/(@v@)\ Owl

2010-06-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

first post in ages....and now its all about plugs... well drawing on photographs anyway

movment in practice. (^-^) happy days

2009-08-23T15:35:00.000-07:00

Off Shore Exhibition. The Ark..... next bit.

2009-08-20T11:09:00.000-07:00

The ark came from just experimenting and playing around with found wood. I've had it lying around not doing anything for a while, only because i always had in mind a moving object when i made it. The plan is to make a plinth for it and to hide a motor inside. The motor will be attached to the ark through to top of the plinth to make it rock back and forth, so that it just looks like its doing it spontaneously.

Keeping the workings hidden give the piece a little more mystery. Hopefully the noise will be good to, a quiet grumble.

straw videos

2009-07-30T13:36:00.000-07:00

mooooooooooooooooooooooooving!

2009-07-30T12:49:00.001-07:00

Moving straw sculpture. I want to use "normal" objects, probably more child hood baced, and do some thing a little bit magic! and make them move.

t'has been a while... but i havnt stopped thinking!

2009-07-30T11:54:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking a lot about kinetic art. This last while ive worked alot with figures, and i think I'm starting to move away from it. Ive been thinking more about bringing objects to life rather than look at things that already have life.

Ive always liked Theo Jansen's animals/ organisms/ creatures. His amazing thinking and working out does make my brain hurt though because i find the mathematics behind it totally boggling, but i love it all the more for it. This video is of Jansen giving a talk about his work...

I have also come across a really good magazine (make magazine), with videos online of how to do different things and some really mad projects. They also have videos and articles about artists. I found one that i really liked. He make "wave" sculptures, alot from found objects which i liked because the finished product looks so polished and neat, unlike alot of art made with found objects.

things that came to me today...

2009-06-23T14:23:00.000-07:00

long leggedy cows...
timber lorry driving on water...

TV head...

loch swimming...
middle of nowhere...
bike saddle bum....
normal shape...
eyes on sticks...
moon shaped money box...
new saddle...
wiggly exerciser...
tandem bike...
black, tan and purple doggie...
veggie bbq...
need more yellow in life...
yellow hair...
yellow helmet...
new helmet...
baby swans...
fluf... fluffy... fuf...
huggy monster...

back pain...
never seen nowhere...
never been nowhere...
writing in a book...
drawing enough???
ever drawing...
forever drawing...
never stopping...
workin in waitressing...
workin a job...
fast moving clouds...
low fast moving clouds...
no one else seeing...
poetry...
story...
publish or post or past...
ummm...

2009-06-22T15:12:00.000-07:00

little people-slinkachu

2009-06-15T05:24:00.000-07:00

(^-^) sharing a passion for little people.

The Train Ticket Man Returns!

2009-06-06T12:02:00.000-07:00

The train ticket men are old friends of mine and we have recently become reacquainted... so I would like you to meet them also.
look out for the around glasgow !

Calling All Fellow Sculpture Students!

2009-05-30T15:10:00.000-07:00

!!!!!Be A Part Of The West End Festival!!!!!

Calling all fellow sculpture students! I have been in contact with a woman called marianne vosloo. She is looking for sculpture students to take part in an exhibition event as part of the west end festival on the 21st of june. There will be artists and art students, but has asked me, as i am going to be involved, to get more sculpture students to join in.

