Jess Bradford: visuals and murmurings

&

2012-01-22T17:56:00.000-08:00

Backlog 3

2012-01-19T22:50:00.000-08:00

Backlog 2, Melbourne

2012-01-17T01:34:00.000-08:00

4A Annual Member's Show

2011-12-14T16:14:00.000-08:00

I'm currently part of the 4A Annual Member's Show

which will be opening Tonight!

Thursday 15 December

from 6 - 8pm

My work and the fabulous work of others will be found at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art
181-187 Hay Street, Haymarket
in the last show of the Year

to be launched by Lisa Havilah, Director, Carriageworks

Pictures from 'The Final Word' Honours Exhibition

2011-11-20T21:24:00.001-08:00

Just a few shots of the final installations and some close ups of the work I made for my Honours year at the College of Fine Art in Sydney. The Honours year was both a horrible and wonderful experience, which not only pushed me to up the ante with my drawing skills but opened me up to a more cross disciplinary practice. The works themselves evolved from charcoal drawings to drawing/painting hybrids on primed or bare zinc plates, which are usually used for printmaking. They're displayed on a motley crew of made and pre-manufactured tables, shelves and boxes.

All the hard work and tears were rewarded at the end with a fantastic exhibition and I was proud to be among such talented emerging artists. A Big Thanks to everyone who came and supported me during the Opening Night and the Open day last Friday, as well as the many who supported me throughout the year. This work will hopefully see the light of day again next year with some careful planning and good applications to Artist Run Initiatives. It is also an ongoing project which might eventually push my practice further into installation, and into live performance and interactive artwork. So far I've gotten two private commissions on the drawings, which signals a jump from working with found photographs to very intimate possessions, something I am both looking forward to as well as being a bit intimidated by. At the moment however I'm really looking forward to my new website. Chris Ross is designing a new cleaner and clearer look to go along with my new body of work. Once I've documented my work the website will be able to flesh out, but you can still see the new and improved version now, which has to be one of the sexiest skeleton sites around. Go take a Look.

End of Year Exhibition: The Final Word

2011-11-17T04:10:00.001-08:00

The Final Word

Friday 18th November

This is the culmination of a year's practice-based research for BFA students at The College of Fine Arts. It is my end of year show, and I am proud to be a part of such a fantastic exhibition containing stellar contemporary art from young emerging artists. Please come along and immerse yourself in various installations, drawings, paintings, sculpture and photography.

Time:

11am to 5pm

Location:

540 George Street

on the 6th and 7th Floor

at the 'Woolworths Building at Town Hall'

Working with Damaged Found Photographs

2011-10-18T16:21:00.000-07:00

Exhibition Notes from 2010-11

2011-10-10T20:10:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately I haven't been to as many exhibitions as I'd like this year. Even when I am out looking at shows I don't have the time to make detailed notes or any drawings at the moment. But here are a few 'exhibition notes' from earlier on in the year and the end of last year. Mostly of when I went down to Melbourne to visit some friends.

Backlog

2011-10-08T17:45:00.000-07:00

Exhibitions: Kudos Award & Lloyd Rees

2011-10-05T17:15:00.000-07:00

I've been extremely bad at getting word out about exhibitions I'm in but this time I'm trying to get to it early: I've been accepted into the Kudos Award!

Since I was just showing my Honours work in a recent show at Kudos I decided to put in my print 'Love in the Park', which is now one of the thirty-nine showing this Tuesday.

This will be the first exhibition of this work, which I'm really happy about, in an Award I look forward to every year.

Now in its 10th year, the Kudos Award is a open call to all disciplines and years in COFA. The Award seeks to recognise innovation and excellence, and is especially enjoyable for me to see the variety and skill of work coming out of the other departments. This year the award will be judged by Zoe Brand, Anna Kristensen and David Haines.

Awards will be announced on the opening night
   Tuesday 11 October
   5 - 7:30 pm
   @ Kudos Gallery
   6 Napier Street,
   Paddington, NSW

The Exhibition is on till the 22nd of October
Gallery hours are Wednesday to Friday 11 - 6pm
& Saturday 11- 4pm

And now, an Exhibition that's already past!

Unfortunately I forgot to post this a while ago, I was really sick during the exhibition and barely showed up to the opening night. But I was accepted into the Lloyd Rees Youth Art Award. You can still see all the work in the exhibition at their flickr site.  I didn't win, but the work did sell! You can see more about the Lloyd Rees Youth Art Award here.  And look at the work in greater detail in one of my other posts.

More Tim Olsen photographs: Closes this Saturday!

2011-09-23T03:29:00.000-07:00

Photos from the Tim Olsen night

2011-09-16T03:50:00.000-07:00

Someone admiring the runner up: Phoebe Rathmell

Another honours candidate Emily Cavenett

Winner of the night Ramesh Mario gets to clean up

Ramesh and I infront of his work

Ramesh and I infront of my work

Me and Chris Ross (my utterly amazing boyfriend)

Just a few happy snaps from the show last Tuesday Night

Thank you to everyone that came to support me and the other exhibitees!

Tim Olsen Drawing Prize

2011-09-11T22:49:00.000-07:00

I'm one of the thirteen nominated participants in this year's Tim Olsen Drawing Prize. I've been wanting to be in this show for roughly three years now, so please come and support me tommorow night: Tuesday the 13th of September.

Side projects: Stuff I was working on...

2011-08-29T17:25:00.000-07:00

This is one of the many projects that was gradually pushed aside for Honours work. I finished the ink painting quite some time ago but I was planning on making it into an etching. I was playing around with spit biting in my last etching and after many MANY tedious failures I starting being mildly proficient. Skills like that should not be wasted, so I'm looking forward to using them on this image in the future.

Stuff I'm working on

2011-08-25T20:32:00.000-07:00

I apologise for not writing in a while.

Life has been busy

I've moved into a new place

and after living a whole month on take away and dining out

I have bought a fridge!

Here's just a little something I've been working on in the meantime.

Chipper Cafe @ Glebe

2011-07-25T01:39:00.000-07:00

Backlog

2011-07-05T19:05:00.000-07:00

I seem to have quite a large backlog of cafe drawings that I haven't brought out yet, most of them done in Singapore when I had free time (I can almost remember what it was like to have free time). Drawing in Sydney doesn't seem to happen too often mostly because I either feel like

a) I should be doing something productive

b) If I'm not working I should be spending time with my friends

c) If I'm drawing it should be for my Honours Project

d) Coffee and food is so expensive! Why are you spending money?! You're Broke! Stop doing drawings that require you

to spend money!

I also intermittently get the horrible drowning feeling of despair when I'm drawing and I think the drawing is not going well. Then I look at the clock and realize that its taken me an hour to do a bad drawing. Drawing takes a long time. I always seem to forget how long it takes. It's usually worth it in the end, and I have some saving techniques up my sleeve when it gets into crunch time for finishing (this is usually when the guilt of not doing something productive and the urgent need to pee nudges my concern for the picture out of the way)

Horrible drawings seem more frequent in Sydney. Detailed and enjoyable drawings usually populate my Holiday time, so I'll be scrounging around in my backlog for more drawings from Singapore and Melbourne soon!

