Intimacy and art

Two of my Postcard Series pieces, Meadow 1 & 2 where sold while I was away. They are so pleasing in their intricacy and smallness. I don't know about you, but I prefer my work on the intimate side. Using a small scale requires the viewer to come close and observe, to find the hidden treasures layered beneath the obvious surface features. To me that act is a little like the unfolding that occurs in any relationship over time. The obvious turns into subtle layers of intricacy.


Sometimes art is about one's intimate connections to a person or place or sometimes it is both. Ruskin's Rose which is in the Summer Show at The Leyton Gallery is just such a piece.

I love Venice and since visiting there I've read many books that reference this magical city. One book I was quite taken with was Ruskin's Rose which is about John Ruskin, the esteemed nineteenth century art historian. In 1858 he fell in love with a young Irish girl, Rose La Touche. When Rose died, Ruskin fled to Venice to seek solace. Unfortunately the dangerous romance of Venice's canals and bridges intensified his emotions in every way. He found himself caught adrift, not having a reason to stay in the city or to leave until one day he discovered the paintings of fifteenth - century artist Vittore Carnaccio and found Rose in the fairy-tale portraits.

The red rose in my painting symbolizes the vital beauty of Venice which flows and changes through history as well as enduring love. Consistent with my other work is the exploration of the idea that everything changes with time.

Postcard Series - New work

I've been busy finishing several of my 4 x 6 inch postcard works. For these two I returned to Birr Castle Demesne for inspiration. I'm looking down again to see what's beneath my feet. There are whole little worlds for you to view when you look closely. I'm not working on my
Reading a Garden Series this week partly because my mind is all over the place. We leave for our vacation on Saturday and will be gone for a month. That's a long time without blogging!

New work - Postcard series

Postcard Series, Venice #2 (2009) mixed media collage

Postcard Series, Venice #1 finally has a mate. I completed this several days ago. Number 3 is almost completed. I obviously did not photograph these pieces under the same conditions because the gold I used is the same in both collages. Believe it or not the horizontal line is parallel to the bottom of the board too. It's my photography skills. Isn't it terrible when you have to explain your work because your technical skills with the camera are so poor they make a verbal explanation necessary?

Postcard Series, Venice #2 (2009) mixed media collage

New work - collage

Postcard collage Garden #1 (2009) paper, acrylic on board, 4 x 6 in.

When I am in a garden I often think about the "goings on" I cannot see, the new growth, the minerals in the soil helping out, the roots, and of course the constant decay. I am trying to capture this process abstractly. This is my first organic attemept.

New work - Postcard Series

Postcard Collage #1 Venice (2009) paper, acrylic on board 4 x 6 in.

My postcard collages are moving along well. Several weeks ago I re-organized all my travel photos and as I sorted and filed images it was like a flying trip through different places. The experience left me with a bombardment of visual snippets of colours and textures. It was a synthesis that had nothing to do with the emotion or memory of the place. I found that very interesting because so much of my work revolves around the passage of time and memory. This was a much simpler visual response that I decided to act on.

This experience occurred at the same time I wrote about For Carrie 1907 and the follow up post about evolving ideas in art. This collision of ideas resulted in the postcard collage series. I am continuing to refine my original thoughts about how this series will be organized. Right now I'm creating groupings of 3 (e.g., Venice #1, #2, #3) and will display them in this way. They are on 1/4 inch birch plywood and will be backed with another piece of word on the back that is 2 x 3 inches and 1/2 inch thick which will hold the hook. I wanted them to stand out from the wall for viewing purposes and I also needed some consistent way to hang them evenly as they will be displayed in grids. I plan to create a jig (living with a carpenter) to ensure they are all backed and hooked exactly the same.

I'm also creating a series of postcard collages from the gardens at Birr Castle, just ot keep my mind on that project as I take this little detour from my usual work. I want to stop thinking about what I'm creating and just create. I feel the sheer joy I watched on childrens' faces for years - I'm having fun!

New work -collage

Postcard collage #1 Asian (2009) 4 x 6 in. on board

I just wanted to play around with various papers while I was on my brief summer home visit. Collage is very portable in such situations. I have a large box of paper ends left from previous projects. I just dump the contents into a garbage bag and away I go. This is an unlikely colour scheme for me because I rarely use orange and as a matter of fact orange is my least favourite colour. I have to admit it was just right to complement the black Asian flavoured paper left over from the endpapers of a journal folder I made last year.

