Plan

I have been struggling to justify what I have been doing recently. There is something missing in my work. So far my compositions have been very flat with just a head and shoulder pose, and my painting has been very controlled due to my references to photography.

I think I need to draw from life more. I could use these sketches as starting points for paintings and see what effect could be achieved. By doing this I hope to render more interesting compositions with the figure and also I think the addition of props will give my subjects more personality.

I wanted to back track a bit and talk about a piece that really affected me during the weeks of the biennial. ‘Cut Papers’ by Sachiko Abe was a piece I found to be very emotive and powerful.

The performance at the A Foundation gallery involved Abe herself meticulously cutting sheets of plain white paper into long threads. 

My first reaction to the piece was absolute admiration and awe. Before I entered the room I had no idea what to expect, but I was taken aback by the elegant tower of finely trimmed paper, which must have been higher than a double-decker bus. The trail of paper lead across the floor and up the wall of an office window, to where Abe was sitting rhythmically cutting the paper. The sound of each snip was expelled into each corner of the room by a microphone. And despite the grand size of the room this aspect of the piece makes us feel closer and warms the space. Each of her performances lasts an hour and a half and she dos at least three a day. She will do this everyday for the whole 12 weeks of the biennial. It really makes you think doesn’t it? What would drive a person to do something so repetitive? 

I read that Abe has pent some time in the military and that often her work is a way of releasing her anxieties obedience Determination, training, control.

First post of a new university year.

Ok, so I'll admit it... this post is a little late. There's just been so much going on that until now I haven't given the blog much thought.
Infact I don't really know where to start. There have been many gallery visits and lots of new opportunities to work along side artists.
I regularly take part in the weekly painting workshops with Rick, and I can definitely feel myself working in a more relaxed way both in and out of the studio.