http://www.waikatomuseum.co.nz/news/pageid/2145846886

"THE GOOD THING ABOUT ART IS… IT’S GOOD TO TRY OUT THIS KIND OF EXPERIMENT BECAUSE IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT HAPPENS ,  IT’S NOT DANGEROUS, IT’S NOT LIFE,  IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT YOU CAN SWITCH IT OFF, OR RENT ANOTHER DVD. ART IS SOMETHING WE DELIBERATELY LET OURSELVES ENTER INTO BECAUSE WE KNOW WE CAN TAKE SOME MILD PSYCHIC RISK."

'ART TALKS TO YOU. 
ART CREATES CONVERSATIONS. 
ART ASKS YOU TO CONVERSE BEFORE YOU LEAVE TO RENT YOUR NEXT DVD.' 

In this document the artists that I am particularly interested in are: 

Helen Calder (paint skins and its materiality)

James Robinson (range of different media and accumulation of media)

Justine Walker (her approach to the work and her allowing chance to generate certain aspects of her work)

Shelley Norton (her use of line and materials to create a constructed form)

Katherine Day (allowing for the strengths of the material to show, showing the lightness and materiality of the plastic)

Deborah Erueti(three dimensional paintings, painterly marks and color based on everyday objects, opaque and transparent qualities,paint as a two sided surface)

Maree Wilson (questioning when a painting becomes a sculpture) 

Update on plan: (note home computer is not uploading photos so they will be up shortly)

Drawing:

Currently I have been making a number of small detailed drawinjgs using nilon and glue. I think that these works are looking successful in a series as they are really workign with my interest in mark making, pattern, repetition, and looking at the materiality of the PVA glue.

Possible ways to present my work:

1. Have them against a black background to higlight the texture and translucency of the PVA glue. I will either pin them against a black background on my wall, or have them on a black table and allow the viewer to touch them and interact witht the materials.
2. Present them in a pile next to a light box so the viewer can interact with them and place each one on the light box which will emphasise the materiality and translucency. (I may also try using the light box for some coloured glue shins that I made and etched dots around the natural lines that my hands made in the glue when spreading it around before it dried.

Painting:

1. I am still interested in the righthandedness idea and will continue to experiment with that idea and I plan to make a number of works this week to see whether I can go further with this idea or if my other ideas may have more potential.
2. I have also made a few works using paint and glue, creating layers and mixing colours then placing these paint/glue skins on the wall and working with them. One lecturer mentioned that I could try introducing copper or wire to the skins to play around and make them into more of an object. I really like this idea so I am going to experiment with it more this week to explore the flexibility of these paint glue skins and I also light how it highliths their materiality. I think this idea is abetter way to present the skins so that they are not just held flat against the wall with pins.

Drawing Progress Photos:

                                Untitled (16cm x 20cm)
                                Nilon strands embedded in PVA glue

Notes:

•  In this work I am starting to combine my interest in the materiality of PVA glue and its ability to hold other materials in it once it has dried, and repetitive mark making using strands of coloured nilon.
• I am intersted in how the repeated pieces of nilon create a structure embedded in the PVA glue and how each piece has an essence of process and a rythm to it.
• This nilon grid like structure may present the audience with a number of references and I am interested to see what these refernces might be as they could push this idea further, but my main interest lies in embedding things in the PVA glue. 

Plan:

(note: there is a very fine line between my drawing practice and my painting practice - I still need to experiment further with these new exciting ideas to allow myself to head down two successful paths.)

Drawing:

1. Focusing on where my interest lies - the materiality of the drying glue and how objects/materials can be embedded in it.
2. Mark making - finding a method of mark making that has more of a purpose to it than just repeated marks and scribble
3. Embedding nilon strips into the glue - cut them all the same length and incorporate my love of repetition - laying each piece out next to each other in rows where they will accumulate to make a cloak like pattern embedded in the glue.
4. try dry noodles - easy to break and hold their shape better than nilon..
5. Trying other materials such as dye, acrylic paint  - I have been mixing acrylic paint of different colours with glue and making small works on plastic smeared around by my hands. I then work over the top with another colour paint with my repeated mark making to show how colour can be embedded in the surface when it is still wet. When paintign over the wet glue surface I found that the singluar lines I was drawing were being linked together by the glue which attached to my brush. This gave the repeated pattern a sense of rhythm and showed the materiality of the glue before it dried

Painting:

1. Righthandedness! This is one idea that I have talked about witht he lecturer that I have taken a liking to as it links in with my love of print making and mark making
2. I have created some drawings that emphasise my right handedness and show how lines can be made in that certain positioning of the hand
3. The etches that I want to make will also need to emphasise my righthandedness as when I print them the images will be flipped.
4. I am considering placing the drawings and etchings above and below eachother to try and spark a conversation about the natural marks made by me a right handed artist and how print making can flip that image and create a mirror image.

