henrysartblog

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Jim Dime

Jim Dime’s work I feel is very varied.  He really takes inspiration from his childhood and his experiences.  I think his books are an interesting concept but I much prefer large pieces of art presented on a wall.  Almost like a big finale piece of everything that has been explored.

This is why I really like his large colourful hearts you get the occasional glimpse of.  I also really like his style hen he draws tools and it’s something I have taken inspiration from. 

Some of his work is very creepy, like the Santa’s with burnt faces and it makes me think he’s slightly twisted.

I think poetry and art go hand in hand and it’s nice to see the way he does them, it seems very artistic and messy and feels like he explores a lot of ideas.  Despite this it is not something I would like to try.  I do not like writing hence my ALevel choices.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRdDdV7vZ6I

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Martin Parr

Martin Parr is a photographer who tries to document how he sees the world with the goal, I guess, of showing us what we can’t necessarily see.  

All his photographs, to me, seem rather cynical and show the world not really in a bad light but in a truthful light.  His work is often about people something I want to explore more and he focuses on the middle classes.  I think the reason this isn’t done often is because the majority of people are middle class and we don’t care to see news about people that a very similar to us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN5WD66bG0k

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Street Art

I think street art can be really cool, it just makes places look so much better but most of the time it’s just some terrible line drawing underneath a random subway and it makes a place disgusting and dirty.

The street art in the video is not that, it’s bright and popping and really enhances the street.  All the artists in the video said the street was the best place to work and they looked to enhance it rather than destroy it.  They also all said they liked working their because you could get instant feedback from passers by, you weren’t hidden in a studio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-7HPQhAWSg

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Nigel Coates

Nigel Coates’s peice ‘Mixtacity’ I  thing is quite interesting as a piece of art but I’m not really sure how it connects to the original idea that most people live in a city.

I’m not really a fan of the buildings made out of random objects, like the biscuit tower but what really draws me in are the 3D modelled  architectural buildings that seem very far fetched and modern  but if you think about it you can see cities looking like that in the future.  You can also see how some buildings may have got the inspiration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOVGkV0k-y0

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Bob and Roberta Smith

I’m really not sure about their art.  It’s basically just signs with no real impact.  I don’t think we’re meant to take the words literally we’re meant to look deeper into them but then i’m not really sure if those ideas are that clever.  Perhaps he’s just on another level and thinking way deeper than I am.

I do like the fact he’s using the specific sign making techniques but I would get so bored if that was my art.  Letter after letter....  I think he thinks of himself as more of a workman doing his everyday job and less of an artist coming up with these big ideas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hunyeeHaw88

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Quentin Blake

First things first, he seems like a really nice guy.  He’s the stereotypical grand father. Anyway.... 

Quentin Blake’s artwork is fun and very expressive.  In the video he tells us how he draws inspiration from memories and past experiences and he almost said that he felt like he was doing the characters gestures as he is drawing them.  And it’s interesting I say characters because the drawings really are quite simple but he creates so much life with them.

I like what he works with to using, as he outs it, ‘scratchy’ objects to create his art and I appreciate that he enjoys feeling his work and I think it must help him add more emotion.

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Julian Opie

I really like his work.  The way he simplifies what he see’s into these popping colours is very interesting.  The piece I’m particularly drawn to is the landscape painted directly onto the wall with it’s sharp but subtly angled lines and simple colours.  It’s my first experience with someone doing something more interesting with landscapes.  He simplifies it rather than enhancing it, he’d think of it as enhancing nothing, but there is still no doubt about what it is but the exciting thing is it could be anywhere.

This is something I would like to look at, simplifying things but still knowing exactly what they are.

His very last words are ‘I just work on what interests me’ which is something I want to do because it means you become more invested in your work and you end with a better result and it can lead into more and more things that you find interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFs2ktSwM38

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Paula Rego

Paula Rego’s artwork seems quite interesting.  In the video we see her print making and it’s all about this one long process to get to the end result, I would not enjoy it at all, but it does produce good results.  

Towards the end of the video she talks about liking it because it’s a very definitive style and how she fells almost connected with the work, you have to put the work in to create impact and I feel similarly to that and I feel my style reflects that.

The other thing I’d enjoy about the way she works is she has this whole team of people helping her.  It must be amazing but I certainly would not enjoy the print making.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDZGh1O72uQ&t=38s

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Dancing in Peckham

Dancing in Peckham is a projection of a dancer, dancing to music only she can hear, in a shopping centre. This piece was made by Gillian Wearing in 1994, before any social media, and explored the idea of how you present your self in public. It feels like a very intimate moment that shouldn't really be shared, it's the sort of dancing you'd do when cleaning the house with no one else around and should not be shared in any sort of social situation. But i guess that's the point, you should be able to do whatever you want where ever you want (within reason) and not be judged for it. You should be able to represent your self as who you are and doing what you like with out being looked at funny or judged. The video I watched came about because this piece of art was being screened in different area around London. This I feel makes the art more relatable. If it had been presented on white walls in a gallery you wouldn't feel like you are interrupting this person's moment, it would just be a weird bit of art, it wouldn't make you feel awkward. In the areas it's presented it makes it feel like it could just be happening in front of yiu making you feel more involved. I think the whole idea of this peice is to make you feel uncomfortable but then question whether you should feel uncomfortable and question how you would and how yiu should react. If someone in front started dancing to music in their head would you... A) Cast a wide berth for fear of them being insane Or B) Start carving shapes with them?

