Artist Talk Magazine issue 5

ARTIST TALK MAGAZINE

July 2018 www.artisttalkmagazine.com

“SOME WATCHES TELL TIME, SOME TELL A STORY” CELEBRATING 280 YEARS OF JAQUET DROZ

INSPIRE CONFIDENCE WITH

Expressive Mixed Media Drawing on location with Robert Dutton & Nitram Charcoal

NITRAM STYLUS Beautifully designed, this lightweight drawing tool is made from medical grade stainless steel with a sleek barrel that is made from the toughest high grade poly carbonate. This versatile and robust drawing tool inspires confidence every time when I am drawing indoors at my easel or outdoors - plein aire.

Using the new Nitram Stylus is so easy and natural that creative and expressive responses just seem to flow from the tip.

The Nitram Stylus is designed to hold Nitram H, HB, B or 6 mm Round Charcoal.

The package includes a Nitram Charcoal Assortment and a set of 4 colour coded end caps to identify which charcoal is in the holder.

Watch as Robert Dutton creates this expressive drawing using many different formats of Nitram Charcoal. To see this fantastic video go to:

youtu.be/BnnZUzyJ8TA or scan the QR code

NITRAM

TM MC

www.nitramstylus.com

FINE ART CHARCOAL

FEATURED ARTISTS SALLY SHEINMAN

6-11 PAUL CÉZANNE

12-17 JENNIFER BELL

18-23 JAQUET DROZ

24-29 SAM PEACOCK

30-35

ARTIST TALK MAGAZINE Welcome to the fifth edition of Artist Talk Magazine. Since the last edition we have seen the Masterpiece from London’s Courtauld Gallery visit Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, which is where the iconic painting The Card Players,

by French Artist Paul Cézanne can be seen. On a personal note this is one of my favourite paintings and is a must to see. This piece can be viewed from 2 Jun - 9 Sep 2018.

Once again I am pleased to showcase more incredible artists from around the globe. All of the artists featured within this issue have given interesting in-depth honest accounts about themselves, their work, views and ideas. In addition to the amazing images of the work they produce, which I know you the reader, will enjoy and be inspired by.

We have lots of incredible talent within this issue, with a wide range of subject matter for you to explore and enjoy. The cover of this issue is from Jaquet Droz who are celebrating 280 years of making incredible watches. Discover more about Jaquet Droz and all the other incredible artists within this issue. I would like to thank you for reading and being a part of Artist Talk.

Grant Milne, Founder of Artist Talk Magazine

artisttalkmagazine ArtistTalkMag artisttalkmagazine

COLIN FRANGICETTO

36-41 BLAKE DANIELS

42-47 KIM KEEVER

48-53 ROBERT ANDLER-LIPSKI

54-59 LISA TRAXLER RWS MRBS

60-65 MARLENE JORGE

66-71 DISCOVER MORE www.artisttalkmagazine.com

3

K-K

Known for his work in illustration and publicity, he has gained a great deal of notoriety in the artistic world, mainly abroad, being published in large portals, magazines and winning prizes in international art shows, illustration and drawing.

DISCOVER MORE www.jucamaximo.com.br @jucamaximoart

THEY ARE FEELINGS, SECRET TRAITS AND AGGRESSION ON THE SCREEN.

5

SALLY SHEINMAN

I have been involving people in my work over many years by asking simple but BIG QUESTIONS with such projects such as: THE NAMING ROOM ___ to name a painting THE WISHING CEREMONY ___ to tell me their wish ARTNAOS ___ to tell me what they worry about LET’S CELEBRATE ___ what they want to celebrate BEING HUMAN ___ what makes them human I had incredible responses to all these projects but there was always something missing - I never really connected to the individual.

Meeting that need finally happened in my latest project: WHAT MAKES YOU/YOU? and this has made all the difference to me. It is as if all my previous work was leading to this point.

WHAT MAKES YOU/YOU? The answers act as an inspiration for me to do a unique iPad image – a new kind of portraiture.