All the info you need to know:

The Gibson Street Gala will take place on Sunday 21st June from 12 - 6pm and I am inviting artists and art students to take part in an open air exhibition in Westbank Quadrant either as individuals or groups. A small fee of £15 would be charged for each section used by individuals or groups, within which work may be made available for sale. The art exhibition will be a new addition to the fifth annual incarnation of the event and we are hoping to establish it as a successful and permanent feature. The aim is to create an arts community site and encourage artists and art students to collaborate. This is a fantastic opportunity in terms of exposure and any additional creative ideas are welcome. We will have artists doing life drawing and I'm working on getting a performance artist to draw an audience. Gibson street, Westbank Quadrant and part of Otago street will be closed for 7 hours. We have live entertainment on the main stage in Gibson street throughout the day, kids entertainment in Otago street, 30 stalls across the bridge and a large courtyard(entry from Westbank Quadrant) with acoustic bands and other entertainment. We have space for more than fifty artists and I'm getting a lot of interest so if you would like a space guaranteed let me know as soon as possible. I can supply you with a table if you need one and we are looking into getting covers for work in case of rain but I would recommend artists to be prepared for that as well.

If you are intrested you can email Marianne@ marianne298vosloo@googlemail.com
But please do let me know too. Either leave me a commment or email me at ro151njazzmonkey@hotmail.com. Thanx.

Please do get involved. amazing opertunity to let people see and maybe even buy your work! hope to see you there!

Perthshire- Comrie Croft.

2009-05-28T07:31:00.000-07:00

After returning home, to look at my photos after a lovely few days with all (now past) FYFA's, I have discovered that i have not taken any pictures with people in. Only quaint pretty ones of flowers and grass and such. Oh well...

This wee spot was almost magical feelling,
there was even a ring of toadstools nearby.

I got really into making with grass and will continue it i think.
It's something else that i used to do when i was wee,
making jewelry and dollies.

Home sweet home.

2009-05-21T11:12:00.000-07:00

At home.

Art: George Grendal-Charlie.

2009-05-21T10:57:00.000-07:00

I'm kinda frustrated that i couldn't get him standing for the exhibition, but i do have plans to work on him further. My original idea was to sacrificially burn or bury him, but I have now decided to complete him until i am happy.

newspaper sculpture

2009-04-23T14:36:00.000-07:00

Called "Stories of Katrina", a great sculpture/installation to be found at Villa Montalvo in Saratoga, CA. It is made of overrun newspapers from after Katrina. Flickr

claes oldenburg

2009-04-23T13:08:00.000-07:00

Claes Oldenburg (born January 28, 1929) is a sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring very large replicas of everyday objects. Another theme in his work is soft sculpture versions of everyday objects. wikipedia

fun with newspaper.

2009-04-12T08:20:00.000-07:00

Ok... so i started to play around with the materials that i used to use when i was wee, predominantly newspaper. The main thing i have been consentrating on has been newspaper men. I thought i was going to struggle to remember how i used to join the paper, and even how i used to actually go about makling the shape of a person from a pile of newspaper. Once i started it all flooded back and it was like second nature (^-^).

Castle's constructions

2009-04-08T13:55:00.000-07:00

James Castle's constructions...

James Castle.

2009-04-08T13:32:00.000-07:00

Born in 1899 in rural Garden Valley, Idaho—only nine years after that frontier territory was admitted to the Union—James Castle mined the local landscape of his family’s homesteads and mapped his deeply private domestic world to produce a remarkable body of drawings, collages, and constructions. The singularity of Castle’s communicative impulse and prolific creative practice can be traced to his experiential focus. Profoundly deaf since birth, he never learned how to sign, read, or write in a conventional manner, but instead communicated through the eloquent vehicle of his art. www.foundationstaart.org

Castles drawings and "constructions" as his family called them, are child like in that they are not in correspondence with the outside art world, but with his own way of comunicating and thinking about the wold that he lived in. I'm fasinated with the way in which he made his constructions and the way he 'found' his materials.

Moving on!

2009-03-29T10:55:00.001-07:00

OK. So, I've started thinking about the child-like qualities in the objects I make. Ive been lookin at the things that i used to make between the ages of 3 and 8. So here are the things I plan on doing to get back into the frame of mind I was in at the age of... about 5:

+ Keep a making box
( old packaging, cardborad, plastic and old containers)
+making newspaper men.
+ make tents from old sheets, spaning the whole room.
+ go on day trips to the zoo, a castle, or kelvin grove.
+ go to botanic gardens and get ice cream, and fruit on way back to underground.
+ underground trains.
+ make paper boats to sail in pond in park.
+Make struff out of mud.

