Tech issues, new project and 'works on paper' controversy'

I'm having mass-issues setting up my scanner. Luckily, my younger sister has a super-awesome camera to technify my recent works.

A couple things on the brain today, I FINALLY began a new project that has been on my mind for about a year. I just could not get it off the ground --> out of my mind and onto paper. I've sourced a massive, empty photo album which I plan to fill with things, not photos, but other things. Also, on a trip to Bunnings hardware well over a year ago, I totally embarrassed my mother by snatching 2 of every colour from the Taubman's paint colours card range. Well, they gave them out for free anyway! I was planning to do some artsy-thing with this and perhaps ink? Sharpie Marker? But it never materialised... untill now. I finished a very small, nature-inspired triptych on 'Bottle Green', 'Olive Fern' and 'Olive Age'. Check it out:

Part of my massive Taubmans colour card collection :-)

And that's the triptych I have done today. Just sharpie on the cards. But I am happy with it.

This leads me to a bit of a rant I would like to go on. Recently, I was involved (with a whole bunch of my fellow Adelaide-based artists) in a wonderful one-night-only show. Massive success! Good on the organisers! I was happy to hear that one of the artists sold ALL HER WORKS on display to one buyer. My friend, who was there too but not artisitcally inclined, found out about it too, and a few nights later was going on about how the works were 'not good enough to sell'. I (diplomatically) pointed out that I really liked them. She said, yes they were nice, but they weren't even on canvas, just butcher's paper/newsprint, and they were too 'scribbly'.

It leads me to think how removed the artist is from mainstream society. Like Marx said, the artist is completely removed from the proletariat! (I'm sure that he meant it in a negative way). My friend's argument was that the works would have been good if they were a bit more 'worked on' and on proper canvas. I wanted to have it out with her, does an image on a canvas ultimately become art? Moreover, it led me to think, I dont really paint realistic things, my images are abstract/stylised. Does that mean they are worth less? Is a Van Gough no longer as valuable if he painted on a tea towel and not canvas? Quite frankly, I, personally, am not looking for a 'finished' product when I make art. "To finish a work is to kill it, to rob it of all life' (Picasso, might be a bit paraphrased). I am not a PRODUCER, I am a CREATOR. I do not produce a PRODUCT, I want to create something that is full of emotion and full of life, not something that has to look good on someone's wall.

It really annoys me when people think that art has to conform to certain standards to become art (wasn't there a whole revolution about this?). Art is art if the artist says it is. As an artist, I dont care that my works sell/dont sell. Those made only to sell, usually have less soul then those made on pure artistic impulse. Might as well buy a mass-produced print from IKEA or something. Do my colour cards have no value because they are not little canvases? They have more meaning in them than canvases I have painted for uni to go with an assignment briefing.

Such close-mindedness just makes me so angry. It makes me think there is so much left to go, to validate art as a serious thing. It really makes me sad that people are forgetting/oblivious to artists like Marcel Duchamp who spent their lives trying to make this point.

Of course, I love this friend like crazy. She is a really good friend but we do have very different points of view. I guess the reason I get so fired up about this is because this is MY life. For someone who barely goes into any galleries/Artist Run Spaces etc. its a bit rich to make such a judgement.

On a happier note, I have found this AWESOME book today in my parents' collection. Its a textbook from my dad's uni days studying mechanics, engineering and info tech. I love the graphics. Enjoy :-)

Welcome to the world of blogging, Anna

So, I am finally getting into the world of blogging. I'm not writing to a specific audience, I'm not writing to anyone in particular. I'm really just keeping a journal of my thoughts, artistic inspirations and general scribbles, aphorisms and notes.

A little about me; I am 20, I am an art student, my name is Anna. I've always loved drawing and paining, creating an image, that's been the thing I've loved most. I love travelling, moving etc. I love reading. I consume literature. Currently loving modern philosophy. I love films, foriegn and indie mostly. oh, history and politics are always a hot topic of conversation and debate in my life.

I don't feel like going too in-depth about myself. I think I want to just get into it and work with what has been inspiring my creativity lately.

Like I said, I have always loved draw and paint. When I started art school, I was all about the abstraction, but thanks to the work of one of my best friends, the Vienna Secession and some contemporary design influences, I am developing a more illustrational and graphic style than working with the 'beauty of the gesture'. A lot of my reading gets me into a drawing kinda mood too. And I'm into design at the moment. I've designed too many brooches, but I'm going to go with it for the time being.

For the moment I am focusing on a) drawing everyday and b) trying to produce my first batch of laser-cut, hand-made acrylic brooches. This series of brooches will be Mucha and Klimt inspired queen playing cards. I'm hoping they work out. In a little while, I'll be floating off to my parents' business (they have a laser-engraving place) to use the heavy-duty laser cutters to make what I think will be pretty awesome and intricate brooches.

The inspiration came from a bit of time-wasting playing card games on the computer (oops), and a great mini-essay on certainty (or lack there of), thought and Descartes by Leszek Kolakowski --> The idea of chance and lack of pattern or certainty in life. I think the connection with cards is pretty easy to get. But moreover, in Poland (or perhaps in western culture in general, I assume it's Poland because I've heard this from my relatives), they say that if you're unlucky in cards, you're lucky in love. This is false in my case (I loose too many times in both arenas), but it got me thinking about all these superstitions and how they are just a way to find pattern, rhyme and reason in life's chaos.

This leads me to why I have decided to call this blog 'Icons and Symbols'. I had a lecture about the sybiotic relationship between written and visual cultures. It was trasforming, like an epiphany, the idea of the connection between words an images. A word is a symbol, an image is an icon. I write alot, I also make images. I am inspired by images and by writing. Sometimes, I can only express myself through an image, which has a certain emotive quality to it, sometimes I need to write it. I have a series of journals (Moleskines, what else?! :-) ), some lined (entitled 'symbols') and some plain (entitled 'icons'), so it's only natural for this blog, which is a continuation and record of what is in those journals, and of life in general to be of the same name. Call it a part of my own organsiational memory?

After I work out my scanner, I'll post up some of my scribbles.