Studio Shot

2011-06-19T18:07:00.000-07:00

I stumbled across a photo book of artist's and designer studios recently. I've seen a few of them before, as well as finding studio shots in magazines or on websites. There is something incredibly fascinating about seeing the 'behind the scenes' of creatives. Its like the hidden birthplace of artwork, part Frankenstein's laboratory, part Aladdin's Cave. Unfortunately I was somewhat disappointed with the cleanliness of these studio portraits. They seemed way too sparse, too large...too hygienic.

Nevertheless I wanted to show my studio in its awesome messy glory. I have pretty much one of the best spaces. Corner with window, a mixture of easel and table space, as well as being next to some amazingly creative, funny, and friendly artists. During class time, as well as out, we bring in snacks, chocolates and baked goods (sometimes Home Made!) and munch away while sometimes getting onto the topic of art, but mostly discussing food-particularly Yum Cha.

Love In The Park

2011-06-13T06:04:00.000-07:00

This print took me roughly a year to complete. I started it in February 2010 in the strange twilight time of ‘after University’ and before ‘Working life’. I think it was my one big hope to keep on creating as I had done previously so I sort of clung onto printmaking during that time. Also I used the print as a procrastination tool against sending out even more CV’s to people who didn’t want them.

In its beginning stages this work seemed to be one of those images that grow naturally with very little effort involved. It happens once in a while. When I say little effort I mean I got most of the composition down in two to three days of solid work instead of weeks to months of fiddling. Maybe because of that, or because I had gotten a job by that time, when it came to aquatinting (applying tone/shading to the outline on a print) something horrible happened. Horrible. So I took the rest of the year fixing it. Fixing it involved me scraping back layers of metal, re-aquatinting, not being happy with the result, going back and scraping it off again etc.

I learned a lot, and I’m thankful to people who gave me advice, complimented me endlessly and who took the time to teach me how to burnish, scrape and spit bite properly, particularly David and Quillan. I don’t think there is one point in any artistic career where you can stop learning. There is a point where you can start teaching, I think you can get a little uppity or a bit complacent when you reach that point…I certainly did. A small knock down is good for you once in a while.

So is sticking to your guns. Many times during the year people tried to console me by telling me to stop and just move on to the next thing. Or that it was good the way it was. When you know something can be better, when you are actually aware of what the potential of something could be, I don’t think you should stop trying. It negates all the work you put into it in the first place. I was really proud of my composition and my line work and I wanted to be just as proud of the aquatint. I got it to 90% satisfied (you can never get the full 100) and editioned it with the help of Jess Edwards and David. I’m really happy with the final image and I hope you like it too. This work is called Love in the park.

Phone photos

2011-06-08T08:34:00.000-07:00

In this day and age the phone camera is like some sort of visual note taking. In the good old days you would see something while you were out having a walk or driving your car and have a little idea bloom in your mind. Hopefully, if it was good enough, you could retain it in your head until you got to a piece of pen and paper. Now we click a button. Not saying that either method is better than the other. I usually have to use both to figure out what I was taking a photo of, due to my terrible camera. These images usually clog my phone, making it go slower than usual, and very rarely leave it to inspire the works I first imagined when I took the photo. But this is the fate of most ideas. We scribble and think up ideas all the time, some flourish, others become cadavers.

Since I show process work and sketches I thought it might be nice to include some other forms of creative brainstorming or image note taking. I hadn't consciously thought of it until recently. What made me interested in showing these were two things.

Firstly I recently stumbled across the work of Stu Spence. To cut the long story short Spence, a successful commercial photographer and writer, started taking photographs with his own bad phone camera but with great results. What came out of rather accidental or non deliberate 'happy snaps' were what feel like miniature contemporary Impressionist paintings. They still have a cheap blurry quality to them, if anything what would be considered their downfall turns out to be the appeal. Some are stunning in their simplicity and colour composition, managing to be a little bit melancholy or a little bit foreboding; some are just generic phone photos. Nevertheless there is the appeal of the authentic vernacular image in his work, which is something I've been looking into this year.

The second thing was an awesome post called How to Steal Like an Artist (and 9 other things nobody ever told me). Its an edited version of a talk Austin Kleon, a writer and artist, gave to a college. Its neat, funny and painfully correct in my opinion. Definitely worth a read. The title pretty much covers the point that relates to this post. That is, as artists, we usually steal ideas. We see things and take what we want or like from them and mix them up with all these other little scraps and cut outs of things. So to get really awesome ideas, you need to be constantly revealing new things to your brain so you have plenty to mix and match and multiply with. He suggests reading, I suggest getting out there. Going a different route for a walk, taking a new bus, listening to a talk show on the radio. Seriously that last one is surprisingly good, at my last job we had the radio on all day. Other than great music and general story telling we had a science segment and ideas used to go off like firecrackers, especially when you hear stories about lightening triggering doorbells before they strike.

Something we find quite normal these days is to take a photo of something that interests us. I'd like to suggest this is similar to that type of 'stealing' Kleon mentions where we collect and store away things that interest us which then can be used in some way in the future. So whether you use your phone camera as a note taking device or use those images with a final work I think it is an awesome tool to be added to an artist's repertoire.

Mr Tulk in Melbourne

2011-06-06T08:52:00.000-07:00

I was in Melbourne during the earlier part of this year to visit some friends. Had a wonderful time but still feel like Melbourne is a holiday destination rather than a real place to stay. Something about the cheap, logical and functional transport system, the abundance of cafe's, and the amount of art galleries to visit. (Though there was an overwhelming amount of video art at grassroots contemporary art spots) Here's one of the few drawings I did while I was over there: too much social action and gallery visiting. Mr Tulk was a lovely cafe, though the food was quite expensive for me. It's part of the State Library of Victoria in the city, below is the address.

Mr Tulk

328 Swanston Street

Melbourne VIC 3000

Honours Half Way House work

2011-05-31T08:38:00.000-07:00

These are some shots of my work hanging in Halfway House courtesy of Kristone, a fellow Honour's exhibiter and charcoal wielder. The works themselves are drawings made of charcoal and other dry media on primed zinc plate. I've burnished and filed down some edges so you can see the metal peeking through the metal primer and the gesso but its pretty subtle.

The works were pretty hard to deal with due to their size, none of them bigger than 8cm or so, but it was the shelves that were truly torturous. Finding right angled wood that I could purchase straight from a hardware store turned out to be much harder than anticipated. So I'm very glad I got the time to run through it madly when setting up for the Jenny Birt exhibition two weeks prior.

There are some things you can only learn about your work when installing it. Since I needed to prime the metal, the zinc sheets could and often did pass as paper. Me and my Honour's Supervisor agreed that if treated like an object viewers would realize it wasn't paper. So putting it on a plinth or on a shelf rather than straight onto the wall was an important consideration on how the work would be received. Unfortunately during the Jenny Birt show I realized my work looks terrible on a plinth. Just one of those things which isn't obvious until its too late. Thankfully though it left me with enough knowledge on how to tackle the hanging at the next show.

Half Way House

2011-05-28T05:05:00.000-07:00

I think I've already mentioned it, but this year I'm in my Honour's Year at CoFA working away at my art. Every year, halfway through the degree, there is a show of our studio based projects to give a little taste of what we've been working on. This show opened on

24th of May
and is on till the
3rd of June

at COFASPACE
closest to Napier Road,
Ground Floor E Block

10am - 5pm

The Finnisage (fancy word for closing party) & The Presentation of the 2011 GBK Awards are on Friday 3rd June at 6pm

Works displayed for the Jenny Birt

2011-05-16T17:39:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who came and supported me at the Jenny Birt, it was a lovely show with music, food, wine and little boxes of chocolate! (will photograph the chocolate if there's any left) Also a special thanks to Chris Ross, who was in the show with me and who took some great photos of my work.

