MIERCOLES, EL VEINTICUATRO DE FEBRERO, VEINTE-DIEZ

Here's a link to Tony Fitzpatrick's Blog, called No.9. Tony is one of my favourite contemporary American artists and we got to meet him when we were travelling around USA in 2008. He has a studio in Buckstown in Chicago, where I couldn't resist buying a small etching from him. He also very kindly gave us copies of his three-volume set, The Wonder. He's an amazing guy - an artistic polyglot, as he's a poet, writer (his blog posts are amazing reads), artist, social commentator and, in the past, hes been a boxer. I'll put a link to his blog on my side panel to the right under ephemera.

Tony Fitzpatrick, The Dog of Winter (for 10 Bears), collage, mixed media.

MARTES, EL VEINTITRES DE FEBRERO, VEINTE-DIEZ

I received this image (an elaboration on my post from last Wednesday) in my email box the other day, anonymous to me, my website proxy server showed that the person comes from Sydney, Australia. It's good to have people looking and seeing. This person has picked up on a few other similarities (very neatly compared using colour-coded boxes - if only I was that diligent!) that I didn't compare as I wanted to just point out the obviously appropriated forms and symbols.

LUNES, EL VEINTIDOS DE FEBRERO, VEINTE-DIEZ
REVERSING THE EFFECTS OF MELANCHOLY.
This is the way that Durer would have seen the image.

UN CRUZ PARA DOMINGO, EL VEINTE DE FEBRERO, VEINTE-DIEZ
A new Orthodox-style crucifix, featuring two aminas figures with a blue border

SABATO, EL VEINTE DE FEBRERO, VEINTE-DIEZ
A new ex-voto that I've recently 'antiqued', scanned, colour-corrected and all that other guff (dated 1st of December, 2009). I had to break a rule with this one. Usually, if I'm planning on painting an ex-voto, I'll only give myself a couple of days from the event to complete it, otherwise its intensity and time of possibly existing passes, so it should disappear into the ether with all the other events in my life that I decide not to document. I had a back-log of important ex-votos to complete and since we've been travelling around NZ a lot, I felt I could let this one pass as the whole 'teeth' issue comes up a lot in this ongoing series.
I completed another tooth ex-voto once got back from Wellington last week, in regards to the recent filling I received. It's the first filling I've had since I was 17.

VIERNES, EL DIECINUEVE DE FEBRERO, VEINTE-DIEZ
An invitation to Paul Maseyk's latest exhibition at Avid, opening this Friday.

JUEVES, EL DIECIOCHO DE FEBRERO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Another comparison, this time between an untitled Max Ernst hand-coloured collages and one of Hammond's Zoomorphic Lounge studies.

MIERCOLES, EL DIECISIETE DE FEBRERO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Another comparison, this time to Giorgio Ghisi's 1561 multi-titled engraving The Allegory of Life or The Dream of Raphael or The Melancholy of Michelangelo. The Hammond paintings are The Green Room II, 2009 and Perfect Pitch, 2007. The Ghisi print is obviously a strong lodestone for Hammond, as he's used both symbols from the print (the enlarging horizontal swirl and the pose of the Diana-type figure, who is probably an allegory for an adventurer) and the composition.

MARTES, EL DIECISEIS DE FEBRERO, VEINTE-DIEZ
A comparison of a painting by WD Hammond called Snare and Decoy, 1995 and a hand-coloured etching by Thomas Rowlandson called Ague and Fever, 1788.
In the Rowlandson etching, ague, wrapped around the patient, is commonly referred to as a snake, although its similarity to Hammond's birds is uncanny, especially with its huia-like beak.

LUNES, EL QUINCE DE FEBRERO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Sandra Schmidt, who has recently departed for Germany, has an elegant exhibition on at present at Mary Newton Gallery, Wellington.

CRUZ DE DOMINGO, EL CATORCE DE FEBRERO, VEINTE-DIEZ
A feeble attempt at a crucifixion woodcarving. from about 2004-2005. I was doing ok until the arms broke off as the grain was going the wrong way and I was carving it out on an exposed balcony in Coromandel Street in Newtown, so I could only set up and get to it when it wasn't raining, which was hardly ever. I got bored and painted the figure with undercoat primer and then attemped to sand it off.

SABATO, EL TRECE DE FEBRERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
See ya soon!

VIERNES, EL DOCE DE FEBRERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
If overseas, you can watch me on TV here.

JUEVES, EL ONCE E FEBRERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
Heading off to Wellington for a couple of days, a bit of business, a bit of pleasure. I'll be updating this thing when I get back.

Tolpuddle Criminals, 2001, oil on canvasboard,
private collection, Whanganui

MIERCOLES, EL DIEZ DE FEBRERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
A recently destroyed painting from 1999, called Blue Blood, Black Death. I chopped it up as it was riddled with borer, but kept a small piece (now soaking in turps) from the bottom left hand corner.
This painting came from a group of five, three shown at Anna Bibby Galley in Auckland in 1999, one sold, one lost and the rest destroyed. One of them, Game, came up for auction recently in Auckland and depicts a mokomokai and the Star Trek Enterprise, a comment on Delvanius Prime's valiant efforts to return mokomokai to NZ, while NZ's national Museum, Te Papa was exhibiting a Star Trek fanzine-type exhibition. This one shows the aged artist, at the time 22, thinking about his recent shift to Wellington (the BNZ building on Willis St), his history, lineage and future.
Oh brother!

MARTES, EL NUEVE DE FEBRERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
Tuesday night (tonight) my work features on the NZ-made arts programme, The Gravy.
The half-hour episode focuses on Whanganui artists and features myself, Carmen Simmons and Ben Cauchi.
It's screening Tuesday night, TV 7 at 9.35pm. There is more information on the programme here.
If you miss the programme, you can watch it 'on demand' by clicking on the 'watch episodes' button above the episode guide (link above).

LUNES. EL OCHO DE FEBRERO, VIENTE-DIEZ
A stitched-together photograph of my studio before we headed to Auckland last Sunday.

DOMINGO, EL SIETE DE FEBRERO, VEINTE-DIEZ
A new ceramic piece I've had to remake. The original one on the left was the first of the new group of ceramics II've been making for Malfunction Baroque. I've had issues from the start with the crucifix breaking off its base a few times and also, because added at a later date, a couple of the feet fell off a couple of times. The whole object was held together with glaze... It went through the under-glaze firing ok, but after the clear-glaze firing (which is a heck of a lot hotter than the under-glaze firing) the base slumped in the middle as there was no support for the weight of the crucifix. A couple of days later, the crucifix cracked off the base. It was definitely the runt of the litter.
The new piece I've made is in two parts - the base and the crucifix, which I'll fire separately and then join together in the clear-glaze firing. I've also put feet under the middle section of the base for support.
Fingers crossed...

SABATO, EL SEIS DE FEBRERO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Back home to Whanganui: ceramics on the go, waiting to be underglazed, then fired. On the far left is the broken, slumped base for the scrimshaw salt and pepper set. I've just finished remaking a new one, ready to be glazed. I'll be posting an image of it in the next couple of days.
ALSO, I'm on TV tonight - details here.

VIERNES, EL CINCO DE FEBRERO, VEINTE-DIEZ
A sand-wang with island background at Karekare beach. I don't believe that was present in The Piano.