Bill Riley.

The speaker for this week’s lesson was Bill Rilley. For over 30 years, Bill Riley has been painting and is now a lecturer at Manukau School of Visual Arts. From spray painting, to using paint rollers his process varies depending on the way he feels at the time. During the lecture, he talked about how “boring” painting gets at times, forcing him to experiment with different techniques and using a selection of painting tools.

The static nature of a painting and the idea of portraying a painting that seems to have movement incorporated in, or around it, also fascinate Bill. An instillation that explores how we perceive movement and colour inside a painting, is Bill installation “Frequency”. Bill used a CMYK mixing technique to apply colour to these paintings. Web Definitions defines CMYK as “The CMYK colour process is a subtracting colour model, used in colour printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself”. CMYK refers to the four inks used in some colour printing; Cyan, magenta, yellow and black” – Web Definitions. He used the CMYK mixing process to force the viewer look closer and to see how the viewer identify colour.

Bill spoke a bit about the influence of documentary films about artists such as Jackson Pollock and Pablo Picasso. The films depicted the artists as ‘puppets’, yet the film was suppose to celebrate them as artist and their practice. Bill felt a connection with the artist because he was previously a commissioner and has some bad experience from this. Bill is against this idea of “puppets” and has since developed into a socialist. Bill describes a socialist as “not a communist, it is more about treating people equally”. The inspiration form these films lead Bill to take part in a project called the 422 project.

The 422 project is the new focal point for Bill at this point in his career. He uses waste and recycled materials, rather than expensive fine art materials. Bill accumulates left over card from packaging companies, and left over paint. By doing so he embraces conservational Issues such as recycling and caring for the environment. Bill paints each individual piece of card and arranges them in stacks, according to colour and size. So far, bill has over 7500 pieces of individual cardboard. The 422 project is an interactive project and encourages members of the community to come into the gallery and arrange the colored sheets in which ever way appeals to them. The structures created from the interaction of the audience add a sculptural element to the project as well.

Steve Rood

STEVE ROOD

Although I was unable to attend Steve Roods lecture I took it upon myself to investigate and explore the art practise of Steve Rood. Steve is a highly experienced photographer, who is also a lecturer at Manukau School of Visual Arts.

Steve’s interest in photography commenced when he was a young child. The very first photograph he took was of a simple compost heap, which afterwards, burst into flames the same day the photo was taken. This incident inspired Steve to pursue a career in photography, as he was amazed at the idea of capturing images of objects and what could happen next, enforcing the idea of the ‘power of a photograph’. Steve first started his career in photography in London as a documentary photographer. As well as documentary, Steve has worked in fashion, advertising, food, still life and portrait photography, as well as design, which is such an overwhelming achievement.

Simplicity and elegance are heavily incorporated in Steve’s photographs. For example, the style of his over-exposed, out of focus fashion photographs, portrays the subject matter as a simple, almost invisible form. The figures seem so simple yet the out-of-focus effect lays a mysterious feel to the photographs. Another series of work that appealed to me were his “shadow Making Machines”. These works explore the shadows of the materials that they are made out of. The work focuses on the shadows that the light and the object implement. Each piece is constructed out of domestic items such as post it notes, a rake, jars, wire, plastic bag etc… Steve then inserts a light source inside, to cast out remarkable shadows on the surrounding walls. I like the way the different items cast a very unique shadow. I also find it interesting to know that this series was photographed/or made, using simple household objects.

“The Shadow Making Machines bring the darkness in everyday life to light. They urge us to closely look within the shadow to ascertain the light." – Patricia Rood, 2008

Although I have never been interested in Photography, I find it interesting to see the difference in photographs taken 100 years ago, until more recent years. Technology has heavily influenced the photographic world. Robert Cornelius evidently took the first ‘daguerreotype’ photograph of a person. ‘Daguerreotype’ is “an early photographic process with the image made on a light-sensitive silver-coated metallic plate. The shift in technology has allowed photographers to easily take digital photographs at the touch of a button.

Even though I may not pursue a career in photography, I appreciate the work that Steve’s achieves, and have realized how fast technology is developing, affecting not only the world in general, but Art as well.

Richard Orjis

Choose 3 terms and relate to culture the practice of Richard Orjis??

This week we had Richard Orjis come in to our lecture today to tell us about himself and his practices. Orjis is a kiwi born who was born and raised in Wanganui. Richard had graduated from Carnegie Mellon University,Pittsburg where he had earned a BVA(bachelors in visual Art). And had recently graduated from A.U (Auckland University) at the Elam School of Fine Arts in 2006 gaining his MFA (Masters in Fine Arts)

Orjis worked for photographer and film maker David LaChapelle and had collaborated on a couple of projects with Cuban American artist Anthony Goicolea

On Nature and Beauty (Surface vs. substance

Orjis talks about how a lot of his works are based

around religion in some way. Orjis says that he doesn’t believe in

modernism… we are always connected to something else…

e.g religion,Christmas etcin this image i really like how he symbolizes the beauty of

humans. and how we are as beautiful beautiful as flowers.well thats what i think. The garden'

focuses on a group of works that use repeated motif of the orchid flower.in these images there

is a sense of danger and darkness but also the reality of natural wonders.The beauty of the

flower catches the veiwer, drawing them closer to the flower.

Overall with Richard’s work I learned

to look at nature from a different perspective and I realize that its shown me to see thing’s differently like why things look the way they do and the way I interpret how people are, syles of clothing they wear etc.

Deborah Crowe-One Idea.

What is Deborah Crowe’s “One Idea” made up from and how does it keep recurring various ways?

Deborah crowe is currently my drawing teacher for this semester and personally i really enjoy her pieces of art works, i find her peices very creative and very original.As a lecturer on the other hand I don't really enjoy her classes but still i think she is a wonderful lady to work with. In her works she likes to use bridges, weaving, space, containment, and construction in her artworks. For me I think that Deborah’s work is very interesting and looking at all of them I think for her “One idea” she like’s to use space and containment.

One artist Deborah was very influenced by was Caroline Broadhead a brittish artistwho majored in jewellery . Deborah likes the idea of how the body in the image is contained in by the neck veil you can see on this image. (Caroline Broadhead Neckpeice veil circa 1986)

Caroline Broadhead is a highly versitile artist .trained as a jeweller,she developed her practice beyond this discipline to work on a larger scale, with textiles, light and space.

In this image i like the idea of how she uses ideas and styles from her artist influences and creates her own series of works that became very original like this peice of work. (deborah Crowe Collared 1999)

another artist that Deborah mentions that was really influential in her artworks was Bridget Riley. I personally can see why Deborah is inspired by her because for me this is really amazing how she uses different colour threads and how its been constructed which forms these

beautiful lines of colours that just catches your eyes.

Bridget Riley is one of britain's best known artists. since the mid- 1960s she has been celebrated for her distinctive,optically vibrant paintings which actively engage the veiwer's sensations and perceptions,producing visual experiences that are complex and challenging.

And with this piece of artwork you can clearly see how influential Bridget Riley.But Deborah has once again made very original peices of works

Overall for me her "one idea" is about creating space of what u might be contained in. and i find that it really shows in her pieces of artworks.