These are some of the first drawings I've completed for my Honours Year. Though it should be safe to say I finished them for the Jenny Birt Show (I was up at 4am in the morning still working on them to meet the 10am installation deadline). I'll be putting up a couple process shots, get a better photograph of the tiny work on metal, describe the problems of drawing on zinc sheets and try keep up to date with my work in the studio in the following weeks.

Jenny Birt Award

2011-05-01T22:55:00.000-07:00

The Jenny Birt Award opens Tonight!

I happen to be one of the lucky eleven nominated students for this annual painting and drawing award and I'm happy to say that I am showing NEW work. I've been working day, night and that horrible pre-dawn time when you can start hearing the morning birds and garbage trucks. But I'm quite happy with how things turned out. The show lasts till the 6th of May and I'll be putting up documentation and a few process shots later on in the week.

Monkey and bird

2011-04-16T17:38:00.000-07:00

The long delay

2011-04-12T18:05:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the long delay, I've recently begun my Honours Year at University and it is a pretty big endeavor. That said it is also an amazing time and I am enjoying the work that I've been doing. Hopefully I will be finishing off a few things and will start posting little snippets as the year progresses.

That said I have done a lot of other work and I just need to slowly crawl through the backlog with scanning and cleaning on photoshop. The above picture is just that, I made this in Singapore last Christmas (hence the little snowflakes on the windows) its one of the first images I drew that holiday in the NEW Starbucks! It was somewhat painful to go and see the New starbucks (I liked the old one). Unfortunately last year it got severely flooded and they had to basically rip out all the old fixtures. It really is bizarre to go to a favourite haunt and realize its been completely changed behind your back. All the more stranger because I have so many drawings from this one place that it seemed to be visually haunted.

Nevertheless it turned out to be a great drawing spot, just like the 'Old Starbucks', and one day when I've amassed enough of them I might do a little chronological book of this one address over the years.

Coastes in Singapore

2011-01-19T03:17:00.000-08:00

I found a lovely spot along the tanker lined shores of Singapore to draw. Happened to fall in love with the place when I spotted all these gorgeous foreground to background variations. They also had an awesome chicken curry. I've taken some photos so you can see how the drawing and the reality match up, unfortunately by the time I took my camera out we had already left my vantage point so these are just approximations of the view. One of these days I'll get around to filming my process, but for now just photos.

Time to get your feet wet

2011-01-09T05:21:00.000-08:00

Buy long socks

Taking my time in the New Year

2011-01-06T05:21:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I've used tone to help create depth and aid in differentiating people in an image. And for me it certainly is laziness to a certain extent. But I'm glad I made the effort for this image since it really helps complete the composition and help highlight certain features and characters that would otherwise be lost.

It's always worthwhile to consider different ways of making an image work and not constantly rely on familiar line making or easy compositions. You can often find a few illustrators or artists who stick to the same composition over and over. A particularly famous one is the forward shot of a character floating in a white void. While this is an enjoyable composition, and at times the correct composition for an image, character or product design, learning to be dynamic and engage with backgrounds is a really important skill to manage. Learning what you can do, and what you enjoy doing with backgrounds or a full page image takes time.

Choices in depth vs flatness, tonal variation vs large slabs of color, or changes in style between the focus point and the background can come naturally to some, and not so naturally to others. So its good to practice and push what you’re capable. Here’s to new goals for the new year.

More inks

2010-11-28T15:35:00.000-08:00

Really liked how this one turned out. There's more focus on line work and the range of mark making and shapes that can be used in an image instead of just tonal modeling.

Ink spots and advice

2010-11-12T00:28:00.000-08:00

Interpretation is a wonderful tool, and its use should be planned for in every picture. Too many images are blunt in their meaning and their approach to a topic. Without subtlety, mystery or gaps set in the image, whether it be visually or conceptually, you might up with a picture that doesn't engage the mind.

What we have here could be an angry little boy running and yelling. Or a kid with a radioactive head. I will leave it up to the viewer to decide.

Waiting for beach weather

2010-11-08T16:58:00.000-08:00

After coming away inspired by Matt Huynh's lovely ink works at the Papermill I did a few tests and spot illustrations. This is one of them, and after being caught in yesterday's downpour (which included heavy fat tropical rain mixed with little evil bits of hail) I decided to add a bit of colour and hopeful wishing. Fingers crossed for sunny weather.

Upcoming exhibition with Matt Huynh

2010-10-25T15:57:00.000-07:00

Another of Matt's amazing show's has come around,

this time being held at The Paper Mill

on the 3rd of November, 6-8pm.

If anyone can remember his last show,

including ink and mixed media paintings

shown amongst bones and taxidermy

held at the skeleton gallery in the Australian Museum

I'm sure you'll know not to miss another opportunity

to see the physical manifestations of this creative mind

Calendars don't help me remember anything

2010-10-20T18:47:00.000-07:00

Its okay if it rains because I'm stuck inside for work anyway

2010-10-12T17:01:00.001-07:00

Pokolbin Village playground

2010-09-26T11:16:00.000-07:00

I did my first trip over to Hunter Valley recently, and between wineries and hotels I managed to find an incredibly cheesy fake tourist village. Full of faux homey restaurants (which always seem to have large realistic cow statues) and village shops selling Hunter Valley chocolates (as well as flavored liqueurs available in man shaped bottles) this little tacky respite from grape ferment was surprisingly enjoyable.

There was a bright cheery family orientated feel to the place where previously we'd only come across tittering groups of twenty something’s often vibrating with either a single chicks vibe or pre-marriage hen's night excitement, that and couples.

The fresh squeaky clean attraction left me wondering however who would plan a family outing to an area famous for its booze, let alone plan and build the architectural duet to Disneyland in the Hunter. Leading from assumptions, Pokolbin Village might have been built to accompany the nearby heftily priced Hunter Valley Gardens.

Some entrepreneurial spirit might have noticed many visitors such as myself pause at the $25 entry fee for landscaped gardens and back away without turning, comfortable with trying to peer over the garden’s walls and content with posing for photos in front of their entrance sign and flower display. Understandably the gardens were a thing of beauty, left for weddings and corporate functions. While the village was for people who enjoyed picnic facilities, small town layouts and playgrounds: the complimentary things in life.

During the day the eager bustle of young families in this convenient stop over was infectious, the entire place was made for eating, playing and buying edible gifts. At night however, the sterile timelessness of this kitsch counterfeit community reminded me somehow of Melbourne suburbs. The nice ones that had gone up maybe a little too fast near distant train stops, sudden suburbia of large homes and preened front gardens still awkwardly sitting next to un-cleared land. After sunset and without the neon diffuse of surrounding urban development you felt like you were walking in an empty movie set. Where at any moment the cardboard facades could pitch in the wind, leaving the land to move back in.

There were spots of what I imagine to be forests left in the Pokolbin area. They might've simply been scraps of the original landscape or windbreakers for the wineries and picnic spots for tourist locations. Whatever they were, though unnoticeable during the day, at dusk they gained a solidity. Something we noticed when we accidentally stumbled across the Pokolbin village at around 4:30pm. As one of the awkward late visitors wandering in the deserted tourist village I think we were struck by the lack of lamps and the disparity of the theme park image and its location. Time in the Hunter still runs by sunlight and with all the shops closed and an hour or so left of manageable light I managed to make a brief drawing of the enjoyable and eerie juxtaposition of the empty playground backgrounded with sparse woods.

