Rachel Goodyear

Artist Rachel Goodyear is currently exhibiting her work at the Cornerhouse in Manchester.  It is called "The Intertwining line".  She will be talking about her work at the Cornerhouse on Thursday 20 November @ 5pm.  

Rachel Goodyear's drawings are based on situations within everyday life, but there seems to be a real focus regarding the power of balance within the relationship between things, the balance of power could be tense or playful.

After the talk Rachel Goodyear will be book signing in the gallery bookshop.  

Heights

We went on an adventure, 

Climbing up the winding hill

To get to the top of the mine.  

At the cliff edge, I could see for miles and miles, 

And the shadows playing with the light.  

Putting on the Glitz

"Putting on the Glitz" at the Whitworth Gallery features European decorated leather, Japanese leather papers, foils and other finishes from the US and UK.  It explores ways in which the desire for opulence has been satisfied since the 18Th century and reveals some of the secrets of the 21st century wall coverings.  

 

My first favourite design was one by Roger Frezen c. 1956.  Titled "L' Orchestra Fantastique" it had been re-coloured in 2004 and printed onto foil to attract 21st century consumers.  This particular paper decoration caught my eye because of its humour.  I thought that the musicians playing trumpets was a rare thing to see as a wallpaper design and liked the fun nature of it.  This wallpaper was actually a new version of one of the many designs issued in the 1950's.  

My second favourite wallpaper was titled "Dear Diana."  c.1970's, Hand screen printed on paper backed embossed foil.  The artist was inspired by an early 20Th century painting by L.Priou of the Goddess Artemis, also known as Dianna the Huntress.  This dramatic image has been transformed into an Art Deco fantasy with the Goddess portrayed in a flamboyant pose in an exotic setting.  This is definitely the most sparkling piece in the Whitworth foil decorations.  

Nikoline Liv Anderson

Young fashion designer 'Nikoline Liv Anderson' who is Danish.  She uses interesting materials to embellish her garments sometimes such as plastic and metals.  Works her theme around fairy tales a lot of the time.  

Zach Johnsen

Just discovered a young artist called Zachariah Johnsen.  I really like his drawing and painting technique,  he uses pen, ink and watercolor on heavyweight water color paper.  He combines more detailed drawings with  loose linear scribbled lines, some parts of the sketches are more graphic than others and he uses stains of watercolors over certain parts of the drawings to add a splash of muted color.  The artist tends to use a layering technique whereby parts of the watercolor almost looks lucid and transparent and when you look underneath you can see really fine line drawings.  There is quite a lot going on in his drawings and quite often seem heavily influenced by political and conceptual views.  He creates a world of monsters and ghouls and amongst them he hides human characters.  

Last Touch

The very last touch is a brush of light, 

Coming from the sky to bring it to life, 

A touch and it will change, 

A smudge and it will fade, 

If it was real i'd see it dancing in the shade, 

On it's own, in the dark, in the night,  

In it's own special glow...

Tal Rosner

On Friday Tal Rosner came to our lecture theatre at University to talk about his work.  He graduated from Saint Martins in 2005 after studying Graphics.  He has managed to keep regular commissions on the go since then and has won a BAFTA for film making.   

His introduction kicked off with "Doppelganger" this was filmed whilst he was sat on the train, he edited the film and backed it up with techno music.  I really enjoyed this particular piece because of the interesting compositions, juxtapositions, patterns and shapes that emerged through the special after effects.  He explained that he had taught himself how to use the special effect programs because this was something he realised he would get great benefit from using.  

Music is a big factor within Rosner's work, it is evident in all of the pieces that were shown to us at the lecture.  His use of sound creates an urban type of feel, especially in the "Doppelganger" film.  He has also experimented with classical music such as Stravinsky and Debussy's piano pieces.  

Vera Neubauer

I went to the Corner house yesterday where Vera Neubauer was displaying some of her animations and discussing her work, I will talk more about the discussion later.  

