Culture – Karyn Easton

Oct 27

MACBA Metamorphosis

Barcelona’s Hidden Artists – While visiting Barcelona, I became fascinated with the vast swathes of graffiti covered walls. It felt as if collectively everyone had given up on cleaning the walls. Indeed, it felt as if the walls themselves had become works of art. In stark contrast I also noted the pristine internal walls of the MACBA (One of Barcelona’s contemporary art museums). I was so ‘taken with’ the beautiful light inside of the MACBA that I decided to photograph it. I also photographed many graffiti laden walls across Barcelona. There really was a such a stark contrast between the pristine and the messy that I began to wonder what the MACBA would look like if it was plastered in graffiti? The internal walls of the MACBA were so beautifully clean that I felt an irresistible urge to ‘plaster’ them. The vibrant colours and designs found externally on the Streets of Barcelona seemed a logical choice. Unfortunately, my dream of taking spray paints to the MACBA walls was pretty much out of the question. However, I did have access to Photoshop, Ai and augmented reality. As a direct result of my thinking I managed to self publish 3 small art […]

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 […]

Jun 06

by Karyn in Culture, Little Wins, Mentions, My Work, Photography, Unit 2 Blogs, Videos 0 comments tags: Culture, Little Wins, Mentions, my work, Photography, Unit 2 Blogs, Videos

Torbay Airshow 2023

Cockpit Shots – The beginning of June in Torbay has now become synonymous with the fantastic Torbay Airshow! As usual this year did not disappoint! Roughly 3 years ago I treated myself to a Sigma 150mm-600mm telephoto lens. I had partly purchased it so that I could shoot wildlife, but I was also excited to try it out at the Airshow. Last year I was really lucky, I managed to get a number of really photographically sharp ‘cockpit’ shots. One of them even made the Fotospeed top 4 for the week, which I was really pleased about. The fist image (Jet Pitts Sabio image) listed directly below is the one that made the Fotospeed top 4 for the week. Images from 2023 Below is a gallery of some of my favourite images from this year. I’ve also added a ‘jazzy’ video which proved useful for social media. Short Snappy Video for Social Media Below is a short video that I compiled for social media.

May 19

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

MNAC

Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya – While I was visiting the Banksy Gallery one of the guides told me that I really needed to visit ‘Museu National d’Art de Catalunya.’ He explained that this was an amazing gallery and a ‘must see’. He was not wrong! The museum is set high above Barcelona and the views are breathtaking! Luckily I had my DSLR with me on this trip, so I decided to take lots of photos. My memory card was pretty full so I had to be a little careful about wasting frames but I managed to shoot everything I wanted. The building is very imposing! In fact everything about it was imposing, including the security and guards. After a relaxed and friendly visit to both the Banksy (they actually made me a coffee), and the MOCA and MACBA museums, I was left in no doubt that one false move and I’d be in serious trouble. One guard shouted at me for just holding a bottle of water – maybe he had heard about the ‘Just Stop Oil’ protests in the UK and thought I was about to throw it over a painting or something? I duly complied and the […]

May 18

by Karyn in Artists, Context, Galleries, Photography, Unit 2 Blogs, Videos 0 comments tags: Artists, Culture, Galleries, Photography, Unit 2 Blogs, Videos

Banksy Museum

From Start to Finish – Just Superb! – On my way back from visiting the MACBA I started to walk in the direction of the Picasso Museum. It had been my intention to visit this museum because as a young art student I had been to a London exhibition of Picasso’s sketchbooks. I have always admired Picasso’s technical drawing skills and creativity, so visiting the Picasso museum made sense to me. However as I stopped to look at Google Maps in order to orientate myself I just happened to glance at the building to my right. There was a relatively (could have easily missed) small sign for the Banksy Museum. I wandered in to see if this museum was taking part in the ‘International Museum Day’ that I had just taken advantage of at the MACBA. The staff at the reception desk said that as it was a private museum then admission wasn’t free. I asked if there was any student discount and duly pulled out my UAL student card. The lady behind the desk explained that yes they did give student discount but only to under 25s. I guess it wasn’t my lucky day. Feeling quite dejected at my […]

May 18

by Karyn in Artists, Culture, Galleries, Little Wins, Mentions, My Work, Photography, Unit 2 Blogs 0 comments tags: Artists, Culture, Galleries, Little Wins, Mentions, my work, Photography, Unit 2 Blogs

MACBA

The Museum of Contemporary Art Barcelona – The MACBA was a short 35 minute walk away from the Hotel Barcelona. Below is a short video of the route showing some of the surroundings. En Route to the MACBA Beautiful Light at the MACBA Before launching into a gallery of artworks at the MSCBA, I want to highlight both the beautiful architecture and light of the building. I was completely ‘taken’ with the stunning light that streamed through the huge windows of the building. Indeed I felt that the atmosphere created by the large windows, together with the clinically white interior, architectural angles and vaulted ceilings, warranted a mini photographic project all of its own. Therefore I decided to take some time out to shoot some of the beautifully lit interiors that were flooded with natural light. Below is a photo gallery of a photographic study of the light at the MACBA Self Publishing a Small Book of Beautiful Light at the MACBA On realising that I had produced so many interior images of the MACBA, I decided to try out a few page layouts. I felt that the images worked well together, so I decided to […]

May 15

by Karyn in Artists, Culture, Galleries, Ideas, Photography, Unit 2 Blogs 0 comments tags: Artists, Culture, Galleries, Ideas, Photography, Unit 2 Blogs

MOCO

Modern Contemporary Museum – Barcelona – The MOCO was one of the first museums in Barcelona that I visited and it certainly did not disappoint! Below is a short video of my journey to the Contemporary Art gallery from the Hotel Barcelona. A short walk to the MOCO Moving with the Times Not only does the MOCO display static works of art they also display NFT’s, but more importantly they even have some artworks that utilise the power of augmented reality. Guillermo Lorca produces large visually arresting works. However these works take on a whole new life of their own when viewed through the MOCO’s very own augmented reality app called MOCO play. Initially, I hadn’t really taken much notice of the signs for this app, but then my curiosity got the better of me and I’m really glad that it did. Not only did viewing the artworks via this app add a whole new dimension to them, it also allowed the viewer to video record the experience in-app. Below is a compilation video that I made of the short augmented reality videos I made in-app. To say that Guillermo Lorca’s artworks really did come […]

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 […]

Apr 28

by Karyn in Artists, Culture, Unit 2 Blogs, Zentangles, Zoom Meetings 0 comments tags: Artists, Culture, Unit 2 Blogs, Zentangles, Zoom Meetings

Zoom Session 23

How to Read a Book & Other Ideas – This week was all about reading and getting the most from it. Apparently Kevin Kelly the founder of Wired magazine had said that we are now in an age where we are moving from book literacy to screen literacy. As part of this we discussed the F pattern of eye movements when tracked across a screen. I always enjoy our group sessions and find the information from them really useful. I discovered that that there is something called ChatPdf which I would like to explore further. I would also like to try out ‘Voice Dream Reader’ and ‘Speechify’ which are text to audio generators. We also looked at the ‘Pomodoro’ technique as a way to approach the research for the research paper. An outline of how this technique should be used is summarised in the slide selection below. I intend to try this as I think it will be very helpful as both a time management and motivational tool. Perhaps the biggest takeaway for me this week though, was the notion of: ‘I feel’, ‘I wonder’, ‘I think’. I’d never ever thought about something in those terms before and this week […]