David Hockney on Lucian Freud
Really interesting to hear artists talk about one another who were close. For anyone still at uni (Falmouth) check out this DVD in the library - can't remember what it's called - but it's David Bailey meeting Andy Warhol (so type them in). Really interesting & quite funny (the bit in the car comes to mind)
This is why I love animation, Part 1
Gunna start a new little feature here on my blog, which is essentially a library of all the animation that I love. 2D animation especially has so much virtue in it, and to begin with, this, I think, is my favorite music video ever..
Rome - Two Against One by Anthony F. Schepperd
A quote from Anthony F. Schepperd (the animator behind it) - "Animation gives us the rare opportunity to spill our most coveted attribute, the imagination"
This is how I feel about animation too; This is why I love Virginia Woolf's writing so much. What she toiled to do in her writing is a shared attribute of animations; It's such a vivid & likely way to express the mind -- and feelings. It can do this very succinctly, e.g...
Sisyphus by Jankovics Marcell
Balance by Wolfgang & Christoph Lauenstein
Animation too you sometimes find can be a little too ambiguous for it to really mean anything to you at that precise moment. But often, because of the aesthetic beauty of it, those images are locked in your mind, and recalled as a metaphor at a later date.:
Rotary Signal Emitter by Reuben Sutherland
Even when animation is being more filmic, the ingrained, implicitly spontaneous attributes of the medium lend it to subjectivity.. - eg; how the characters move (the weight & exaggeration), the colours, the drawing style, weight of the line, the flow of the animation, the smoothness of it or choppyness etc etc etc (Film has similar abilities, but they are alot more confined and not as vividly implicit). EG -
Les Chiens Isolés by CRCR
Everything I can see From Here by Sam Taylor & Bjorn Aschim
Rome - Two Against One by Anthony F. Schepperd
A quote from Anthony F. Schepperd (the animator behind it) - "Animation gives us the rare opportunity to spill our most coveted attribute, the imagination"
This is how I feel about animation too; This is why I love Virginia Woolf's writing so much. What she toiled to do in her writing is a shared attribute of animations; It's such a vivid & likely way to express the mind -- and feelings. It can do this very succinctly, e.g...
Sisyphus by Jankovics Marcell
Balance by Wolfgang & Christoph Lauenstein
Animation too you sometimes find can be a little too ambiguous for it to really mean anything to you at that precise moment. But often, because of the aesthetic beauty of it, those images are locked in your mind, and recalled as a metaphor at a later date.:
Rotary Signal Emitter by Reuben Sutherland
Even when animation is being more filmic, the ingrained, implicitly spontaneous attributes of the medium lend it to subjectivity.. - eg; how the characters move (the weight & exaggeration), the colours, the drawing style, weight of the line, the flow of the animation, the smoothness of it or choppyness etc etc etc (Film has similar abilities, but they are alot more confined and not as vividly implicit). EG -
Les Chiens Isolés by CRCR
Everything I can see From Here by Sam Taylor & Bjorn Aschim
Redressing the balance
It is important to remember that things like THIS tell us more truth about people, than the Daily Mail or Heat magazine.
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Animation
Also, THIS is exactly what I love about animation. If you tried to do this with film, it just wouldn't mean anything.. (except to affix your own pre-concieved ideas about what a film should be like).
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Animation
Also, THIS is exactly what I love about animation. If you tried to do this with film, it just wouldn't mean anything.. (except to affix your own pre-concieved ideas about what a film should be like).
The difference between glamour & beauty // Glamour Schiele's
Hello hello. For a long while i've wanted to have a go at immitating Egon Schiele's style. Going to the Leopold museum recently spurred me on even more so.
I think what's most striking about his paintings is how they feel so contemporary. Showing a friend yesterday who is naive to art, he said he'd assumed he was a current artist, working today. I think its something in the subject matter, the (usual) grotesqueness of his painted figures, These sort of elongated inhumane figures that have been turned & twisted, that, for me atleast, speaks something of the superficial nature of todays English society..
