The Path of Sculpture

You must wonder where I have been - well, this last while I have been posting on Tumblr:

FrankRafter.tumblr.com
for anyone interested -..........maybe I said that already ; well, its been a busy week but hopefully over the weekend or early next week I will update on the doings and post some pics

Sorry, still busy!

The Printed Path

 

I know you all had doubts but here it is in B/W

 

Well perhaps some self-pity:

 

 

Well, its Friday so a little movement around the city to view  what had changed since last week and lo and behold there were lips in Ormston House:

 

This was meat and drink to me - art and books combined: add a little Gerry Mulligan and I would still be there ( anybody who wants to know who he is will have to put in a personal info request)

Really though - it's a pity this will only be on for a couple of days because the publications on view -printed and painted -   are wonderful:

Not least of course was the contribution from 83 first years who gave a word:

 

Purchased a copy  - I have a word in there but sadly can't remember which one - at the time was not really au fait with he reason  and didn't take note - lesson!

I have shown some of Limericks 'street art';  it takes many forms:

 

 

but there is some very strange company being kept here:

 

 

Its all really about juxtaposition, isn't it?

 

More from the streets

 

Public Print

From the other side of the road

I dont feel that I can just desert you all (?) after all this time  so my reports on Combined Media and Sculpture will appear on Tumblr and I will continue to check in here - eventually these may agglutinate ( depends on digital proficiency!

Just to reassure that the Edge has not gone away:

 

and again:

 

but how could one desert something that is at the heart of oneself - can you leave yourself?

I submitted two drawings and an animation to the Drawing Awards show today but when I looked at some of the other submissions I almost felt like taking my own out again; however I suppse one must have the courage of one's convictions and the pieces I put in were very much my own thinking.
No pictures yet, but the two animations were 'Spotticus' and 'The Spot Show'.

Let us see.

Never, of course, forgetting:

Public Print

 

 

Holes in the Road

This is a notice of perhaps temporary cessation of service on this path

The journey may move along an alternate line for a while  at Frankrafter. tumblr.com and those interested enough can see how I am coping with a slightly different approach

But as Arnie said - "I'll be back"

After diversion, the path resumes

Sunday night and tomorrow calls third elective -Sculpture and Combined Media.

Totally open mind on this although I have been working my way through Vitamin  3-D : New Perspectives in Sculpture and Installation and going through the three volumes of Taschen's Art Now.
All of these have been useful for checking the artists on the introductory list but many others catch the eye and one in particular interested me prior to this and still does:

 

Ernesto Neto

I have also started working through the various magazines and journals noted on the list and already the differences in approach in different publications is quite striking. I'll talk more about them later.

But here are a couple more - different again:

Vincent Fecteau

 

 

Iran do Espirito Santo

 

Over the next few weeks I will enter more of these and some will go into my contextual notebook.

 

There is one query outstanding in my mind though  - is all sculpture of the past to be ignored?

 

Have to get that clear.

 

 

Meantime I have been working on two other projects  - blocks for the Delete-Press show 'Full' in Thurles in March and  the Drawing Awards show next week. I have some ideas in progress for this but I have misgivings about them . Have to think a bit more.

 

Meanwhile

 

Public Print

 

 

The primrose path

.......Well, not really; even though Rag Week is on, school is working away - 4th years have submitted their theses and are relieved and others are beavering away in the library.
Yesterday morning we had an ad hoc CCS at which we watched one of Simon Schama's 'Power of Art' films centred around Turner and his late work - The Slave Ship -

- which interestingly produced serious division of opinion as to its merits in the ensuing discussion - extremely stimulating! Coincidentally, I finished my day with a viewing of a BBC4 film again on Turner -this time using his association with the Thames as its theme. It was presented very articulately(if a little repetitive at times) by Matthew Collings,

 

The Thames near Walton - 1808

 

The Thames Estuary near Margate. - 1840

 

 

None of this was any pain to me as I have always been a fan of JMWT since first seeing the Turner Galleries in London.

 

I spent a lot of time in front of screens yesterday - caught up on that amazing series on Channel 4  - 'Utopia' - extraordinary imagery, and went to the Source Film Club last night to see an Iranian film - 'Abpot Elly'  - highly recommended; the same director produced 'a Separation,' another really good Iranian picture.

 

 

OK, where was I? Right -I left(?) Printmakers and wended my way up to LCGA enjoying many interesting encounters with Ground Metal along the way:

 

 

 

There are pictures everywhere.

 

 

LCGA is currently staging three exhibitions:

 

 

The first - Seed Matter -focuses on the freedom to use seed throughout the world and on the attempts of corporations - mainly western - to patent seed and exclude their use from people who traditionally relied on these:

 

 

 

Here are three images of a gold-plated seed in a jar:

 

 

In passing, I am beginning to worry slightly about my continually downward-tilted head:

 

 

What?  -well actually,the floor in LCGA

 

Another exhibition concerned the formation of the Limerick Soviet:

 

... a period of our history about which I was very hazy.

 

Finally I was, needless to say, very taken with the selection of drawings and photos from the permanent collection.

 

One thing about images of Limerick  - if Dublin can do it .............

 

 

 Sans Paroles


I previously mentioned our last lecture with David Brancaleone  and I have been reading back over my notes and just thinking what a stimulating theme it was  -'Framing the World' - and one one his central point chimed so strongly with my own thinking -  Seeing, Looking,Viewing, Gazing. What I particularly liked was the breath of coverage and that this was not limited solely to contemporary art.

Thus:

 

The Garden of the Golden Bracelet - Mural in Pompeii House - 1stC BC

 

Kasimir Malevich - Black Square -1913

Holiday viewing -

Public Print

 

The Urban Path revisited

Before resuming my report on urban perambulations I would like to go back little and show you some images that hark back to where I was last semester; I mentioned Richard Long and his walking lines and I showed some of my own take on this. Well here he (and I ) were again:

 

There is no doubt that snow can produce the most hackneyed pictures but we  (thankfully) get it so seldom here that the temptation to record or interpret is very powerful:

 

 

 

When I got to Limerick that morning there was none and even here all this was gone by mid-morning - the effects are so ephemeral.

 

Returning to Limerick apart from my visits, I resumed my study of Ground Metal ( which I plan to expand on later) but here are a few studies of one of my favourite subjects:

 

 

 

Aren't they just lovely?...and all they convey about how we live - half-empty, half-full

 

and this one could as easily be the gate though which the lions emerge into the arena - as I keep saying - look ... and see.

 

 

I went back to the Limerick Printmakers new show called Box Set Fever and this time I got the list.

Here are a few I particularly appreciated:

 

 

Jill McKeown - Incidental Order  -  Etching

 

Sylvia Taylor - The Bridge - Lino Cut  (beautiful paper)

 

 

Cathy Henderson - East Wall Docks/Summer Evening - Relief

 

 

Declan Byrne - Eastern Approach  - Etching

 

 

Patrick Corcoran - Active  - Digital Print

 

Frank W. Marston - Tensile -  Wood engraving

 

Deborah Ando - Untitled  - Etching and Drypoint

 

I just realised that my selection was rather monochrome and the show was not:

 

 

Oliver Flude - Untitled - Wood Cut

 

There is more I want to say about Limerick but let's have a break.

 

 

Not forgetting, of course

 

Public Print