John Russel,
from 30th June at East-Side Project.
" That students have been taught that a good idea necessarily proceeds a good piece of work.
This does not necessarily follow.
That piece of work is capable of being a piece of shit - the same as any other piece of work.
There is an option:
You can produce work of which you have no idea why it was done, where it is going or what purpose it serves.
Very often you have no idea what effect something is going to have until it is actually produced "
A lecture as good as I had hoped it would be.
However - the above I do agree with up to a certain extent as it it denies the "evidence led" doctrines so often in place in colleges at the moment.
But,
I do tend to find that if I have a good idea the following statement does tend to come quickly, smoothly and easily.
Being the first part of a four blog set up. All the sites will never be in a neat, finished state. Tree house is a more general and historical comment on my life.
Monday, 1 August 2011
Friday, 8 July 2011
Fairies and the Other Side
The thing about the links to fairies and the other side is that they are diect contact to where I am at the moment.
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Early summer garden notes.
They are also tied up with other categories i.e. galleries and places.
They are also amendable and because of their organic naturecan grow with enlightened comments (!).
Its not as if the whole thing will have been put together overnight.
Hopefully they will grow to dozens of images and provide their own diary type history
--- for instance the garden album containing the changing of the seasons and the studio album charting the progression of work happen generally in the studios.
Link to "fairies at the bottom of my garden"
Link to "Greetings from the other side"
I wanted to open up these two fanciful worlds that I had access to and wanted to share, promoting them as being possibly more - - - - - - than they actually were.
Vehicles to carry other stories as it were as oppose to being the complete novel.
A "what could be happening here? scenario but ongoing with further instalments.
Thursday, 30 June 2011
A Sign o the Times
The producers brushed my mind a tad.
Recently in Erdington, Ive seen a few new shops open on a kind of carnival high:
Fashion, Computors, Paint, Off Licences, Mini Supermarkets, Carpet shops, Nail shops, Card shops.
Only to sadly see them close.
It's a sign of the times.
These poor guys put all their savings in or took out huge loans only to loose their £s and their dream.
Its a sad place to be sitting in the middle of all your hopes and aspirations with nobody visiting, very lonely -its happened to me a couple of times.
Fandango.
What about if you were to set up a shop that was doomed to fail?
With nothing in it that really make any sort of profit.
Run by incompetant people and opened with a huge event,
and then simply left to run down.
With maybe a burglary and some vandalism.
"We will pick ourselves up from the ashes but still unfortunately fail."
Recently in Erdington, Ive seen a few new shops open on a kind of carnival high:
Fashion, Computors, Paint, Off Licences, Mini Supermarkets, Carpet shops, Nail shops, Card shops.
Only to sadly see them close.
It's a sign of the times.
These poor guys put all their savings in or took out huge loans only to loose their £s and their dream.
Its a sad place to be sitting in the middle of all your hopes and aspirations with nobody visiting, very lonely -its happened to me a couple of times.
Fandango.
What about if you were to set up a shop that was doomed to fail?
With nothing in it that really make any sort of profit.
Run by incompetant people and opened with a huge event,
and then simply left to run down.
With maybe a burglary and some vandalism.
"We will pick ourselves up from the ashes but still unfortunately fail."
Saturday, 18 June 2011
Billboards
Billboards
The thing that appeals to me about this project is that it is actually in the public domain. It is also “of our time”
-everyone is used to seeing billboards, it would appeal to me to have the opportunity to jog or a little loosely shake people from what they happily conceive as the norm.In a city, I also can’t think of a much bigger passing audience save for the T.V.one.
Another positive is that this project is non-profit based and also non-gallery. There are not the normal artistic dictates, although there is going to be a greater emphasis on health and safety.
Two Issues.
At present in my practice, I am grappling with two issues.
They have always been there underlying my work, but I feel recently I have defined them and seem to be making progress on how to deal with the problem.
They have always been there underlying my work, but I feel recently I have defined them and seem to be making progress on how to deal with the problem.
