jogging on the path

The pace is hotting up coming up towards Christmas break with impending PowerPoint presentation, assessment and assignment for gothic together with studio work to be completed.
So I am going to show here a number of artists whose work has begun to impinge on my thinking if not necessarily to show in what I do.
I have just checked back along the path and I find that the last time I was talking about artists  it was  Bacon, Velickovic et al; while certainly their images would be basic to a lot of my thinking, two more photographers appeared and made a serious impact.

The first was an irish artist Amelia Stein (b.1958) whose attraction to old things generally, appealed:

I had already known of Amelia Stein, but not of John Coplans (1920- 2003) to whom I was recently introduced:

 

His unflinching self-portraits of the ageing body (but without ever picturing his face) chimed very strongly with what I wanted to do and has definitely influenced my work - photos, drawing and printmaking.

The advent of the Gothic seminar (already spoken of) drew in other influences which earlier I might have rejected but to which my mind has become much more open:

 

 

Hermann Nitsch (b. Vienna, 1938) was part of a Viennese group known as Aktion whose work involved large theatrical performances using entrails, carcasses and apparent blood with active participation:

 

 

This led to painting along similar lines:

 

 

This work has also fed into my thinking as has been apparent in the first corridor drawing (more to come), and the Box.

 

Recently I came across a review of a new book on the art of film director David Lynch (b.1946, Missoula, Montana) which proved to be the catalogue of a major retrospective of his art from !967 to now at PAFA (Pennsylvania); I knew that he was a lithographer but had not realised that he is still a very active artist:

 

 

Rock with Seven Eyes  -1996 - oil, mixed media on canvas

 

Gardenback -1968 -70

 

Figure witnessing the Orchestration of Time -1990 (detail)

 

Again there is much in his gothic approach the art and film that I would always have been attracted to but would not then have described it as such.

 

A number of other artists have come into my orbit recently one of whom might at first appear surprising:

 

 

 

Monika Gryzmala (b. 1970, Poland) draws in 3D with tape and paper clay  and her works make me think of the nerves sinews and blood vessels that hold the human body together and without which the same body would disintegrate and  dissolve.

 

In this survey there is one more artist whose work has been introduced to me unfailingly by my tutor Sercan Sahin and which has affected me deeply. But before showing this artist's work I would like to return briefly to the making of the Box:

 

 

These four images come from the making of the box and perhaps the influence of Nitsch might be apparent  but when I first looked at the work of Liliana Porter (b. 1941, Buenos Aires) I was quite stunned:

 

 

Red Shoes - acrylic & collage on paper 2010 (detail)

 

 

To Paint Red - acrylic on Paper 2010

 

There are many more like these and indeed they all have a little figure in them but that said I felt that if someone of this artists prominence could make work like this how much better I could feel about what I have been doing.

 But this is only a part of Porter's work:

 

 

Profile of a Bear that Left - collage -1999

 

Diptych - lithograph - 2012

 

Forty Years IV (hand, over triangle, one hand, left 1973) (2013)

chromogenic print
19x23"
edition of 5 plus 2 APS

 

I feel that I will be referring back to this artist again as much of  the content echoes my own concerns.

 

So saying I feel it is time to show some more of my own studio work and to indicate how I have been exploring the images and concepts developed overt the last few months.

 

Here are two stages in the production of a CMYK print the earlier components of which I showed in a recent post:

 

..and here is the final four -colour print which is of course a negative image:

 

 

0

Here are some variants where I printed the black(K) layer over other images:

 

 

 

In parallel with this I have been continuing two etch/aquatint projects:

 

(i) large scale- six plates in paired colours:

 

 

 

(ii) The Ear - Dissolution - these are the initial prints for a five image sequence which I hope to have finished by assessment:

 

 

 

The plates

 

 

 

The etches

 

The aquatint

 

 

And finally to come absolutely bang up to date the first (and only!) images from the initial roll of 120 in the Holga:

 

 

efforts at double-exposure which are encouraging - already halfway through second roll

 

 

As photographic ps I should celebrate the return of an old friend - my very first SLR - Minolta srt 100x - already loaded with 400ASA b/w and shooting!!

 

 

 

....complete with original strap -  honestly, it was very cool at the time...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A quick skip on the path

Just in case people out there might think I only take weird photos, here's the Suir in Thurles yesterday morning:

Its remarkable how high levels of water and bright winter sunshine can transform a normally rather ordinary scene;

I particularly like this one as there are no human signs in it:

 

 

But yes, I do take weird ones as well:

 

 

hard to believe that many pips in one small orange

 

 

Should have had the high-tech Holga with me when down by the river;

 

On my way in last night I thought this bush looked more interesting in the winter at night than in day-time in the summer.

 

 

 

Artists next

 

 

Finding the path

This year my posts have been a little more sparse than the last few years and I think it is tie to correct a bit. admittedly there has been a lot going on extracurricularly and I am going first to mention something of this.
I was fortunate to have been offered a solo show by Thurles Library at the Source. You have already seen the invite so now I can say that there was an opening last Wednesday night which was most enjoyable and I couldn't have asked for better support. There have already been quite  few pics on Facebook but I will just post a selection here:

An idea of the layout:

One or two pieces;

 

 

Colette Fitzpatrick did the opening:

 

 

 

PJ O'Connell (artist, teacher, curator and friend), Colette, self. Anne-Marie Brophy (Thurles Library)

 

 

Some really welcome visitors from Limerick

 

Thanks to all .....  hugely.

 

Enough of that  - back to school. The work has actually still been proceeding and here is some evidence to prove it:

 

 

Immediately after review the drawing project was resumed and we were asked to put up projects in the corridor for a crit - This was that of your blogger called for the day Ebola but really being a further visualisation of the dissolution concept - the body reduced to blood with the presence of test tubes showing the ultimately useless contribution of science, for all life -like politics -  ends in failure - or dissolution, or death.

 

Continuing the small drawings on big area here is the latest:

 

 

Sense - ink and graphite on paper (A2)

 

Here also is a study for a print I am planning:

 

 

 The ear will be screen-printed (bitmap) onto several different etches as will other organs such as eyes:

 

 

These have already been bitmapped and loaded onto screen.

 

In parallel with this I am undertaking my first CMYK - four colour  -screenprint and here are the bitmapped and separated images:

 

 

For this evening I will finish with an image of Emma inspecting some of the boxes which are building up into a fascinating collection:

 

 

 Next I will return to research because over the past few weeks I have been steadily building up a number of artists whose work, one way or another feeds into what I do  albeit not apparently directly.