WHAT MAKES YOU/YOU? (www.wmyy.co.uk) is an ongoing, interactive, social media, digital art project. Individuals from all over the world have answered the question. I have completed over 500 individual images and counting.

work. I capture what makes people different using interactive digital art. I’m fascinated by their similarities and diversity genetically, culturally, socially, and individually. I’m also motivated by the infinite scope of the question and drawing people into a dialogue with my art practice and me.

Creating each individual image on my iPad using the Brushes app takes me days. You might imagine that the iPad is fast, but actually it takes many hours to draw in fine detail. I often work pixel by pixel. The iPad is a new medium for artists. What makes using digital technology so exciting for me is that I literally have my canvas with me. No more studio and no more stuff! It is liberating to no longer be concerned with materials but to simply concentrate on an image.

It has given me freedom in a way I never thought possible. I can work anywhere in the world and anyone can connect with me from across the world. I can work on a plane, train, a bus, while waiting for an

appointment or watching television.

WHAT MAKES YOU/YOU? is an online meeting place, connecting individuals to my artwork.

Coming up with an idea which is representative of a person takes time and experimentation. I do research and exploration into each image. For example if I get an answer from Korea - I will look at landscapes from Korea, their wonderful pottery or the marks of their language. All of this helps me in creating a unique image for that individual. Sometimes I spend a great deal of time on an image and then realise it is just not right and have to use the delete button.

Eventually though something comes together and I begin to realise I am getting somewhere and slowly the image evolves. Another time the image comes almost instantly and I never hit the delete button. I want every image to fully respond to the answer a person has given and I will never publish until I am truly satisfied.

Answers to the question WHAT MAKES YOU/YOU? are submitted via one of the following: website www.wmyy.co.uk facebook https:// www.facebook.com/ sallysheinmanwhatmakesyouyou/ twitter #WhatMakesYouYou instagram @sallysheinmanwhatma kesyouyou Digital and social interactivity are both crucial aspects of this

“WHAT IS THIS LIFE IF, FULL OF CARE, WE HAVE NO TIME TO STAND AND STARE.” BY WILLIAM HENRY Davis pretty much sums up my life philosophy! inspired by Candy Harman

7

I’M A TANGLE OF CURIOSITY, CREATIVITY, INCONSISTENCY, IMPATIENCE, PLAYFULNESS, LOVE AND OPTIMISM.

Not only the answers but also the comments people make after they have seen the image I have done for them, are exceedingly important to me. The following are a few of these comments:

Like it...I LOVE IT... I have lived with Asperger’s syndrome all my life, it has prevented me from enjoying the same social and emotional scope as others like the image you graciously created

for me, I see them all there, close around me in their own ‘type’ boxes, my loves all go from left to right but straight ahead go as if they cannot take me with them, they will not come with me I’m never able to properly join in and end up swimming along in those narrow corridors, I’m standing at a crossroads...I guess I’ll always be.

Many thanks again.

You make me happy and cry for this!!!

IT MAKES ME SAD, SOMETIMES, TO FEEL. I LOOK AROUND AND SEE BEHAVIOR I DON’T UNDERSTAND inspired by Don Leicht

10

That’s amazing Sally, I’ve been traveling in southern Spain these last three weeks and my navigational skills are poor, so I’ve been poring over Google maps everyday on my phone! Yes, there are many twists and turns in my journey. I’m on a meander train with stochastic fluctuations. Many thanks for your excellent work and time Sally, I’ll treasure it. Xx

Wow. This is so funny. I really meant I am still trying to figure things out and you got it so right.

Every day, I sit on my back porch and think. This is my back yard. :-)

with all the beauty of humankind’s symbol making power; and the black background is all the unknown. Thank you, Sally! This means so much to me!

– a real challenge to visualise the words people have written about themselves. It is a responsibility but also a great joy to have a neverending art project.

The piece is incredible!!!Truly magnificent!! and I feel that you have made what makes me into a truly visual analysis. Absolutely brilliant and sad yet beautiful. You are a truly gifted artist! Xxx

It’s beautiful- such a great project – so many interesting responses – you’ve done an amazing job of interpreting everyone’s personalities.

I was lucky enough to win the Lumen Founders Prize, an international award and global exhibition that celebrates the very best art created digitally. Focusing the world’s attention on a new and exciting genre, the Lumen Prize provides a global platform for the world’s best digital artists.