Me and Bernie hanging out at Mel's Studio

2010-09-16T06:09:00.000-07:00

A short sketch of life at the studio, Bernice and I were taking advantage of Mel's hospitality and generous spirit by lounging around her studio space and making little artworks with her materials.

Sneak Peak

2010-09-12T05:11:00.000-07:00

This is a little sneak peak from a new print that was very popular at the Spring Fair this year. It's an etching that is in it's second stage and hopefully I will be able to push it into a third stage soon. I've been working on it since February and I'm planning more images to build a series of work.

Spring Fair~!

2010-08-30T19:22:00.000-07:00

This year's spring fair has been moved to another location because CoFA is currently under development and half of the school is closed for demolition. The Spring Fair (renamed Awfully Nice Markets) no longer sits in the artist community in Paddington but is relocating to the main campus of UNSW. Other than the space and the name business is as usual and so you can expect the same art and design fair of handmade artworks, jewellery, clothes, ceramics, paintings and prints. I've put a little selection of printed goodies that I'm going to be selling on the day to whet the appetite. Come along to see and purchase more!

The exact location is:

UNSW, in Kensington

The Commerce Courtyard, (near the library)

Oppo The CBD (I don't know what that stands for)

in Upper Campus, the side closest to Botany Street

Closest Gates are 9 & 8 on High Street

If That doesn't help you there will be signs and 'yellow shirts' pointing you our way,

as well as a whole cheese plater of other information as

UNSW's Open day for future students is happening at the same time.

That being said there will be information about CoFA courses and degrees

but to get some insider information strike up some conversation with students selling their work!

Love is in the air

2010-08-17T17:13:00.000-07:00

It's nearly Spring! or it is Spring! I come from a tropical island without seasons so I'm not the best source of information on this. But I feel like the weather is becoming beach friendly. Nevertheless I managed to snuggle down with a friend at Bad Manners (spelt Badde Manors) down at Glebe to have a nice warm fizzing mug of cider. Awesome. Also got a quick sketch on of these two love birds who are gave off the Spring couple-y vibe. So cute! I've tried to catch the millions of ways they managed to hold hands while a poor neglected carrot cake sat forgotten between them. (They still hadn't eaten it when we left)

John Fries Memorial Prize

2010-08-10T01:50:00.000-07:00

Brief reminder!

I'm part of the John Fries Memorial Prize

That is happening Tuesday 10th of August

TONIGHT!

if you are interested in coming please RSVP at

rsvp@viscopy.org.au

02 9310 2018

Look forward to seeing your there!

The Zoo cafe with Husky

2010-08-02T05:47:00.000-07:00

detail

This is a nice loose image I produced a while back at the Zoo cafe in Bondi Junction. I'm just having fun with the construction and placement of chairs, particularly their relationship to other objects and their own distorted parts.

Voiceworks Magazine

2010-08-01T05:37:00.000-07:00

Voiceworks is a national quarterly magazine that features young Australian writers and artists. Full of poetry, fiction, illustration and comics it is one of the very few literary magazine that pays its contributers! I'm part of issue 81, themed Birthmark and I'm paired with the literary styles of Lauren Lovett's Hidden Tiger.

Sugar Cafe

2010-07-26T00:50:00.000-07:00

Detail

Just a quick image of a lovely cafe nearby. I've gone to Sugar cafe quite frequently. Not because of the coffee (grinders) but the service is just really relaxed and friendly and don't chase you out the minute you're done or 15 mins before closing time. Also the decor and the shape of the cafe is just so enjoyable to be in and to draw. They have quite a few customers and due to my eavesdropping I hear their lunch menu is pretty good though everyone else's opinion on their coffee has been mum.

John Fries Memorial Prize

2010-07-25T23:00:00.000-07:00

Brilliant news of the month:

I am one of the finalists for the John Fries Memorial Prize!

The prize was formed by the family members of John Fries to commemorate his work as former director and honorary treasurer at Viscopy, a not-for-profit rights management organisation for the visual arts.

The John Fries Memorial Prize is an annual award of $10 000 and solo exhibition at Viscopy's contemporary art space, Blackfriars off Broadway. Entries open each April and I, on a whim, entered one of my charcoal portraits. I am now one of the lucky 17 selected out of 300 entrants to exhibit at Blackfriars off Broadway and possibly win the award.

Please come and support me on:

The 10th of August (tuesday)

from 6-9pm

Blackfriars on Broadway

1 Blackfriars Street

Chippendale

NSW 2008

View Larger Map

The winner will be announced on opening night

and the exhibition runs from the 11th of August to 30th of September

Evolution of an image

2010-07-22T05:58:00.000-07:00

Long time no post, but I have a lot of news and images so this week will be chock full of entries! I wanted to break pace a little bit with my sketches so here are some process shots of the charcoal portrait I had in the show at Monstrosity Gallery! (It also made its way into a magazine! but I will write more about that later)

Hopefully you can still pick out details and follow the evolution of this image despite the bad quality of the photos. Dodgy as they may be they still show crucial moments in the rendering of the face as well as some of the drastic changes I made between stages.

I had been working on this image for a while and had some interesting marks happening, but it wasn't moving anywhere and at the end of the day it was just a slushy indistinct collection of facial features. So I clarified where I wanted the head and the shoulders to be with some strong lines. After solidifying my guideline I was able to push the image because I was confident on the placement of the face.

Most of the fun happens in the beginning when I am just throwing water and smearing charcoal around trying to find patterns I like from the resulting mess. I draw a face and then water it, let it dissolve for a while and then re draw and then let it partially melt again. Then I slowly piece the image together from these leftovers like a fortune teller with tea leaves.

Towards the end I make smaller and smaller adjustments, slowly becoming more afraid of my image and a little too precious with it. Some images die this way. I get too hesitant to change certain areas and I get into a stalemate, where I can't move the picture forward without somehow damaging my favourite part.

Thankfully this one went quietly, though before when I had been pushing it to be a young female with four eyes it had rightly argued. You can still see traces of this in the earliest image's luscious lips and the thinness in the face.

This work is titled The Swimmer and as I said before was on display at Monstrosity Gallery's Portrait exhibition. During the show there was an artist talk and small get together over some munchies. A video was made of some of the artists (me included). Hopefully this video will eventually see the light of day and you'll be able to hear me describe some of the thoughts that go into my drawings.

Smoking Woman at The Zoo

2010-06-23T17:40:00.001-07:00

Detail

A quick drawing of a beautiful french woman smoking in an outdoor cafe. The thing that made me hastily bring out the sketchbook on this one is that she's partially obscured by a giant palm leaf plant in a shopping trolley. So with just a few tantalizing glimpses of her through the foliage I managed to capture the basics before her coffee and cigarette ran out.

Snap draw of my life

2010-06-20T19:42:00.000-07:00

This is a full page spread of crazy squish happening. Its fun to have lists and notes on my life collide with images and doodles every now and again. Although they may not be as pretty to look at I really enjoy these pages just because they remind me of my concerns and living standards at particular times of my life.

New Cafe Blood for the drawing

2010-06-20T01:47:00.000-07:00

close up below

Hello all!

