Monday May 07, 2007
For Art's Sake:
Heather Crowther Needs Your Help
HEATHER E. CROWTHER is an artist selected to exhibit in the sixth Florence Biennale, taking place in December. Although she was schooled in fine art, Heather has embraced contemporary techniques and themes in her work -- along with a deep interest in the relationship between nature and science, as expressed in her use of Sacred Geometry.
She is currently looking for sponsorship to enable her to exhibit in Florence. If you can help in any way, please contact her to find out more. In the following artist's statement, she talks about the themes and principles underpinning her work.
Throughout my work I have been fascinated by the concept of transformation over time, more specifically from one medium or state to another. This has manifested itself in various ways through my use and exploration of different mediums and devices.
My first introduction to this was while studying fine art, where I started exploring the concept of how decay and transformation are inextricably linked. I was and still am fascinated with the ability of turning something that is decaying and at the end of its life in the conventional sense, into an everlasting piece of beauty. Rust has traditionally been considered a sign of destruction and corrosion, often feared by many. Personally I find it incredibly beautiful and poetic in the sense that it has a life of its own and is part of the natural chemistry that is continually taking place in the world around us. For what is generally interpreted as a sign that something that has come to the end of its usefulness, when rust sets in it signals a transformation to a new level where life and growth continues through chemical processes that we, as humans, have little control over.
This sense of change and evolution permeates through other areas of my work, especially in relation to my ultraviolet paintings and installation pieces. These works have a two-fold nature in that they exist as one representation under ‘normal’ light, but when exposed to ultraviolet light they undergo a metamorphosis where specific characters of individual elements transform into something new and different, an effect which has to be taken into account from the very beginning. Additionally, the use of photosensitive ‘memory’ paint in certain areas allows a 3rd different representation to emerge from the same image. It is through this element of change that each image consists of 2 and sometimes 3 different representations, all co-existing in the same artwork and only revealing themselves when certain light conditions are applied.
It is this sense of transformation that has led me to my current single line drawing pieces, where minimalist form is transformed and manipulated through the application of light, reflecting the true essence of the natural world around us. Currently I am exploring new ways that allow for the expansion and fusion of 2 traditional art forms, namely painting and sculpture, where each work is a 3D representation of a 2D line drawing. This creates a raised relief effect physically on the work, which is mirrored symbolically in the depth of perspective generated through the use of line and colour.
These pieces are based on the principles of Sacred Geometry, which is found throughout our world on both a physical and metaphysical level. Additionally, some are influenced by crop circles, which themselves have been based on Sacred Geometry principles.
It is here that I feel they aptly suit the theme of redefining ‘landscape’ and extending it beyond traditional definitions, in that Sacred Geometry is all pervading and underpins the foundations of all life and matter. It is found in everything from a leaf off a tree, to the spirals in a sea shell, to the proportions of the human body, they are all intrinsically linked to the same overall fundamental principles. Additionally, the way each image exists as 2 or 3 different representations, all embedded in the same image, reflects the way physical matter itself has different representations depending on ones perspective: a leaf can appear as a leaf on one hand, or as a depiction of the elements and proportions that make up the leaf itself on the other. Each perspective will create a different representation of exactly the same object. It is in this way that I believe my line drawings reflect the true essence of nature.
Posted in: Fine by bubblejam at 05:53 PM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
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Friday June 23, 2006
Get global with Global Family!
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Don’t miss the unique chance to get involved with Global Family, a fun interactive art show which runs for one month only in July. This exhibition looks at families, either our own or in the broader sense, discovering what connects people with each other. From the first day on the 7th July, to the musical, theatrical Grande Finale on the 29th, the aim is to have a unique exhibition created by anyone who comes to it, with its content changing throughout the month.
According to Rosie Kachere, festival co-ordinator: “The exhibition is going to be really exciting as no-one quite knows what is going to happen! As we are inviting visitors’ to take part, it will develop organically over the course of the month. It’s going to be really fascinating to see how different it is by the time of the Grand Finale”.
Along with the exhibition, there will be workshops every Saturday where people of all ages and ability can try out acoustic drumming, biscuit decorating, painting animals, clay modelling, creating a sound and image montage and learning about special effects with a make-up artist.
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Saturday 29th will be a mini-festival of music and dance to celebrate how the exhibition has changed due to visitors' contributions throughout the month. This event will run from 12 noon-6pm
Both the exhibition and the workshops are free of charge and will take place at Oxford House, Derbyshire St, E2 6HG (020 7739 9001). Oxford House is open from 7-29th July, 9am-10pm (Mon-Fri); 10am-6pm (Sat). Closed Sunday.