All work has to be created at least in part on tablets, digital cameras, smart phones or computers and is judged by a panel of art specialists, curators and academics.This quote from Carla Rapoport, Founder of the Lumen Prize about WHAT MAKES YOU/YOU? is also a great encouragement to carry on down this endless road I have created.

Sally Sheinman I opened my link.... and immediately had tears rolling down my face. Your staggering work has just left me speechless. I cannot BEGIN to thank you. Joe Bell is smiling down on me now, standing in Green Park Tube on a sunny, Sunday November 6th 2016. I have to see this on a large screen. So beautifully observed.

By some Universal Power, I am standing on the very spot, Green Park Tube on VE Day. He had been celebrating the end of WW2 in Europe. He’d had a couple of beers, going in circles round the corridors, heading for the escalator but was unable to find it. Eventually a kind old lady said, You’ve been past me 3 times now and are clearly lost!

She then guided this heroic man in RAF Uniform up the escalator to the entrance opposite The Ritz Hotel. Time for one more Fun & Tonic! Bless you, Sally Thank you for nice work, Sally San. I was thrilled to see the work just saying “cool!”. I like the way you brought big distinct rectangular forms in the frame: the sensation of exactness in contrast to irregularity made of a carpet of tiny elements within the boxes..

This work sets up the tone of being enigmatic on every corner such that it makes me pluck up I can’t imagine a more complete and beautiful image of me.

The Absent Poem shows my relationship to poetry with great depth. The mathematical and scientific symbols show my relationship to science and learning

There are also comments from other people who are following the project which also are a wonderful encouragement to carry on. The following are some of these comments: love your work, its like a mystic mysterious master It’s been a gold mine of creativity, and so much fun to see your interpretations I have been looking at the pieces you have created for this project and I think your work is amazingly insightful and profound in your visual interpretation of each individual’s response to your question I love your ability to transform and create conscious work. A rarity.

Amazing!

I am so touched by your project, the different kinds of answers, sensitivities and insights and your vibrant responses. Really great.

You have brought out peoples amazingness.... if there is such a word. “So absolutely true!!!”

I have to say YOUR ART is OUTSTANDING .....each is unique, beautiful and sensitive in reflecting the statements made by each participant .....I loved looking at each one and continue to be amazed by your artistic interpretations.

This public yet intimate project is a constant in my life - a series of endless stories. I wake up knowing I have something important to do

I am particularly taken with the open and engaging way that you are connecting with the subjects of your art, the nature of the work itself and your interest as an artist in exploring and visualising such personal themes. Your goals also reflect my goals when launching the prize - that is, to promote the engaging and enabling aspects of digital art as well as the art itself.

DISCOVER MORE www.wmyy.co.uk and www.sallysheinman.co.uk

SELF-PRESERVATION inspired by Mel Chen

Page 6 - I AM AN ARCHITECTARTIST, inspired by Dragica Petrovic Page 8 - 9 - I’M VERY BAD AT

SUMMARIZING, inspired by Sam Pocker

11

PAUL CÉZANNE

Masterpiece from London’s Courtauld Gallery to visit Ferens Art Gallery, Hull

Paris, Cézanne withdrew into relative obscurity at his family home near Aix-en-Provence. Here he formed a deep bond with the landscape and the local people, such as Paulin Paulet, a gardener on his estate who is depicted in the painting. The Card Players is a masterpiece of Cézanne’s and his highly original and groundbreaking approach to painting led to him being considered one of the most important artists of his time and ‘the father of modern art’.

COURTAULD GALLERY

The Cézanne loan will be accompanied by an extensive display of nineteenth and early twentieth century art drawn from the Ferens permanent collection exploring related themes of peasants and rural life. A number of rarely seen watercolours and prints are included as well as visitor favourites; Walter Langley’s ‘Memories’, 1906, and Joseph Wright Barker’s large canvas ‘Farm Horses and a Foal at a Ford’, 1915.

