facebook

12 February 2012 for a personal birthday I give myself a new facebook profile dedicated to my art adventure and journey.

I shan't be writing my own blogs for a while and leave that onerous task to my mentor, fellow artist Andrew Charles, who provides me with constant support, help and guidance along my journey as an artist.

I have posted today 6 albums of works comprising of over 190 images which I shall try to catch up with in terms of descriptions, my (this) BLOG is also accessible through the facebook site.

Lets see where I go from here

Annie

A step forward

Annies work has been consistent, finding most peace during the night she finds herself up and painting around 3am, it is then that all of her distractions are tucked up and fast asleep, there has also been a short period away from the easel, an easel that came as a christmas present this year, before then she had been mounting her cotton onto inadequate stretchers which buckled and twisted as the paint soaked through softening all of the joints, now, mounted and locked on the easel her canvas is firm, a change that has brought with it a slight change in her works.

As her confidence grows as does her self belief that indeed, this could be her future, unbelievable as she finds it I hear her frustrations that she had never found this ability before though not without acknowledgement that it is her own changes in lifestyle that has helped to make it all possible.

Her works are becoming more exciting, mature and energetic, there is more depth and balance across the canvas than before, each line, stroke and splash fully intentional, her work, she describes herself as a painter of her own emotions, now allows the viewer to see her as an artist with a journey to travel, skills and practice to hone and a world of media to explore, already she has found liquid shoe polish, she breaks open markers to reach the ink inside, she begs for paint from any source and experiments quickly learning that to use cheaper and unorthodox media as underpainting and a better quality paint and materials for the surface layers, an act in itself that adds to the depth of her work substantially.

To hear her talk of her work, her materials and her motivations, to watch her expressions when she finds a part of her painting that represents a special moment from her heart, either joyful or of  sad, to hear her enthusiasm having found a new exhibition to visit, it is all joyful and satisfying to see.

Jackson Pollock remains her primary inspiration the DVD film, ''Pollock''  (a great film by Ed Harris circa 2000) being her bedside reading of choice which only today she has watched three times, soaking it all up, finding correlation between his life and her own as she acknowledges her own dependance upon art as therapy and necessity to her own stability.

These new works I have started to publish as works of a painter unknown Series 02 as they are so different in content, colour and maturity from her earlier works.

Art asTherapy

Annie turned up tonite after a 7 day absence from society, like most her demons battle against her, sometimes they win and sometimes they are just not strong enough to take control, even on those occasions however a little piece is chipped away from her protection of armour that is her faith.  Eventually however there is an emptiness, a void caused by the accumalation of all those chips, at that time Annie dissapears into herself while the demons take over and run amok, for her it is then a fight back to stability and control for a happier life, it is from these moments when her art plays the greatest part of her fight, with names for her work that are a true representation of her emotions and feelings at the time of their creation, this is me, at the court, or, like my life, a mess, or  thats my father, thats me, thats spikes that stopping the way out, the people in her heart appear regularly adopting the alternating guises of friend, or foe.

This is her art, she is her art and her art is her heart; go to the following link and experience a rare moment of innocent joy            MP4 an artist unknowing         

In true testiment to the power of power of art in recovery, here are two of the seven paintings that she has created over these past few days in recovery of control, others you can see posted in her foto album, ( link to follow )

sumptiously textured and highly expressionist, I love this work, absolute embodiment of this girls emotional picking up of ''tried and tested weapons of war'' and ready to do battle against all that is standing in her way of where she wants to be; she will come back a little stronger this time though not without a balance of fragility. with her faith she now moves on and the battle continues, on canvas.

she said it is time to put the painting away and to start to get ready for christmas, with only 11 days left before christmas day I have never witnessed her leaving preparations so near the day, in past years she has been sitting there in October surrounded by decorations, presents and wondering why the celebrations wern't happening, art has worked not only in her recovery from immediate harm but also in the long term, it has delayed the premature preparations for christmas and filled her time productively right up until the latest possible time.

MeRrY ChRiStMaS

from me and from

Annie, the artist unknowing

appreciation

Annies appreciation, not only of her own creations, but to those of other artists, an exercise neither considered nor though of throughout her life;  initially inspired by Jackson Pollock she can now be found perusing artists websites and images, most recently at Picasso and Leonardo da Vinci.

The image above is some detail of a larger work, to see more click the link below to more of her most recent works

works of an unknown artist 01

There is, I am sure much much more to come from Annie, perhaps, even, courage to stand alongside her own name though even that is as much a complicated an issue as her new life is for herself.