Final piece (^-^)

2009-03-23T15:28:00.000-07:00

raaaaaaaawr!

2009-03-09T13:20:00.000-07:00

2009-03-09T13:17:00.000-07:00

KooKoo the Bird Girl Horus...

2009-03-09T13:14:00.000-07:00

Elephant Man Ganesh...

Animal Tea Party

2009-03-09T13:01:00.001-07:00

The Animal Party.....

Puting the animals in a surreal but very human situation and changing the scale of them by using a real sized tea up, removes the toys from reality. Toys are made for children, who do not always play with toy animals as animals.

2009-03-09T12:54:00.000-07:00

They Just Dont Seal!!!!!

Grrrrrrrrrr!......I HATE INFLATABLES! Im not sure I wanna do them any more!

burlesque

2009-03-01T15:04:00.000-08:00

2009-03-01T14:58:00.000-08:00

Chico Macmurtie lives and works in Brooklyn, who makes kinetic installations. This is an inflatable work called Inflatable Architectural Body, which inflates and deflates according to the audience’s motions. He is exploring “a new dialogue between man, machine, and architecture.” This work may is not quite wearable but it is inspirational and has potential for thinking about our projects. makikoy.wordpress.com

This started me thinking could this be a moving piece?
would it work?
it could look like someone in pain?

2009-03-01T14:46:00.000-08:00

An inflatable^[1] is an object that can be inflated with a gas, usually with air, but hydrogen, helium and nitrogen are also used. One of several advantages of an inflatable is that it can be stored in a small space when not inflated, since inflatables depend on the presence of a gas to maintain their size and shape. Function fulfillment per mass used compared with non-inflatable strategies is a key advantage. Stadium cushions, impact guards, vehicle wheel inner tubes, and emergency air bags employ the inflatable principle. Inflation occurs through several strategies: pumps, ram-air, billowing, and suction. from wikipedia

2009-03-01T14:36:00.000-08:00

"Fred Garbo Inflatable Theater Company’s performance is not Hamlet. There were no volatile emotions on Martinsville High School’s stage Saturday night, no deep dramatic irony....Garbo’s show is unique, and literally as airy as its presentation, because it is built around large inflatable props created from parachute material that Garbo and Santos inflated, deflated and deformed. The props range from abstract cubes which Garbo and Santo tossed or manipulated and moved from the inside, to full inflatable suits, including one dubbed “Fred Zeplin,” billed as the inflatable man, and an man-sized inflatable dog suit." from martinsvillebulletin.com

inflatables!

2009-02-28T10:47:00.000-08:00

What comes to mind when you think of inflatables?

balloons?

Childrens toys?

fun runs?

sex objects?

advertisments?

flotation devices?

inflatable suits?

helium or air?

2009-02-24T15:20:00.000-08:00

"FROM Dreamspace to nightmare. Artist Maurice Agis's spectacular inflatable work had barely been open for a single day before a gang of knife-wielding youngsters had slashed through the thin, multi-coloured PVC fabric, rendering it hopelessly inactive." from icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk

things that happen to peoples bodies that they cannot control.

2009-02-23T14:32:00.000-08:00

things people do to themsleves

2009-02-23T14:14:00.000-08:00

playing god, or should that be surgeon?

2009-02-23T13:05:00.000-08:00

From looking at "freaks of nature", i realised the human nature has always been drawn to the amalgination of multiple or animal features. I just used little plastic figures and subjected them to some "plastic surgery" (>0<) (bad i know!).

2 year old reincarnation of Godess?