The Animations were titled:

"Cannon Fodder" 1971

"Lady of the lake" 1995

"The mummy's curse" 1987

"I dance" 1999

"Wheel of life"1996

Vera Neubauer was born in Czechoslovakia, her early life was spent studying applied art, she then went on to do Print Making at the Royal College in London.  After that she began to get involved with animation.  The most prominent thing about her work was her use of very loose linear drawings, childlike and playful.  Using this method she was able to express her animations in a very simple way so that the story could be easily understood.  

"Cannon Fodder"

This short 1 minute black and white animation was the introduction, I immediately liked her loose childlike style which carried on throughout her other animations.  

"The Lady of The Lake"

The second animation was drawn using inks and mixed with live camera action.  The story is about a mermaid who falls in love with a man who lives on the land.  She goes to live with him on the condition that he treats her well.  if he strikes her 3 times she would have to return to the Water.  He in time does strike her 3 times on the third strike kills her whereby she returns to the sea. 

"The Mummy's Curse"

This animation was about the domination that can happen within relationships.  

"I Dance"

This was a very short piece, again very loose line drawing.  The lines looked like ink drawings on paper and the imagery moved quickly in a rhythmic way.  

"Wheel of Life"

This animation focused on the old testament, visionaries of love hate and sin.   

The discussion panel.  

During the discussion I learnt that Vera Neubauer has a very open approach to the way she works.  she gathers inspiration from whats happening around her, she also has a keen interest in fairy tales.  She feels that people can take great morals from them.  I noticed that Neubauer's work has a very cultural and spiritual feel to it, she uses natural elements most of the time in order to depict her story telling.  "The Wheel of life" was animated by line drawing in the sand, other natural things were used like seaweed, shells and stones. She talked about using the sources that are around her and at the time she was living near the beach.  

In response to being asked about how her story developed she said "The film made itself as if  i was the medium" her approach seems to be spontaneous and unstructured which allows for ideas to flow more freely.  

Throughout her visuals she used music in the background which made the story feel much more powerful, I as a viewer enjoyed the haunting essence inside each of the story's, there were chilling beautiful voices and wind and bass instruments to help get the point across to the viewer.  

Feedback from Print Tank

Feedback from the interview at the Whitworth Gallery:

Rose came to the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester to meet the members of my class individually to look at our finished prints from the fashion brief that was set, it was good experience to get this type of feedback from a professional practitioner and i was pleasantly surprised with the feedback i received.  Rose said that my strong points were use of color and sophistication in some of the silk prints. she also said that my elements in the designs were good and worked well together, she also said that as a collection my prints worked well.  My downsides were that i hadn't made some of my samples big enough and also the cotton samples didn't work so well because the fabric wasn't thick enough and took away some of the colour because of the transparency in it. I agreed with all of the feedback i got and definitely learnt loads from this opportunity.  I know would like to work into some of my samples, maybe add a bit of stitch to enhance the colour in the cotton samples and back them up with another piece of fabric.  

Feedback from Esther and Mandy:

Back in the studio i went for a tutorial with my tutors and we discussed my samples and inspirations that led me to my final pieces.  

add my print images...

Places I admire

One great place i love is Brighton, if you like boutiques and vibrant atmosphere then this will be up your street! There are plenty of fab music venues that cater for any decent music taste and you can guarantee to find a good coffee shop open at silly o clock in the morning which i love when your not quite ready to go home and want to chill.  I adore the lanes in Brighton, beats the high street shops any day because of it's uniqueness, the lanes are narrow cobbled alleyways with little boutiques on each side, you can even buy vegetarian shoes!! The whole place is jam packed full of character so if you go make sure you have your camera at the ready, there is plenty to do and see. Along the beach front you can find local art work and handmade garments and jewelry, often made on the beach during the summer.  You'll always be sure to see bright colours in Brighton, everywhere you look you can see street art and colourful shop fronts with chimes hanging down.  I once bought a handmade dress from a girl on the street, she was stood there with a clothes rail so she could sell some of her garments her label is 'Polkadot' this dress was made out of a few garments then all pieced together to create a dress. it's pink and grey with the odd bit of denim and lace worked through in some areas.  

