Blowfish by Nanami Cowdroy

Proving the timeless beauty of traditional artforms like pen and ink. Fluid line-work, watery creatures and Goldfish. You can buy merchandise at www.clickforart.com/artist/NanamiCowdroy….mmmm those cushions… so tempting

Wired Magazine (US) Commission

And for something completely different..I’ve just discovered this London based Belgian graphic designer, Tom Muller and am inspired by the sheer cross section of skills he possesses. I’ve also mentioned Tim & Tom Muller’s online installation for Diesel, amongst other artists, which is well worth a look at my other ‘Furst Blog‘.

Things I Love Thursday

Another fantastic Flickr discovery. Laurie has a beautiful photo-stream – a master of colour.

From Valida's Flickr Photostream

Fantastic installation reminding us of the perils of climate change from Valida’s Flickr Photostream.

NB Unlike most gladiators I survived and am rather looking forward to doing it all again next Tuesday.

US Editor & Journalist

About Herbert Bayard Swope (1882 – 1958)
Herbert Bayard Swope was an American Editor and Journalist. He spent a year in Europe, Swope went onto to work at the Chicago Tribune, the New York Herald and the New York Morning Telegraph. He became famous as a war correspondent and eventually as editor of the New York World (joining full-time in 1909). He remained with the paper until 1929, with an interruption for service in World War I.

Intensely charismatic, competitive, creative and aggressive, Swope made a name for himself as a reporter who always found a way to get the inside story. As a war correspondent, reporting from Germany early in World War I, his articles, collected in the book ‘Inside the German Empire’, won him a Pulitzer Price in 1917.

About Salvador Dali, Surrealist Painter, Sculptor and Film-maker (1904 – 1989)

Persistence of Time

Dali’s world is that of man-sized insects, limp pocket watches, meticulous realistc detail and at times a painter of the provocative and horrific. He was quite unable to avoid sensationalism. Originally a Spanish Cubist, Dali went to Paris in 1928 and was welcomed into the Surrealist group by Andre Breton in 1929. Dali was known as much for his eccentric character and behaviour, wild moustache and desire to bring attention to himself  as much as he was known for his art.

Dali had an interest in modern science, especially Einstein’s theory of relativity which had destroyed fixed notions of time and space. His paintings would often feature melting/limp watches.  His style of painting also expresses the unsettling, bizarre world of dreams. It has been said that Dali would rest a spoon on a glass, lie down to sleep with his hand balancing the spoon. As he fell asleep his hand would subsequently relax, the spoon would drop into the glass and he would wake up. Dali would then record in his sketchbook, his unconscious thoughts at the moment of falling asleep.

In 1938 Dali was expelled from the Surrealist group for rejecting the Marxist connections while retaining the Freudian overtones. In 1940 Dali went to the US spending a large amount of time there until c.1955. From 1949 onwards he did return to Spain more often, specifically his beloved Catalonia. Dali was an adaptable artist, making fantastical jewellry, bizarre sculpture, films and he also wrote two autobiographies. He is now buried in Figueras, in North East Spain.

A pretty awful sketch

Feminism and fashion, bunions and bonuses – the last 72 hours in our media. I’m not usually inclined to spouting on about politics and won’t start now but girls is it me or is it time re-evaluated our priorities. You choose.

In the Saturday Guardian, Emine Saner reported on the attention an apparent plus sized model, Lizzie Miller received after appearing in an American Glamour Magazine for having dared to bear…wait for it…her roll of tummy fat…I found this particularly fascinating because the paper had large image of the same plus sized model, having been ‘Photoshopped’ using the various tools available such as the Liquify tool.  Visit the Guardian article.

In the Sunday Times the following day after reading the Saner article, India Knight debated the use of these plus sized models, citing the same Lizzie Miller incident and the subsequent outpouring of love for this rather lovely model and her rolls of fat. Knight rather amusingly shed light on her recent rather unglamourous trip to Oxford Street amoungst the fashion pressured woman. “Fashion is smoke, mirrors and artifice: we all look at clothes we can’t afford, styled in a way we could never recreate, and we like doing so only because nothing in the picture bears any relation to real life — it’s all a lovely dream.” Visit the Sunday Times article.
Oh Really? See the following article

A Sudanese woman, Lubna Hussein is found guilty for wearing trousers and will face a fine. Visit the Guardian article. This was rather more sobering article after reading the following article from the BBC about how UK women apparently ‘suffer for fashion’…

The BBC tells us that nearly four in 10 women buy shoes knowing they do not fit, a poll of 2,000 reveals. The Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists found 37% would wear uncomfortable shoes as long as they were fashionable. “Many of us find it hard to resist a bargain and the latest fashion must-have, but it’s important to remember that by buying ill-fitting shoes, you’re not only going to end up in discomfort, but you are also putting your health at risk” says Lorraine Jones, from the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists. Visit the BBC article.

The Guardian also reported on Monday about Sexism in the City: Women earn less than 80% than men at some of the UK’s leading finance companies according to an official inquiry by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. I thought it rather ironic that the picture the Beeb had used to head this article was a woman running amoung men with some rather dashing red heels on… Visit the Guardian Sexism in the City article.

“Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.” Benjamin Franklin

A lot of money, time and cynical marketing goes into making intelligent women believe they’ll achieve beauty and success with heels, products or whatever it may be this week or the next. Women work harder now, expect more of themselves and each other and it’s obviously not working for us. It’s unfair and unachievable. Rant over. Above is a very ugly un-photoshopped sketch instead.

Chuck Close at Work

“Inspiration is for Amateurs. The rest of us show up and get to work”

About Chuck Close, Painter & Printmaker
Born in 1940, Cuck Close was an American painter who became famous for his photorealistic paintings specifically his large scale portraits. ‘The Event’ happened in 1988. Close complained of pains in his chest and only hours later he was paralysed from the neck down due to a rare spinal artery collapse. Through rehabilitation he regained slight movement in his arm but was confined to a wheelchair.

Chuck Close continued to paint with a brush strapped onto his wrist with tape, continuing to create his large portraits using a low-resolution grid as the basis of his paintings . Viewed from afar, these squares appear as a photorealisitc unified image in pixilated form. He had previously started using materials that did not lend themselves to photo reality as much such as pieces of paper and made marks with his fingertips with incredible results.

Both as a master print maker and painter his process is incredibly labour intensive yet none of his work is produced digitally. Works can take months to produce yet this creative process is as important to Close as the finished product.

There are various resources on Chuck Close but to get you started visit
http://www.whitecube.com/artists/close/
http://www.chuckclose.coe.uh.edu/

Who Am I, What's My Name

Who am I? Where am I going? What do I do? What’s my name?

No I haven’t lost the plot just yet. Writing various content pieces for my blog, CV, online biography, portfolio sites, the same issue seems to raise its confused head. What professional category do I fall into? I paint in oils therefore am I a painter or an artist? I draw out my ideas and concepts using a variety of media from pen and ink to my trusty Wacom Tablet, therefore am I an Illustrator? I mosaic, paper mache, sew, sculpt my art: am I ‘craftist’? Does my choice of medium define me. Am I a digital artist? I design for print and the web, so I’m a graphic designer then? I help out needy friends and clients with layout and graphic manipulations, I’m an artworker surely? I teach Photoshop, ahhh I must be a teacher?

Various advice tells me to be specific, target my portfolio to client requirements or the portfolio site I’ve signed up to. Others tell me to shout about my varied portfolio and artistic capabilities. Yet does my varied choice of process and material make me seem unfocused, unprofessional, master of nothing? Perhaps it highlights a need for me to categorise myself, tow a line, break the mould and fit the box.

Many years ago shortly after graduating in Multimedia Technology from Glasgow Calidonian Uni, I went for a job interview at a trendy London ad agency in Soho for a Web Producer role wearing my trusted black Karen Millen trouser suit (which I had saved my hard-earned student pennies for), carrying my hard cased black portfolio. Feeling pretty confident and smart I had a good job interview and was subsequently offered a second. With the interview offer came the feedback from the recruitment agent: they really liked me but thought I might be a little too ‘conventional’ because I was wearing a black trouser suit. I was mortified. Rightly or wrongly I took this as an insult. Would this affect my ability to get on in life, personally and professionally because in my mind, there was no way I could be conventional and creative? Then again is there something wrong with being conventional anyway? Conventional to some could be extraordinary to another. Hadn’t they missed the point, that I wanted to appear professional, a suitable candidate to work in their organisation? For all the piercings, weird hair cuts, bizarre outfits I’d adorned myself with over the years, wearing my black suit I was trying to fit in. I wanted to appear a certain way in order to be accepted and I felt that I had been challenged. Oh how I wished I’d had the benefit of hindsight at that point.

This small incident made a big impression me. As a naive graduate what did I know? I began to doubt myself, my work – was everything I had done to date been done to please other people? Actually yes. 10 years down the line I’m not sure if I’m conventional or a little odd. I’ve been described as both at some point in my life and care much less. I’m married, have two kids, receive my weekly delivery of organic vegetables and am probably quite the yummy mummy (minus the 4 wheel drive). However I wear what I like, have disappointed my parents now on numerous occasions, use my dining room as my a canvas/studio, follow my aspirations and whims and oh, I love belly dancing too.

Walking away from a business in the wine industry to follow my creative dreams full time is pretty daunting. Everywhere I turn there are well established uber cool young creative types gushing with enthusiasm and the confidence to try and conquer the design world. They seem so sure of themselves, the one thing I lacked when I graduated and the temptation is to pigeon hole myself once again in order to achieve and to please. You know what, I can’t, won’t and don’t want to. Experience has taught me I won’t please all of the people all of the time and there really isn’t any point trying.

So who am I? I’m a professional artist, digitally graphical designer, illustrating craftist, hardworking artworker with teacherly ways and all round creative conventionally unconventional yummy mummy with a few slovenly habits. And the Web Producer job? Stupidly I took the job to prove a point and left shortly afterwards because the job wasn’t what it was all cracked up to be – more Prada and Pimms than producing websites. I later heard the department was ‘restructured’ due to the unconventional work habits of its directors….