NATURAL TOUCHSTONES

mrandmrscharlie on Instagram

Stephanie Dalton's new painting inspired me today. It reminds me of riverine krantzes, pebble beaches, driftwood and rock pools. 

Stephanie Dalton. Click to go to Stephanie's website

I enjoyed Stephanie's artist statement ..... and wish I had written it myself.

"It is the quieter side of the world that inspires my abstract works, the feelings that arise through a connection with the natural world. Colorful patterns in stone, aged patinas on walls, and fragmented light on the horizon are some natural touchstones for me." - Stephanie Dalton

Small wild basket by Robyn Gordon

My own work is often inspired by my connection with nature. Long walks and foraging on beaches set the mood for beginning new carvings. Once I was inspired by clumps of sea reeds that were washed up on the beach after heavy storms and decided  there and then to sit down and create my first wild basket for the few small treasures I had found. It is a very rudimentary basket but for the time I spent creating it I was totally absorbed.

"Beach Walk" a work in progress by Robyn Gordon

Beach walks have inspired many of my carvings. 

A piece from the River to Wood series by Hannah Lamb

I'm intrigued with how artists interpret what they have seen and how they bring meaningful moments into their artwork.

Hannah Lamb's " creative practice focuses on walking and making as methods of reconnecting with the world immediately around us. Personal, emotional responses to environment and surface are recorded through stitch, print, photography and construction, piecing together fragments of place and time."

Hannah's River to Wood series explores the landscape of the River Aire. 

"Short journeys, walking from home to Hirst Wood, collecting marks, prints and found materials." - Hannah Lamb

Talking about wild baskets and inspiration, I found some delightful images on mrandmrscharlie's Instagram blog.

"The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web." - Pablo Picasso

Old papers and Japanese Wood by inspiration.h.o.m.e on Istagram. Love this one!

A SMIDGEN OF MY SOUL

"Creativity is the way I share my soul with the world" - Brene Brown

A lot has happened in the year I have taken off from my blog. The busier I became with commissions and life, the more I found I had less time to compile blog posts. As mentioned in a previous post I decided to simplify by posting on Face Book instead but I have missed Art Propelled! For years it was my little sanctuary where I have made wonderful friends, many of whom are not on Face Book. 

 I have decided to continue my compilations on Face Book but I would like to post here on Art Propelled a few times a month as well.

Commissions bogged me down last year. I have given a lot of thought to how they affect my work production. Through no fault but my own I took on too many commissions and didn't leave enough time in between to create new work which meant I was feeling stale and lost interest. For the first time in a long while I gave myself a month to create something new. 

This piece, "Ancestral Voices" has revived my love for creating art. I began waking in the mornings feeling excited to get out to my work bench to start carving. I purchased a new work bench made of fragrant cedar wood. The moment I set up work for the day the scent of the cedar seems to trigger my creative flow. For years I have worked outside in the courtyard where the heat just about flattened me so I made another change and moved my work area onto the veranda. Though I still do the messy work out in the courtyard I do most of my carving in the shade of the veranda. It has made a huge difference!

A very beautiful quote I kept with me while carving this piece....

"I am listening to a deeper way. Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands." - Linda Hogan

In 2014 Roxanne Evans Stout invited me to create a new sculpture for her book, Storytelling with Collage . The book is out! And what a beautiful book it is!

This is the piece I created for the book. It is made of fragments from my early totems, previously banished to the back of a dark cupboard. There were parts of the old totems that I loved, so I cut these parts off to use in the assemblage.

"Spirit House" was inspired by the Sepik spirit houses in Papua New Guinea, as well as the "house of the hogan" in Mali. A hogan is a Dogon spiritual leader whose house serves as a conduit for spirits to drift through while communicating with him. I was amused by the idea of a mobile spirit house that could fly or sail.... or drive over a bumpy road in Africa.

I'm not sure what the next post will be about but it certainly wont be about me!


"I had to create a world of my own, like a climate, a country, an atmosphere in which I could breathe, reign, and recreate myself  when destroyed by living. That, I believe, is the reason for every work of art" - Anais Nin

INSPIRED BY TRIBAL ART

Kuba skirt at The Hamill Gallery

It all started when Maurice de Vlaminck was given a Fang Mask and he was so awestruck by its "primitive grandeur" that he wanted to show everyone in his art circle. When fellow painter Andre Derain saw it he had to have it, so he bought it from Vlaminck and rushed off to show Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse: Ambroise Vollard then borrowed it and cast it in bronze. Soon everyone was trying to obtain their own pieces of tribal art which began to influence the way they expressed themselves both in painting and sculpture. Thus a new spirit of freedom swept through 20th century art in the Western world.

