Motivation!

So, I spoke in an earlier post about keeping busy, and how I had a number of little projects that I've been working on; cards being the main things. They've certainly been keeping me busy. How to get motivated to keep busy though? At the moment, there's a major contemporary art exhibit in Dublin - as of yet I've only had the opportunity to see a few pieces, but it's definitely a good way to get motivated! There's only so much that online surfing can do for you - sometimes the only thing to do, is to go and see an acutal physical piece of artwork. It's so completely different to looking at an image in a book or online. I suppose it's all to do with Walter Benjamin's 'aura' of art.
But anyway, the exhibit features a number of artists, and is located in various places around Dublin, including Earlsfort Terrace, the National Gallery, the Hugh Lane Gallery and more. This is an exhibit that would really appeal to students in school, because it is worlds apart from traditional art - it includes graffiti art, sculptures made from books, and much more. www.dublincontemporary.com/
One of the pieces I did get the chance to see in the Dublin Contemporary was a really great piece, (Liam O'Callaghan): a semi-circular section of a room was cordoned off with large wooden dividers which were lit with hundreds of white fairylights.

The fairylights were then covered over with sheets of tracing paper. There's a little seat in the centre for the viewers, and the effect is fabulous! The light emanating from the screen is really soft because of the tracing paper, and the semi circular enclosure gives this feeling of peace and tranquility - it's a kind of womb-like atmosphere. I absolutely love art like this, that you can interact with in a physical manner. It's a very different experience to looking at a piece hanging in a frame, although that can of course involve a different type of interaction. This piece was exhibited in the National Gallery, and I would highly recommend it. I would have sat there just staring for hours, if the gallery hadn't been about to close when I got there! It was absoltely stunning.

This pink and orange piece is also in the National Gallery. I love the combination of drips running both up and down the canvas, as if defying gravity. There were also a couple of sections devoted to graffiti art, where the graffiti was sprayed directly onto the gallery walls. I particularly enjoyed the fact that the small plaque displaying information about the artist was also sprayed over.

I'm dying to get back up to Dublin and check out some more exhibits before it ends, on Halloween. In my opinion, the more interactive and shocking the pieces, the better! But then I am a huge fan of contemporary art, and it's not everyone's cup of tea. Students sometimes find it a bit confusing, and the whole 'what is art' debate often arises when I show images of very abstract or unusual contemporary pieces. But this is one of the triumphs of contemporary art - that it encourages students to question and think about art, and not just passively accept it.

Christmas Cards!

Ok, it's been a while since my last post. I apologise1 I've been keeping myself very busy with a number of little projects - namely creating card designs. This all started becasue my mother was complaining about the incredibly dated designs that charity Christmas cards used. Seeing as I am currently living at home, it seemed like the perfect project to begin - creating my own Christmas card designs. I think in the last post, I mentioned the artcardsireland company. Well, since then I have completed my two designs, and sent them to the company to be printed professionally - envelopes, cellophane wrapping - the lot! I'm so excited! I've only ever got things professionally printed for college, so this is a new experience for me. And even though it's costing a bit of money, I think it'll be worth it.

So here's one of my designs. I know it's ridiculously early to be thinking about Christmas, but in order to get them printed and delievered on time, I needed to allow a minimum of four weeks. The images are done in oil pastels. I absolutely adore working in oil pastels - they are so expressive and fast! You can tell by my style that I am very influenced by illustration, particularly children's illustration. During my degree I wrote and illustrated a children's book; it's somthing I've always had an interest in. I'll upload some images by illustrators who I find particularly inspirational soon. In fact, anyone who's interested in illustration must check out illustrationweb.org - it is an absolute mine of great illustrators and their work - it's definitely worth a look!
So, anyway - designing these cards has kept me motivated over the past few weeks - so motivated in fact, that I am branching into general occasion cards; the designs of which I'm still working on.

Keeping Creative!

Ok, I'm gonna forget the essay-writing for the moment. Lately I've been really trying to keep myself busy and creative, something that can come quite naturally when you're inspired, but that can be a bit harder when you're not. Luckily I've been quite inspired by the time of year - my first creative venture is Christmas cards. Why don't I ever make them? Well, for the past six years I've been in college and up the walls with assignments. But finally I'm finished college, and because I'm woefully unemployed, I have plenty of time to get cracking. I had considered doing a selection of hand-made cards - you can buy multi-packs of just balck bits of card and envelopes. But then I decided to go bigger - and more costly - than that. I'm actually going to get my designs professionally printed! And I don't mean just printed and then I bring the images home and stick them onto bits of card - I mean professional cards, envelopes and cellophane wrapping - the whole shibang!

