LUNES, EL VIENTICINCO DE ENERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
Today is Wellington Anniversary Day, so it's also Whanganui Anniversary Day. The council was looking into having a separate day just for Whanganui, but they canned that idea in 2007. Below is a greeting card for a friend. It says "Working out New Zealand" across the top. The Parthenon-headed figure is holding a 'culture' medallion and saying "...C'mon, mush, work harder!..."

DOMINGO, EL VIENTICUATRO DE ENERO, VIENTI-DIEZ

It was the Sarjeant Gallery's 90th birthday last year so each of the nine full time staff selected ten of their favourite works from the collection. I have a little work in the show that was originally exhibited in The Museum of Inherent Vice, my end of residency exhibition in 2007. The grouping has been selected by senior curator, Greg Anderson and features works that have been recently purchased or gifted to the Sarjeant collection since his appointment to the job.
This is the first time my work has been in a grouping with Ed Ruscha's work! (clockwise, from top left: Galvanized Hand with label; grouping- Ruscha's photo is at far left; my work between Fiona Pardington and Paul Johns; wall text by Greg Anderson.)
The exhibition finishes on the 14th of February, 2010.

SABATO, EL VIENTITRES DE ENERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
The first set of completed ceramics for Malfunction Baroque at the Rayner Bros Gallery in Whanganui. The exhibition opens 1st of April, 2010.

VIERNES, EL VIENTIDOS DE ENERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
A screenshot from Simon Sweetman's Blog On The Tracks blog. This particular entry focuses on the '27 Club' and is illustrated with my drawings from the Whiteworld series.

JUEVES, EL VIENTIUNO DE ENERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
Still from 'The Gravy'. There's a brief interview with me as part of a Whanganui artists documentary. It will be screening at 9.35pm, Saturday the 6th and Tuesday the 9th of February on TVNZ 7. If you can't get TVNZ 7, then you can watch it at this address after the first screening.

MIERCOLES, EL VIENTE DE ENERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
Last travelling post, a photo of the Arahura passing us in the Bluebridge sailing into Wellington. It was rough sailing with a few turning stomaches.

MARTES, EL DIECINUEVE DE ENERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
A Sinclair ZX81 at the Ashburton Museum. This one is particularly flash as it has the 18kb booster pack on the back of the touch-sensitive keypad. I spent more time looking for the syntax errors in the programmes than actually playing them, but they were good to learn on.

LUNES, EL DIECIOCHO DE ENERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
Whitebait at the rele's place, all ready to become fritters, Wanaka.

DOMINGO, EL DIECISIETE DE ENERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
Our Lady of Peace Catholic church in Roxborough, diagonally opposite Jimmy's Pies, one of the best pie shops in NZ. I think his is one of the first en plein air crucifix (with corpus) I've seen in NZ.

SABATO, EL DIECISEIS DE ENERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
Lodge Dunstan at Clyde, right by the dam. The main door at the front is in the shape of an elongated Isosceles trapezium, I'm guessing to mimic the shape of many Egyptian building entrances.

VIERNES, EL QUINCE DE ENERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
Me in Gore. Up towards Twizel, or somewhere around them parts, there's another large model of a trout or salmon. I'm not sure which one came first.

JUEVES, EL CATORCE DE ENERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
A weird sign in Riverton. Besides the obvious spelling mistake, the arrow points to a fenced grassy paddock.

MIERCOLES, EL TRECE DE ENERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
This is Henry, a 112 year old tuatara at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery in Invercargill. Not usually active during the day, Henry decided to come out of his den and do a little performance especially for us. A bit of a ladies man, Henry lives in his enclosure with three girlfriends.

MARTES, EL DOCE DE ENERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
In Dunedin, just down Stuart Street from the Octagon is Albar. A quality bar, small and quiet with Emersons on tap, along with two hand-pull beers on tap. Quality. My cousin Stephen is a duty manager there.

LUNES, EL ONCE DE ENERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
One of my favourite shops in the South Island- The Holy Shop opposite St Paul's Basilica in Oamaru.

DOMINGO, EL DEIZ DE ENERO, VEINTE-DIEZ
A crucifix in a second-hand shop, North Colombo St, Chch.

SABATO, EL NUEVE DE ENERO, VIENTE-DEIZ
A photo of the old Robert McDougall compared to the Sarj, another screaming-looking face.

VIERNES, EL OCHO DE ENERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
Mosaic patterns in the Christchurch cathedral.

JUEVES, EL SIETE DE ENERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
Sailing into Picton

MIERCOLES, EL SEIS DE ENERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
We're off down South for a few days so post will be intermittent. Back in ten days or so.

Black and White Customs. 2001, oil on board.