2009-02-22T05:57:00.000-08:00

This little girl was born in India, with four arms and four legs. Unlike the people seen as "Freaks" that i looked at before, this girl is being hailed as a reincarnation of GoddessVishnu. There is the element that she was born into a hindu family, what if a baby was born into a buddhist family or a christian or islam family?
How would they recat then?
would there still be a public intrest?
would the media even have found out?
If this girl was alicve in the 19th century and discovred by a circus is there a real chance she would have joind a life of performance?

Images from zimbio.com.

*Freak show stars**

2009-02-22T05:30:00.000-08:00

I was thinking before about Gods/deities and monsters, then i found this website, phreeque.com. It has lots of photos and stories from freak show stars. It started me thinking that so called "Freaks" would probably come under the same category. These were some of those who stared in these traveling shows, from the 19th and 20th centuries.

"Louise L." was born in 1869, one year after the famed four-legged woman Myrtle Corbin. Hers was a case of dipygus parasiticus; attached to her pelvis she had the atrophied lower half of a parasitic twin. She had some passive motion of the parasite, but the joints were ankylosed and immobile. Two vestigial breasts were attached near the junction of the twin with Louise's body. She could feel where the twin was touched, except for in its feet. She was married and had two daughters.

"Violetta's accomplishments in overcoming the unkindness of Mother Nature are astounding. She rarely needs the assistance of anyone, and is able to get about with remarkable facility. She can dress herself, comb her own hair, thread a needle, sew, and perform other feats apparently bordering on the impossible."

William "Bill" Durks was born on April 17, 1913, in Jasper, Alabama to normal parents, and had four normal siblings. As Ward Hall wrote in My Very Unusual Friends (1991), Bill "looked like he had been hit in the face with an axe". He suffered from frontonasal dysplasia, a birth defect that occurs when the two halves of an embryo's face fail to come together completely. He had a deeply cleft lip and palate and a bifid, or double, nose - each half having only one nostril. In addition, he was born with both eyes sealed shut and had them surgically opened when he was a small boy, and most accounts indicate that he was blind in one eye.

Born in 1860, Fanny Mills was the daughter of English immigrants who settled near Sandusky, Ohio. She had a condition called Milroy disease, which restricts development of the lymph vessels in the legs and causes fluid build-up. Fanny was a petite woman who weighed but 115 pounds, yet she wore size 30 shoes, each pair made from three goat skins, with pillowcases as socks. Each foot was said to be 19 inches long and 7 inches wide, although photos clearly show that they were not the same size. Her exhibition career began in 1885, when she entered the museum circuit, accompanied by a nurse, Mary Brown. Brown helped Fanny move from place to place, as her large feet made walking very difficult. Fanny's promoters offered $5000 and a "well-stocked farm" to anyone willing to marry the big-footed girl. Eventually she did marry, to William Brown, the brother of her assistant. When she came down with an unknown illness in 1892, she retired from show business, returning to her family's farm with her husband. She died the same year.

All text and images from Phreeque.com

Sebastian Buerkner at the Tramway

2009-02-18T15:06:00.000-08:00

"The artist often layers different viewpoints of the same sequence to create dual perspectives, suggesting a recollection of experience remem-bered at different times or in different emotional states. In truth, much of Buerkner’s practice is preoccupied with the role of subjectivity and emotional experience, presenting us with a series of narrative possibilities, aesthetic associations and sensory experiences that provoke the viewer into an emotional response by extremes. Buerkner deliberately withholds certain links in the narrative or presents too much information too quickly, hence the viewer becomes part of a process of mental and physical accumulation and association – and ultimately forced into a state of collusion which challenges our own experience of subjectivity." Tramway.org

My description would not have been so useful so a quote from the tramway website will do. It's a really nice piece and i thoroughly enjoyed it, although I do think that the experience of walking around 'inside' the piece is what did it for me. At first I wasn't sure if I was supposed to go inside, but then it occured to me that if the artist had not wanted me to go inside I would not have been able to, it would have been blocked in some way. (*-*)

Monsters and gohsts Vs. Deitys and gods.