So I started looking into it, and I found a great Irish company that will do just that for me. I'm currently waiting to get a sample of the quality of card in the post before I send off my designs and commit to the project, but this website is inspiring nonetheless.

http://artcardsireland.com/cards/

Because I come from a graphic design background, this site really appeals to me. Also, I'm really interested in supporting Irish businesses at the moment, and it's really great to see an Irish company creating cards that are so beautiful and unique. So, I'm hoping to get my own selection of Christmas cards printed by that company...Will upload my initial image ideas soon! :)

Moving on from this, Halloween is also around the corner! I adore dressing up - I think most artistic people enjoy it. This year, I'm aiming to dress up as...The Mad Hatter. Now, haivng no money I needed to get something that would work with what I already have in my wardrobe. The Mad Hatter idea is perfect: I have the basic outfit: purple dress, black blazer, tights and boots, as well as gloves. All I needed was the hat - which I got in Claire's Accessories for only 8.95 or something. So then comes the creative bit -the hat came with a little lace and a little skull on it already (http://www.claires.com/store/goods/Teens/cat650043/Ghoul's-Best-Friend/p94854eu/Skull-Crossed-Hat-Headband/), but I wanted to make it stand out a bit. So, I got to work adding some lace, playing cards, ribbon, feathers and buttons, and simple as that, my Halloween outfit is sorted!

And speaking of trying to keep inspired and creative and all that - I've had some pretty cool artists recommended to me by family and friends lately, and I have to say, that seeing another artist's work is definitely one of the best ways to become inspired and to want to work on your own stuff. My brother recommended Ruben Ireland (featured below): his stuff is fantastic,and really appeals to me because I really love portraiture and faces.

Responses...

To go back to the idea of art illiciting a response in the viewer - as a teacher, this is something that I really try to highlight. If anyone out there is studying art history in school - here's a tip: think about your response to the piece. I find that it's much easier to write about something if I have a real reaction to it. It doesn't matter if it's love or hate, but as long as I'm not completely apathetic towards a piece, I can write about it. Learning how to analyse and dissect your responses to a piece of artwork will not only make your essay-writing more compelling and engaging, but it will make the learning much easier for you. It goes without saying that the more you're interested in something, the easier you'll find it to study.

I found that the best essays I've ever written are the ones that were slightely controversial, or those that had a topic that I was really personally invested in. But it's important in an exam situation to be able to write as if every topic is of interest - or to at least justfiy your opinions if you think it's not.

Art history is such a vast subject area, that it's impossible to love everything. The important thing however, is to be able to explain WHY you like/dislike a particular piece. In an art exam, it's perfectly acceptable to say that you don't like something, so long as you can explain why. For example, is it do with the colours used? The composition? The subject matter? Try to pin-point what about the piece turns you off, and you'll find it easier to discuss. If you just have a vague disinterest and don't try to delve into the reasons for this, then whatever you write will be equally bland and listless.

Fountain, Signed R. Mutt. By Marcel Duchamp. 1917

Welcome!

Hi! I'm NJ, and this is my blog. Welcome!
I'm a secondary school art teacher, so this blog might be of interest to you if you're a student, or if you're just interested in art.
So, I've been toying with the idea of creating a blog for some time now, but being a Gemini, I'm highly conflicted and I could never just pin it down to one topic. But as of today, that's exactly what I'm going to do: here is my blog, and it's about ART.
All kinds of art - animation, painting, drawing, sculpture, literature - everything that I can find that is of interest from  a personal or teaching perspective.
I guess I'll start by giving a little background to me and the areas of art that I'm interested in. As I said before, I'm a secondary school art teacher. I've also a Masters in Modern and Contemporary Art History, and a BA in Design. I love art that is provocative and different. I love everyday art - graphic design, grafitti, scribbles on notebooks. Above all, I love art that provokes a response - art that inspires me, makes me think and question, or simply makes me happy.
To set the tone, I think I'll put up a clip by an artist I really admire, who combines drawing with photography, animation, music and history: William Kentridge. Take a look and see what you think!