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Sherin Nechat-Beginning of the cold season

Okay, I'm not going to lie, I didn't really have a clue what was going on so I'm not 100% sure how to comment but I'll give it a go. I like the aesthetic of the whole thing, black and white. It really high lights the depth of everything and you can really use light and darkness in interesting ways, like they have. It's almost as if the faces come out of nothing. The whole thing seems to representing some sort of pain and anguish in a hard time and the music reflects that getting faster and more aggresive towards the middle with the pained and angry image of twisted figures. The beginning and end is calmer with more delicate fragile images. The words running through it must have a meaning, maybe a sort of religious text significant to the artist. The whole thing also seems to be a big reflection. Starting and ending with the trees which are symmetrical and to me almost look like and possibly representative the mind. Then it's also symmetrical I'm that it ends and begins calm but in the middle is angry. This tells me it represents some sort of cycle possibly that happens every winter.

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Barbara Hepworth

I have a special place for Barbara Hepworth as a lot of my early work at GCSE was inspired by her work and her ideas and thoughts have stuck with me. I really like her large wood sculptures and there big flowing shapes. They feel very magical and almost ethereal as if they are from another place. The rich dark warm browns of the wood and the way the varnish shines in the light and then the contrast of the inside space and how they are painted white to emphasis the difference. I like the way she inverted the idea of a sculpture and how it's more about the idea of the space within and how that makes you feel. I think it would be interesting to see her create some sort of building and how she would use her ideas to create functional spaces. Her inspiration, of the caves and arches around where she lives is interesting and almost never ending. Landscapes are beautiful and always will be but I like the way she thought of how the inside spaces made her feel and rather than trying to recreate the image she referred the feeling. That's something I would like to try. Im not as big a fan of her bronze work I feel it's too aggresive, the wood work is much more flowing and much prettier and more delicate.

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Tracy Emin's-My Bed

I'm really not sure what to think about this, it seems to me she just woke up and decided she had a bit of art, it doesn't make sense it's not clever, it's not interesting, it doesn't have a good idea and just doesn't look good! There's a reason you make your bed and that's because it looks better! I understand she had this rough time and everything and I'd understand if that had provoked a piece of art but it seems to me she just sort of got pissed and woke up and had some crazy idea to move her bed into a white room and some how it payed off and she got famous. I mean there are other ways of looking at it. I wouldn't complain if that happened to me, although I would prefer to skip the whole breakdown stage. I do like the drawings and and how she's been aloud to present it with another artists work, I like the movement and almost madness and aggression in them both. It's very similar to what were doing, studying artists and then doing work inspired by them.

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Grayson Perry

Just watched Grayson Perry's Tate shots and thought I'd comment (I wasn't forced to because it's homework or anything). He seems like a really funny and genuine guy. I think that's the main thing I learnt. I really like what he said at the beginning about people just simply enjoying art instead of finding a deeper meaning, I just can relate to that. There's no point art having some fancy deeper meaning if it looks crap, I feel like the main point of it is for it to be appreciated in the space it is put and for it to add to that space. It can have a cool fancy idea too but it should look good, it doesn't have to be thought provoking but that can help. But then if you want your art to have a fancy deep meaning but look terrible that's your choice, I'm not complaining. The other thing I thought was that he must he pretty mental to be making pots for over 20 years but he enjoys it so I can't complain, and they do look good and really interesting as well as having a deeper poetic meaning. I also didn't really appreciate the process involved in making a pot until he took me through them all, it seems like a lot of effort but I feel like opening the kiln and seeing the creation really makes it pay off. But what he said about always being disappointed when opening up was amusing and then deciding he likes it maybe two years later. Anyway main point is, I like him.

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Dan Mountford

Dan Mountford uses double exposures to create interesting photographs about the person. He often uses a silhouette of someone and then an object or thing significant to someone and blends them together using a doubke exposure. I really like his work and the way it very subtly and seamlessly prices together and gives us a little snapshot into there everyday life and what they enjoy. I particularly like the city scapes coming out the back of people's heads, it's almost like a metaphor for the mind. The city a crazy busy place with lots going on just like what's going on in that person's head. I also like just a basic silhouette with a photo inside I think it is exciting and is really thought provoking. One of the biggest signs that I like his work is that I want to recreate it.