Category Archives: Galleries

Post…er?

'The Thinker'

Post, post stick, poster, post box…

Distracted by ‘the lollipop’ in my last post, I completely forgot my initial reason for ‘blogging’. So this post stick looking sculpture is a good reminder !

Imagine a poster for Northern England, a farmhouse nestled within rolling hills, surrounded by newly bleating bouncing lambs, sun shining and the daffodils a plenty, topped off with good old fresh air.  I returned from this idyllic scene, to reunite with my husband returning from London and his first Debut Contemporary mentoring session. Via the ipad I listened to the session. From posts to platforms and pinterest I was bombarded into another world of  SOCIAL MEDIA. I immediately thought of my hesitations about entering into this world, couldn’t write it better than ‘knowingthesphere’ (I Think bloggers are also connecting on the webs of thought).

While I sit thinking about things and weighing up the pros and cons, my husband just gets on with it. He has now a  twitter  and Pinterest, and we are both seeing the benefits of him being in this virtual world.  Unbeknown to me I had stumbled across pinterest before and not realised what it was. Like a  mood board it is a virtual pin board, way of collecting images. Great idea. A visual post. What happened to walking to the post box?

The Nightwatchman

'The night watcher'
'The night watcher'

“I believe that art should represent the time period of the artist. However you can not deny the fact that an artist will draw inspiration from the past” twittered my husband.

Ah yes the world of twitter has now been opened, encouraged by the mentoring of Debut Contemporary, where the piece above was ‘snapped’. We haven’t many images of this piece since it has been ‘coloured’. So this is the only one I can put up for now.

The piece is very much about its title which was inspired after my husband visited a gallery in The Netherlands and saw Rembrandt’s ‘The night Watch’. It is quite rare that he goes to galleries concerned he will get overly influenced by another artists work and also frustration about getting his own work into galleries.

Rembrandt’s, ‘The night watch’ now “one of the most famous paintings in art”. Painting, after his wife’s death resulted in a stylistic change.  What happens in daily life affects the work of an artists, therefore, art  reflects society at that time. “An artist’s life and work are reciprocal”.(Fowkes. C, 1978)

Networking

'plugged in'

Fantastic images were taken at the opening but non belonging to me. This sketch I stumbled across just now and thought it very apt for today. Are we all ‘plugged in’?

Social Networking sounds like such a modern phenomenon and the 2010 film!, but traces go back to the ancient Greeks and it has also been written about in the 1800’s by sociologists and psychologists. I can’t find a great definition but to my mind it is very much like the computer definition. Substitute people for devices and it works quite well. “A computer network, often simply referred to as a’ network’, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information.Where at least one process in one device is able to send/receive data to/from at least one process residing in a remote device, then the two devices are said to be in a network.”

The event at Debut Contemporary was a huge success and for my husband it was very much about ‘Networking’. He made new contacts and ‘physically’ met people he had already ‘connected’ with through social networking. He gained confidence about his work and his sketchbook (another reason why I thought it appropriate to but in a sketch today).

I feel I have been ‘networking’ too, both in the very real world of ‘mother and toddlers’. Making connections between mums’.  Exploring the world of ‘blogging’ a little more. Discovering some art blogs and ‘networking’ with them a little. One artist  blogged about the Debut Contemporary party…and captured on camera my husband ‘networking’! See more pictures at her ‘artists blog’

In yet another connection; we are constantly listening to a CD in the car at the moment which my eldest loves. The song writer also has a blog who just happens to have written The Delinquent Blogger Beseeches The Court of Social Media… perhaps, it is not just artists who are connected in invisible webs.

What is the difference then between networking and simply making friends then? Perhaps networking is more like the computer, about ‘shared resources’, ‘sending each other data’. It can happen face to face but more often now ,when ‘plugged in’. Well, on that note, I’d better get back to the real world…….

Spring into colour

'Pregnant'Spring is nearly here…isn’t it??

Sculptural-ly we have entered the colour phase and it has given the works a face lift. Brightened them, made them more appealing, friendly. Waiting for spring to do the same for me….

There has really been a developmental progress to these works and finally I think we are finding a ‘brand’ so to speak. Tomorrow my husband heads down to London (again!) for the first of many of his mentoring sessions at Debut Contemporary.  Exhibition coming up in spring when they celebrate their first birthday. Lots to brighten us up!

Euphoria

To follow-up Monday’s interview and my french translation entry on Debut, ‘Euphoria’ comes from Ancient Greek. Technically, euphoria is an affect, but the term is often used to define an emotion as, an ‘intense state of transcendent happiness combined with an overwhelming sense of contentment’. It has also been defined as an “affective state of exaggerated well-being or elation.” (Wikipedia).I have just jumped up and down for 10 minutes making a strange kind of squeaking noise I didn’t know I had inside me, whilst my husband rang me to tell me that he had been SELECTED!!!! We are both in a Euphoric state. My husband said he wanted to leave everything at the shop and literally run home. His euphoric energy would probably only get him a few yards before his body told him the reality. However, he had to stay and see a customer. The word derives from Greek εὐφορία, “power of enduring easily, fertility”. So this sketch embodies exactly that.

Also, in Egypt they celebrate a year on from the revolution. My sister-in-law seems quite euphoric about the future for her children.  I must find out more from friends and family over there. It is also a close friends birthday. Happy Day! Euphoric Day in fact.

Debut

'Wire sculpture'

The word ‘debut’ comes from French début, meaning a performer’s first-time performance to the public.

It always makes me think of ballet. I saw Degas’ ballerina statue in Paris many years ago, was one of those pieces of art that you see images of but seeing the real thing was something again! I refer to that because my husband made a few wire sculptures, one of which was a ballet dancer. It was more like a 3D sketch really and one that got skipped. Funnily we then saw it placed on a rock a gate post in a field near our house. How it got there and why I have no idea. As I write, in that very strange ‘real time’  my husband is walking into a gallery in Notting Hill called Debut Contemporary. I, myself am a little anxious in anticipation. I am almost baffled as to how to describe my husbands anxiety over the last week. We are unsure what will come of it. He isn’t doing a performance but it is his first ever interview.

Debut is also a derivative of débuter (“to move, begin”). We are hoping it may be a new beginning of something.

dé- + but (“mark, goal”), from Old French but (“aim, goal, end, target”)

I guess the target or aim is for a platform for my husbands work to be ‘noticed’ for him to make connections and get more gallery space. We are very much of the mind-set what will be will be (maktub) but I am nervously waiting for a phone call later on to find out what will happen next…..