Food for Thought – Karyn Easton

Jun 29

Barcelona Graffiti #2

Hidden Away – During my recent trip to Barcelona, I was was mesmerised by the colour and variety of the street art both in and around the city. I briefly touched on this in part one of this post called ‘Barcelona Graffiti’. I still don’t know exactly why I was so drawn to the graffiti (street art), except to say that the colours were amazing! It seemed to relentlessly permeate throughout the whole fabric of the city, weaving a disjointed tapestry of colours. Indeed it could even be described in some places as a riot of colour on an otherwise typical traditional cityscape and its walls. All of this was in stark contrast to the walls of one of Barcelona’s most famous contemporary art museums, namely the MACBA. Here there was no graffiti. Everything inside was pristine with beautiful gleaming white walls. A Short Recap Below is short video recap from Barcelona Graffit part one. It helps to illustrate the scale of graffiti and street art that can be found in and around the city. In stark contrast to the brightly coloured graffiti in the video above, the following image gallery illustrates the crisp, clean, neutral […]

Jun 13

by Karyn in Artists, Culture, Experimentation, Food for Thought, My Work, Photography, Unit 2 Blogs, Videos 0 comments tags: Artists, Culture, Experimentation, Food for Thought, my work, Photography, Unit 2 Blogs, Videos

Barcelona Graffiti

Barcelona – Graffiti Capital of Europe? Is Barcelona the graffiti capital of Europe? Within only a short walking distance, the 1.15 minute clip below exposes the shear volume of street art around the city. In many cases residents have turned what is obviously a problem into something much more creative. They appear to have given up on trying to clear the graffiti. Instead, there is a sense that it is not just part of local society, it is in fact now embraced by it. Below is a video short highlighting the sheer scale of the street art. Calling it graffiti feels almost unkind because many of the colour schemes and designs seem carefully crafted as opposed to simply scrawled. Interestingly, the famous street artist Banksy has his museum in Barcelona. I wonder how much the colourful street art/graffiti clad surroundings influenced his decision? Barcelona – Graffiti Capital of Europe? One thing that particularly struck me while photographing all of the graffiti were the times that people seemed to have matching graffiti with clothes or other items. Below are some examples where people’s outfits or items matched the graffiti surrounding them. Maybe the graffiti was affecting their fashion choices […]

May 15

by Karyn in 3d, Abstract Art, Artists, Culture, Food for Thought, Galleries, Ideas, Photography, Timelapse, Unit 2 Blogs, Videos 0 comments tags: 3d, Abstract Art, Artists, Culture, Food for Thought, Galleries, Ideas, Photography, Timelapse, Unit 2 Blogs, Videos

Barcelona Trip

Time to Unwind and Return To Blogging – The last 3 weeks have been incredibly busy. At work this is the time when we are preparing students for their art exams. However, for me the biggest task and time consuming activity is the production of the end of year film. There are more details about this in the blog post ‘A Temporary Distraction’. I always enjoy seeing the wide variety of work produced by our students but assembling it all into a coherent narrative can often be quite challenging. After nearly completing the film, luckily I was able to take a break in Barcelona. My students were now on a reading week, so it was the perfect opportunity to get away. This blog is a record from the start of the trip in England, to the return journey and most importantly everything in between. Sunday 14th May – Morning Sunrise The weather started off well enough and as we drove off to Bristol Airport we were greeted by a lovely sunrise. Unfortunately my camera was packed away, but I did manage to capture this iPhone shot. Apologies for the poor resolution. What Greeted us at Bristol Airport Although […]

Jan 03

by Karyn in Artists, Books, Culture, Food for Thought, Galleries, Ideas, Lectures 0 comments tags: Artists, Books, Culture, Food for Thought, Galleries, Ideas, Lectures

Dean Kenning Lectures

Summary of the Dean Kenning Lectures Term One Below are short summaries of the Dean Kenning Lectures that began this term Oct 2022. I will document these on a termly basis and include relevant slides. The Art and Politics of Statues 18/10/22 – This was the first lecture at the start of the term. I think that the key takeaway here was that sometimes it isn’t always appropriate to ‘hijack’ someone else’s cause because it could be seen as self serving self promotion. The case in point was the Marc Quinn ‘A Surge of Power’ (Jen Reid) erected 15th July 2020. Anti-racism protesters in England pulled down a statue of a 17th-century slave trader while demonstrating in solidarity with the US Black Lives Matter movement. Quinn surreptitiously erected the statue early on the morning of 15th July 2020. Although this would seem like an act of solidarity on his part as a white male, it raises questions about the true motivation behind it. Was Quinn simply trying to use a political situation in order to further his own career? Would it have been better to have community art erected instead of art from a white male already making a […]

Dec 21

by Karyn in Artists, Culture, Food for Thought, Galleries, My Work, Research, Videos 0 comments tags: Artists, Culture, Food for Thought, Galleries, my work, Research, Videos

London Part 2

A City of Culture – I’ve visited London on numerous occasions but this time was different because it was with the specific aim of visiting art galleries and museums. My visit to the capital last week was a business trip. This week I was helping my colleagues to escort 30 students around a number of museums and galleries. Following is an account of my time there. I have also documented some of the most amazing artworks at a number of leading galleries. Day 1 Our first day was spent travelling. Just like last week I travelled from Paignton to Paddington with one change at Newton Abbot. However it very nearly didn’t happen because a train broke down near Paignton. This meant that we were almost an hour late. Therefore we had to get a later train from Newton Abbot to Paddington. Sadly because of the delay we lost about 2 hours and arrived around 9.00pm instead of 7.00pm. Above is the view from my hotel room window. Although it was a later than planned arrival, we dumped our bags and headed out to find somewhere to eat. We wound up at a Turkish restaurant near to the Ibis Hotel […]

Barcelona Graffiti #2

Barcelona Graffiti

Barcelona Trip

Dean Kenning Lectures

London Part 2

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