Two favourites from the Art Express exhibition

Back to our visit to Art Express, an exhibition of the best of last year's Higher School Certificate works. One of my favourite works was an astonishing drawing, worked in graphite on recycled library books.

Regretfully, I didn't get a photo of the work in its entirety. It was displayed at knee level and was roughly a metre square. Discarded library books were pieced together to form a 'recycled' dimensional canvas.

The artist purposely illuminated sentences from the books. Her drawings were beautiful, especially considering her chosen canvas. It is hard to believe these works are done by 17-year-olds. Amazing talent!

A second of my favourite pieces was 'The Good Wife's Guide'. This one made me smile! It is a clever series of photographs inspired by a set of 'housewife's rules' that the artist found in a 1955 issue of 'Housekeeping Monthly'.

From the artist: "These rules, placed on women by women, are my way of representing the impossibility of perfection and, through humour, deconstructing our futile struggle to achieve it."

The artist must have had a ball dressing up as a '50's housewife for the photographs. Although each image is so carefully composed and detailed that it must have take her an eternity. She also prepared a poignant video to accompany the stills. I have included a few of the panels for you to see. If you click on each image, it should be large enough for you to read. Enjoy!

Sweet girl, are you sure you want to be an artist?

We visited our Regional Art Gallery during the school holidays. Our eldest daughter (15) is on the brink of choosing her subjects for her Higher School Certificate, and is contemplating choosing Visual Arts. To help her to understand the commitment involved in creating a HSC Major Work, we took her to a travelling Art Express exhibition, a diverse showcase of the very best artworks from last year's HSC. Oh my, what astounding talent was on display, and what sophisticated ideas portrayed. Here are just a few of them:

 
'Personal Sanctuary: If you are alone, you belong entirely to yourself'

Printmaking: oil-based printing ink on Fabriano paper

"Popular culture has warped the term 'intimacy' to mean purely physical pleasure. I diverged from this ... capturing moments of inner tranquility of individuals in their personal environment"

 
'Once Upon a Time'

Graphic design: acrylic paints, textas and varnish on wooden skateboards

"A representation of the contrast between the naivety of a young, innocent child and the confronting search for identity found in an adolescent"

 

'Set in her Ways'

Sculpture: an entire dinner setting made from hot glue

"Art nouveau designs symbolise the extremely precious and intricate nature of families, despite their increasing tendency to be replaced, lost or forgotten in today's society"

 

'Illumination'

Painting: acrylic paint on canvas

"Brushstrokes ... gently move, silently with the morning light seeping through the window ... creating a concentric pattern of radiating light that mimics the continuity of life and spirit"

 
'Conflict of Interest (inner)'

Collection of works: mixed media on wood

"This piece ... questions the preconceived notions we hold regarding the nature and definition of hypocrisy by exposing the complex nature of the subconscious"

 

'Heading Towards Annihilation While Engaged in Trivial Conversation'

Sculpture

"Bright unnatural colours comment on the lack of knowledge of the dodo's true appearance ... (and) act as a warning about other endangered species that are in imminent danger of extinction"

 

'Facial Facades'

Drawing: charcoal on paper

"We don't quite remember when we were children why we were so good at getting what we wanted ... children are brilliant actors, it comes so easily to them"

 

'Eliphant, Bich, Barbq 

(Elephant, Beach, Barbeque)''

Drawing: pen on paper

"I want to take you inside a dyslexic head. Eliphant, bich, barbq, three words that I could not spell as a child. Red crosses dominated my exercise books. I felt a failure. I finally learned to spell elephant, beach, and barbeque ... Looking through dyslexic eyes, things move, are complex and always changing. There are feeling of confusion and frustration. For me, there was eventually calmness. "

Our visit to the Gallery was perhaps secretly intended to intimidate my daughter into choosing a less challenging HSC subject. As it happens, she came home excited, inspired and even more encouraged to follow her artistic heart! 

I would love to hear of your favourite artwork from this post. Or perhaps your experiences in getting a child through Year 12 Visual Arts :) I have saved two of my very favourite works for my next post. Stay tuned!