MARTES, EL CINCO DE ENERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
A new group exhibition I'm in at PAULNACHE, Gisborne; Paper $ Money.
I've got a work in the show from 2004 called Changing World, a graphite drawing on paper.
The photo on the left shows work from Damien Hirst, myself, Mark Braunias, James Aldridge, James Robinson and Billy Apple.

LUNES, EL CUATRO DE ENERO, VIENTI-DIEZ
Lightning Bolt ex-voto, San Francisco Bathhouse, November 2009.

DOMINGO, EL TRES DE ENERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
A West German crucifix with screw-on base and stylized corpus.

SABATO, EL DOS DE ENERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
Last Malevich reference, there's more, but that's enough for now. The two smaller canvases depict personified versions of the exterior niches on the Sarjeant Gallery, screaming. These works were painted at the height of Michael Laws' verbal and financial attacks on the Gallery.

Suprematist Scream, 2006, oil on three linen canvases, 760mm x 780mm

VIERNES, EL PRIMER DIA DE VEINTE DIEZ
To keep some consistency over the new year change-over, here's s couple of more works with Malevich references in some larger paintings:
left: detail from Numbskull (After Bosch) 2009, oil on canvas, 800mm x 1000mm
right: Foreign Coincidences, 2008, oil on canvas, 800mm x 1000mm

P.S. HAPPY NEW YEAR
(left: At Sanson Cemetery. Photo by JK Russ; Right: Melancolia (After Durer) 2009, oil on metal, 360mm x 290mm)

JUEVES, EL TRIENTA Y UNO E DICIEMBRE, EL DIA PASADO DE DOS MIL NUEVE.
Some ex-votos with Malevich references in them, mostly of his Suprematist Painting: Eight Red Rectangles, 1915 in the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
This painting was shown in Wellington as part of a Stedelijk touring exhibition called Exhibition Of The Century at the City Gallery, Wellington in 1998. It was my last year at art school and although having been over to the UK the previous year, seeing a selection of international artworks on home soil was a buzz, especially the Malevich. It's rough, paint-crazed surface and visible aesthetic decision-making of the scale and placement of the shapes was an eye opener. Its scale impacted on me too, especially compared to say, Sean Scully's painting (I'm not putting down Scully- I'm a huge fan, but just commenting on scale after seeing a large survey show of his work in Manchester in 1997). It really brought home the fact that its probably harder to paint a small painting with impact than it is to use the bombasity of a heroic scale.

MIERCOLES, EL TRIENTA DE DICIEMBRE, DOS MIL NUEVE
Back to work today, 11pm in the studio, channelling Kasimir Malevich after preparing some surfaces for new ex-votos and larger retablo paintings.

MARTES, EL DIECINUEVE DE DICIEMBRE, DOS MIL NUEVE
Thinking about Monday morning, travelling again and life in general.

(detail taken from a crucifix: 22nd Aug 2008: Cross That One Off The List, London)

LUNES, EL VEINTIOCHO DE DICIEMBRE, DOS MIL NUEVE
Boxing Day holiday / Havelock North High School / Konini Road animal reunion.

CRUZ DE DOMINGO, EL VIENTISIETE DE DICIEMBRE, DOS MIL NUEVE
A ceramic crucifix on a grave at the Sanson Cemetery in the Manawatu. I got Jo to take this photo as I thought it would be good to compare to the hand-coloured photograph that I posted a few weeks ago.

DIA DE LA NAVIDAD, EL VIENTICINCO DE DICIEMBRE, DOS MIL NUEVE

JUEVES, EL VIENTICUATRO DE DICIEMBRE, DOS MIL NUEVE
At this exact moment over in Catalonia, Spain; kids are beating poor little Tió de Nadal with sticks to make him poop. I bet he's hanging out to poop out the onion so his job is complete for another year.

MIERCOLES, EL VIENTITRES DE DICIEMBRE, DOS MIL NUEVE
Something I whipped up for the festive wrestling fans out there.

MARTES, EL VIENTIDOS DE DICIEMBRE, DOS MIL NUEVE
A detail of the fixed corpus I mentioned the other day (Sunday, I think?)

LUNES, EL VIENTIUNO DE DICIEMBRE, DOS MIL NUEVE
A new ceramic work completed yesterday based on Durer's Melancholia print. The figure is holding a new New Zealand ten cent piece and the small bowl is intended as a coin holder.

DOMINGO, EL VIENTE DE DICIEMBRE, DOS MIL NUEVE
I realise I haven't posted a cruz de la semana for quite a while, but here's a studio shot with a new crucifix I picked up last week. You can see the crucifix to the bottom left of the large framed painting on the wall. The corpus is cast plaster that had sustained damaged around the head, arms and on the right knee. I spent a couple fo hours filling and sanding, then painted it with a tinted undercoat to keep the tone and surface of the original plaster. I've also made a new INRI sign for it as well.

