All the Pretty Flowers

Poor Life Choices

Eventually I took a photo of my arm which was once the most bruised thing I have been attached to. They are almost two weeks old so the larger bruises and lighter and the smaller ones have disappeared.

Art I Like: Bjorn Dahlem

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Bjorn Dahlem

Glitteratti

I seem to have very much gotten out of the habit of posting. So much so that blogger has entirely changed its interface since I last used it. Here's a photograph from the floor of a studio. I like how the scrap of paper says win.

From Beijing to Grimsby

National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing, China.

I am taking part in a few exhibitions this month. The first is Instruments of Pleasure, an exhibition in the National Centre for Performing Arts in Beijing, China as part of this year's Irish Wave which is on the 11th of March.

Instruments of Pleasure is the only IRISH WAVE 3 exhibitions which will feature Irish artists exclusively.
Because of the nature of the exhibition space the theme focuses on the iconography surrounding music – performance, instruments & annotation and artists who approach this theme from a contemporary perspective.
Respected Dublin Composer Grainne Mulvey has composed an IRISH WAVE ‘Clapping’ piece which will be performed at this and all the other Beijing Previews.
In addition there will be art auctions held during the preview events at the Irish Centre Shanghai and at the Yan Chao Collection Gallery, The YCC preview will also feature a performance by the Jensens Dancers.
As with the other exhibitions the artworks featured will be from a wide range of media.

The second is Lightworks an annual new media exhibition held in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, UK. I have embedded the video from their last exhibition below, which looks great. I love when galleries/exhibitions put together promo films. I keep trying to do it myself, but its a lot of work.

Prisms & Paragraphs

I bought a small glass prism recently. The only place where I get strong directional sunlight in my apartment (or studio) is from a small south facing window directly above my bed. It actually arrived slightly chipped, so the company I bought it from are going to send me another. From now on when I sleep in I will wake to a mini rainbow wonderland.

I only recently realised that the actor Steve Martin also writes, collects art and writes about collecting art. Apparently, Shopgirl, a film he stars in, is a screen adaption of another he wrote. I enjoyed Shopgirl so I thought I give An Object of Beauty a go given the novel's setting in the art world, and given that it was available for free in my local library. I enjoyed the book, however, I felt it was missing a little something at the end. According to the city library catalogue they have Shopgirl too, but its missing which seems to be the case a little too often. In a "you shouldn't judge a book by its cover" but with a "a good looking book is much appreciated" point of view the other version of the book cover is much more visually appealing.

Pencilling It In

I have been teaching a class in the Glucksman the last few weeks, called Pencil It In, that looks at different types of drawing. It is a great class and I am always surprised when people's drawing seems to suddenly improve, I tend to forget that it is just a skill that improves with practice. I really like teaching, although I it can be tiring. Each class is only an hour long but it is full on interaction with the students as I want the to get the most from the the hour. I actually think it would be less work if it were a full time course.

Below is the class which is featured on the U.C.C. homepage.

Art I Like: Karla Black

I am quite fond of Turner Prize nominee Karla Black's work. Well some of it. Somethings I find myself being slightly disguisted by it. It all definitely interests and excites me. Too often I am [under]whelmed, my doctor told be recently that I had ever so slightly low blood pressure. Which caused me to imagine my heart being too apathetic to pump my blood with vigor.  I do entirely like her interest in the physicality of materials. I imagine when I think Black's work my blood pressure might revert to normal.

Back to the Studio

I seem to be having awful difficulty in the studio lately. I tried getting vinyl cut for this piece for a sign makers which resulting in a terribly stressful experience. When I asked for a vinyl cutting and specified the size, the assistant literally cut a piece of vinyl off the roll and handed it to me. When I explained that I wanted a sign cut and gave them my memory stick, they told me that it had a virus. (I really must take a more sexual health attitude with my usb drives and be more careful of whose port i stick these things into.) Neither of the three staff could independently serve me. One was giving me prices, another was relaying file types to me from somebody else in the back. It was so stressful I ended up leaving.

So I tried using spray paint. It worked, but I foolishly tried to touch it up in a spot or two and then proceded to try and fix what I had just fixed. It ended up being a bit of a "Fr Ted dent in the car" sort of a thing.

Something I Saw

I saw these PanAm posters and thought they were quite nice. They are part of a redesign, that was apparently never launched. They are considered o be ahead of their time, with the use of graphic designers favourite font Helvetica.