of exploration and discovery, not to mention categorisation. There was definitely an element of the freak show inherent in much of our human fascination for the exotic and in an attempt to contain this we often looked for elements we could relate to in our distant relatives and thereby focus on the educational aspects of it.

Anthropomorphism is recognisable in the way animals are portrayed in museums and literature and this is often responsible for the way we continue to perceive live animals. My paintings reflect on how animals are portrayed in children’s literature and even in adult encyclopaedia’s. The fake nature of the two dimensional image in painting is ideally suited to the distortion of reality, as it is in taxidermy but within many zoos we are often faced with the reality of conservation and captivity and in our desire to get close to animals we inevitably curtail their freedom. However it cannot be denied that the knowledge which we gain from this close inspection of other life forms has had huge impact on how we function and perceive ourselves.

Week 14.

Julia: Museum Mania

I began working towards the 2^nd painting in the series on 30thJanuary making a series of drawings connected with the Hull Municipal Museum that was destroyed by an incendiary bomb on June 24^th 1943. To some extent I owe the inspiration for this painting to my friend and fellow artist Matt Fratson. He recreated Thomas Shepherds (the first curator of the Hull Museums) office. His idea could be described as the foundation of mine because we have common interests in Natural History and the mythology behind the preservation of our natural history.  After many conversations the possibility of a series of paintings connected to our human relationship with animals and the anthropomorphism in which we indulge encouraged me to pursue this theme.

Within this painting I am planning to address similar concerns to those intimated in the first painting of Hull zoological gardens. Looking to the interior of a Natural history museum where  specimens are displayed in an almost theatrical way, I chose to visit Tring Natural History Museum in early January where |I was fortunately able to take a great many photos. Although the painting is based again on a Hull site which is no longer in existence these two paintings are meant to be accessible to anyone who thinks about our connection with animals.