by Marja-Leena

Why Make Art?

Anna Conti in her Working Artist’s Journal (April 7/04 entry) brings up this perennial question that we artists are always asking of ourselves:

“Why make art? What is it good for?”

She writes: “I don’t think we’ll ever know. The compulsion to make pictures, sculptures, stories, or music has been part of being human since prehistoric times. What changes are the explanations we come up with to explain or justify our behavior. We have to come up with an explanation that will convince people to leave us alone so that we can keep making art. Or better yet, an explanation that will convince people to support us in making art.”

I particularly enjoyed all the quotes from many well-known artists answering this question.

UPDATED Jan.2014: Anna Conti started a new blog in 2006, and we lost her older pages and comments. Hence the link no longer works and has been removed.

I am also sorry to have lost the excellent comments I received here as they did not transfer with my blog’s recent move to WordPress. Time takes its toll even in the blog world.

April 7, 2004 in Being an Artist, Concepts, Other artists Comments Off on Why Make Art?

by Marja-Leena

Hockney again

Over at studio notebook*, on April 5/04 Carolyn wrote about her reaction to David Hockney’s book Secret Knowledge.

The book is about Hockney’s research into how the Old Masters utilized optics as a tool to create their works. “The thesis I am putting forward here is that from the early fifteenth century many Western artists used optics – by which I mean mirrors and lenses (or a combination of the two) – to create living projections…to my knowledge, no one has suggested that optics were used as widely or as early as I am arguing here.”

Hockney experimented with these processes himself (“The camera lucida is not easy to use” he explains).[…] Over and over he states the use of these tools by no means diminishes the talents of the masters that painted them.

Still his theories have some critics out of their minds. [..] Chuck Close agrees with Hockney though and says of course an artist would take advantage of the available technology. [to] “Close, who paints from photographs of faces, it was self-evident that any artist would use every tool possible to make the job easier even if art historians don’t want to believe it.[…] some people are amazed that their artist heroes have cheated.”

“Good food for thought” indeed. It’s not a new subject though it’s still hotly debated, especially now with the advent of digital technology in photography and other art media. In fact, recently Hockney was in the news complaining about the “death of photography”, which, to me, rather contradicts the statements in his book.

* studio notebook no longer exists, sadly, so link is removed

April 6, 2004 in Digital printmaking, Other artists, Tools and technology Comments Off on Hockney again

by Marja-Leena

A New Digital Art Center

This is good news for digital artists. At art.blogging.la Caryn writes “Bring on the Technology”:
“I like digital artists, those who are utilizing digital tools as the sole medium to create their artwork. It has stirred up valuable conversations as to how comfortable people are with this form of making work, authenticity issues, and talent questioning (so help me if I hear the “I could do that” one more time…). And though it’s all lumped under “digital” this type of medium is actually quite diverse […]
Because I think that digital art is valuable, I’m so pleased that Los Angeles will now have the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art. Their mission is “Mission: Los Angeles Center For Digital Art is dedicated to the propagation of all forms of digital art, supporting local, international, emerging and established artists.”

April 6, 2004 in Digital printmaking, Tools and technology Comments Off on A New Digital Art Center

by Marja-Leena

Modern Icons

The Tyee has posted a link to a rather humorous look at modern day icons written by Mark Kingwell in Arts & Opinion:
TEN STEPS TO THE CREATION OF A MODERN MEDIA ICON
Here are the ten steps (my summary) :
1. Icon defined
2. the image requirements
3. the story
4. death
5. mourning
6. larger-than-life
7. Kitschification
8. the spin-offs
9. the retrospectives
10. the religious experience
Read and laugh and question.

April 5, 2004 in Culture Comments Off on Modern Icons

by Marja-Leena

Paths V Revisited

PathsVRevisited.jpg
Paths V Revisited
Etching
76 x 56 cm.

April 5, 2004 in Paths, Printworks 1 Comment »

by Marja-Leena

Paths V

PathsV.jpg
Paths V
Photopolymer intaglio
76 x 56 cm.

