Visiting lecturer Stewart Geddes 15th January
'Shippen'; 30cm x 23; oil and paper on panel
https://stewartgeddes.weebly.com/painting.html
My mixed notes from the presentation provided by Stewart Geddes:theory & research - overburden of research and academia - character & relevance for fine art, needs to be debated - visceral experience of life has had as much impact on work.wood panel - 5ft- a thing made of substance, colour, paint - formative reason to choose to be an artist. Do children have a tendency to patterning? Is that something I am drawing on?Dyslexic - didn't get acknowledged until adulthood, disproportionate number of dyslexics in art school. having an issue with that mechanism & compensated linguistic forms take over such as art.1970's-1980's 50/50 split @school on gender, mainly male teachers - feminism was debated. - acknowledge that artist & teacher influences are male.Alfred Stockham - tutor @uni, sail boat image - teasing out the personal visual vocals of the studentMichael Canny - <3 michaelcanney.co.ukPeter Lanyon - cornish artist, St IvesAlbert Irvin - hayward gallery - John Hoyland link, tutorial @uni, - 20yrs later in London, noticed a 'Bert Irvin' in a house through a window - his daughter was a neighbour. She invited Geddes to party and introduced them - friends ever since. Now organising a retrospective. - - - An effecting experience - Intimacy, meeting people etc - work is a representation of the consciousness of a person - engaging with people/culture etcPatrick Heron - article of his home, Eagles Nest, famous for light, gulf stream, warm etc. experienced first hand, austere, light filled and displayed an aesthetic attitude - their attitude to live and how they lived.Josef Albers - colour theory portfolio - taught by colour theorist, Bauhaus - German/American - Johannes Itten - Bauhaus & design & fine art practice - the staff were celebrities - few students came out of it.Black Mountain College - John Cage, Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, Merce Cunningham - ChoreographerThe Secret Lives of Colour By Kassia St ClairColour: A Workshop For Artists and Designers 2 by David Hornung, Michael James Colour theory - how the eyes see the opposite colour on the colour wheelColour and Meaning: Art, Science and Symbolism by John Cage
Happenstance - valid - showing motion - alluding to with - the unstable sign;-Benno - marble dust - layers -found image captured in photosfound paintings - reconfigured and different axisfinding the work in the process - proposition that is considered but also a point of departureepiphany moments -conceptual underpinnings - critical judgement and intuitionthe painting is the essay - not the essay about the paintingwhen something surprising happens.
'Super Drug'; 75cm x 220; acrylic and collage on panels
https://stewartgeddes.weebly.com/
Stewart Geddes asked if we would think about the following questions before the session. My responses are in pink.1. Why do you make art? Do you have early perhaps even childhood experiences which have influenced you? people? ways of communicating. I have never really wanted to do anything else. I have apparently always been creative, and encouraged to be that way. Perhaps its because the quiet activities of making art as a child meant it was encouraged as an only child to keep me busy. It certainly has aspects to do with how I interpret the world around me both visually and cognitively. I interpret patterns in my sight, and utilise the structures of organisation and rhythm to remain focused and not overwhelmed. I see patterns between the words in texts and need things to be aligned and clean to take in the information. I was always the artist, always and still am the 'creative one' in the family.2. What critical points of change have taken place in your development as an artist in your ideas and your making, either intellectual or experiential? In 2016 I began working in the context of a shared studio space and undertook an artist professionalism course which allowed me to move from confessional art to art with political and social commentary. My practice then made a huge leap in intellectual development, being informed by academic texts and data rather than purely self-focused experience.3. What role does colour and its absence or presence play in your work? This is a question I have asked myself and my peers recently. Colour is absent from my work as I am conveying thoughts and asking questions regarding the quotidian, rhythms, social structures and to some extend identity politics, to add colour and the mixed/varied symbolism it holds, I feel will confuse the work and muddy the context and how it is viewed.