I think that society, or that cloud of culture we're living under, is best epitomized by celebretized nonsense which is so ingrained; that which provokes us into shop door ways & to check hair in car window reflections. That which essentially makes you focus on your appearance so much more than what's inside of you; what you can learn, what's in your head. My biggest problem with it is the effect it has on women, I think one of the most distressing things is the frequency of plastic surgery today; to me, a woman having her flesh torn into and plumped up, to endear the fancy of a mans appetite, makes me really sad. Equally, older women who cannot grow old gracefully (which is true beauty) and stump around on stilts with a dog in handbag and a pulled-back face. I speak with cynicism but it really does sadden me more than anything.
Anyway, this comes back round to the question; What is the difference between being glamorous, and being beautiful? Have a think about it yourself.
I'm in no way going to try and encapsulate beauty, because beauty is beauty, we all know it when we feel it. From a giggling child to the grand canyon we all recognise it. Beauty is a natural thing, innocent too, I think we can all agree. Again, i'm not going to try and encapsulate beauty, we all recognize it.
Glamour on the other hand, comes from the point of view of the person being looked at. They are saying, look at me, look at me. It's all about envy, the reflection of envy they get bounding back at them resentfully off the faces passing them in the street. The uplifting feeling they garner from this. It is much the same as the difference between pride & humility. Both have a resounding confidence to them, however pride is to do with putting yourself above others - chest puffed out pacing down the road - whilst having humility is putting yourself shoulder to shoulder with others.
What summarized the two different attitudes to me was when I visited France last year. I found in France (Lyon) people look at one another in the street, girls especially will look at each other, what they're wearing, where their handbag is from, what type of shoes they chose to wear & how they dressed their hair. Then, they will share a smile with one another and pass by, as if to say 'aww you look pretty' with deepest sincerity. In England, my home town specifically i'm talking (Torquay) girls look each other up and down, too. But it's always in this facetious, jealous way, walking off muttering to themselves '..Bitch.' I dunno, to me this was the line between Beauty and Glamour, in France they recognize beauty, in England our eyes are most aware of glamour.
Anywho, a tangent, I know, but here's the pictures.
I think what's most striking about his paintings is how they feel so contemporary. Showing a friend yesterday who is naive to art, he said he'd assumed he was a current artist, working today. I think its something in the subject matter, the (usual) grotesqueness of his painted figures, These sort of elongated inhumane figures that have been turned & twisted, that, for me atleast, speaks something of the superficial nature of todays English society..
I think that society, or that cloud of culture we're living under, is best epitomized by celebretized nonsense which is so ingrained; that which provokes us into shop door ways & to check hair in car window reflections. That which essentially makes you focus on your appearance so much more than what's inside of you; what you can learn, what's in your head. My biggest problem with it is the effect it has on women, I think one of the most distressing things is the frequency of plastic surgery today; to me, a woman having her flesh torn into and plumped up, to endear the fancy of a mans appetite, makes me really sad. Equally, older women who cannot grow old gracefully (which is true beauty) and stump around on stilts with a dog in handbag and a pulled-back face. I speak with cynicism but it really does sadden me more than anything.
Anyway, this comes back round to the question; What is the difference between being glamorous, and being beautiful? Have a think about it yourself.
I'm in no way going to try and encapsulate beauty, because beauty is beauty, we all know it when we feel it. From a giggling child to the grand canyon we all recognise it. Beauty is a natural thing, innocent too, I think we can all agree. Again, i'm not going to try and encapsulate beauty, we all recognize it.
Glamour on the other hand, comes from the point of view of the person being looked at. They are saying, look at me, look at me. It's all about envy, the reflection of envy they get bounding back at them resentfully off the faces passing them in the street. The uplifting feeling they garner from this. It is much the same as the difference between pride & humility. Both have a resounding confidence to them, however pride is to do with putting yourself above others - chest puffed out pacing down the road - whilst having humility is putting yourself shoulder to shoulder with others.
What summarized the two different attitudes to me was when I visited France last year. I found in France (Lyon) people look at one another in the street, girls especially will look at each other, what they're wearing, where their handbag is from, what type of shoes they chose to wear & how they dressed their hair. Then, they will share a smile with one another and pass by, as if to say 'aww you look pretty' with deepest sincerity. In England, my home town specifically i'm talking (Torquay) girls look each other up and down, too. But it's always in this facetious, jealous way, walking off muttering to themselves '..Bitch.' I dunno, to me this was the line between Beauty and Glamour, in France they recognize beauty, in England our eyes are most aware of glamour.