Painting:

https://autonline.aut.ac.nz/bbcswebdav/institution/Papers/116000/Publish/Groys%2C%20B.%20Politics%20of%20Installation%20.pdf

Todays tutorial reading:

There was one idea that really interested me when reading this essay in preparation for our talk in tutorial and that was the idea that "We are unable to stabilize a copy, as we are unable to stabilize an original as an original. Reproduction is as much infected by originality is infected by reproduction. In circulating through various contexts, a copy becomes a series of different originals."...
"Every copy is by itself a flaneur - experiencing time and time agin its own "profane illuminations"that turn it into an original. I loses old auras and gains new ones. It remains perhaps the same copy, but it becomes different originals."....

After talking about this idea in tutorial I realized that there are some underlying interests of mine in this idea of producing a new original rather than a copy of producing a new original rather than a copy. I have always enjoyed having repetition play an important role in my work and have always even drawn to building up an image or a work through repetitive mark making or a repeated action.

One thing that I learnt from this tutorial was that it is important to draw on my own interests as things that are not my interest are not good for me. It is always good to go with your instincts when you come across something that sparks a new idea for you to make a work based on. Even if you are unsure of the outcome of that work at the time it is important to follow through as the works that you are really passionate about will develop over time with a lot more depth and meaning. These ideas can often teach you something about yourself and reveal to you something that you didn't know you knew. 

(430cm x 760cm)

PVA glue, paper

Drawing:
Progress photos
Trialling PVA glue with pieces of paper
The shape of these works are meant to embody the movement of the PVA glue with my hands.




Close ups of another larger work
Progress photos:

(590cm x 1590cm)
PVA glue, leaves, nilon, post it notes

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/truth_to_material(s).aspx

Truth to material(s)

A Dictionary of Twentieth Century Art/ 1999/ Ian Chilvers

Quote: Henry Moore (English Sculptor and artist) wrote that  'Each material has its own individual qualities...Stone, for example, is hard and concentrated and should not be falsified to look like soft flesh...It should keep its hard tense stoniness.'

Materials need to be accepted as they are and used simply by artists (examples include Henry Moore, Robert Morris, Helen Calder, Eve Hesse) to explore their strengths and generate conversation and understanding around their materiality and the ability of that material.

http://www.woodworkinghistory.com/glossary_truth_to_materials.htm

 - Moore wrote in 1941 that' [o]ne of the first principles of art so clearly seen in primitive work is truth to materials; the artist shows an instinctive understanding of his material, its right use and possibilities.'

Moore expounded his ideas on 'truth to material' in his essay of 1937, 'The Sculptor Speaks' -
http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=pzqg4l-ce7oC&pg=PA193&lpg=PA193&dq=henry+moore+the+sculptor+speaks&source=bl&ots=m68Ga8jQSk&sig=LLjyywlJE_sdD7A2vWtxg-GUU3I&hl=en&sa=X&ei=JecQUIGsBMaaiAfZoYDQBw&ved=0CFYQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=henry%20moore%20the%20sculptor%20speaks&f=false
Ideas that interest me:

 - Looking closely at materials:
 Moore uses Pebbles/ stone as an example: Nature interacts with the stone and manipulates it each time they come into contact. The relationship with each stone is different and each interaction with the same stone changes resulting in naturally occurring shapes.

 - Scale:
Scale is important in terms of a creating a specific vision you have for a material
Sometimes the materials feel right an the idea is there but you need the right scale for the correct vision to be created, and for it to be an effective and successful work all round.
"A carving might be several times over life size and yet be petty and small in feeling, and a small carving only a few inches in height can give the feeling of hug size and monumental grandeur, because the vision behind it is big....."
"Yet actual physical size has an emotional meaning. We relate everything to our own size, and our emotional response to size is controlled by the fact that men on the average are between five and six feet high. "
"Sculpture is more affected by actual size considerations than painting. A painting is isolated by a frame from its surroundings and so it retains more easily its own imaginary scale."
- "in between size does not disconnect an idea enough from prosaic everyday life."

S