Yaacov Agam Inspired Work – Over many months now I have been wrestling with a myriad of ideas. In my Study Statement I was keen to develop a new form of hybrid human, digital and AI art. I also wanted to include an element of mystery and discovery whereby elements of the work were hidden. During my search for inspiration I came across two artists that particularly resonated with me, namely: Alexander Calder and Yaacov Agam. I particularly liked the idea of movement and mobile art seen in Calder’s work. Indeed I was so taken with his work that I went to visit the Tate Modern to see some of his pieces there. However, Yaacov Agam’s work really did inspire me. In his Artist’s statement he says: “My aim is to show the visible in a perpetual state of becoming”. I think this is a beautiful way in which he describes his work. However, I personally would liken it to, showing the visible in a perpetual state of change. Given the nature of the subject matter that I’m exploring, his work for me very much aligns with this notion of change as well as ‘becoming’. Below is a short […]
Nothing is Ever New – I often tell my students about a great piece of advice that I received as a photography student over 30 years ago. The advice was simple, but it has had a profound effect on my work through the decades. It goes like this…… “When you have your finalised brief or theme – go away and brainstorm 5 ideas and write them down on a piece of paper. Once you have your list, screw it up, or better still tear it up and throw it in the bin. Why???…Because those 5 ideas will probably be the exact same 5 ideas that everyone else will come up with.” I now always pass on this little piece of advice to all my students. They usually give me a look of abject horror, having just spent the last two hours working on the first idea that came into their heads. Yesterday Noah, one of my fellow students, kindly alerted me to an artist who is working very much along the same lines as me. Here is an Instagram link to his work. I am not really surprised by someone else working in my area of trying to marry up […]
A Little Confession – Before I begin to document our zoom session from this week I have a little confession to make. I heard someone say that this was zoom session six. I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that this week’s session was zoom session seven. The reason I’m so sure is because each week I take the time to draw myself a little zentangle. I counted up my zentangles and I have seven. Therefore I think this week is week seven, but of course I may be wrong. As we were discussing ‘active listening’ I thought that now was probably a really good time to ‘fess’ up to my little ongoing drawing activity. I thoroughly enjoy our zoom sessions, I feel it’s a time for me to learn as opposed to teaching, which as a lecturer is a nice concept. When I’m listening I enjoy drawing. Since I seem to be mainly locked in a digital world at the moment, it brings just a small dose of the physical into my weekly meeting. I also find it very relaxing and for some strange reason it seems to help me concentrate more. I set myself a few […]