This exhibition is hosted by members of SGI-UK, a Buddhist organisation for the promotion of culture, education and peace. www.sgi-uk.org
It is the second art exhibition that the SGI-UK has organised at Oxford House.
Opening evening on the 6th July 6.30-8.30pm
Downloadable flyer and more info: www.yokobear.com/globalfamily
Posted in: Fine by bubblejam at 11:54 PM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
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Thursday May 25, 2006
“Dollies & Divas”
Special Private Party
Georgie Tier and Nancy Farmer
La Viande Gallery, 17 May 2006
text and photos by Mistress Eli
Georgie Tier
I first saw Georgie’s work at Lost Vagueness festival last summer and was very impressed indeed. A friend of mine has recently described Georgie’s very unique style as “Beryl Cook meets Picasso” and this is, strangely, rather fitting.
She uses strong colours and fluid organic lines and shapes, her femme fatales are cartoon-like, voluptuous and often one–eyed (think Cyclops!), but strangely this does not detract from the beauty of each lady that she paints. Her subjects are sexy, sometimes dominant, often burlesque and always erotic.
It was when Georgie exhibited at “Coffee Cake & Kink” in Covent Garden that she was asked to consider providing some eye candy for the boys and thus her first homoerotic painting was produced.
She has recently won a competition to display two of her paintings at the “Art at Large” exhibition in Manhattan. In fact, she won two awards since each painting was a winner in itself. She is therefore the only artist exhibiting two paintings as a result of this competition, one of these being her new homoerotic painting.
Like most artists, Georgie is always delighted to receive commissions. Her vision of Empress Stah is a beautiful and unique work of art and incorporates a string of diamante jewels, to show off one of the Empress’ infamous party acts. This particular commission was first shown at the La Viande preview to the delight of the lady herself, who went on to give us a wonderful cabaret performance as the “golden lady”.
This was indeed a massive coup for an art exhibition and gave the evening a strong focal point. Fortunately, there were none of the inanely boring arty farty types here waffling on about the merits of art installations. In fact, this exhibition was so unique that it had even attracted Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf.
Georgie will also be exhibiting at the following venues/dates:15 June – 1 July 2006: Art at Large exhibition, 44th Street, Manhattan, New York, USA.
16 – 18 June 2006: Festival of Bliss, near Gatwick, Surrey.
24 June 2006: Transgender Art exhibition @ Sparkle Gallery, Canal Street, Manchester.
13 July – 11 August 2006: Porn in Art exhibition, Edi’s Weinstube, Zurich, Switzerland.
Check out her website: www.erotic-art-online.co.uk
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Nancy Farmer
Nancy has displayed two styles of work at this exhibition. The upstairs space is filled with photographs of Barbie dolls in dominatrix style, joined either by another “slave” Barbie or by a very submissive Ken. These photographs are imaginative, stylish and stylised. One can visualise the scene, taking a walk down the road and there, by the curb-side, you see a woman, bright pink & blue hair, arranging strangely dressed (or undressed) dolls in the muddy puddles, creating a weird scene of a Barbie mud fight.
Downstairs, Nancy has displayed some of her very original paintings. These beautiful works cross modern day fantasy with a little BDSM, creating some very surreal and unusual results. The paintings are imaginative, thought provoking, sometimes dark and generally amusing. Picture, if you will, woodland elves and fairies sporting body piercings and tattoos and a lot of attitude. One of my favourites were the 3 dark witches (very Macbeth) each sitting on a “man-stool”, obviously enjoying a chat and a glass of wine. This we ladies understand.
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Nancy will also be exhibiting at the following venues/dates:
9 – 24 September 2006: Somerset Art Week.
5 – 30 November 2006: The Quay Theatre, Sudbury, Suffolk
Check out her web site: www.nancyfarmer.net
Posted in: Fine by bubblejam at 06:03 PM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
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Friday May 12, 2006
“Vulvic portrait artist” Charles Sayer
Reported by Mistress Eli
Photos Charles Sayer
I first met Charles Sayer through his ex-wife and my good friend, Charlotte. Charlotte had told me that Charles would like to paint me and arranged an introduction. I had already heard a little about Charles and wondered if I would be liberated enough to pose for him. Fortunately, after meeting and chatting to him I decided that this wouldn’t be a problem and I am now the very lucky owner of a beautiful painting which proudly adorns my wall.