There are two sides to my practice:
The Narrative,
Where the business is about either defining something that has gone before or relating a story about something that is.
Where the business is about either defining something that has gone before or relating a story about something that is.
The Vessel,
The thing that allows the observer to construct their own “happening”, make up personal imaginings, within a home to hold them.
The thing that allows the observer to construct their own “happening”, make up personal imaginings, within a home to hold them.
Possibly in a greedy way I ideally would be looking for two bill boards to cover and define these two angles of expression that I seem to be covering at present.
“A brief respite”
Aimed as a lift for tiredness, not exactly “man huts” but somewhere where you could imagine yourself away from it all – take your pick of which lodging you would like to be in! They each will be different with various implied restfull activities going on.
The idea originates from Yoko Ono’s show in London where she met John Lennon. There was a large presence of white half furniture, stuck to a white wall, complete incompleteness. A universe in 2D relief. Structurally and practically speaking I would build this piece of work with a nod toward Gaudi. With added flourishes and knobbles, various bits of colour and decoration built with bits of discarded furniture and the like. In fact the whole thing would be based on found and broken bits of furniture, bits of buildings and the like.
The School Run.
Not what they said, but how they lived.
An image in banners.
I see banners as a viable contemporary art form / statement.
They address the question: How can painting exist in a contemporary world of digital expression? It’s a way of blending the old with the new. Making the initial heart felt comment then presenting it in a modern day to day context. After all, banners are everywhere. Their constructed material makes them durable, colourfast and reusable. They are current, readable and universally acceptable. They can be erected and left up as long as useful, then, simply and easily taken down and safely stored for possible later use.
A picture of a picture on a billboard with people walking under it.
Sunday, 12 June 2011
Am I bothered?
If you are reading this it is either by chance or you are one of a small number of people that I have invited in.
As it stands I’m not that bothered if anyone reads either of the Blog sites, I see them very much as ongoing projects to be ready in some sort of presentable format by Christmas or something like that.
I have put a number of images together on art-3000, but even so that is more of a collection of what I have done during my life rather than a selling format.
This lot is very much about who I am and even why I am, if you have the time to trawl through it. Very much "brain to fingers."
I am having awful problems with the computer at the moment and output is slow to say the least – this does in fact give me a chance to reflect on how important it is to have as many varied copies of my work as possible.
Again, this, at present is very tacked together, please don’t expect to find any sense of "continuos chronology".
Also the "followers" part doesn’t seem to be functioning, which also means that it is awkward leaving comments.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150224013601424.351810.707526423&l=8917fccbf5
link to facebook album "from the otherside"
Sunday, 22 May 2011
Gallery 4
This gallery happened because I inadvertantly created it whilst re-building my "galleries area on the pages side of the blog.
It seemed to be taking an inordinate amount of time to actualy publish stuff as I went along. I took this to be down to the fact that more and more images were appearing.
I started to think what it may get like in six months when I get closer to realizing some sort of historical documentation of how and why my work has evolved along with pictoial evidence.
So
I have split the galleries up into four parts, and hope that will give me some breathing room, before there is too much for the site to cope with.
Gallery 1
Starts from Shepherds Bush where as a fourteen year-old, I discovered creativity and moves onto the point where Anne and I have just returned from India after spending over a year there at 30 years old.
Gallery 2
Is based around Cardiff and a massive studio that I had there, even though a fair proportion of that time was spent abroad. It includes a large mural painting spree and a few exhibitions in Wales and ends with the death of my father.
Gallery 3
Starts with our academic trip to Western Turkey, Our life in Istanbul and birth of Aydin. Move to Birmingham. The M.A. course and large show at St Martins in the Bullring.
Gallery 4
Begins with the X-Ray factory in Smethwick and covers all the events that took place there. It also covers all the spin-offs and the various projects I have been involved with since.
It seemed to be taking an inordinate amount of time to actualy publish stuff as I went along. I took this to be down to the fact that more and more images were appearing.
