Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts

Monday 3 March 2014

Monday Ice: The Weight of Mountains

The main impetus for moving here, the instigator of my desire was the draw of the mountains. They physically, psychologically and spiritually affect me and I adore living amongst them.

Over the past few months I have been involved and working with the NES Artist Residency which is situated in the next town a 45 - 1.15 minute drive away, the route taken dependant on the vagaries of the weather. During the last 3 months the NES residency has been focused on film with 10 international film-makers spending the winter in Skagaströnd and creating a response to the theme "The Weight of Mountains", the town and the Icelandic environment.

One of the artists of the residency Temujin Doran from Britain has made a stunningly beautiful, poetic and informative film titled "The Weight of Mountains"...Tem's website is also worthy of lengthy perusal.  Enjoy!

Monday 3 December 2012

Monday Ice: Klaus Thymann and David Harkins

This is a little different, filmed in Iceland by the artist/photographer Klaus Thymann
with the artist David Harkins, strangely I think it is a type of fashion shoot for the magazine i-D.

Monday 26 November 2012

Monday Ice: Last Days of the Arctic

This is the trailer for a film about photographer Ragnar 'Rax' Axlesson and the people of the north, Icelandic farmers, fisherman and the great hunters of Greenland.   It looks fascinating and one I would like to see.

Friday 16 November 2012

In the Studio

Life is fairly quiet and uneventful at the moment, I do enjoy it so.  All of a sudden I am feeling very well which makes me realise that I didn't feel that good before.   Vague symptons, mainly tiredness and lethargy seemed to plague me, my inner voice was constantly telling me off for not doing more but I just haven't been able to summon the energy or the desire.  I am menopausal which has its own agenda but that seems to have settled down lately, I suffer from rheumatoid arthritis but usually keep that under control although it can wear you down at times.  However for the last 6 weeks I have gone gluten free and I think it is making a big difference...I just feel so much better...don't think I am totally allergic but I do believe my body has become overloaded and I need to monitor my intake and if temptation gets the better of me to consume it only on the odd occasion and in very small doses.

I have noticed my pace has picked up and I am getting back into the studio on a regular basis in between arrival and departures of guests in the old post house...yes even in the midst of our blizzards I have had guests from Japan and the UK...they certainly have experienced the real Iceland.

In the studio I have finally started serious work on my BAO project not sure that I will get the full edition completed before the end of the year but hopefully it will be very close to that.  In between I have made a few books to try and improve my skills and I do get better each time.

  I have been experimenting with covers made by printing collograph plates 

on some thick printmaking paper strips that I have left over from a roll that I used for large prints I created in the past.


 I knew I would use them one day...I have kept them for years, the paper is Arches Lavis Fidelis.


The closure is a silver leaf, part of an antique leaf link silver belt I have had for years and never worn.

It is an Icelandic tradition to sign guest books after visiting someone's home, so I created one for Gamla Pósthúsið.  Coptic bound, not perfect...I realised I needed a finer curved needle than what I could buy here and since have heated and bent my own.

 The book is interspersed with postal images 

of envelopes, postage stamps and various postal imprints


The cover is in soft Icelandic lamb leather 

with a small historical image of the post office from the early 60's inlaid on the cover.

The guest book is filling up nicely with lovely messages from the many travelers that pass through  the doors of Gamla Pósthúsið.

Another recent book was a gift for Sigga, a lovely friend who has helped me immeasurably over the last 3 years.  This  little book was for her 50th birthday and a memento of the night as all the party guests inscribed words of wisdom and good wishes for her birthday.

 It once again is a collograph print on the left over Lavis Fidelis paper.

 I waxed it to provide a little protection and to give a soft sheen.

cover  unfolded

detail of the surface

It has not been all bookbinding, my favourite all time printing method is monoprinting, mainly because it is a lovely form of drawing, fairly immediate and cannot be repeated....I am not a good printmaker...hate editioning....get bored....once I have a successful print I want to move onto a different one....even with etchings I was only interested in pulling one successful print.  My plates are all under used.



Recently I have been creating a series of postcard sized images,  it has taken me a while to find a size that feels right.  In the past it used to be very large 1.2 to 2 metre long prints, however I no longer have access to such a large press and finally have found the very other end of the scale just as rewarding.



I have trouble photographing my prints can never seem to get the right shade of  black...need to work on this.


These all should be blue/black.





I mount the prints on book board,  I have had some on the wall for over a year now and they seem to be holding up very well, no warping.  When I work out how to photograph them better I may set up a small online shop.  

Monday 29 October 2012

Monday Ice: Relay-the word passed on.

The Icelandic Art Center is running a program called 'Relay - the word passed on' where various art organisations around Iceland  are asked to contribute to a monthly column on the centres blog and then nominate the next group.  This is the very first in the series where the centre initiated the 'Relay' by asking Skaftfell Centre for Visual Arts to be the first contributor.