Anywho, a tangent, I know, but here's the pictures.
It's still not totally what i'm after, I wanted to make something that feels really grotesque. I think the first one could be mistaken as 'Toms drawing sexy naked girls.. lovely..', that's was not the intention, but I like the style of it anyway. The second I feel is halfway there, although she looked a lot more gangly and horrific in the line drawing. The third is a poster I did for me pals band in the summer, it is in a similar vein, although obviously not Egon Schiele.
Never Ending Sketchbook
Allo again. Following on from what I put up yesterday, I made this today, composed of several sketches, and the Virginia Woolf quote in the post below.
Check it out:
It's a long-un, give it a minute to load.
If you didn't already, check out the Never Ending Sketchbook!
I may work on this pic in the future. This is all I had in mind though. You can see all the original images in the Sketchbook. I think what'd be fun, is if anybody feels like colouring the image in, go ahead. Would be real cool to see some estranged results. Looks a bit like a empty colouring book.
This was fun to do, follows on from what I was saying yesterday. Having made the Sketchbook, it'll promote & push new ideas. I thought of this idea last night.
Check it out:
Click to view
If you didn't already, check out the Never Ending Sketchbook!
I may work on this pic in the future. This is all I had in mind though. You can see all the original images in the Sketchbook. I think what'd be fun, is if anybody feels like colouring the image in, go ahead. Would be real cool to see some estranged results. Looks a bit like a empty colouring book.
This was fun to do, follows on from what I was saying yesterday. Having made the Sketchbook, it'll promote & push new ideas. I thought of this idea last night.
New Website feature!
Oi oi. Got a new feature on me website. It's called..
For too long i've struggled and i've rummaged, i've lost & found drawings over and over. This is everything, strung together, on one, long, rolling page. And it'll continue to grow into the future. I spose in that way it's my homage to Kerouac's scroll, rolling on and on.
It's not just that though, it's a great way to look over how my works changed;how it hasn't; how i've improved & how i've got caught-up in ideas & themes. It's the good and the bad and everything inbetween.
It's helped me think more about my work to. I don't so much have a message (that is concious to me), other than perhaps a sometimes-cynical eye on English society. I think alot of my sketches show dull moments, but isn't that just life these days? People buying things, stood in cues, out to dinner, sat in bus stations - not talking to one another. People in pub's. I think they're is some nice moments in there too, a few of family, a few of friends. It's helped me too, to think about moving on. I wanna take some of these sketches and make paintings out of them. Also to focus on tone more (had this in mind when doing the second one below) It's a nice way to collate travel memories, too.
Anywho, it's a flaking recollection of things i've seen over the last 4/5 years. To quote Virginia Woolf:
For too long i've struggled and i've rummaged, i've lost & found drawings over and over. This is everything, strung together, on one, long, rolling page. And it'll continue to grow into the future. I spose in that way it's my homage to Kerouac's scroll, rolling on and on.
It's not just that though, it's a great way to look over how my works changed;how it hasn't; how i've improved & how i've got caught-up in ideas & themes. It's the good and the bad and everything inbetween.
It's helped me think more about my work to. I don't so much have a message (that is concious to me), other than perhaps a sometimes-cynical eye on English society. I think alot of my sketches show dull moments, but isn't that just life these days? People buying things, stood in cues, out to dinner, sat in bus stations - not talking to one another. People in pub's. I think they're is some nice moments in there too, a few of family, a few of friends. It's helped me too, to think about moving on. I wanna take some of these sketches and make paintings out of them. Also to focus on tone more (had this in mind when doing the second one below) It's a nice way to collate travel memories, too.
Anywho, it's a flaking recollection of things i've seen over the last 4/5 years. To quote Virginia Woolf:
"the whole assortment shall be lightly stitched together by a single thread. Memory is the seamstress, and a capricious one at that. Memory runs her needle in and out, up and down, hither and thither."I could rant on for a while - but I wont. Go check it out. Let me know what you make of it.
Went away, come back.