School's in!

Today was the first day of a new school year for my three kids. They are busy children. I love to have them home on holidays - they busily set about amusing themselves by 'making stuff'.

Miss 15 decided she wanted to make herself a pencil case. She found my Amy Butler scraps and went to town:

This little project signifies the emergence of 'a girl who sews' to me. Armed with Oh Fransson's excellent wristlet pattern, she made this entirely by herself.

The 12-year-old boy's obsession with origami continues unabated. These holidays it was all about increasing complexities ... 

... and decrease of scale. The smallest of these is just a half inch tall!

And Little Miss 9 contented herself with prolific drawing in every colour imaginable!

 

For me, there was some time to finally conquer the dreaded 8-way pinwheel seam. This is part of a project to be published later in the year, so 'Mum's the word'!

The first day back for another school year leaves me a little melancholy that my time with my kids is flying by. For one reason or another I have had Colin Buchanan's 'Be Strong and Courageous' in my head.

Be strong and courageous the Lord of the ages

Holds all his little ones safe by his side

Be strong and courageous the Lord of the ages

Holds all his little ones safe

Do not fear the fire / darkness / enemy

Do not fear the water / sadness / poverty

Do not fear the thunder / sickness / eternity

Jesus has conquered them all

This was written as a message for children, but today I feel like it was written for me!

So today the house is quiet and there is time to catch up with all the jobs that have been on standby.

Bloom x

P.S. By the end of the day I was singing U2's 'Helter Skelter' in my head. What does that say?! School's in session!

When you get to the bottom

You go back to the top of the slide

And you stop and you turn

And you go for a ride

Then you get to the bottom

Then you see me again


Helter skelter

Helter skelter

Helter skelter

The creative energy of a small boy

Just yesterday, we saw this amazing origami ball in a gift shop. It is made from the pages of an old copy of Tom Brown's School Days. Cool!

My mathematically-inclined 11-year-old was smitten and has thought and spoken of nothing else for the last 24 hours!

Armed with help from the internet, a quick Google search for 'modular origami', this YouTube tutorial and a whole lot of patience & determination, my young man has emerged from his room with this prototype.

He is working on his vintage book page version as I type! Hmmm, can't imagine where he gets his obsessive creative tendencies from ...

Kids' Art on Saturday ... otherwise known as KAOS?!

After an encouraging start two Saturdays ago, the kids & I sat down yesterday afternoon to spend some art time together. This week we again used the Art Projects for Kids blog, and Kathy's Picasso Pastel Portraits tutorial. Again, her instructions were foolproof and each of my kids enjoyed their time enormously. I printed out a few examples of Picasso's works (this, this, this, this & this) as inspiration. Here are their creations:

'Waking from a Peaceful Dream' by Eldest Blossie, age 12

'Sleeping in a Garden Bed'

by Littlest Blossie, age 7

'Good or Evil?'

by Boy in the Middle, age 9

My husband asked our boy, "So what do you think makes a Picasso a Picasso"? His immediate response was, "Well you just make it look weird really"!!!

Kid's art on a cold Saturday afternoon

I have discovered a wonderful children's art blog, Art Projects for Kids, which has the best 'art for artistically challenged parents' instructions! In a new family initiative, (otherwise known as 'mum is feeling guilty that she isn't spending enough quality time with the children' syndrome), I have decided to use this art blog as inspiration on a weekend to spend some creative time with my three munchkins. Today was our inaugural effort. We started off with something simple, using instructions for 'Rousseau Tiger Drawing'. There was much talk along the lines of 'mine is hopeless' ... 'yours is so much better' ... 'this looks weird' ... 'yuck, pass me the eraser quick' etc etc. Followed by philosophical discussion about how there is no one right or perfect way when it comes to art & it's interpretation! Here are the results of a very fun afternoon (& much debating over creative names for each picture):

'Raining Leaves in a Pink Sky'

by Littlest Blossie, age 7

'Jungle Nightscape'

by Boy in the Middle, age 9

'Blue Eyes in the Bushes'

by Eldest Blossie, age 12