Sorry for the long delay between posts. Unfortunately the space between doesn't allude to fantastic and amazing works being produced but actually the opposite. I've been having a lazy time this beginning of the year (I do know its the middle of the year already but I refuse to accept it), funnily enough I've found that almost everyone I've been talking to has said they're in a bit of a hiatus themselves. So either there is a natural phenomenon where productivity drops during the early (middle) months or productive people are staying away from me.

On the up side I found a new cafe which had a decent interior to sketch close to home! The coffee was alright, unfortunately the music was terrible and I had to leave soon after the image was done.

Another upside I will have to mention is my attendance at talks. There are a couple tips and comments that I found particularly helpful or interesting and I'll try post those as well as competitions and opportunities in the future.

Group Show on Friday!

2010-05-23T01:49:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

I've been included into a group show! The Opening (incase you can't read the small print on the post)

Is on:

Friday the 28th of May at 6-9pm

at Monstrosity Gallery

93 Bourke Street Woollomooloo

(You can access it from the stairs near the AGNSW

or just by going down Bourke street)

You can find more information about the gallery here

I'll be showing a new never been seen charcoal work in this exhibition!

and after the opening I'll put up some process images!

I look forward to seeing you this friday!

Cheers

Jess

Experimental portrait

2010-05-14T03:30:00.000-07:00

I've finally worked out some sort of routine/area for my art making at home! Losing my studio space at University was sad sad time for me, and to help me get over it I snuck back into University and decided to use some unmarked territory as my own. Alas all good things must come to an end, and I am now resigned to working at home.

After a few trial and errors I have finally found a way to fit my messy practice into my small apartment. I will post hilarious images of my canvas' sitting on my bath tub later. At the moment I am jumping between my bedroom, living room table (aka easel and stool in one) and my couch side table depending on the medium I am using. And at the moment I am using a few. After countless arguments about the benefits of working charcoal on paper VS canvas I have conceded to see how the other side lives. (The other side lives in a sucky part of town. Canvas all the way.)

I will admit that a deliciously smooth surface does await the paper user, but so will large framing costs.

Paper has been very friendly towards inks however (though I've used those with canvas as well) and I have been playing around with mixed media especially after being inspired by Matt Huynh work and solo show (happening on the 1rst of June!) I've posted my favourite piece above, it's a mixture of inks and acrylics on paper.

Unwary transport-riding victims for my pen

2010-05-05T16:07:00.000-07:00

Someone I managed to capture in decent detail on the bus.

I love sleeping subjects, they don't move around much and you are free to openly stare at them when drawing.

Exhibitions I've made it to recently

2010-05-03T15:11:00.000-07:00

Close up of below

Gallery 4a

White Rabbit

Art gallery of New South Wales

Here are a few inspiring exhibitions I've been to recently as well a couple great galleries I've stumbled across.

4A deals in contemporary Asian art, it was hosting a great show with Aris Prabawa while I was there (images above). It's a beautiful space practically opposite Capitol theatre. They are also holding an Animation competition for anyone interested.

White Rabbit is one of the largest private collections of contemporary Chinese Art (I'd say in the World but I don't know enough rich people to check, but at the very least definitely Australia) Three floors of gorgeous art with a cute teahouse on the ground floor. The collection gets changed twice a year so plenty of time to wander on down and check it all out. (Image of Cang Xin's work)

I'm sure everyone knows the AGNSW.

The Archibald Portrait prize, the Wynne and the Sulman-which I have to sat was particularly good this year-finish on the 30th of May. (The above image comes from Martin Ball's entry) Art Express is also on, although I didn't make it there and an enjoyable (free!) mish mash of young contemporary Australian artists in the exhibit called Wilderness can be found upstairs.

Doodles

2010-05-02T18:45:00.000-07:00

Here's a little shot of my notebook journal a loose collections of scribblings, notes, ideas and rough sketches of people I see on the train. I usually am too afraid to mar my precious moleskin with unplanned or long dedicated images so I like to carry this little A6 journal around for scrap notation. Very handy and I find that I enjoy doing and having these little doodles as well as making little proofs of visual ideas I would otherwise forget.

Long time coming

2010-05-02T18:08:00.000-07:00

I've let things slip a bit with uploading, but I have a few long winded projects I am attempting to finish so there have been less small illustrations and sketches. Here is just a quick sketch I completed in April of a cafe in Paddington next to Dinosaur designs

Illustration Friday: Dip

2010-04-08T17:11:00.000-07:00

I was caught between choosing a dip in the pool and food dips.

I love drawing people swimming or just lazing by the pool

but I also love food...

In the end I compromised and did both.

So next time you're hungry and in need of cool refreshment

why not go down to your local dipping pool?

Everyone loves a good dip

But don't forget!

wait 30 minutes between eating and swimming

and apply sun cream

More Bear antics

2010-04-02T22:48:00.000-07:00

Different vehicle,

same animal,

for more transport related creatures stay tuned!

Inking about

2010-03-26T21:39:00.000-07:00

I recently was very inspired by Jillian Tamaki's post on inks, and her ink abilities in general, and I wanted to try a little out myself since I'd been ignoring them and favouring watercolours recently. She had painted crocodiles and since I'm partial to them myself I followed suit.

The idea of a friendly crocodile comes from a children's rhyme or story I heard when I was younger. I can't really remember it but I'm pretty sure the moral ended with the friendly crocodile eating a few children that got swayed by its charms. For this reason I think it was written by Roald Dahl. Who had several kids, and even some adults, meet their end down the gullets of giants, rhinos and other menacing creatures.

For this reason I wanted my crocodile to appear very debonair and affable and a contestant for least likely to swallow and digest anyone. So when it ever did come to devouring it would come as a complete surprise.

Sugar Cafe

2010-03-24T15:59:00.000-07:00

(close up)

This is a lovely little cafe just a hop, skip and a step away from bar bici (the bike cafe) I drew a while ago. I've been wanting to go there for ages and it was worth the wait. Such a picturesque little coffee and cake shop.

The tiny place is only manned by two people and only open till 3pm. But the staff was really nice and chilled and they let me stay half and hour after closing time to finish my drawing. Never harassed me, (that said I include over friendliness as harassment) and even gave me a free muffin because it was the last one for the day.

Coffee there was okay, but at the end of the day free muffin plus nice atmosphere I give it the thumbs up:

here's the address for anyone curious,

2B Nelson Street

Bondi Junction

NSW 2022

bear in bumper car

2010-03-18T16:52:00.000-07:00

More Blasting from the Pasting! ... wait what?

2010-03-16T16:24:00.000-07:00

These are excepts from my Oxford's visual dictionary of nearly everything. It is lacking in some aspects when it comes to living up to it's title, but it makes it up in unintended humor and gorgeous illustrations. It's great fun to see what the norms of clothing, hair and technology were back in the day.

But it's much better fun to find all the strange compositions they came up with when trying to describe ordinary tasks.

Such as above, where one scuba diver is just about to assault the other. In this underwater attack surprise is everything, which is probably why he has decided to beat his fellow diver to a watery grave with an appropriately themed conch shell instead of using the handy knife he is wielding.

See fig. 8

Tip your barista

2010-03-13T19:56:00.000-08:00

Close up

This image started off as a pretty sharp uptight drawing, which can be seen from the close up, but then I got distracted by the vibrating butterfly of a barista. She was getting orders, warming cakes, mixing salads, dishing sandwiches, making coffee and giving change. In the end I couldn't get a single full image of her but settled for several little snippets of her job behind the counter. I think she adds a very necessary amount of life into an otherwise slightly dry image.