Charles completed his Art Foundation in Hastings, East Sussex, where he met and fell in love with a fellow student. She became his first live-in girlfriend when they shared a nearby chalet. He was 19 years old and she was his first model and muse, letting him sketch her naked. It was then that Charles found his first taste for erotic art.
After time spent as a secondary school art teacher, he undertook various evening classes to gather new ideas and technique, and experimenting in the use of different media such as mosaics and resins. He then embarked on a serious career as a painter of erotica, particularly the female genitalia, around 12 years ago.
Charles has painted the genitalia of literally 100s of women. Glamour model Jo Guest has modelled for him, but generally his models are girlfriends, former girlfriends and women that he has met and with whom he struck up conversation.
It seems that the idea of one’s genitalia being immortalised on canvas breaks down those barriers and also helps to loosen the clothing!
Amongst Charles more interesting models was a contortionist who could, of course, strike poses that the more conventional amongst us could never manage. However, one of his most vivid memories was of a professional porn model, met through a magazine launch, who agreed to a free photo shoot on Hampstead Heath. Imagine late one morning, a beautiful, naked, statuesque and well oiled lady cavorting around Hampstead Heath much to the excitement of the joggers, dog walkers and other passers-by.
One of Charles’ ambitions is to hold an exhibition of 1,000 women, to show the beauty and diversity of the female form, each woman and each pose different. Unfortunately, however, it seems that the fear of erotica and particularly the female form makes it very difficult for him to exhibit his work. The Guild of Erotic Art didn’t want him to join as it “did not want to offend”. Charles only just missed out in a claim to infamy when Eurotrash, that bastion of good taste, who had originally recorded a show featuring him and Charlotte, at the last minute pulled out. This was due to advance negative publicity where 4-5 people had complained that he had painted the female anus.
This advance and negative publicity from our prudish society seems to be a problem that has followed Charles around. He was exhibiting work with Candid Arts Gallery but it appears that they only showed 2 out of 6 works that he had put up for exhibition due to reasons of censorship. The 2 exhibited pieces being less explicit than the others. Strangely, however, I found when researching that some of Charles’ works are still shown on Candid Arts’ website, despite the fact that they no longer wished to exhibit his work. Charles’ work has also been featured in Nu, an Italian erotica journal and Hustler, a top-shelf magazine which proclaimed him to be the “Picasso of Porn”, not a title that he cares for.
Charles has literally hundreds of works of art that are crying out for exhibition. He is also available for private commissions. And imagine, what better present for a boyfriend, girlfriend, lover, husband, wife than a painting of your own genitalia?
Painter or pornographer? I will let you decide!
And finally, a little guessing game for your amusement:
Take a look at the picture gallery of Charles’ work and have a guess at which one is me. Answers on a postcard please!
© Mistress Eli
If you wish to contact Charles, please call him on 07984 844375
Posted in: Fine by bubblejam at 02:08 AM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
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Thursday April 06, 2006
Grzegorz Lewacki
“The vibrant pioneering modern Poet of Poland”
words by Le Mufti
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A journey through the visual senses unfurls before your eyes as you contemplate Grzegorz Lewacki and his Tolkien inspired imagery for the first time. By the sixth viewing, you are still making inroads into this ethereal, yet virgin territory, or is it “middle earth”? You are still, a pioneer in discovery mode. Now that’s weird isn’t it? Shouldn’t you by this stage be well versed in the visual landscape of this painter’s mind? Yet something still drags you back there for the sheer pleasure, as well as an answer that remains elusive, well doesn’t it??
The pleasure of uncovering more little details attracts you back again and again! The parameters are more distinguishable now though, more defined: while the memories remain, you are aware of the vibrancy still, as it shines, as the first time you saw these paintings! You know, now, where you stand in respect of certain things. There is clarity. But there is still more to uncover here, through the layers of paint. As these layers unravel, in the mind’s eye, habitual objects such as armchairs or the tree cities of the “woodland realms” stand out in this visual exploration. Or for that matter, whatever comes into the equation; and makes a statement of “Normality” within the picture. ![]()
All around your field of vision is a diversity of allegorical statements coming from different angles, while remaining true to the whole.
