Unimaginative..............??

This image which I came across on the LACDA website in relation to the annual "Snap to Grid" exhibition that they host. It is by an American artist called Charlie Siebert.
I think I found this in their 'juried' exhibition section and it struck a chord - echoes of Hieronymous Bosch I suppose. It always annoys me that it is so difficult to see his painting in a format whereby you can really see close up what is going on. I remember being disappointed on seeing a painting of his at the Louvre in Paris because it was so small. It's just that each of his paintings is a universe in itself almost.

Tagged Part 5 of 8 ; facts(snippets) about me

5.
I am determined to get this "Tagged" assignment soon so here goes with another one.
I was at a private view at the Berkley square gallery in London quite a while back when something peculiar occurred.
Someone who I had been speaking to, who I had never met before that evening (an older guy involved in managing the gallery) said "oh look here's David say hello" ................................................ IT WAS DAVID BOWIE !!!!!
and I did the classic thing whereby you are speechless and can't think of anything significant to say. I think I said something like "oh I am very well thank you". He had those amazing eyes and was probably about 46 or so at the time and he looked "drop dead gorgeous". I was flabbergasted. He excused himself as he waltzed away off then to someone else seeking his attention. I had admired his music and him since my early teens and all I could do was fall to pieces when I met him.................funny how things turn out sometimes.

Research for the next print I am making................

......................I am making a print for the "Periodic Table of Elements" project which is coordinated by Azuregrackle over on Flickr dot com. I just posted this to give a glimpse into what I have been doing in relation to making this print.
I have been assigned to work on "Cobalt" which is number 27 on the table. Some Swedish chap called Brandt spliced it together in the early part of the last century and the aspect of its properties that appealed to me was or is its presence in Vitamin B12 which of course is something that women with a tendency towards anemia are given particularly in pregnancy but cobalt is one of those minerals which is present in most living beings. One finds tiny extracts of it in plants and its essential to our nervous systems good health.

So I have come up with an image of two infants which I have been fiddling about with all week but have now got started onto a collagraph plate. The print size is only six inches square so its fairly limiting but I suppose its good training for eventually getting around to entering some of those various miniprint biennials etc that I am forever intending to enter. The vague idea at present is that I may combine a digital chine colle in with the collagraph although I am also experimenting with some Lascaux hard ground acrylic etch to try to get different effect for an additional layer of colour. we will see , we will see.

I have always loved Egyptian art of this period - I have never met anyone who does not find it interesting. Unfortunately I cannot remember which tomb this came from shame on me. maybe I will check it out again and update this post later.

Tagged Part 4 of 8 ; facts(snippets) about me

The Innocence of Books

3.

My brother and I (my younger brother Barry- who I was closest to) once though we had murdered our older Brother Paddy.

We were fighting with him because he was teasing us and he might have been hitting us I can't remember that well......... anyway we dropped some books on his head from the upstairs banister and he was unconscious for probably 20 seconds but to us it was an eternity and though we were partially delighted at our handy work we were a bit worried too about being sent to either "The Good Shepherds" (which our mother often mentioned in relation to our "appalling" - though pretty harmless behavior) or a children's prison and of course there would also be the court appearance with all of those scary fellas with the gowns and the wigs!!! . It's amazing what a range of ideas you can go through as you wait to find out whether your 'victim' will remain asleep forever or 'come to'. I don't think he even noticed what had happened and he just ran after us for throwing books at him.
Little does he know, little does he know..............

Aran or putting my heart into it..............

Aran (detail)
Originally uploaded by ainesse.

This is my heart , well actually its an etched heart. It is part of the installation which I have been working on for months and months now.
I have at last uploaded the finished piece and some detail shots of the installation over on my Flickr pages.

Now I am trying to get the other artists on the exhibition roll, to post images to a pool I have set up on Flickr.

I just hope they don't take too long to get around to it and that they don't get too annoyed with my polite pestering to upload their jpgs of their finished pieces.
I don't know why but I am very fond of this image.................

Here are some links to other images relating to making my ARAN installation which took place over 6 months.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/ainescannell/collections/72157600449946618/

monoprint girl brooches

monoprint girl brooches
Originally uploaded by acrossandtwokisses.

Love this carefree approach to mono printing on fabric and then making it into brooches. Actually I did something, along these lines, with the doll forms that I included in my most recent printmaking installation "Aran".

I tried mono print on muslin, for the faces but I approached having the lines as the positive as opposed to the negative. Why did I not think of doing it in reverse??!!

. I mean I did not even try it although I did try several techniques. . I suppose I wanted the faces to be 'black and white" or "monachrome'!. But it might have worked .

I am still going to try to make some more Aran dolls and perhaps I will try them with faces in negative -as with these.

Iona Johnson working in Lino Etch mhhh!!!

I saw this a while back on the internet probably when I was in the early stages of researching for my recently completed installation. I usually look into technical processes that I have on my long term list of "Things to do" I must write it up and post it on here. Actually I think that's a good idea. Who says talking to yourself is pointless !!