Westfields

2010-03-08T16:52:00.000-08:00

Ran out of places to go the other day, as cafes and shops started closing around 4 or so, and I had no time to sit and draw to contentment. So I opted for the Westfields' food court. The nice one. I got coffee from the coffee, tea and all cakes known to man store. Not from Chili & Spice, which would be a lovely name for a cafe, but is instead a Indian restaurant. And which, I just noticed, I misspelt as Chill & Spice, which would still be a fairly nice name for a cafe.

The coffee nonetheless was enjoyable. However be warned. The giant oatmeal, raisin, nut cookies are not as delicious as they seem. If you are in the mood head down to the luxe cafe instead and you will be rewarded. Their cupcakes are also better. (And you can see my mural!)

Also if you are in a baklava mood do not purchase from the kebab store! The baklava is expensive, dry and not syrupy enough. It is a long walk but there is a wonderful little nuts and everything shop near the coles supermarket. They are floating in the center of the mall and have $1.50 baklava pieces that taste amazing but don't make you feel ill afterwards.

If you have any recommendations for me, for coffee or cake, please pass on the love!

Blast from the Past

2010-03-03T18:30:00.000-08:00

While going through my stack of 'inspirationals', which amounts to a giant pile of photocopies, clippings and things I pick off the street, I stumbled across these wonderful educational children's magazines. They follow the alphabet in a general encyclopedia method and are littered with old school photographs and illustrations. How did this little gem of the 1970s find its way into my possession?

Well a few years ago one of my friend's decided to clear up her room and redecorate. In the usual high school girl fashion we all got very excited and came over sleep over style to help out. Some point during this little event, the magazines changed hands. I'm pretty sure the original owner was Jess Whiting, who's up in Brisbane now working in the management and curation side of the Arts. She had brought them over collage materials, but in the end they were spared the scissors and I convinced her to give them to me.

There are several other excerpts and delightful covers but instead of making an annoying giant post I just decided to put the rest in my flickr account. You can find them, and other scavenged, stolen and found images, here

Late Night coffee bean: thank you night shift

2010-02-27T03:38:00.000-08:00

Late night, sooooo late night. Two or so in the morning or something ridiculous like that. The only thing more amusing is that the cafe was fairly full of people, all very happy, awake and mostly socializing. I perked up after a while and managed to use some of the ink brush pens that were starting to feel ignored. Not sure if I like how all the plants came out in the end, but definitely fond of the guy wearing a cap indoors.

Chilling late night at Starbucks

2010-02-22T03:46:00.000-08:00

Taking advantage of operational hours in Singapore, coffee shops closing early at midnight or not at all, I decided to drive in the small hours and get some drawing done in my last days of Asia. Couldn't stay awake for a full cafe sketch, despite the coffee, but managed to get some girls who'd obviously settled in for the night with they're big display of mugs, cups and saucers. Most happy with capturing the legs of the short haired girl in front. She had olympian calves.

Free Hugs near Starbucks

2010-02-19T04:40:00.000-08:00

Free hugs were being dispensed outside the Orchard Starbucks I usually frequent. Didn't get any myself but had spotted several shoppers sporting a red paper heart shaped badge earlier and was glad to have the mystery explained.

But there was still more to ponder. Like who organizes these free hug groups.

I always meet the idea of 'free' with suspicion and a mildly fanatic eagerness-the kind that will have you elbowing your way through minors and seniors while pumping your hand franticly in the air going ME! ME! PICK ME!.

It's odd but something you wouldn't look at twice suddenly becomes much more appealing when there is no price tag involved. It's like there is a special sheen of attractiveness that coats free products, and I think just about everyone will agree that free food just tastes better.

Such is the allure of free.

There is the eagerness, but now for the suspicion. I understand free items attached to businesses, you try once and hopefully you buy later. But free hugs? First of all, who would ever come back later willing to buy a hug? And secondly, who is paying these people to offer their friendly comfort out to the public? Is it corporate owned? Government? or one of those self banding groups that decide to do fun things for the community in their spare time.

Of course all this speculation stopped the minute the Free Hugs group decided to call it a day and headed into Starbucks for a drink. Then there was regret. The kind you get when you wake up from an uncomfortable sleep on a plane and realize everyone but you has a warm towel. Or when you decide not to go to that boring office get together and find out later that there was free beer, and someone brought cake.

So here is the voice of hindsight: forgo your suspicion and give way to eagerness. When next met with free hugs, don't question, just squeeze that willing participant and bask in the happiness that is inherent in both Free and Hug.

Adrift: missed out again

2010-02-19T03:37:00.000-08:00

Just a little something I made for Illustration Friday, but sadly I missed the deadline.

I blame the 8 hour flight from Singapore to Sydney,

and the 8 hours of sleep that followed.

Hope you all enjoy anyway.

Happy Chinese New Year!

2010-02-13T09:05:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

Hope you all have a good time in the Year of the Tiger

More of Bear

2010-02-10T07:16:00.000-08:00

Blogger is messing around with my colours again, had I been happy with them in this image it would be much more annoying. Alas the texture on my watercolour paper is driving my scanner mad. The scanner refuses to let the blank unpainted section in my image to lie in the background. After some equal treatment the grain is now smugly sitting in the foreground.

I've tried everything in photoshop from levels and curves to hue/saturation. My problem is the paper is received as a yellow, a main colour in the rest of image, to change it in any way distorts the overall colour scheme. Which was changed anyway by scanner and photoshop and blogger. If anyone has a magical solution to my problems please inform me. But otherwise enjoy the transport adventures of bear.

The smokers outside Takashimaya

2010-02-08T08:16:00.000-08:00

Close up

This was actually finished on two separate occasions due to me leaving the country. I had wanted to draw the guardian lions that stand in front of Taka opposite the smokers when I originally started this image, but ran out of time.

After I returned to Australia other drawings and pages got filled in and this one got left behind. More than a year later, after scouting through the remaining pages of my moleskin, I remembered what I had planned and returned to roughly the same place I was sitting to finish this image.

The resulting differences in style and pen can be seen but I think its a nice contrast.

Flamingos catching some Z's

2010-02-01T08:33:00.000-08:00

Do not disturb the Flamingos

bear eating cake

2010-01-31T08:58:00.000-08:00

I think the title is fairly self explanatory, as is the picture.

Last Double Spread: going back to classics

2010-01-28T21:18:00.000-08:00

(Close up)

In my final spread I decided to put away the ink pen and my little muji biro (mostly because the biro ran out of ink) and return to some drawing with my traditional linework. It's a slightly more usual layout with lines in the horizon meeting and perspective working its magic on size. But I wanted a slightly more literal image of my favourite Starbucks in Singapore to finish my mostly 2009 moleskin with.

Another way I got to finish off the year nicely was to get into a NOISE curation. Noise is an online international creative community. It's a great way to show off your work if you don't have a full website portfolio, and even if you do it's nice to have anyway. It's similar to deviant art or flikr, except you can add news/events/information on a general forum page. As well as spotting interesting jobs/opportunities/& art prizes that go up by the Noise crew. I got three pieces into the New on Noise: December 2009 curation, which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

Here's my spot in Noise, come take a look.