The message is clear as well as it is not. It is a matter of conjecture, how this richness of diversity works. In fact, the artist seems to unveil the secret garden of his own soul: rich with creative expression. With the juxtaposition of the mundane “hum-drum” to glue it’s separate surrealist collage abstractions into some kind of “Real” order. A working structure is in place. There seems in fact to be present in this work, a historical undercurrent that relates as well to the last five decades, which I instinctively seek to find in these organic constructions.
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Diverse creative out-put sometimes clandestine and Polish resilience to all adversity somehow appears to have returned strengthened by these historical ordeals. But resourcefulness is at odds here, with the events of the 20th Century: notably: the Second World War, and Stalin’s brutal occupation. Now Poland starts to believe again that it has a role to play. There is a new sense of optimism. There is hope. Good vibes oozes from this work as a reflection of this re-emerging national sentiment so often repressed in the past for reasons of doctrine. There is an obvious yet more subtle, if subliminal reaction. A response, that can only come quietly from this artist’s palette. It is an optimistic message and it is happy. This work can join properly into European art circles, it is prepared to play a role; but still unsure of its message yet, I feel.
It’s like there are two worlds at odds in the paintings of Lewacki. The first is calm. The shires? A cosmic fairytale through its celebration of nature, rich in poetry… floating like these busy dragonflies fluttering across one painting, like squadrons in formation. Lewacki examines the pastoral allegory by using these living and organic effects in the composition, as well as referring to a song. As stated before, there is poetry in abundance in this work. There is lyricism and it is always speaking to you.
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Then there is in the second: Mordor’s saturnian reality check. I get the impression that it tries to examine and re-examine the legacy of the post Stalinist years. It hints at the advent of the modern industrial age now at odds with ecological concerns. The dream of the power of nature and man’s insignificance within it as well as man’s selfishness and destructive streak within this world.
But so much for history… And yet the artist’s examinations of the absurdities of it all: the joke of his own country’s experience, for want of a better word. Well it’s all there. I haven’t yet had the pleasure of seeing how his work has evolved in the last ten years. How does he describe his style? Is it “conceptual”, “realist-dreamer” or just a plain celebration of the profound beauty of nature, with the paw print marks of man’s presence in a Tolkien-like universe?
The landscape of expression here is multi-faceted, intriguing by the questions it asks of its viewer. You feel like a trespasser in Lewacki’s back yard: the secret garden of Lewacki’s soul eternally it seems at work: a garden of many colours and collages, rich in subtle nuances and with vibrant tones and subtle parables. This body of work uses the well defined as well as the well-healed formulas of what we would describe nowadays as “Classic” fine art painting mixing it with collage. And yet, the painting style uses the same tried yet tested styles of composition by the simple actions of the brush strokes. Nothing fancy at first glance, no. It’s all nuts and bolts stuff. No nonsense, but poetic in the same breadth. Yes! I am repeating myself but the lyricism here must be stressed at all costs, if one is to understand the true nature of Lewicki’s message exposed for our pleasure and enjoyment.
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I wander before these pictures and ask myself if good old fashioned “sponging” (does he decorate in his spare time? I muse. Well you know, a Real job!) techniques from the academy of fine arts are present here. Palette work, as well as some clever “smudging” is at the basis of the overall framework of these paintings as they seem to smoke or bubble before you a fine haze of colours superimposing on themselves on other colours to highlight or confuse, or even attempt to entice you even deeper into these virgin lands…The collaged elements add to the surreal elements, which in some of the paintings reminded me of some of Max Ernst’s works.
These canvases now wait to be discovered and appreciated. They need more time to be fully understood. But there is no hurry. At first glance, this work has the potential for being used for all sorts of things like: a quality Screen Saver or for Duvet cover designs etcetera. I would therefore suggest to this artist to have his work copyrighted as soon as possible..
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This body of work is hopefully coming over to Britain in the not too distant future… with Mr Lewacki, as I’d like to shake his hand. Then thank him, frankly from the bottom of an old artist’s heart, for bringing back this type of painting in this age of conceptual realism and installations galore ad nauseam. Where are those “classic” disciplines of Fine Art hiding these days of digital discovery in Western culture? Here in Lewacki, we have a new breed of artist returning with a poet’s vision to translate Tolkien’s imagination into his own, thus taking it even further. Coming from a different working European culture of expression. He is an artisan, a craftsman who looks into the past while acknowledging the present.
Explore the pictures that accompany your journey.
Le Mufti
click for more
Posted in: Fine by bubblejam at 01:46 AM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
