Have endured two full snow days this week and a half day today – taking just over 2 hours to drive to 5 miles to work this morning!!
I have been doing a little bit of artwork: two drawing commissions, and working out sketches for a painting based on the history of football ladybird book that I received as a present in a box set from my good friend Oz (more on him later – music wise)
I thought I’d break myself in slowly before getting up to full steam!

The recent snow flurries have brought excitement in the household, namely the dog’s first experience of the cold white stuff. He has loved it, unlike the venture into the sea during the summer in Cornwall so I thought I’d post a few images to get the ball rolling as it were. The aim is to update with the intensity that I had previously done (hopefully)

view from kitchen door – 8am Monday morning as taken by JJ

The Art of Snow

Snow Aliens created by JJ

Having spent an hour or two! looking around on the scarlet impernet I occasionally come across something that takes my eye, leads onto other things and sinks in to my lower depths of my mind – to be retrieved at some point and used as a reference or just sits there and scores on the intriguing/wow front. This is one of those occasions – cool sculptures, exploring more of the work through searching; apart from the instant visual humour, the concept being many of the works: are what attracts me to his work.

I am interested in the object, in liberating it from its field, giving it a new validity and meaning. It is integrated in a different system of values and ideas: in that of art. In this way it loses its function and takes on another. I do not want to go so far as to say that the object is no longer recognized. Rather I want to have the appeal of the recognition effect on the one hand and that of alienation on the other, which the object emanates. Source:Erwin Wurm interviewed by Desirée Schellerer, Design Vienna, (Austrian Museum of Applied Arts, February 16-March 27, 1989)You may recognise one or two pieces – they have been taken further and used in an advertising campain regarding a greener environment (sorry, didn’t save link along the way)

Erwin Wurm, one of Austria’s most important and internationally famous sculptors, has been preoccupied with expanding the concept of sculpture since the 1980s. Wurm is primarily a sculptor, and traditional sculptural concerns such as the relationship between object and pedestal, the function of gravity, the fixing of form, and the manipulation of volume, play through all his work.

Some time ago – well last December, I met an artist Kuldeep Malhi who was also exhibiting in the Sesame Saloon we shared a chat and a drink! I found his work beautiful and again strangely enough it was ceramic. I was facinated by the work, enquired on the techniques used and basically loved the organic and sensual shapes created.

here’s an example:

Blush

Blush was a direct influence from early Indian sculpture especially the Eleventh Century temples of central India, their sculptures and carvings which display explicit erotic imagery are astoundingly beautiful, they charm and seduce. They are bold yet sensitive, fantastic yet poetic, demonstrating the intimate relationship between sculpture and architecture; sensations and qualities that are reflected in the work of Kuldeep Malhi.Dimensions for these pieces range from 6cm to 27cm. Each piece is fixed to the wall with a screw and can be removed easily. There are 15 pieces in each set, the number of pieces in a set can be increased or reduced through negotiation and priced accordingly. Currently all Kuldeep Malhi’s wall installations are slip cast earthenware. Different colour ranges are available on all works.

Searching around as you do, I hit upon these ceramic pieces, which has sparked off my creative juices: formulating a new body of work based upon a piece a produced last year – ‘its all …….’ (acrylic on canvas)

where one piece will be ceramic based (will need to sharpen up my firing and glazing skills, or alternatively do a collaborative piece with Kuldeep, if he is agreeable!) More on this new body of work in a future post….

back to the plot!

The ceramic pieces that I came across are very different from the normal ceramics you see and apart from the comic book theme – batman, I find the concept and final outcome exciting. Any thoughts?

artwork by Shigeki Hayashi ( some incredible stuff)