If it doesn't stick (*)

The collagraph was to represent the bar-codes and camera parts of the phones.

The collagraph before printing.

collagraph print I'd cut out and used if different parts of project

 Here I was putting all my finds and fabrics/parts together to try and produce the internal and exterior of the phones textures..... While the cracks and outer surfaces were to be the wore (I was originally looking at) I felt I couldn't ignore or disregard the internal parts that were visible.

At one point the living room was covered in my things.... It was fun and feel it I was an organised mess.... But it does show the importance of having a studio or place to be creative... Having children is another thing that I'm up against - my space and time itself is limited... While I wouldn't have it any other way I do feel pressure of this when trying to find my own personal space to create.....

 Glue glue glue. I love PVA and if this does work and dry I'm one lucky bugger.... I've stuck everything with PVA...... haha.

 Tissue paper works great for the shine and texture of the phone...... I do feel I need to cover some of the parts still and I may use silver spray paint on glass to do this.....

Here you can see the bar code and greens coming through. I will probably cover some of this but I do feel it had to be put in at the time....

I still have lots of parts from my phones I'd broken up... I dont want to over do the project so going to think of what and where to go with it now.... I have in against my wall in living room so I can review and look at it at my leisure .....ha leisure that sounds nice!     As I type I've got my son demanding I play... OK ok...

Mr and Mrs Comms (*)

Trash Talk

So I decided to get all the broken mobiles I have and disassemble them. 

I loved the circuit boards green colour and wanted to get inside the phones to get a closer look..... Them mini screwdriver sets you get in the Christmas crackers come in good for something......mmmmm excellent.     I do feel a little like a nutty professor,  mixed with a johnny five  tech head as I'm doing this...

The reason I'm doing it is for my wear and tear project and I intend to create a mix of my phones cracks and wear onto a canvas.... A mixed media style of image.... What I'm struggling to do is to figure out what it is I'm actually trying to do..... 

With many broken pieces the best I came up with so far was Mr and Mrs (Broken) Communication

like the older edited style

like the older edited look

Recycling the old into something new has been done many time and I can't help but feel I would like to make them into a little video.....

They may or may not end up in my canvas.... Time will tell.... but I like I gave them life if only for a few moments....

David Hockney - A rakes progress

Its the theatre darling - Ok so with the homework I usual don't look into the artist's too much or the meaning behind the prints. I do this so I dont get influenced into liking a work because of the story behind it.

However, with this work I entered the words David Hockney the rakes progress into a google search and was surprised to see many hits regarding the opera. The stage design got me and I decided I would read a little to get a little more information.

So its basically a three stage play about a man's want for more and his decline......being enticed and tempted by fortune, gambling and the ladies (sins) and ignoring his past life, wife and upbringing. Regretting this it later on...... it seems to me to be a mix up of surrealism in the sense of what torment he endures and is tempted into (marriage of the bearded lady )....I feel a 60's style but for what reason I'm unsure. This is to be honest me rambling and typing what I think without thinking so to speak.

So the prints -



 


I don't like it!!

Why? Well I do like the curtain print.... the mix of colours and energy of the play and scenes. But from what I read of the play against the prints I was left a little disappointed. By the simple and basic lines and use of tone I feel its lacking a feel for the torment the character went through....

I guess Hockney has brought the play into modern day living, what with the suited men and tower block buildings.....which is fair enough........And thats the point I make....fair enough....not wow or being shocked into remembering the prints as I did with William Hogarth's Beer street/Gin Lane or Goya's Disasters of War. While Hockney did have an opportunity to create graphic and sordid scenes in the prints he's decided to bring it up to date. clever - probably!

Yet what I do find funny is the same things always seem to tempt us, money, power and women.

Doesn't seem to matter what age or time... sinners and the dark side of yesterday still exist today.

I do like the idea or our enemy being ourselves and the fact that foe centuries we still haven't learnt....

Hell my very own Grandad (who is 90yrs old) only two days ago, had his usual night-time tipple (whiskey) as he does every night....because of his age and meds he is supposed to only have 2-3 glasses. However, being up visiting and surrounded by loved ones he felt another couple wouldn't hurt!
We have all been there right, and if you haven't let this be a lesson!

My grandad while surrounded with loved ones decided that for what ever reason or frustration started to call his wife of 34 years a waste of space (that's the nice version) a drunken foul mouthed man who the next day was brought to tears on being reminded of his out-burst was brought to tears!
Yes my 90 yr old grandad sobbing his heart out while I was left a little shocked and disappointed upon hearing of this!