More floating heads

2010-01-26T08:12:00.000-08:00

More displaced heads for the 2009 journal. Not too many of them because I managed to move twice and still find myself under the intense flow of the 24hr Starbucks aircon. After a frappacino (a bad one! ...have no idea how they can do that they measure it all out in a cup) well, ice, air con, nighttime, I ended up being too cold to draw. A strange feeling to have in Singapore.

Still managed to get a few down this time combining my ink pen and biro to have nice strong lines and subtle shading. My favourite is the girl at the top, where I think the double combo of pens comes out the best. In a couple of the others however its like a bad DC and Marvel crossover. But some crazy people enjoy the Universe crash so I hope there's a floating head here for everyone.

More ink pen!

2010-01-24T07:27:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of displaced heads snuck into the remaining spaces of my moleskin. There are bizarrely spaced empty pages between to do lists, diary notes and sketches. Perhaps I left room to write down a memorable event or maybe I thought I needed at least one or two full page spreads to adequately caption the previous image I had just spent several hours drawing in an attempt to have the picture say the 1000 words I didn't feel like articulating.

In spite of all the leftover space, or perhaps because of it, I jumped the gun and bought a new sketchbook. I promised myself that I wouldn't open the plastic until I had saturated every last available space in my old book. But the promise is growing thin, and as the allure of breaking the seal and smelling the fresh virgin pages calls I am starting to hurry through the awkward process of filling up cracks in my 2009 diary.

Hence the floating heads. They are a fun challenge whenever I am a little too tired to do a full scene, or when one will simply not fit onto where ever I seem to be drawing. But hopefully they will retire with the old year model soon and before the new month waxes over I will start on new and exciting full bodied and unrestricted images.

Going nuts on photoshop

2010-01-19T06:29:00.000-08:00

Surrounded by so much black and white will have me go nuts every now and again. Such example above. Why are there explosions of colour shooting across this calm idyllic cafe scene? Who knows. It might have something to do with residual anger towards the central newspaper reading man for his acrobatic leaps in position. Or it might have something to do with me being recently addicted to MGMT's 'electric feel' and Cut copy's 'Lights & Music'.

Explanations aside for my light-show mood I hope you enjoy this brief stint outside of Kansas.

Haircuts of Asia

2010-01-17T08:14:00.000-08:00

Hairstyles in Singapore are intensely fun to draw. Even in a seemingly normal and boring cut, like a shaved head, there are random growths and curls emphasized by gel or other styling products. My current favourite cut looks like someone has attached a giant fluffy toupee to a normal short male haircut. Unfortunately they haven't clamped it down properly and half of it has fallen off and is alive in the wind, while the other more reasonable side is muffining over the edges of the young man's head.

Amazing.

I didn't quite catch that particular look here at one of my favourite food courts, but I did manage to gather quite a few examples of the asian style with my brush pen.

New Pen, old subject

2010-01-15T07:15:00.000-08:00

I've bought a new pen! It's a brush tip pen from copic and I'm having some fun with mark making that isn't as easy or as rewarding with my fine tipped biro. I originally didn't like brush tip pens, convinced that they couldn't give a range of line widths or have nice delicate little lines without the horrible hand shake visible.

I liked the idea of them, and I enjoyed seeing what others were doing with them (Matt Huynh!) but when it came down to using them results were never encouraging.

Until I realized my mistake!

I have been using large brush tip pens. Large brush tips do have a fine point but they need a very careful and experienced hand to find them, which I don't have. Smaller brush tips have a more delicate line, making those quick thin marks accessible while still have some weight and fluidity to the longer and thicker lines.

So I had a little play with both, messing around in this image with another way of describing hair, and the chairs I know and love down at coffee bean.

A little late but better than never

2009-12-28T07:21:00.000-08:00

Some images get lost along the way, they get buried under a pile of other things like deadlines or little doodles and simply never see the light of internet. I have a small collection of these...most of them half finished. If I have a new years resolution it is to get all my stuff out there and not leave it sitting on my desktop for months. Thankfully this one only got delayed by a day due to scanning lag.

I had great fun with the middle girl's shoes but she was a constant fidget! Which resulted in the plethora of hands. Her friend was slightly more subdued but I still managed to get three variations from her. But by the time I got to my third person I thankfully found a very calm and stationary uncle. Thank you to all the people who study, read and use the 'free internet' at coffee shops. You are the best drawing subjects.

Sketching at Ion

2009-12-27T08:46:00.000-08:00

More sketching, keeping the fingers limber. This one was penned out in a new location but in the same chain. Coffee Bean at Ion is fairly easy to find, considering everything else in Ion isn't. It's just one floor down on the escalators near the giant ... seed pod/avocado statue.

I decided to focus on people for this image. I was too tired to draw out coffee merchandise/furniture at the time and I've also been having the best time drawing hair with my muji pen. It's a sexy little biro encased in a 'silver' hexagonal casing. Thinner than your average biro (and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!) I'm sold several times over! So was the person who stole my first muji pen. Damn stationery thieves with taste.

Experimental sketches

2009-12-19T09:01:00.000-08:00

I decided to try something a little different with my last cafe sketch and added a dash of painting to the mix. Recently some other friends/artists I know have been working on mixed media, like Matt Huynh. Although I must say he combines his wet and dry mediums in a slightly more interesting manner. But nonetheless I felt inspired to try as well.

Part of me likes this image,

and another part isn't too sure.

I overworked the left hand section near the front man's head. But there are still parts I really love. Like the woman in the sari, the lead up of the stools to the girl typing and the various lamps. Hopefully next time there will be a more significant ratio.

Location: Singapore, Vivo, Pacific Coffee Company (not so great coffee...)

Sketching at Starbucks

2009-12-14T05:58:00.000-08:00

First sketch of the 'holiday', a tad rusty but it was fun to start drawing from life again. Hardest part was definitely mixing and matching people and merging spaces, forgot how fast people drank coffee in Singapore compared to the leisurely pace kept in Sydney. Most enjoyable part of the picture was definitely trying to get the girl's hair right.

Hopefully this will be one of many to come,

before the Christmas crowds get too intense

Things I've been up to

2009-12-07T03:31:00.000-08:00

I've been fairly quiet about what's been happening to me so far so I'm just giving a quick update. I've been discovered! by Blanket, an amazing online magazine. I entered some of my black and white work for the appropriately titled black and white issue. I've also been in a curated group exhibition at the Kudos Gallery again imaginatively titled 'Kudos'. No prizes but a little birdie told me that the judges did like my work. :)

And a few weeks ago, in time for the Spring Fair at Cofa (college of fine arts) I made a small free zine with a few friends helped out by Cofa's amazing double page + stapling printer.

More Prints

2009-12-05T05:19:00.000-08:00

Yes, he is fishing with paper boats. No, do not ask me why. But sleep deprivation and surfing on google images has you coming up with some strange things.

Printed portraits

2009-12-04T22:55:00.000-08:00

I've been doing a few etchings recently to make use of the printing studios at my University before they close down for the holidays. As you can see it's mostly experimental stuff, not the usual tightly and neatly drawn etchings I'm used to doing. These portraits are sort of overflow inspiration from some of my charcoal work which I hope will be finished sometime early next year if I get a studio space. Otherwise will update you with a few close ups and process works as I go along.

