Rooftop archive 5 - Tidal Series

Continuing with the 1980s work from the rooftop archive (which I have previously blogged about here, here, here and here) I was delighted to see the pastel drawings from the Tidal Series. These drawings are all on paper 76 cm x 56 cm.

I specifically remember the summer night of 1986, in my apt in Toronto, feeling unsure of where my art was going now that I had finished my education. 

After a phone conversation with a good friend, however, I felt confident and invigorated and the drawings came to me, fast and furious, using both hands.

I did a purge of my work before I left Toronto in 1993 (again), so not all of the original pastel drawings survived.

In 1986 I had decided to create 27 paintings from these drawings before I turned 27 the following year. The large paintings (I got to 18 of them: 4 ft x 3 ft canvases) did not have the same vigour and I destroyed them all

.

I also did not keep all the pastels, just these 7 that tell the story. I always saw it as an animation and finally created a short animation related to the project several years ago. 

I have previously blogged about the Tidal Series here and have also blogged about the related collages and collage cards here and here.

With this work, I always felt indebted to and recognised the relation to Andrew Wyeth’s haunting painting Christina’s World, which I saw at the MoMA on my first trip to NYC in 1980. 

Five Years at Rathfarnham Castle

A couple of weeks ago I had great delight in attending the launch of both The Dublin Bowie Festival 2022 and the affiliated exhibition Five Years, by graphic designer Cartoon Bowie, at the gorgeous Rathfarnham Castle. For me it was especially interesting to see how the space was transformed after my recent exhibition of paintings and prints there. For a look at my work, Memory Is My Homeland, installed at this venue see my blogs here, here and here.

While technically The Dining Room is the last exhibition room one is likely to enter, The Entrance Hall offers a lovely portal view of a large animation, setting a great mood for the evening.

The Saloon was full of graphic images of Bowie, grouped thematically. I spoke to Cartoon Bowie on the launch night and he talked of the more recent images in blue and yellow, which he created after the Russian invasion and subsequent war in Ukraine. Specifically he confirmed, as with Bowie himself, that each time he thought he was done with this body of work, some new theme would present itself. 

Among my favourite images in the exhibition were the most minimal ones.

But on the other hand, I also adored the use of Japanese calligraphic characters in the group of works that celebrated the work of costume designer and Bowie image collaborator, Kansai Yamamoto.

On the end wall in this room were a series of works which emulated, through a Bowie point of view, the work of other artists - one can certainly see an homage to The Beatles Sgt Pepper album, and I recognised immediately the vintage cruise ship travel poster look to illustrate the song Fantastic Voyage.

I really enjoyed that the works were all designed squarely as faux but very plausible album covers.

Cartoon Bowie also showed his wit throughout the exhibition - a wit that I am sure the great Bowie woulld have approved of wholeheartedly.

During the Bowie Festival and for the duration of this exhibition, limited edition prints are available for purchase with all proceeds going to humanitarian aid in Ukraine.

The works in The Pistol Loop room continued with the theme of an ever-stunning, ever-changing consideration of Bowie's profile.

Throughout the exhibition each grouping had it's own didactic, which located the works in Bowie lore and offered a personal commentary from Cartoon Bowie.

The Starman wall was a stark reminder that Bowie is no longer on the earth, having returned to the cosmos in January 2016, shortly after the release of his final album Blackstar. The joy, though, is evident especially in the lower images (outlining a black star) and a reminder also that David Bowie has left a huge legacy to the music, art, fashion and film industries as well as to humanity in general! Cartoon Bowie used his skills as graphic designer to pay an amazing tribute to this amazing man.

Sword Story - Animation - Monoprints

Part of The Skipping Project  will include several short videos, which themselves include some animated footage. The first of these videos I have entitled Sword Story and it will include an animated girl carrying a sword superimposed on found military footage (eg, marching feet). So I did some cel drawings in pencil, but I decided I wanted the animated figure to be loose and sketchy instead of too fiddly as my pencil drawings are wont to be.

I decided on monoprints for cels -- the printing process would reverse my images and also the monoprinting process allows any number of "accidents" to take place. At first I was going to use a copper plate to paint on with alkyd (water based oil paint) but decided I could use a thin piece of plexi glass plastic as a plate, and then I could paint over the cel beneath.

I am working small, so it gives me another chance to make use of my pasta machine printer!

One of the printed cels with the original plate.

 The monoprinting process is fairly quick, especially on such a small scale. There are lots of unexpected results, where the paint is thicker and thinner, more faded, etc. Next step is preparing the cels in PhotoShop, applying a green screen and animating in front of found footage. Onward and upward!