SABATO, EL DIECINUEVE DE DICIEMBRE, DOS MIL NUEVE
I recently received a book on Milan Kunc, a Czech artist born in 1944, great stuff that could be described as kitsch, but of course that's from a modernist frame of mind. The image below is titled The Edge Of Dispair, 1983.
Na pokraji zoufalství. akryl na plátně, 140 x 160 cm, sbírka Museum Hessenského kraje, Darmstadt
courtesy of Galerie Caesar

VIERNES, EL DIECIOCHO DE DICIEMBRE, DOS MIL NUEVE
A few more earlier works of mine with coffins in them:
(from top right: Head Case, 2000, oil on ply, 190mm x 100mm; Darkness & Light, 2003, oil on canvas, 410mm x 310mm, Private Collection, Auckland; Interior Silence, 1999, oil on board, 240mm x 130mm)

JUEVES, EL DIECISIETE DE DICIEMBRE, DOS MIL NUEVE
A ceramic piece I finished yesterday, based on the monochrome painting in yesterday's post.

MIERCOLES, EL DIECISEIS DE DICIEMBRE, DOS MIL NUEVE
Another idea, galvanized. Sorry for the bad image on the right, its taken from a general studio shot. I'll post the new retablo on this site once it's complete.

MARTES, EL QUINCE DE DICIEMBRE, DOS MIL NUEVE
The 'galvanized' idea from yesterday's post came from the 1836 image below. After visiting Bologna in 2004 and seeing Galvani's statue there, I did a bit of research and reading on him and his frog legs experiment. Of course, there's lots of parallels with Frankenstein and I like the analogy with reinvigorating worn -out art ideas. In the case of Galvanized Hand, I was wanting to reinvigorate the use of lightbulbs with owls on them (see below). An inanimate cast of my hand, painted in a mortuary-green colour, provided a successful foil to the lightbulb

LUNES, EL CARTORCE DE DICIEMBRE, DOS MIL NUEVE
I've got a sculptural piece titled Galvanized Hand in '90 Years, 90 Works' at the Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui. The work was part of my exhibition, The Museum of Inherent Vice at the Sarjeant in 2007. There's some text that goes with the work, written by Senior Curator, Greg Anderson; which I'll post on this site soon. I must say, it's pretty nice to be grouped with Ed Ruscha.

DOMINGO, EL TRECE DE DICIEMBRE, DOS MIL NUEVE
I've been working on a more adventurous ceramic piece over the last 3 days - St. John the Baptist head on a platter. I've never thrown a plate before with clay, so I'm getting Paul Maseyk to throw one for me. The head is based on the Gregorio Fernández ‘Dead Christ’ that I post posted about last week.
I'm thinking of making a Holofernes companion piece.
Also, Paul has his ceramics shop up and running now, so if you're heading along Putiki Drive, look out of the white 'pottery' sign.

SABATO, EL DOCE DE DICIEMBRE, DOS MIL NUEVE
Tao Wells explaining something to JK Russ at the opening of Looking Glass: Reflecting Ideas, an exhibition selected and curated by Grace Cochrane and Greg Donson.

VIERNES, EL ONCE DE DICIEMBRE, DOS MIL NUEVE
Here's a couple of installation photos of my work at Mark Hutchins Gallery in Wellington. The exhibition is called Secondary Practice and features works from several artists who have alternative processes in their art practices, usually using different mediums. The exhibition runs until the 24th of December.
I've got a group of crucifixes (you can see them in context here-try page 12 & 13) in the show, along with a painting on feathers. The crucifixes are aptly displayed behind a Gerda Leenards screen, using the gold-leaf surface as a backdrop.

JUEVES, EL DIEZ DE DICIEMBRE, DOS MIL NUEVE
The Creation of Adam (section of Sistine Chapel fresco ceiling)
Michelangelo Buonarroti
c. 1511

MIERCOLES, EL NUEVE DE DICIEMBRE, DOS MIL NUEVE
Still from the Zucker Brothers' 'Top Secret!'.

MARTES, EL OCHO DE DICIEMBRE, DOS MIL NUEVE
Another ceramic piece in its second stage - white underglaze (two coats) ready for the colour. It's kind of like a jewelry box, with a high gloss prussian blue inside the box.
I haven't quite decided how to glaze this new set of ceramics. Many of them have flames (animas - as below, phoenixes and scenes of hell) but I really don't want to use red and I'd rather glaze them monochromatically so that I don't lose any of the form, as that's the main reason why I'm making these ceramics. Although I've just finished a few retablos that are monochromatic. That's the problem with art, It doesn't matter how much you plan out something,(especially painting) it ends up being the muse calling the shots, not you.