The first works were with Household paints as that was what was available to her while she worked in the studio of another artist, sine those early days her home has been divided into a living area and at the other, the prized polished table and chairs now stand as host to her actions as a painter.
In addition to setting up a dedicated space she also started to experiment with a variety of mediums, the ink poured from 'Bingo Pens', and, surprisingly, boot polish, fighting with the sponge applicator to release the fluid within, acrylics, water based paints, liberally splashed on and left to run down the canvas, there is a level of control over the direction and length of the runs, it is far from random, where the paint, or mixture of elements are thick they are sprayed with a thinning fluid of either white spirit or water dependant upon the properties to be thinned.

Her works are therapeutic with little regard toward high accolade or of enterprising thoughts allowing herself sufficient personal 'awe' of her own achievements, seeing things that at the time of creation were not realised until seeing the work as a whole; as much as I am excited to see her looking at other artists there is also a hint of sadness in the realisation of how much we sacrifice, either through the efforts of parents and school to remove us from the exciting world of childlike interpretation, the day we learn that a daffodil is not blue is the day we start to lose ourselves as artists, watching this lady helps to bring some of that back to me though it is unlikely I shall ever find the place that she resides at this moment, she should treasure it for once her head becomes, rather than happy abandonment to a world that exists only in her mind, she become stifled with shape shadow form and composition according to the status quo, I can only hope that pleasing herself rather than 'another', be that a person or establishment, remains her driving force for then she will retain what she has and simply evolve as her own person.

watch this space, only time will tell.

bubbling

Back again, painting in her hand, full of the joys of spring and absolutely in awe of her creation, the awe becoming quite profound as time and conversation orientated toward her painting, she, I dislike that adjective under the circumstances, (for the purpose of this blog and my own piece of mind call her.......Annie ) has finally stepped across the threshold in acknowledgement that her conscious self was less responsible for the creation than her inner artist; a puffing of her upper cheeks, the sudden glow of a rise in blood pressure, and the swelling of her eye-lids showed great emotion before the work, in disbelief, in astonishment, as an artist.

The work (Number 005) occupied about 3 hours of our evening, it is sacrifice, it is death, it is retribution and acknowledgment of a higher self, it is witness to the first greatest step into recovery through art, in all context, I am privilaged and reflected to share this transition of mental attitude.

An uninformed place

Back in the old days, when the exposure of rising artists was of more importance than contemporary financial considerations, I was offered the somewhat dubious honour of being the very last artist to exhibit in Kendals Warehouse Gallery, a Gallery which provided not only a great and varied range of great art across every genre, but also, for many of the Regions artists an opportunity to bring their work from bedrooms, sheds and attics into the light of the public eye.    

For me it was my stepping stone my gaining and learning the work and logistics of a major show, for this I give thanks to the artist and artistic director of the day, Trevor Avery not only for the show and for being a great role model; he was also responsible for staging the Child's Eye annual exhibitions which changed my entire perception as to the meaning of art in a profound way, leaving me thereafter to judge every piece of art henceforth in a very different way

Prior to the Childs Eye exhibition  a small canvas on board was distributed to all of the youngest childrens schools, each being returned, as if by magic, 70 or 80 small great works, even a few masterpiece; it was while working as a volunteer in the Gallery which first gave me the opportunity to take in the entire exhibition, every piece was magnificant and a full four weeks to bathe in it, I lost track of how many I called on the phone in a selfish bid to get all the time I could with these works, just me, the Gallery and the work; it was all a bit like being in heaven but with a time limit and return ticket.

A comment was made earlier in the year where it was described that I was seen to walk in one side of a Gallery and out of the other with hardly a glance at anything, such a statement could so easily have been taken in a negative context however for me it was more like a question, ''Why did I walk in one side and out of the other?" the answer for me was simple, I saw everything but found nothing, even if I didn't know what it was I was looking for, it was something I felt in the childrens work that was lacking, an honesty, an integrity a creation of purity that was neither influenced, shaped, formed or made in the manner of societies expectations, even if an image that consisted of a single brush stroke it would inform the viewer of the naivity and innocence the inner mind and heart that existed within the creatork, and quite separate, from the social expectations of what paint is for.

I have now found that ' it thing ' in a brand new creative who brings me her work sometimes the paint is still wet as she trips from her home/now studio, across the courtyard with paint dripping onto the stones and entrance floor to my studio, what this space for a brand new and exciting abstract expressionist.

I wont be able to tell you much about her as she wishes as yet to just 'just get on with it! a lesson to us all; watch this space for updates and some, wrong word, many images, while she now works a very full and prolific week.