Hello hello. Been away for the last few weeks, night training my way across Europe with me old pal Paul. Was a good trip, compact travelling, two/three days in each place. We started in Amsterdam, staying in a very nice pad thanks to new pal Ashley. My sister came to 'Dam to:
We stayed in four days in Krakow because we kept missing the early morning (10am..) ride to Auschwitz. Auschwitz, we were both walking round, and there's not alot to say; everyone knows it all already; you've seen the empty suitcases and mounds of hair, kids shoes. and what's more - what words are two 20-something lads gunna summon up that can sum up what happened? No words.. just be there.. take it in.. and then remember. Every day since, i've remembered it, and i've learnt from it... "when genocide goes wrong".
Next stop: Prague. I really dug Prague, liked it much like Budapest. The architecture reminded me of Edinburgh too. Another city I could see myself living in. Really liked walking the streets there, looking at the people.
Next up.....
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| The place. Not bad not bad. |
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| Doesn't really need a caption. |
We then got 1st of many night trains across to Berlin.
Really liked Berlin, cool city. I've never thought about travelling Germany, I've thought about Italy, Spain, France.. but Germany never crossed my mind. I like the different character of all these big European Countries, formerly at war with one-another for centuries, now distinct, all in differing ways. We ended up in some old Soviet Warehouse-turned-German rave club.. very good... thats what you want in Berlin, ey?
Then, onto Budapest.
I'm not a big city person, however, ended up on a big tour of European cities and have come back with a pocket full of gems. Budapest was my favorite of the lot, could imagine living there for a period, big nights out and long days in the bath's the next.
Next stop on the night train, I hear you ask? Uh.. Krakow, if I remember correctly.
Night trains, by the way, are a pretty ideal way to get about. You don't get the best nights sleep but it's enough. Get a croissant and a cuppa in the morning too.
Next up.....
Vienna!
We stayed in Vienna for about 4 days too. I got ill there so was in bed for two of them, but, was a very nice hostel and gave me a chance to read. Went to the opera too, box ticked.
Final stop, and 1st Day train of the trip...
...and not a bad day for it; Zagreb.
Zagreb was a good city, I think Croatian's really like us English, they spoke the best English out of all the Eastern European's we met, and could keep up with my slang, which was refreshing. I was only there for a night & a day, but just walked the city. I think that's my favorite thing to do in a new place. Especially when you have a good song in tow. I remember reading something by Virginia Woolf, where she spoke of that happening when the street & the music come together into a moment, that really makes the hairs stand on the back on your neck and puts a spring in your step to see around each corner, every nook and cranny of the city.
I took a visit to the Zagreb Museum of Naive Art too, which was very refreshing. I told the woman at the desk to look at Cornish Naive art. Who can't enjoy naive art? It's so refreshing - compared with the mystifying fine art that most people are vaguely accustomed - and opposed - to. A breath of fresh air to eek out those artistic-knots in the soul.
And that was that, back home. The perfect thing to do after 3/4 months spent sat behind a computer working.
Whilst away, I got to visit three art galleries/museums of three of my favorite artists (Kollwitz / Mucha / Shiele). I'll write about this in another post.
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Here's a little travel documentary of our trip. Inspired by Palin.
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A little poem about the English General Public, sketched up on the plane back home (in the style of Howl);
The General Public, who always leave the flash on.
The general public, who cutely pay 3 Euro's to go the opera, and then Shh! at the first chance they get.
The general public, who affix 'quite' before most emotions.
The general public, who, in Ancient Athens, would have been called Pleb's.
The general public who's marital affair's finds wings in dance halls;
The men dance with weighted elbows,
The women - for no one but themselves (they say).
The general public, who secretly like it dirty, but secretly-secretly are rather prudish.
The general public, too tired to stay awake.
The general public who chewed up all the pen nibs (even rubbers off pencil-ends).
The general public, who support United & have since the age of five.
The general public, who visit Italian Trattatoria's & order chicken and chips.
The general public who condemn Julian Assange, the rapist.
The general public, who will one day plastic-wrap banana's.
The general public, who positively, unassumedly consider Kit-Kat, Quaver's & Dairy Lee their friends; who trust when they talk to them through the TV screens.
The general public, who I consider with cyniscm & contempt, but then - how can one be content, when staring in the mirror?
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