2009-02-17T05:10:00.000-08:00

Pictures all from Scooby Doo.

Isn't it odd that as a whole, the human race that is, we find the scariest 'monsters' those that are the most human like. I think i mentioned this before when I was talking about Nosferatu, since then I have asked some other people what they think and almost everyone agreed that it is the Human-ness of him and other monsters that scare us. I makes me think of a recurring dream I had, between the ages of four and nine. It was more of a nightmare, nothing special, but it has just dawned on me that it comprised of four different, conventional, types of monster, all very human-like in form. Strangely i remember it really clearly, there was a vampire, werewolf, mummy monster and a ghost, that would all come up the stairs to my room, I would always know they were coming but could never move, sometimes I would be able to run but they would always catch me other times i would hide under the covers,most of the time they would find me, but occasionally they wouldn't notice me hiding.

"This print shows a lecherous monster said to have haunted the home of a master carpenter in the Kanda area of Tokyo. The apparition habitually showed up late at night to perform unspeakable acts on his sleeping wife, until the family enlisted the help of prayer-chanting priests to cleanse their home. In the Meiji era, recurring nightmares about this sort of monster were apparently quite common." From pinktentacle.com

Around the world, figures that are almost human but not quite are seen as other worldly. Even people with disfigurements. They used to be shoved in freak shows and circuses, because people were either scared of them or looked on in aw. Now in some parts of the world, if a child is born with disfigurements, they are seen as reincarnations of gods. Across continents and cultures, such figures can also been seen as Gods and Deities. From european christianity, with the holy trinity, emaculet conseption and resurection to the hindu deities, Lord Ganesha, with the head of an elephant and Lord Krishna, depicted with blue skin.

Face painting

2009-02-14T13:13:00.000-08:00

"Artist, drag queen, former nudist and born again Christian James Kuhn
has turned his hand to face painting." pinewood design.co.uk. ainting your
face is a disguise, as fun or to hide from normality and ay to day life.
It represents the something you want to be... whether that is a good laugh or an
animal with no cares or someone else, who doesnt have your insecurities.

Face doodles

2009-02-14T12:08:00.000-08:00

Face doodles.

nosferatu

2009-02-14T10:53:00.000-08:00

Nosferatu (1922)- I went to see this on Friday, with live musical accompaniment in the GFT. It was fantastic! It started me thinking why is it still so scary today? The make-up and special effects are so lo tech today, compared to recent monster films, but Nosferatu still chills the bones... I think, for me anyway, that he is so freightening because he is very human like, but not quite. The way he looks is almost just withered and pale, but the way he moves (almost not at all!) is absoulutley terrifying! He nearly hovers and when he gets up from lying down, by just piviting up from the floor does creep me out a little.

Well I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. (^¬^)

2009-02-12T03:02:00.000-08:00

Spencer Tunikc, creates often huge living installations, by getting vast numbers of people to come together and pose nude in public places. In a year long project he traveled around the world to different cities, convincing people to pose either in a group or as individuals. Alot of his participants feel invigorated and free. Although he has been arrested, several times, most being in his home city New York, some of his works have been made in conjunction with local councils and governments.

My attempt at automatic typing.