Found

2009-11-22T21:36:00.000-08:00

Old photographs have a certain quality about them, colours don't go pixel crazy in a horrible fluro of grey noise the same way they do in digital photographs. It might have been that before I moved to digital my photograph taking abilities were much higher. But what's more likely is = Film just turned out better.

So what if digital was much cheaper and more distribution friendly? I miss the old days of tearing open my packet of developed film in rabid excitement and sorting through my ill-lit and unfocussed crap to find a few good photographs. Those good photographs were amazing.

But really the whole process was much too expensive.

So now I opt for digging through other people's photographs. I found this set in an Antique and second hand store. These are just a few of my favourites. I'll add more when I finish scanning them in.

i draw naked people

2009-11-08T21:53:00.001-08:00

This is a small collection of the naked people I have drawn and or painted. They come from different projects based on fluidity or tone or abstraction but one magical thing ties them all together. Nakedness. Sadly enough it isn't as the posters say. Nude models do not need to be attractive. All that is required of them is the willingness to shed clothes and be directed into various awkward and revealing positions.

You might say that this is easy, hell you might be the god-blessed sort of person who likes to shimmy down to the buff every friday night after a few stubbies at the local bar. You're probably thinking 'Hey, being paid to be naked and stand still sounds good to me!' But I hope you've been taking your advanced yoga lessons, your mind-over-matter courses, and have a lot of self esteem.

Showing up to work to be butt naked (while sober) in winter (with no heating) while a bunch of people stare at your member (do not think sexy thoughts) and draw horribly ugly pictures of you (for hours...yes you need to be able to stand still for 15-30 minutes) is much harder than you think.

But if you do finally come to the conclusion that being a life model is the job for you,
I'll be seeing you.

Screenprinting

2009-11-01T22:17:00.001-08:00

These are a few screen prints I completed recently for a University project. The brief was to make eight individual prints from the same screens. Hopefully forcing you into a more organic less rigid intuitive way of screen printing. Well I hated it for most part. Give me rigid frigid planning ahead any day. Nevertheless I liked a few of the prints that came out in the end and it was an interesting experience with interesting results.

Cafe sketch

2009-10-26T03:30:00.000-07:00

The signature down the bottom left belongs to the well-muscled man in the back of the cafe. Despite him looking intensely at his laptop he also managed to spy me.

I used to have a habit of getting waiters & waitresses to sign my cafe sketches. I think they enjoyed being part of the image and seeing what I had done to the place they clock in their 9 to 5's. I guess it also made the image more real as a place for me.

Others who'd spotted me were gladly included or on the rare occasion I'd approach some of the random people who were in the image for their John Hancock. But I fell out of habit. Mostly because some people had no idea what in the world I wanted from them or what my sketch was of. Also some others were a bit suspicious of giving out their signature, as we all should be.

Well-muscled man didn't have any qualms however, and was quite pleased to get a glimpse at what he looked like, as well as adding to the piece himself.

doodles

2009-10-26T03:11:00.000-07:00

mX gives some love

2009-10-26T00:51:00.000-07:00

I got a spot in mX a couple weeks ago, it's a giant picture with a little caption promoting my solo exhibition. A big thank you to the mX team and also everyone who came down after this peaked their interest!

I was actually surprised at the amount of feedback I got from this. I don't travel by train. And there never seems to be any newspapers near my bus stops. For me the mX is a rare and temporary paper specimen. So it was great to hear friend's tell me that they flipped out on the train and leaned over to whoever was reading the mX to announce that they knew me:

"Yes, yes, her!...no not the picture of the two men spitting out wine on the opposite page...yes! that one! You do know that makes me famous by one degree of separation?"

And once again, I'd just like send some love and a big thank you to mX and everyone who came, called, emailed or sent some astral telepathic love my way and to the exhibition.

Solo Show!

2009-09-29T04:31:00.001-07:00

I'm having an exhibition from the 9th to the 21rst of October at galleryeight!
This is my first solo and I am very excited and nervous
so please join me for drinks on Opening night:

the 9th of October,
from 6-9pm
at galleryeight
8 Argyle Place

galleryeight is open Thursdays to Sundays 12-6pm
but you might get lucky on some of the other days.

This show will be a collection of my charcoal works,
for more hints head over to my website,
but come meet them and me in person,
we're much more interesting in the 3D world.

Guess which one mis-registered?

2009-09-24T06:32:00.000-07:00

For all you out there that missed my glorious prints at the Spring Fair: shame on you!

But I forgive, to show my forgiveness here's a sample of some of my work that was on sale.

There is just a single elephant per print, but I really ended up loving my dodge print and wanted to show it off. My little elephant on the right is out by several centimeters but he has become my favourite out of the bunch.

The original image was penned in at the Singapore zoo, where a lovely elephant repeated this pose several times to snack on some artificially elevated bananas.

Spring Fair! This Saturday!

2009-09-17T03:23:00.000-07:00

The time has come again for Spring Fair!

Student and graduates of cofa bring out their wares for sale in a crazy, colourful market carnival set in cofa. There are also exhibitions, live dj's, tours, festival food and demonstrations. Even if you are broke and can't buy any art come for the free demonstrations!

I recommend the printing demonstrations. Michael Kempson will be doing a print run of professional artists' work throughout the day, working with the etching press. It's wonderful to see the before and after of prints, and if you run into the images again in some gallery you can boast that you were there when they were being made.

I will also be around and about in the printing studio, talking about printing and selling some of my own work, so come find me!

For anyone wondering where and what cofa is, it's an Art University residing in Sydney, Paddington, at the Corner of Oxford St and Greens Rd.

Spring Fair starts at 10am until 4pm
this saturday, 19th of September

Ariel from across the street

2009-09-11T22:08:00.000-07:00

I was actually sitting across the street in Berkelouw when I drew this and it really killed my eyes. I think I need to get my glasses checked. There was so much colour in that store that I would have to pause and try distinguish what was what every few minutes. It didn't help that there were about three panes of glass distorting things slightly (two of them in Berkelouw) Nonetheless pretty happy with how it all came out. Rough scale on image size: 12 x 7 cm.

Aboutlife: The organic cafe/grocery store that ate Macro

2009-09-11T21:54:00.000-07:00

My favourite thing about this place is that they have little shopping trolleys for kids, also they have cute red plastic flags attached to them. So if you loose sight of your child as you are forcing them to move your groceries around you can find them easily again. Unfortunately I saw no child labour while having my fair trade coffee.

Gloria Jeans

2009-09-11T21:20:00.000-07:00

Two people behind me were having the most painful impromptu speed dating session ever. It began with the guy pulling out the 'dating for dummies' book and asking the girl if she had read it. It went downhill from there. I would have liked to do a little bit more of the cafe, but I couldn't draw and block my ears at the same time so I left.

Max Brener again

2009-09-11T20:45:00.000-07:00

Again haven't been keeping up the blog, which means there will be a large clump of images and then a dry spell. Kind of like those healthy but tasty breakfast cereals-there are these amazing crunchy nutty honey filled berry bits of sweet things that make the rest of cereal taste good. But you get them all melded together into this little ball of goodness, or just search for them when you first open the packet and then feel angry and disappointed when finishing off the rest of the box.

Well I will try not let that happen, and keep up with images and info so that there is an even nutritious diet of visuals. After all 4 out of 5 doctors recommend consuming several small pictorial meals a day rather than one large binge. With your health in mind I will try harder to go to coffee shops and chocolate shops to eat and draw.