Author: Anna

I enjoy Séraphine Pick’s work because she knows how to work with the space she is given. Especially in this piece I like how she formed her painting around the corners and edges of the elevator. She used the dimensions of the elevator to create a scenery that has a sort of perspective, its not 2D but the scene she’s painted wraps around the elevator. Instead of just painting onto the elevator she worked with it and let the elevator’s shape change how she worked.

Séraphine Pick. (2015). Untitled (Bathers) [Digital Print to Self-Adhesive Polyester Film & Watercolour]. https://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/exhibitions/untitled-bathers

I also liked Christina Pataialii’s work because she has created these painting that are not perfectly confined to a perfect geometric canvas. They conform their surroundings and are expressive. I like that there’s a certain energy to them feels very care-free but despite that you can tell that she’s put a lot of care into how she paints. I also like her expressive brush strokes, they create an image and your’e not quite sure what it is, it makes you think and I like that about her work.

Christina Pataialii. (2019). Solid Gold. https://tetuhi.art/exhibition/christina-pataialii-solid-gold/

When given the prompt situation we were told to be inspired by our surroundings. I wanted to use a lot of 2D and 3D components and merge them together, using different mediums and materials around me.

I really liked Judy Millar’s work and how spontaneous is it. There’s depth to it’s layers and the crazy brush strokes that go over it really caught my eye. I did try to implicate that in my work by creating some of my own wild brush strokes. I also really liked her colour pallet that she uses. It’s a lot to take in but she’s broken it up with subtle cold colours which is something I intentionally added in my work.

Judy Millar. (2020). Pink Trap [Acrylic on Billboard Vinyl]. https://judymillar.com/

Raukura Turei’s work stood out to me because of her colour choice and the clay that she used to create small patterns. I was intrigued because I wanted to use the same technique as her to build up contrast and texture. I also really liked her work because it was simple but as you look closer it becomes more busy which is something I tried to implicate in my work as well. I also like how all the clay pieces on her piece aren’t spaced out neatly and sometimes they are clustered which creates this affect like she’s making a map or pieces of land.

Raukura Turei. (2019). Te poho o Hine-Ruhi [Aumoana, Raw Pigment, Acrylic & Oil on Linen]. https://sumer.co.nz/exhibitions/16-raukura-turei-te-poho-o-hine-ruhi/overview/

With this prompt I dived right in with paints, impasto, sponge brushes and my little scraper tool. I wanted to create texture and 3D shape like Raukura Turei did in their Te poho-o-Hine painting. Though they used clay from New Zealand I replicated that in my own using impasto to help build up shape. I also really wanted to make my pieces interesting by making a creative mess, motivated by music I was listening to. Some of these didn’t turn out how I wanted but they were part of my creative making process. I saw them as learning moments of what I needed to change about my approach.

Robert Rauschenberg’s work is intriguing because the transferred images come and go through the paint. I also like how some images are bold and are kind of like a focal point. They draw you in and as you look around them you see all the smaller images and details. He does well with not overcrowding his work. The colour dominates the whole page but in a controlled way, the colour is flat. It’s lighter in some areas and darker in others, it goes in and out of the page. His transferred images are clear which amazes me because I had such difficulty making my images come out nicely with no tears. Using yellow as a contrast colour works really well as it pops out of the blue and breaks up the massive amounts of blocked in colour.

Robert Rauschenberg. (1965). Umpire. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/gallery-hopping-robert-rauschenberg-transfer-drawings-offer-waterman-773273

Michael Subotzky’s work is really cool because his use of ONLY tape has created texture, colour and image. The tape gives texture but not just because it’s layered but because the strips of tape aren’t perfectly flat. They’re bumpy and messy and I think those imperfections have really made this piece stand out. I also think the discolouring of the tape makes the drawing and face stand out even more. The dirt that has collected on the tape gives this piece more character and I think a border around the face. Lastly there’s the actual face itself that interesting. It’s not a perfect shaped head it fades away and leaves only the eyes, nose and mouth and the rest is to the imagination.

Michael Subotzky. (2020). Schliemann || [J-lar tape, Ink & Masking Tape]. https://www.goodman-gallery.com/artists/mikhaelsubotzky

Our prompt for this week was Where is Painting and finding the space beneath the surface. At first I really struggled with this, because I felt overwhelmed and because my work space was too small and I was in a bad headspace. After taking a break from focusing on this I moved to working in a bigger space and then the studio which really helped my thought process. I really liked the use of paint and spreading it across my page, imprinting paint on and around the stencils I had found in my room. The tape method of transferring was especially nice as well because I like the texture it gave my work. I also favoured the tape method because the gel medium method was not working as it kept ripping up the images I had prepared. Overall this was a pretty enjoyable prompt. I liked using different mediums and combining them to create a space between each pasted image and layer of paint I made.

Ellen Gallagher’s Skinatural Art work exemplifies iterations very well. The repetition of eyes and eye-less faces creates interest around this piece. It has a lot of variety in the way the eyes were sculpted and how the women’s hair is styled. Though there are not any visible similarities you can tell that everything is connected. There are many messages that could be taken from this artwork and think that it is very intriguing and deep. Ellen has tackled the iterations idea very well using all sorts of materials and mediums.

Ellen Gallagher. (1997). Skinatural [Oil, Pencil, Modeling Clay & Magazine]. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/36063

Allan McColum’s The SHAPES project has interpreted iteration through the use of shapes. He has created a silhouette by switching around unique shapes to create a variation of different silhouettes. There are estimated to be around 214,000,000 different framed shapes. This has faced the iteration idea in a very structured way. It is said that this artwork can be used for many other things such as awards, logos and educational tools to name a few. Not only is there difference within the artwork but also with its purpose.

Allan McColum. (2005/06). The SHAPES Project [Monoprints & Framed Digital Prints]. New York ,America. http://allanmccollum.net/amcnet2/album/shapes/intro.html 

On Thursday we were given the task to create some iterative art, focusing on multiplicity, difference and repetition. I really struggled with this, finding something to make or how to make my work interesting. Then I remembered it doesn’t have to mean anything, it just has to be. So I went for it and just drew stuff that interested me, ideas that came to my mind that applied to the main criteria of multiplicity, difference and repetition. So this is what I came up with:

The first day in studio we were asked to create a piece that everyone had worked on. We were to make something that represented everyone in the group while also being one piece of art. A member of the group had suggested we all take one corner to ourselves, draw our hand and then create a series of drawings on the rest of the page. For mine I knew I really wanted colour. I had marker, why not use them? I was really intrigued by a more expressive and ”messy” style of art that day. I was running low on ideas so I turned to nature and the human body, thus I created a page of nature infused body horror. Putting features of the face where they shouldn’t be and aspects of nature growing out of the human body.