Golden rides again….. 2017 Parkin Awards
Golden (sleeping)
the sewing phase of building Golden is complete – here he is on my lounge floor
The Plan
the plan is to simplify the horse into two planes, enlarge it 20.5 times, cut it out and sew it together. Easy.
it will look like this
step one:
the camera lies: it is more fluorescent yellow than green.
Golden American Saddlebred
I got this horse in a mixed set of plastic animals at a $2 shop. He stands 14cm high and is slightly unbalenced, requiring a firm bend to his rear legs to get him to balence. He has become something of a muse for me, summing up the blend of fantasy, romance, deceit, history and genetic manipulation that forms the basis of our relationship with the natural world.
The latest incarnation of my muse, curently in process, is to be a lifesized version sewed from tulle. To understand my horse more fully, and to find out what size to make him, I decided to seek out his bloodline. after extensive research i have concluded that he is a Golden American Saddlebred. Standing upright he would be 16 hands (1602mm). rearing up he is 3m in height, a 21:1 scale from my model.
The Oklahoma State University Breeds of Livestock, Department of Animal Science, describes the Golden American Saddlebred thus:
What does one look for in a Golden American Saddlebred? First and foremost, is conformation. A beautifully shaped, well-proportioned head is a must. The ears are small, alert, and placed at the top of the head. The neck is long, and well-arched, with a smooth clean throatlatch. The eye is bold, bright, and intelligent. Well-sloped shoulders and sharp withers well above the height of the hips is characteristic. The croup is long and level with the tail coming out high, and the hind quarters are well muscled to the hocks. The back is short and strong. The long legs are straight with long sloping pasterns that are so necessary for an easy, well cushioned ride. The shallow, full-sprung rib cage make the barrel of the Saddlebred more rounded than in other breeds. Height is generally from 15 to 17 hands and weight from 1000 to 1200 pounds.
The complete picture of Golden Saddlebred should be one of refinement, smoothness and strength. Coloring can vary from cream to copper and all shades in between. However, the ideal color is that of the untarnished gold coin. Eyes must be brown or dark. White markings on the face and legs are allowyyed, but no spots. Mane and tail should be white and purity is desirable.
http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/horses/goldenamericansaddlebred
Thanks for making Art Ache great: we raised $1134.00 for the Red Cross Nepal Earthquke Fund!
A big THANK YOU to everyone who supported my Art Ache for Nepal night. The event was great fun and it was lovely to be supported by some many friends and family members. It was a pleasure to have the opportunity to see some of my favorite drawings go to some of my favorite people, and at the same time make contibution to help people who really need it.
it’s an Art Ache…… (sorry it had to be sung)
tomorrow I am taking part in the very cool project that is Art Ache.
I am using this as an opportunity to share a number of works that should be on people’s walls, not in my art draws and at the same time to raise funds for the Red Cross Nepal Earthquake fund.
Art Ache is the brain-child of Aimée Ralfini and is in its second year. Every two months Aimée curates a group of emerging and established artist for a one night art-sale at the Golden Dawn on Ponsonby Road. The aims of the project are twofold – to encourage a new generation of art collectors and to give artists a venue for sharing works. For emerging artists it provides a much needed showcase and for established artists it provides a venue for selling works that may not exactly fit their dealer gallery mandate. At this point I would like to say a big THANK YOU to Deborah White of Whitespace for supporting me in this event.
I will have works priced from $40 so there will be something for everyone!
here are some examples of work that will be available:
i
Avoiding Mastery: the paintings
Avoiding Mastery: Whitespace Contemporary Art 2014
Mastery, according to the Webster dictionary is knowledge and skill that allows you to do, use, or understand something very well and a state of having attained complete control of something.
My conundrum as an artist is that, whilst ‘understanding something very well’ might seem an appealing and mature virtue, its close association with having ‘complete control of something’ raises a warning flag that the cul de sac of orthodoxy lies in wait.
In art, to understand something so well as to control it runs the risk of remaking and refining something that you already know, and that your audience also knows and recognises; a closed circuit of mastery and applause. Less prone to success, but arguably more interesting is the strategy of avoiding the possibility of control, deliberately pursuing unknowing, cultivating areas of non-skill and embracing unpopular and little understood vernaculars as a vehicle for art making.
To put it more simply, maybe I think of art as a half wild pony, rather than the dressage mount. Which is not to say that there is anything wrong with dressage; I just prefer a little more excitement.
900 x1500mm
acrylic on board
900 x 900mm
acrylic and laser transfer on board
900 x 900mm
acrylic on board
900 x1500mm
acrylic and laser transfer on board
900 x 900mm
acrylic on board
Cupboard @ Cosset
My local cafe makes excellent coffee. They also operate as an exhibition space with the pragmatic title Paper/Cupboard. the wall space is dedicated to ‘paper’, while ‘cupboard’ is a small glass-fronted cupboard in the art deco cabinet that serves as the cafe counter. I have a Cupboard installation opening TOMORROW!
a sneak preview of my Cupboard installation:
Paper Cupboard has an eclectic and interesting program, which can be viewed on https://www.facebook.com/papercupboard
if you want to go there the address is Cosset, 1087 New North Rd, Mt Albert, Auckland.
Exhibition: Avoiding Mastery
Avoiding Mastery opens next Tuesday, 28 January at Whitespace Contemporary Art. If you are in Auckland come along and see it, for those of you not in Auckland I will post photos over the next week or so.
Idle Hands
as part of Put Up Your Dukes! Part Two I wanted to make a text work, in response to Gabrielles text works, so i came up with a great quote from The Modern Art of Flower Arranging by Elisabeth de Lestrieux (1986) (see my post a the time: fa)
the full quote was
An old-fashioned arrangement, in shades of one, or at most two, colours, is living proof that gardens designed around a particular colour are indeed very natural in their effect.
and the idea was to hand cut it out of wood grain wall vinyl – see An old, to mimic Gabrielles immaculate text drawing in a lazy manner. unfortunately, while it looked suitably lazy it was really quite time consuming and tedious. i decided to settle for just “An Old fashioned arrangement” utilising the trials I had already done, not minding that they were in different wood grains. but then I looked at the roll of vinyl and went nah, I am not cutting even one more letter. An old-fashioned did not seem much on its own, but the letters available could be reconfigured into “idle hands” which seemed apt for the situation.
wood grain vinyl, paint pen, plumb line and tape
not to be completely dissuaded from my original task I also made a plan B text work using the full quote:
The Modern Art of Flower Arranging by Elisabeth de Lestrieux
along the way I had found some super-cheap wood grain vinyl which prove so budget it would not even adhere to the wall, but it had a delightfully fake dark wood grain redolent of 70’s panelling. I made it into a wall panel with stencil, as you can see it is pinned and slumps slightly from the wall. It has no punctuation, as the stencil set provided none.
both text works fail gently, but in retrospect I think idle hands fails better through being more obscure, and by eventually falling off the wall itself.
JILL SORENSEN 