Monday 2 July 2012

Monday Ice: The Sound Of My Life

This is a gentle and insightful documentary by Wera Uschakowa which peeks into the lives of four individual Icelandic singer/songwriters, Siggi Ármann, Pétur Ben, Lára Rúnarsdóttir and Helgi Valur.  Well worth the 36 minutes.

Monday 14 May 2012

Monday Ice: The Last Farm

The Last Farm, a poignant short film, by Zik Zak Filmworks originally released in 2004 but I have only now stumbled across it.  It is in Icelandic but with English subtitles, enjoy!

Monday 16 April 2012

Monday Ice: Ólafur Arnalds

To start your week off on the right note, here is a beautiful, haunting piece of music by Ólafur Arnalds.  I stumbled across him by watching the film PressPausePlay which was recently screened on RÚV the National TV station in Iceland. An interesting documentary exploring the digital revolution of the music industry but many of the discussions can also easily be related to Film and the Arts in general.  If you go to the link above you can legally download for free that documentary or you can watch it direct on vimeo...definitely worth your while if you work in the arts.

But back to Ólafur Arnalds beautiful music video which has a fantastic animation that I am sure artists who work with paper will thoroughly enjoy.


Wednesday 11 April 2012

A Unique State

My mind is jumping from place to place...overwhelmed with things I must get done, the noise from the renovation is loud, jarring and constant.  I am finding it difficult to get into any sort of creative routine at the moment and the time spent in the studio is sporadic.  Any sustained creative flow is constantly interrupted by administrative thoughts and to do lists. Things I need to get organised for the business seem to be forefront in my mind and I am finding it almost impossible to switch off from this to focus on more creative endeavours.

In an effort to break the creative drought and to try and find respite for my mind from the ever growing to do list I have gone into the studio telling myself just a half hour of play, that is all you need to do. 


I am not a traditionalist printmaker, especially when it comes to repetition...printing the same print over and over again just bores me silly.  Even when I have created editionable plates, once I have pulled a good print...I am rarely interested in printing it again. In the past I have worked very large, the majority of my prints have always been 1-2 metres in size. I don't have access to equipment to work with this scale anymore so have had to try and find a smaller size that speaks to me.  I do seem to go from one extreme to the other and am finding the intimate 10x15cm postcard proportion working for me at this point in time. 


My favourite method of printing is monotype, I love it for its unique state - one off event - the here and now - can't be repeated - the immediacy of working directly - layering and the serendipity of accidents.


Mostly I print bleed prints, which means having an image that extends to the edges of the paper...no border or frame (the white border in these pics are default with the blog template and I can't work out how to remove it) for me the work becomes more object like.



I have been printing on small left over scraps of paper, no expectations...except that I work for at least a half an hour. 







At the moment the challenging part is initially committing to that half hour but once I do I am ok and the half hour sometimes turns into 3-4hrs as I lose myself in the process.






It was a good creative workout!


As you read this post I will probably be in Copenhagen with my daughter-inlaw Olga and grandson Henry for just 2 nights...you can read about the reason for the visit here.



Monday 2 April 2012

Monday Ice: The Fish Factory in Stöðvarfjörður

This film documents a research trip to Stöðvarfjörður in East Iceland as part of a collaboration between Central Saint Martins London based College of Art and Design and MupiMup. Mupimup is a design studio operating out of a closed fish factory located in Stöðvarfjörður.  It is an inspiring project that involves the small community which has halved in population from 276 in the year 2000 to 141 in 2011.

The video is a bit over 13mins long but definitely worth your time...enjoy!

Tuesday 21 February 2012

In the studio

Well I finally managed to pull apart the plan drawer and even then Ross and I had to still jiggle and coerce her through one of the narrow doors leading down to the studio. I felt so relieved once she was in...she is such a difficult piece of furniture very broad around the girth.


I proceeded to to put the old girl back together and then after the beating she received with hammer and nails I lovingly coated her with beeswax furniture polish...she was so dry and soaked up a whole tin of the stuff.

I am not sure what it is about this piece of furniture but I am connected to her in some strange way, when I first acquired her some 14 yrs ago I felt she had finally come home...it is almost like we have known each other before...sounds crazy I know...but I love every scratch, dent, hole that she has acquired over the last 150 years (some of them only last week).  She has these unusual crazing...almost calligraphic like text markings...I often wonder when in her life they appeared, what memories they hold and who owned her in the past.  Over the years her past lives and experiences has imbued her with a soft patina brought about by years of existence with other owners whose character and tone permeate from her.

 

The studio required a little re-arranging to fit her comfortably in, she now looks at home in this spot


 and once again back into full working mode, crammed to the brim with paper and prints. 


When I have had a few spare moments I have been playing around with book structures for the book(s) I will be working on for the BAO project..if you want to know more about this I have written about it here.



I also cut up a couple of old prints that worked well in sections but not as overall images and created a small journal to practice and improve my bookbinding skills.





Plus I mounted a few about the size of postcards to create a series of images that now work better together.



 

 Collograph and monoprints on photographic (type) paper


Finally the renovations have started this week...hip hooray! Will post some photos soon.