April 4, 2004 in Paths, Printworks Comments Off on Paths V

by Marja-Leena

The Ainu

Feeding my fascination for ancient as well as the indigenous cultures of the world, I was excited to find at the rich Mysterium** a post about the Ainu: A beautiful audio-visual presentation on Japan’s Indigenous Ainu people, their origins, art and religion. This was put together by the Arctic Studies Center of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

Astonishing examples of Ainu sculpture, which to me look remarkably similar to the Northwest Coast First Nations’ totem poles next door to Vancouver on Burnaby Mountain Park. The more than a dozen carved poles were created by Ainu sculptors Nuburi Toko and his son, Shusei to commemorate the goodwill between Burnaby and its sister city, Kushiro, Japan. The spectacular setting inspired the Tokos to imagine it as Kamui Mintara, or Playground of the Gods.

The poles represent the story of the gods who descended to earth to give birth to the Ainu. Animal spirits such as whale, bear, and owl adorn the tops of the slender poles that are bunched together in groups of twos and threes. A killer whale and a brooding raven stand apart from the rest, looking west over Vancouver and across the Strait of Georgia towards Vancouver Island (and Japan).

Have a look at these photos of these gorgeous works in their stunning setting.

** updated Feb.29.2012 – this site no longer exists so link has been removed.

April 3, 2004 in Ethnicity, Folk Legends & Myths, History, Other artists Comments Off on The Ainu

by Marja-Leena

Paths VI

PathsVI.jpg
Paths VI
photopolymer intaglio
56 x 76 cm.

April 2, 2004 in Paths, Printworks Comments Off on Paths VI

by Marja-Leena

Snow Show Architect wins Prize

Recently I wrote about the unusual Snow Show in Finland. Today I found a link at studio notebook* (March 31st post) to artdish* and the following article:

Zaha Hadid selected for architecture prize;
Her recent sculptural work on the rocks at Finland’s snow show

Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid was selected to receive the esteemed Pritzker Architecture Prize for 2004. Hadid, 53, is the first woman to be honored with the Pritzker in its 25-year history, which will be awarded at the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia, in May.[ – ]

Hadid had also been a participant at the recent snow show* held in Rovaniemi, Finland, this past February. In her collaboration with Cai Guo-Qiang, a pyrotechnical artist from China, Hadid created a massive ice sculpture that looms out of the snow like a colossal-sized igloo. But, wait, where’s the fire, you ask? New York Times writer Alan Riding mentions in his article, “A frozen landscape of mysterious designs” (2 Mar 2004), that Guo-Qiang set fire to parts of the sculpture in a performance entitled “Caress Zaha with Vodka.

For more info and stunning photos of this annual event, check out the snow show*. Congratulations!

* Links now dead and have been removed.

March 31, 2004 in Art Exhibitions, Other artists Comments Off on Snow Show Architect wins Prize

by Marja-Leena

Tools

Viewers and readers are often interested in knowing what tools artists use in creating their artworks. Today’s technology has been embraced by many artists, as artists always have done over many centuries in their search for new ways of working.

For many years I worked in various techniques of printmaking including drypoint, collagraph, linocuts, woodcuts and etching. In 1998, I began my first digital explorations with a Power Mac 6500 computer, Umax Astra 1200S scanner, an Epson inkjet printer and Adobe PhotoShop 4. Up until then, the darkroom was where I prepared film for photo-etching plates. Now, I could scan in my photographs and manipulate them as I wished, only limited by my knowledge of the software, then print out inkjet film transparencies. Even the new photo-sensitive film, ImagOn and later, Z-Acryl photopolymer emulsions used on the etching plates came from the computer industry.

Since then I have upgraded to an Apple G4 Cube with OS X (Panther), PhotoShop 7, and a wider-format (13″) HP Deskjet 1220 printer. For very large prints, I print at the Art Institute (Printmaking) at Capilano College* where they have a large format HP 5000 PS-UV printer. The printer inks and papers available today are archival, so the technology now truly supports artists’ needs.

I still like to combine etchings with digital prints for the textural, heavily embossed handmade feel. Many of the digital art papers and the waterproof inks allow for the soaking that is necessary for printing etchings.

The immense possibilities in digital image capturing, transformation and the potential for accidental aesthetics are very exciting!

*UPDATE: now University

March 30, 2004 in Art Institute (Printmaking), Digital printmaking, Printmaking, Tools and technology Comments Off on Tools