What turned a loving old fool into the vicious and deliberately cruel man (was gonna say monster but that felt cold and unloving, which he is not and I don't feel that towards him)

While I seem to be going off path a little and doing my usual type happy blethering I do feel they is something of a connection with this so far. Whether it is relevant or not to this subject matter it has came out of me and that made a starting point from something else.

I do wonder how David Hockney stumbled on this subject matter and if indeed he to had some personal input into his images that he produced..... was the man in his subject maybe aimed at a loved one or himself? Or was he just commissioned to produce the work like that?
As an artist it is important to be relevant and in the moment to keep yourself in the hoop, yet many artist's copy or do they own rendition or interpretation of others works.!!!!

I wonder if I was to watch the opera what my own take on it would be?

Anyway, I think I will remember Hockney's prints not for my personal connection that came across but for the plain and illustrative look. Modern and for me I feel a Japanese style of print (which I do like the Japanese Prints)




  I think another reason I disregarded the images was because it reminded me of the character from  Beavis and Butt-head. At the young age of 11 or so I didn't get the humour or like the style. But more than that the huh huh laughing the pair did still makes me cringe.
I believe animation was done by the artist Rick Parker .

Rauschenberg - cracks in phone (*)

Charlene, 1954

"One looks forward to a painting finishing itself … because if you have less of the past to carry around, you have more energy for the present. Using, exhibiting, viewing, writing, and talking about it is a positive element in ridding oneself of the picture. And it does justice to the picture that defies this. So that you may not accumulate mass as much as you may accumulate quality." - Robert Rauschenberg in an interview with David Sylvester, 1964.

As I look around the area I'm in, be it classroom, home or walking along a corridor I'm always aware of the objects around me. The things getting put of for rubbish (wires plastic cable in college) palettes of wood (that happen to be everywhere and in many painted colours)  old pieces of wood or anything really that catches my eye I cant help but imagine a purpose for them  Asking the questions of could I use that or would that be good for something... Like a trash tramp I laugh at myself, but at the same time I love digging around old junk.....Junk!

Robert Rauschenberg - Combines - is very literally old finds and junk.....A combination of things found or treasured, nailed glued or painted to make a work...

I love the textures and colours and live this brings out it a work.....Not to mention the questions of what is it or why would you....

For my wear and tear project I feel I'm heading down a similar path.... The cracks in my mobile phone has turned for viewing the object, to photographing, editing, lino cuts, collagraphy, materials collage and painting... to then my old phones themselves broken up to extract further detail.

My mind works best just creating, chance happening lets say......But I'm this time also trying to plan my next move and have some order in my processes....Like thinking of the collagraph and colour, pattern and detailing... Thinking of textures and adding depth to create another level.......

My canvas frame I actual made in the joiner dept I felt was a work of art in itself....A project of love and I couldnt help but be proud of the time I'd taken to create it. Learning in the moment but also creating something I'd use again and again in the future.

Like my first mobile phone of yesterday gave me the beginnings of creating and achieving something new and all I know today. Can you remember sending your first text message? Something we do now as easily and is as expected and easy as breathing itself.

Without a phone the mind begins to panic as we begin to feel lost from the outside world... The cracks within ourselves do indeed begin to show as the fear of been unreachable begins to surface. My own mobile has been broken from the beginning of this brief back in September...The cracks keep spreading out and others appearing while the phone itself while fragile keeps on going.....The camera no longer works and the layers and weakness is apparent. but it works as good as it did for phone calls, internet and messaging. The only thing it does call for is a little bit more care on my behalf.

A little bit like us all I guess... While we all can have cracks that can begin to surface for whatever reason and at anytime, sometimes all it calls for is to be aware of them...... while broken and less shiny as it/we were........ its doesn't always mean our internal parts aren't working well.....I like the many layers and built up area that I can see through the cracks on my phone, leading to the internal memory...... where photos and past and now all meet.

I would like to bring the technology and man made components of the mobile to a canvas.....but to add something of ourselves... as to how i do this I think combining all I've learn, done and intend to do will hopefully help to bring it together.....

I should read and analyse my brief again also to make sure I tick all the boxes as I tend to run in all directions....sometimes getting side tracked...

More Rauschenberg Combines