2009-02-11T03:52:00.000-08:00

Right automatic writing, what am i thinking about. i dont know the pigs were cute but what else do i think about being in the library not thinking much thinking bout red boys and pigs againg, beigng conscious of making typo mistakes and beign able to change the writing comes more naturaly that drawing /? but does it can drwing came as naturally as typing does says something about our generation..... typin comes almost as naturally as writing with a pen most people make more mistakes with pen or typing i make loads with atbout both, not thinking meditation colour light bursts blackness but not.. candle there but not therere.make you think make me think but not think automatic. wings fklying comes naturaly to birds but not to me not like walking but thast difficult if you think about it not staopping typing cant stoppp opf rill start thinkingt about typing tyhe mental block..... stopps me
bblock me blocks my mind block block stopppp bar me stop me from moving forward is that possible can it stop me now i cant stop cant consider stop........... btu stop but not stap i dont know what im doin what am i ding i dont kno is thusis it am i doing what i can stop me stop me ill stop you from this j=help it nor ahepl it not making sense iis tei s it am i doing what i camn fast pace a am i cosious is this it? meditation blank darck clouor blue red yellow mix purple green brown not black im i doint doing it am i doing this i dont know what this is what is it is this it. colour pig charriot am i knowing what im doing is this it a,i i all this is this me wat im doing is this it, me you everyone in this in your que line form shape.............. protude??? jo just because noway maybe i dont know is this it is thais what i am doin is it mine from me?

.............Ok that felt wierd. i never knew i could type so fast. Did it in 2 minutes. does my subconscious have something to share? Is it mystical? I'm not sure but it has given me a sore head (-_-; ).
Give it a go. Let me know how it you get on.

Can pigs make subconscious art when I can't?

2009-02-11T03:32:00.000-08:00

"Trotters Independent Painters began their career by accident when the piglets broke loose at a craft fair at their home, and began investigating tins of non-toxic paint with their snouts and trotters." Daily Mail

Is it only possible for an animal to make subconscious art because
they don't have a preconcieved concept of what art is?

^^^Their first 'official' piece of art ^^^

subconscious art?

2009-02-11T03:11:00.000-08:00

Is it possible to make art subconsciosly?

Could it be anything like automatic writing?

" how to... automatic writing.

Find a quiet spot without distractions.

Sit at a table or desk where you'll be comfortable, with paper and pen (or pencil).

Take a few moments to clear your mind.

Touch the pen or pencil to the paper.

Try not to consciously write anything.

While keeping your mind as clear as possible, let your hand write whatever comes across.

Avoid looking at the paper; you might even keep your eyes closed.

Give it time to happen (nothing might happen for quite a while).

When it seems to be done, if and when automatic writing does occur, look over what your hand has produced carefully. The writing may appear to be nonsense or just scribbling, but try to decipher it as best as possible.

In addition to letters and numbers, look for pictures or symbols in the writing as well.

Keep trying. Nothing might happen your first few attempts.

If you start to achieve success, you can try asking questions to see if you can receive responses."

From about.com :paranormal phenomena

Is this at all possible??? ("~"?)

2009-02-10T07:28:00.001-08:00

Chen Wenling uses pigs aswell as human figures in his work, in some chinese cultures the pig is a sybol of fertility. I like how these figures are portrayed in bright red, because although they are semi realistic, the colour and high gloss surface accentuates their unrealistic qualities. I also love how you can't not smile at them, the tall lanky boy and the tiny fat pig. (Q-^)

2009-02-09T12:21:00.000-08:00

Zulu and Shangaan fertilitydolls.young girls mothers make these,
or they make them themself, when they reach puberty.

2009-02-09T11:53:00.000-08:00

It is currently believed the she was made around 24,000-22,000 BC, but her estimated age keeps getting pushed earlier as technology progresses. She's a fertility symbol and only 4 1/2 inches tall, but beautiful (*-*). She is perfectly sized and shaped to sit in your hand and was clearly lovingly made.

2009-02-09T11:14:00.000-08:00

Daniel Allen - Cermaic sculpture

I like the idea of cermaic sculpture, particulary in a human form. I think it because ceramics are traditionaly used to make objects that are in day to day use, that get handled alot., but with care, cause it's breakable... like our bodies.

"The human figure – and what it says about our fragile condition – is the major preoccupation of Daniel Allen." - David Whiting.

2009-02-08T14:50:00.000-08:00

Anthromicropolarity- species 2- the critic.

2009-02-08T14:37:00.000-08:00

Anthromicropolariy in the Mac.

2009-01-30T11:32:00.000-08:00

Slikachu' little people in the city.