I plan to create a whole series of postcard collages that are influenced by the cultures of various countries I have visited or enjoy reading about. It will be fun to share these experiments with you in the coming months. While I love the colour and texture of these small studies, and making them relaxes me and frees my mind and invites playfulness into my practice, they serve a more important purpose; they give me ideas new larger work.

Evolving ideas

I wrote this before I left for my mini vacation when I discovered I could schedule it to post by changing the post time under post options. Imagine that!

In research on characteristics of creative people , the pattern of one idea leading to another features prominently; it is referred to as evolution. This is the method of incremental improvement where new ideas or solutions grow from previous ones. Constant incrementation of ideas accounts for many of the discoveries in the world. Other "thinking"characteristics work in concert with the evolution of new ideas from old. They include:

• willingness to try new things/take risks
  
• ability to see relationships and make mental leaps
• curiosity about new things
• broad interests in many unrelated areas

I see evidence of evolution (of ideas) in every aspect of my life, but especially in my art practice. I can use my last post about the use of a vintage post card in a mixed media work as an example of how you can move along with an idea. Originally postcards were a logical extension of my interest in memory, passage of time, culture, identity and family connections. I didn't think much beyond them as an example. If I want to build on this topic/idea there are strategies I can use to increase the number and range of responses.

1. Brainstorming is a great way to see where an idea can go. Here are my thoughts on postcards:

Postcards

• art of the ordinary person
• intimate in scale
• inexpensive, economical
• commercial
• thin cardboard
  
• travels
• special events
• photo size (4x6)
  
• used across cultures
• souvenirs
• transportable
• topic based
• not age specific
• long history of use
• nostalgic
  
• present positive views
• collectible
  
• sites of interest
• messages
• public
  

2. Sort and re-sort
Create a list of words (as above), phrases or drawings from you random thoughts, look for connections and sort your ideas, then resort. One way is to write all your random thoughts or scribblings on sticky notes and continually rearrange them. You might want to record your connections. This usually yields general themes. My list above could be sorted into characteristics, uses, types, etc.

3. Extend categories
Then try to generate new ideas under each general heading. E.g. uses (exhibition announcements, used for political advocacy, humour, etc. )

4. Extend your list
Give more examples or ask questions.

Postcards

• art of the ordinary person (is there a way to make them elite?)
• two sided
  
• intimate in scale (is it still a postcard if the size changes? )
  
• inexpensive, economical (make them precious, expensive)
  
• commercial (create personal, one of a kind postcards)
  
• thin cardboard (what other formats are possible? canvas, small boxes, video, puzzle format, metal)
  
• travels
• special events
  
• photo size (4x6) (what about same content in large sizes, same impact?, no longer economical or intimate, use of video? )
  
• used across cultures (examine styles of postcards across cultures- ideas for styles?)
  
• souvenirs
• transportable (what happens when you alter the size?)
  
• topic based
• not age specific
• long history of use
• nostalgic (political, spiritual)
  
• present positive views (pose questions, highlight significant issues)
  
• sorted and labelled
• sites of interest
• messages
• public
  

5. Research beyond your ideas
This is where you link with the ideas of others. Be careful here because there is a fine line between copying and extending.

From web research, the traditional idea of postcard is certainly extended.

See various definitions of postcards on the web.

Then there is the world of Mail art where artists enter into the fray.

Video postcards accompany music, illustrate family vacations, show interesting places that are fun and real.

The history of postcards is traced back to 1490 when a medieval nun sent one leaf painting of Saint Barbara to another nun.

It seems the word postcard is part of many song titles with my personal favourite - Mark Knophler, Postcard from Paraguay . Check out many more on YouTube.

Visual art and the postcard

The postcard has been used by artists for many years to create various kinds of art. See the connection British artists Gilbert and George have to postcards.

Art of the Japanese Postcard was presented at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Themes in Japanese postcards are categorized and samples are presented.

Postsecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a post card. Very interesting...

Julianna Parr uses the postcard as a legitimate artistic medium. See her Time Stamp: A Diary in Postcards 1998-2008. This is the passage of time charted through visual imagery and much commitment .

And finally there are a half million hits on Google images for postcard art.

And yes.... this post has helped me come up with an idea for new work for a summer show I am in. Now I have to get busy creating!