FERENS ART GALLERY : HULL MUSEUMS

THE CARD PLAYERS

IMAGE COURTESY OF THE SAMUEL COURTAULD TRUST, THE COURTAULD GALLERY, LONDON

Masterpiece from London’s Courtauld Gallery to visit Ferens Art Gallery, Hull Iconic painting The Card Players,

by French artist Paul Cézanne will be on display at the Ferens from Saturday 2 June.

Following the Courtauld’s magnificent loan by Manet in 2017, Paul Cézanne’s iconic Card Players, 1892-6, will now visit as part of a sustained national partnership. Cézanne’s famous series of paintings of peasant card players have long been considered to be among his most powerful works and this canvas is one of the acknowledged highlights of the Courtauld’s holdings.

Having been rejected by the official Paris Salon in 1870, Cézanne exhibited at the first Impressionist group exhibition in 1874. However, his work was radically different from that of his contemporaries and found little favour with critics and collectors.

Following his lack of success in

JOSEPH WRIGHT BARKER’S FARM HORSES AND A FOAL AT A FORD IMAGE COURTESY OF FERENS ART GALLERY: HULL MUSEUMS

WALTER LANGLEY’S MEMORIES

IMAGE COURTESY OF FERENS ART GALLERY: HULL MUSEUMS

13

Councillor Dave Craker, Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Tourism, said: “It has been quite a remarkable past few years for the Ferens Art Gallery. From the fabulous SKIN exhibition that featured Spencer Tunick’s Sea of Hull, to the restoration and unveiling of Pietro Lorenzetti’s Christ between Saints Paul and Peter, and of course last year’s Turner Prize, the gallery has displayed some incredible pieces of art.

“I was delighted to see that the gallery’s amazing work was recognised earlier this month when Ferens was shortlisted for the Art Fund’s prestigious Museum of the Year award, and it’s the gallery’s ability to display internationally renowned pieces like Cézanne’s The Card Players that makes it one of the UK’s most outstanding art galleries.”

Barnaby Wright, Deputy Director of the Courtauld Gallery, said: “We are thrilled to continue our partnership with the Ferens Art Gallery with the loan of Cézanne’s The Card Players. Building on the success of our major loan, Manet’s Déjeuner sur l’herbe in 2017 we are happy to continue our partnership with the Gallery and providing an opportunity for the Hull community to experience and enjoy masterpieces from The Courtauld Gallery, London.”

The work will be on display from 2 June to 9 September in Gallery 8.

DISCOVER MORE www.courtauld.ac.uk + www.hcandl.co.uk/museums

EDOUARD MANET, DÉJEUNER SUR L’HERBE

IMAGE COURTESY OF THE SAMUEL COURTAULD TRUST, THE COURTAULD GALLERY, LONDON

16

17

JENNIFER BELL

photography component of the course. This meant a lot of work on the computer but with the labs on the other side of campus and a requirement to spend a certain number of hours in the studio, she would print out her digital art and continue working into it using the techniques being taught with the studio practice. Those traditional drawing and painting techniques began to mix with textile processes, the addition of thread, patch work paper and creating wall hangings - sometimes to the dismay of her tutors.

JENNIFER BELL

Jennifer is a multidisciplinary artist, based in the sunny Queensland capital of Brisbane, Australia. Her unique work combines traditional art and textile techniques from around the world, along with her formal training in fine art photography and digital imaging.

Born in the UK Jennifer moved to Australia with her parents in the late 1980s. Growing up she had watched her mother create amazing appliqué and pretty patchworks with beautiful fabrics and shiny threads. Helping to rummage through tubs of ribbons and boxes of beads are some of her fondest childhood memories; that love of textiles is reflected in her art practice today. Her father on the other hand was an engineer, always with a pile of photos of rusted metal and machinery from work, which she found were actually very beautiful. As an artist she combined these opposing elements early on - pretty fabric and threads with rust and peeling paint.

This blend is still used in her work today, traditionally beautiful subject matter like a landscape or still life, may in fact be made from images of things we tend to discard, such as post consumer paper or smashed glass mixed with

patterned cloth and embroidery for example. Understanding that beauty exists in the imperfect, in the decayed and broken is fundamental to her work. A series of works created between 2012 and 2017 are collages made entirely from the patterned lining of security envelopes; this is a material we see and throw away everyday, overlooking it’s simple beauty. “If I can make someone pause for a moment, look at a work and think ‘Hey, wow, that’s actually xyz, who knew it was so pretty’ – then I’ve done my job” says Jennifer.