Getting back to Iona, I love this color even though on the whole I am not a great fan of reds. Although this is kind of like tomato soup red and I used to love that stuff when I was a kid. Anyway I very much like what is possible with lino etch. I have used the process in one print I have 'half made' but not finished. When I eventually get to have all of my studio from London 'unpacked" I will be able to 'get at' things and to be able to locate them without it being a nightmare. At the moment I am only half unpacked. Click on the heading above to see a few more pics of Iona's work.

Tagged Part 2 of 8 ; facts(snippets) about me

2.

I had two long term dolls,when I was a little girl and they were called Dolores and Miranda.

Miranda was a black doll she was very pretty and had blue-ish black skin and that was quite innovative of my mother when I think of it. I certainly never met any other little girls who had a doll like mine. However a consequence of Miranda occurred one time when we as a family were on one of our many visits to England from Ireland to see my relatives.

We boarded a train at Victoria station in London and it was pretty busy. It was one of those lovely old fashioned ones such as those depicted in old Agatha Christie movies, with a carriage where three people sit facing one another. We sat into one hurriedly whereupon I exclaimed excitedly "Look like my doll...is that a doll Mammy ?" I have no idea what the poor woman thought about my behaviour but it was explained to me later. But she really did look like a doll to me and I was absolutely amazed. I never knew which of my dolls I loved the most because I loved them both.......a bit like the way I love my cats who are very different to one another. Oh by the way Delores had auburn hair and blue eyes.

JENNIFER HINES epitaphs-all

Isn't this lovely - I saw it a few months back on the Print Zero Studios, portfolio on Flickr. It's by Jennifer Hines and is called "Epitaphs-all" I love the shape or outline of an open envelope of this classical shape. I suppose its just like a house and of course that's a form that is a recurrent theme/ symbol in my own artwork. Looking at this particularly makes me think of the print I made for Florida Printmakers. It was made a few months after the awful tsunami disaster that we all heard about on the TV on the day after Christmas must be about 2 years ago now. I made the print using "chine colle digital print" and copper plate etch blind emboss.


I think it was an edition of about 18 or something. It was manageable. I can't be doing with large editions e.g., of more than 20 anymore. By the way I have only done these for groups such as Partners in print who I have mentioned earlier on in this blog . getting back to the print I made that has similarities to the envelope shape. Yes I was a member of Florida Printmakers. I made one print for the "2nd open members exchange portfolio"
and then was invited to make another for the 2nd members invitational exchange

I was a bit disappointed with the way the print was displayed on the site and consequently felt disinclined to continue my association with FP.

I do get annoyed with projects I have contributed to, where the person who initiated it, has not had the professional courtesy to document the event hardcopy or preferably now online. I mean in this day and age it's not difficult and one has fantastic facilities available such as Flickr (which can be availed of for no cost other than the effort) or you can pay something like 25 pounds and then it's secure and you have ownership.

Anyone else had this kind of experience?.

Jennifers website is at
http://www.jenniferhines.net/

Tagged Part 1 of 8 ; facts(snippets) about me

in response to the 'you've been tagged' phenomenon1

Fact or snippet about me

1.

I was born in St Marys Hospital in Paddington London.

I lived for the first 6 months of my life in a beautiful house in Pembridge Villas in Notting Hill.

My mother would be busy all around the house undertaking household tasks while I 'languished' in the attic room that acted as her accommodation. She was obliged to work in this position, to earn her 'keep'.

No doubt I would spend hours , looking out the window, staring at the wind blowing through the trees and I also liked to hold my hands up above me trying to catch the sunlight--------things have not changed that much then as I am still (metaphorically) trying to catch something elusive through my hands i.e., my life's research, that is, my fine art practice.
Fact number two to follow soon.

I have been what they call "Tagged"by Amanda

Tagged

whats that?..............

No it doesn't mean that someone ran after me at the local supermarket with a price gun and shot me with it...or that I have been designated as "it" with some local kids ,playing 'hide and seek' .........its a kind of 'chain letter' type thing although (as I find those highly stupid and irritating ) its essentially a form or "web echo" or like a net Chinese whisper (but hopefully without the confusion !!!

Are you any clearer now???
OK

First the rules:

1. Let others know who tagged you.
2. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
3. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
4. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged

I HAVE DECIDED TO DO MY 8 FACTS OR SNIPPETS IN INSTALLMENTS BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT JUST ONE OR TWO SENTENCE DITTIES...SO LOOK OUT FOR THEM. I HAVE 6 SO FAR STILL TRYING TO COME UP WITH ANOTHER TWO BUT I WILL. I AM SURE.

Diffusion by Naoji Ishiyama

I thought it might be interesting to look up some of the other artists from the book I am in, called "Printmaking on the Edge"and so I began by looking up the artwork of Naoji Ishiyama who is a Japanese artist now living in Finland.

I don't know why but because of the way the name sounded to me, I though that this printmaker artist was a woman. Probably because of the name Naomi - it sounds kind of similar. Anyway he seems pretty friendly and has been really productive in the sense that he put up a lot of information, on his website about the P.A.T.E. groups' activities, which of course is much appreciated by the rest of us too.

I like this image of his. It's an etching aquatint measuring 16 x 24 cm and was made in 2004.