Shell Cachet-sex from Papua New Guinea

Many artists are inspired by tribal art and I've gathered a few images that intrigue me.

George Peterson designs, carves, burns and paints old skate boards.

Hannes Harrs' mixed media collage made from old African textiles.

The Ngurrara Canvas. 10 Metres x 8 metres. One of the largest and most spectacular Aboriginal paintings of the Great Sandy Desert Region. read story, here.

Spade Sculpture by Roger Lee. See Flickr photostream, here.

Macrame from IRONIC's Flickr photostream.

Wave after wave has brought to our shores beautiful and mysterious treasures from unknown worlds: figurines, animals, fetishes, masks, ceremonial or useful objects. They are called Primitive for want of a better name...What could never have been written is there, all the dreams and anguishes of man. The hunger for food and sex and security, the terrors of night and death, the thirst for life and the hope for survival."- Dominique deMenil, Tribal Arts Spring 1998

Tribal by Rosalie Gascoigne at The Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery

Group of my earliest totems.

THE SIMPLE THINGS

I read the Newspaper about once a month, if that, because it unsettles me to read about the turmoil in my country every day. We have unacceptable crime levels. Rape and murder are so commonplace they don't even elicit a shocked reaction anymore. I'm tired of reading about fraud, bribes, greed, corruption, theft, burglaries, violence. We have regular strikes, demonstrations and electricity load shedding which is crippling business and as if the electricity blackouts aren't enough we can now look forward to water shortages too......And lets not even talk about the goings on in Zimbabwe.

As far as I'm concerned, "if it happens it happens" but I would rather not dwell on it by reading about it in the newspaper everyday. I certainly feel a lot more content since I've been avoiding the news.

Today I count my blessings and focus on the simple things in life.

Working quietly in the courtyard, the sound of the stream gurgling in the backround and the loeries calling overhead. My work is my meditation.

Sitting on the lawn with the dogs, gazing up at an amazing sky. Clouds with silver linings.

Breathing in the fragrance of crushed rose geranium leaves.

Orchids flowering on the meditation tree.

The scent of camphor as I remove clean sheets from mom's old camphor chest.

Gathering metal bits and pieces to use in my art ....or just gathering for the sake of gathering.

Listening to my daughter's unbridled laughter. Appreciating my husband's quirky sense of humour.

.........And while I am tapping away at the keys, loving being part of this blogging community, the phone rings. Someone has just purchased two of my carved doors at the gallery..."please send more." It's such a great day!

A DAY OUT

This morning started on a shrill note. The Hadedas roost on the roof and I swear they tiptoe over to where I'm sleeping, peep over the edge and say....yep, dead to the world...and then all hell breaks loose. They have a cry like a hundred wailing babies. I just about hit the roof every time!

We had an early trip to Durban planned, to deliver a carving and fetch a fishing rod ....... then the day was ours to browse. We headed to Art Africa in Umhlanga, my favourite shop in KwaZulu Natal.

They stock a wonderful selection of African artefacts, both traditional and contemporary. Most of my Ethiopian crosses come from Art Africa and I have my eye on quite a few other pieces but today was just for browsing.

A new consignment of life sized colonial figures had just arrived. Traditionally a Baoule woman would have a carving made of her future husband , dressed in the garb of whatever profession she admired. With the colonial influence in Africa the idealised vision of her future husband changed and the more westernised figures of doctors, teachers, priests, businessmen, chefs etc. became popular.

It was a treat to get out of the house to waft around the shops, eating food that I didn't have to cook and just sit, contemplating the sea from a cafe at the top of the hill. It's taken me far too long to finish my carving order due to a little accident or two, starting with a nick in one thumb. You won't believe how painful a nicked thumb can be....and as if that wasn't enough the following day I sliced through the other one with a chisel. Something I havn't done in years. Nicks yes but slices no. (Funnily enough it is the exact spot I had stitched when I sliced through my thumb when I was about 15 ). Since my trip to casualty I've been floating around with two thumbs sticking up at right angles, feeling very clumsy....and all thumbs! Ah well that will teach me for carving like a hooligan.