It is this ability to see beauty in the ordinary which is central to being an artist for Jennifer. As a child she was obsessed with the little, overlooked, patterns in nature and common everyday objects such as those found in rocks, in old maps or cracked earth. In her work layers of textures from peeling paint, tree bark, rust, lace and vintage maps combine to produce something new and beautiful; full of detail.

Jennifer’s unique combination of art, textiles, photography and digital work began when she undertook a degree in fine art at the University of Newcastle where she was immediately drawn to the digital imaging and

“There was still such a stigma around textiles in art back then” says Jennifer of her university experience in the late 90s. “I guess there still is today, although it’s certainly more common to see work incorporating sewing or sequins hanging on the walls of big galleries all over the world. The first time I sewed into a canvas the lecturers were not happy. In my first year I painted two large ‘patchworks’ and that didn’t go down well. So when I put a tiny amount of glitter along side some gold thread in one of my final year pieces – they went nuts. It wasn’t art, it wasn’t necessary. So in response, for my very last work, I gathered together just about every shiny, glittery, sparkly bit of bling I could find and I put it all together with paint and thread in a giant patchwork piece that filled a whole wall.... And you know what, they loved it?!”

CLOSE UP WEAVING

19

CHINTZ WETLANDS WEAVE

“My work doesn’t fit neatly into one particular category of art. It can be frustrating trying to fill in details for online galleries or even entering a competition. Is it photography, is it collage, is it digital, is it textiles? and of course the big question facing artists who choose to work with these sorts of materials and techniques - is it craft? To me it is art, no question, but I do hear the word ‘craft’ being thrown around in reference to my work occasionally.

In a good way, it usually takes people by surprise. In many ways it’s nice to be producing work that doesn’t fit in a little box, that may challenge someone’s perception of art vs craft, or of digital art for that matter. Perhaps that means I’m doing something right.” Of course computer work can be beautiful in itself but a print can sometimes lack the depth and dimension found in a painting or other mediums. It was this quest for something more three dimensional that led to Jennifer to experiment with practices such as paper cutting and paper weaving,

20

something that has become a key characteristic in her work today.

Many of the weaving techniques Jennifer uses were first learnt while living in New Zealand and are based on her experience with traditional flax weaving. It was here that she opened her own gallery in the picturesque Wellington suburb of Island Bay and developed a love for landscapes producing many mixed media works of the local scenery. Eventually Jennifer based herself in London and travelled extensively taking classes in everything from pottery and printmaking to Japanese marbelling and paper making.

Today she works as a full time independent artist from her sunny studio in Queensland, Australia.

A recent series titled ‘Kakadu’ involved weaving a single set of photographs taken in Kakadu National Park in Australia’s remote Northern Territory. Limiting the collection to this one group of images, Jennifer focused

on the technique of weaving the photography. These highly patterned works explore the way we physically view our environment and highlighted the movement found on even the calmest of days.

Some works are a combination of the original photograph mixed with strips of recycled and patterned paper; in others, the same image is woven back together sometimes with one version treated with a gloss varnish to help the water shimmer. “To me weaving perfectly lends itself to representing water.

It can capture the movement and the shimmer, the little ripples even when the water is calm” says Jennifer. The weaving distorts and in some cases seems to pixilates the landscape. In some pieces delicate layers of lace mix with the photography like a veil of fine pattern over the landscape – this unique view is in fact how Jennifer sees the world.

The reason Jennifer’s work explores pattern and perception is influenced largely by her experience of a little known neuroophthalmological condition, which means she sees patterned dots in her visual field, continuously. These dots appear as a fine veil of dancing, kaleidoscopic colour that can never be turned off. Surroundings that may seem static and plain to others are full of movement and decoration. Jennifer shares this unique experience of the world through her art. It may be a view not perceived by everyone, but no matter how we see the world, pattern still exists all around us both man-made and naturally occurring; from the beauty and complexity of fractals in nature to the printed fabric of your clothing.

