Perly shopping with Logan

Well whats happened to me?
I've had hypnotherapy - for confidence, most of the time I was wanting to be strong
I've been to London to see my sisters interactive media exhibition at Goldsmiths, Jenny has images of a violin she recorded blowing up - (she blew it up, the pipe bomb piro) -
She made a stage shaped as a big round button with a fiddle set on it, people stood on the button, played the fiddle, when they played the high notes(screeches)another fiddle blew up in slow motion on the T.V. screens...if that explanation was not completely unintelligible then I'm amazed.
I also went with My sister Jenny, Hew her boyfriend and Martin - mine - to The Royal Academy Open exhibition, which was well worth seeing
Now, I really have to get back in the studio and get down to the serious business of painting

Swatting up

I've been going to The Forum(Norwich Library) for the past two Saturdays, My partner (yes I have one)- has been doing a probation mentoring course for the voluntary service on Saturdays, so I sit and read in the library from 9:30 till 4pm
I did fall asleep for an hour after lunch this Saturday, I still need my afternoon kip!
Martin (my man) has been on a diet for the past six weeks and has lost over a stone, he's got a bit to go, but hopefully he wont be part of the obesity crisis in a couple of months.

I've been reading a book on contexts, history,politics and culture, it covers all sorts, like censorship;

We're free to create in this modern society and society is free to censor,.... when it suits, like during a war.

The abolition of the Lord Chamberlin's power under theatre act 1968, removed obligation to submit work for approval, this open the doors to creative freedom that, within a more liberal society, sexual attitudes, greater tolerance of sexual explicitness in language, art, literature, drama, film etc meant 'creatives' could really begin to create freely...good:)
Dispite this you can still risk your life for your art
Salmon Rushdie, The satanic verses, knighted just the other day for his work was deemed blasphemus by Islamic fundamentalists and a Fatwa (a death sentence)by Ayarollah Khomeini of Iran, was placed on Salmon Rushdies' head, this Fatwa was lifted in 1998.

So where do I fit in?
I'm meant to be an artist and I'm free to do what I want, although I could be risking my life?
as I could be condemned for my work I hope what I do is worth while....
hey, may as well be middle of the road, as I am anyway and there's very little that shocks people these days.
Thats it for now kidsd, till next time..xxx

paint

Well today the philosophy is if it looks crap it 'aint finished The paint will dry, I can work on it tomorrow.
One technique
is white wet acrylic, thin/normal consistency
with a layer of
Gesso, thick uneven over the wetwhite paint, then take a flat paint brush with an acrylic colour
Pull the flat paint brush with the colour across the surface

The clear gesso is a barrier between the white paint and acrylic colour


The white, where the brush bristles make contact with white acrylic, leaves clean lines of white,through the transluscent colour
White will be the dominant colour where the colour on the brush thins from the loss
of paint on the brush.

2 technique
is gesso left to dry straight on the surface
This creates a surface with colourless thick/thin paint bush strokes
brush-like marks of gesso
Paint over the gesso with acrylic and it looks like you've used a lot of paint on a brush
Thats if you use a brush to do this method

Hello again, I've had a terrible two weeks trying to get these paintings done, I've spent fifteen hours working and reworking, changed the colours layer after layer mix after mix that now theres a lot of paint under the surface

I went in to the studio today, a last try before tomorrow's deadline ( if the work looked that bad I had some back up paintings I could exhibit )

Well I got myself out of bed, told myself what kind of artist is one who gives in if it's not going well (in my case probably not an artist at all becase it never seems to go to plan) and ended up completing two paintings in one hour
I painted simple light bold colours contrasting to the darker textured parts.. Why Couldn't I have done that in the first place? I could have spent the rest of the week being lazy or working on some other art; an hour?!! .
At least I know how to paint something similar again.
The works good enough to exhibit, well it has to be because it's going in the show, but
I want to be progressing and I don't feel I have with these...I have learnt to plan the work a bit more before I start and to write down all the technique as I spent ages trying to work out how I did some gradual changes of colour using acrylic and pva layers, that took me two hours...which obviously I could have saved hours if I scribbled it somewhere

I'm so boring, welcome to my world that consists of paint.

Shows over, but I'm not twiddling my fingers, I have a group exhibition this week 20th May 2007, Been doing these paintings and they are going really badly, really badly, so I'll work on them again tomorrow. I have some other paintings I could put in but I really want these ones to work, new work that I can put in.
I had such a boost from the bored sick exhibition, everybody understood what I was doing and why and I think they got something out of going,, well they seemed to be interested. I had a lot of people opening up and telling me these awful things that had happened in their lives due to mental illness, break downs or stories of close ones that had experienced the same sort of thing as me.
Exhibiting this work has been one of, if not the best thing I have ever done, thing is I've had my high I'm on a come down and my work at the moment looks rubbish, I've been painting seriously for twelve years and if what I'm doing at the moment is anything to go by I feel like I haven't learnt a thing, see how it goes tomorrow.Yea, I'm on a downer,,,great.

Exhibition

wow wow wow! so this is what exhibiting is about.., my work is being looked at from so many different perspectives, the majority view seems to be that I'm brave, the work is raw and thought provoking. I'm getting a positive response.
We have had about three people through the doors on average per day, which is always three more than we thought. Oh and I've sold two paintings, one of Jennys' and one of mine. yeah:)