I started to think what it may get like in six months when I get closer to realizing some sort of historical documentation of how and why my work has evolved along with pictoial evidence.
So
I have split the galleries up into four parts, and hope that will give me some breathing room, before there is too much for the site to cope with.
Gallery 1
Starts from Shepherds Bush where as a fourteen year-old, I discovered creativity and moves onto the point where Anne and I have just returned from India after spending over a year there at 30 years old.
Gallery 2
Is based around Cardiff and a massive studio that I had there, even though a fair proportion of that time was spent abroad. It includes a large mural painting spree and a few exhibitions in Wales and ends with the death of my father.
Gallery 3
Starts with our academic trip to Western Turkey, Our life in Istanbul and birth of Aydin. Move to Birmingham. The M.A. course and large show at St Martins in the Bullring.
Gallery 4
Begins with the X-Ray factory in Smethwick and covers all the events that took place there. It also covers all the spin-offs and the various projects I have been involved with since.
The Motherlode
THE PROVERBIAL MOTHERLODE
I see this site as the proverbial Motherlode.
The nerve centre of all the work Ive been doing all my live and all the work Ive put out into the ether.
It's a diary, starting with current and going backwards in time with different pages offering different slants on things.
By connecting to links, I would like to make it possible to embark on a journey all over the proverbial place.
But eventually, back again.
I would like to make it possible to make the same point, from the same eyes, but from different view points.
CURRENT PAGE
I left The Cube in October '80
I see this folder as starting from then.
There is a lot of sketch book work made between Cornwall and Erdington.
There are also a series of paintings I have been engaged with in my studio in Ladywood and at home.
I would like to present them here in situ - in the place they were made, no frills as it were.
But with links to more readable sites.
Of course the name will have to change as I become embroiled in other activities or maybe it will simply be moved to the "Gallery" page. Which I fear will have to be split up at least once to avoid the congestion and lack of storage capacity that seems to be building up.
HOW TO READ my ART 3000
This site isn't especially about presentation. It isn't a convenient way to sell myself. Although I hope to have many of the images and some of the areas linked up to other sites. I also hope to link some of the images to pertanent areas of other sites where their backgrounds may be covered in greater detail.
I see it more as a library for as many of the things I have made to be stored in as possible.
I also (hopefully) see it as part of a chain - a hoop of sites regarding my work, that one could pretty well get lost in
I see this site as the proverbial Motherlode.
The nerve centre of all the work Ive been doing all my live and all the work Ive put out into the ether.
It's a diary, starting with current and going backwards in time with different pages offering different slants on things.
By connecting to links, I would like to make it possible to embark on a journey all over the proverbial place.
But eventually, back again.
I would like to make it possible to make the same point, from the same eyes, but from different view points.
CURRENT PAGE
I left The Cube in October '80
I see this folder as starting from then.
There is a lot of sketch book work made between Cornwall and Erdington.
There are also a series of paintings I have been engaged with in my studio in Ladywood and at home.
I would like to present them here in situ - in the place they were made, no frills as it were.
But with links to more readable sites.
Of course the name will have to change as I become embroiled in other activities or maybe it will simply be moved to the "Gallery" page. Which I fear will have to be split up at least once to avoid the congestion and lack of storage capacity that seems to be building up.
HOW TO READ my ART 3000
This site isn't especially about presentation. It isn't a convenient way to sell myself. Although I hope to have many of the images and some of the areas linked up to other sites. I also hope to link some of the images to pertanent areas of other sites where their backgrounds may be covered in greater detail.
I see it more as a library for as many of the things I have made to be stored in as possible.
I also (hopefully) see it as part of a chain - a hoop of sites regarding my work, that one could pretty well get lost in
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- martinhumphries.treehouse
- In this brace of blogs, I am trying to sum up the artistic goals I am aiming for. Maybe, more for myself rather than other people although I would like others to read it. I intend to use the sites as places to which I invite people, I dont expecr an immediate rash of people keen to pore over my life. I see it as a kind of glorified C.V. that will probably never get finished.