Images...

Artist or Designer I Admire

Here we have a picture of the Autumn/Winter collection for 2008/09.  Giorgio Armani has been designing clothes since 1975, before that he worked with fashion as a window dresser in Milan. He is greatly recognised for his androgynous (masculine and feminine) designs.  This was because he designed men's suits when he started out but gained so much interest by woman he began to design for them also.  Italian Fashion became popular in the 1980's, Rome and Florence were known as the fashion capital.  

Cloth and Culture

My first favourite piece at the exhibition was a hand woven tapestry titled "Robbing Peter" by Shelly Goldsmith.  She states "...Use of reclaimed garments has been a major element of the work..." She had taken a small child's dress, the threads had been unwoven to create holes and rewoven into the fabric elsewhere.  This created distortions or 'overflows' of thread, referencing the cyclical nature of water, the interconnected and interrelated nature of things.  

My second favourite piece was a light installation titled "Reflective Surface" by Helena Hietanen.    She states "Light for me is like a sculptural material and I use it in many ways depending on the artwork or situation."  This piece had been put together using optical fibre, steel, plastic yarn and light projectors.  Her work is concerned with the mapping of space, also a highly personal narrative of connection between the artist and light.  The optical fibres in this case had been woven by a technician on a specially developed hydraulic loom.  

There was a nice variety of different artists work at the Cloth and Culture exhibition.  I noticed that each piece was very much different from the other making it interesting and versatile.  The exhibition however was quite small spread over two floors. 

London Trip

I went to London in October with my textiles group, we stayed in Euston and the 6 of us shared a room at a hostel called the Generator.  Euston was a great location to base ourselves because it was nice and central to other places via the tube.  

Inspirations: I went to Camden market, spent the whole day walking around taking in the vibe of the place, the market was excellent, full of boutiques and unusual things.  I noticed that the place was mainly alternative, lots of individual eclectic type of people.  

What I did and saw: During our time in London we went to visit a fashion fabric company called 'Print Tank' where we met Rose and Sian.  At the visit they told us all about how they started out and got to the stage they are now with there very own business in Camden.  The girls got out huge cases showing us all the prints they had designed for fashion garments.  They go to trade shows in London, New York and Italy, these include Indigo/Premier Vision in Paris.  It was so inspirational to see how successful they had become and they started out straight after they had finished their degree at University as well! The purpose of this visit to the studio was so that we could complete the fashion print brief that we had been given prior to the visit, in order to complete my designs i needed to know what the next Autumn/Winter themes were going to be i.e colour pallet, inspirations...

Leaving the 'Print tank' studio i couldn't wait to get started i had fresh ideas buzzing around my head now that i had chosen which theme i was going to work with.  My final prints will be attached very soon :0)

At the night time i went to see the 'Les ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo in Camden, the story was based around "Swan Lake" made funny, the men in drag created a lot of laughs in the audience as you can imagine, they were not the most graceful swans around! you could see clearly that these men were utterly trained and disciplined but they were purposely tripping up and making loads of mistakes.  There was one beautiful serene part of the show where one of the swans was dancing wearing bright white against the black background and with every move feathers fell off of his costume to the ground, in the end the whole stage was covered in them like snow. I was inspired by the colours of the costumes mainly, the way they worked together.  

After the Ballet we all found a small jazz bar and watched singers get up and sing with the percussion band that was set up, it was mid week so we were lucky to find a bit of live music.  The bar was still open at the hostel when we got back so we had another tipple :0)

Images

 As a whole i really enjoyed the trip and will definitely be going back again soon, mainly because of the architecture and the general buzz of the place.  I would like to explore some more, take more pictures and visit some art gallery's.  Also never had enough time to visit the other markets that are in and around London.  I met some really interesting artists at the hostel, and as far as hostels go it was really good so next time i visit i'd do it again, cheap and cheerful! yay!