This year has seen a slight shift in direction for Jennifer’s work, moving from landscapes to still life.

She is currently working on a series of works for a solo exhibition later in the year titled ‘Variegated’. As the name might suggest the work is centred around patterned plants

and leaves, but variegated can also mean kaleidoscopic, intricate, detailed, patchwork and marbled – all strong features of her work.

Starting with some larger scale paintings, which at first appear abstract, they are in fact figurative works based on the microscopic level of leaf patterns found on the surface and in cell structures. “I love looking at the world through a microscope” says Jennifer. “One of the great things about visual based search engines means you can be looking for reference material on a micrograph of a leaf and see a striking similar image, that turns out to be an areal photograph or a piece of knitted yarn. Patterns really are everywhere.” The work moves into the macro level with delicate paper cuttings of leaf venation, the vein patterns found on leaves. These are mixed with suminagashi, Japanese marbling ink and paper weaving. Then finally into a more common view of leaves but with still a focus on the amazing natural patterns that can be found in them, highlighted again through the weaving process and other techniques such as collage with lace and reclaimed embroidery.

‘Variegated’ runs for the month of August at Art World Studio in Norman Park, Brisbane.

DISCOVER MORE www.jenniferbellart.com

VARIEGATED III

VARIEGATED I

21

JAQUET DROZ

the royal courts of Europe and China with his stunning creations: fabulous humanoid automata and precious musical watches.

Expressing the values of the Age of Enlightenment, this elegant and well-travelled philosophy still forms the core of our identity; as the brand celebrates its 280th anniversary.

JAQUET DROZ PIERRE AND HENRI LOUIS JAQUET DROZ

“Some Watches Tell Time, Some Tell a Story”: Celebrating 280 years of Jaquet Droz ‘To enter the world of Jaquet Droz is to open the doors to a unique experience in the world of luxury goods and fine watchmaking.

Astounding and enthralling through innovation, whilst pushing the boundaries of creativity. Each and every timepiece we have designed meets the challenge of these exacting criteria. Each of our pieces is the result of true craftsmanship and exceptional mastery, as embodied in our automata and in the expertise employed in our Ateliers d’Art. To wear a Jaquet Droz watch is to embody this history, sustained to this day through the exceptional work of the brand’s creators, craftsmen and watchmakers.’

Christian Lattmann, CEO of Montres Jaquet Droz SA Since it was first established in 1738, Jaquet Droz has perpetuated the spirit of innovation and aesthetic refinement of its founder, Pierre Jaquet-Droz; the first watchmaker to set up a workshop in Geneva, along with his son, Henri-Louis. An ingenious inventor and man of uncommon vision conquered

Pierre Jaquet-Droz was born in 1721 on a small farm in La Chauxde Fonds. Under the influence of older relatives, the young Jaquet-Droz began to take a serious interest in clockmaking and precision mechanics. From 1738 to 1747, Pierre JaquetDroz devoted himself entirely to clockmaking, producing a series of longcase or “grandfather” clocks whose increasingly sophisticated movements outclassed anything that had yet been produced. His manual dexterity, meticulous nature and serious approach to his craft, as well as the reasoned application of mechanical principles, led him to enhance his watchmaking movements with music and automata; leading his creations to catch the attention of a wealthy and demanding clientele.

In 1755, Pierre Jaquet-Droz met George Keith, Earl Marischal, governor of the principality of Neuchâtel, who advised him to present his creations abroad, especially in Spain where he could help introduce him to the court. After several months, Pierre Jaquet-Droz presented his clocks to King Ferdinand VI of Spain, the monarch and his court were dumbfounded at the sight of a clock that could strike on request without needing manual intervention and a few days later, the clockmaker received 2,000 gold pistols in payment for the timepieces purchased for the royal palaces of Madrid and Villaviciosa.

Upon his return to La Chauxde-Fonds in 1759, Pierre JaquetDroz concentrated exclusively on

making watches and clocks and the automata that were to make his name. He set to work, assisted by his son Henri-Louis and a neighbour’s son, Jean-Frédéric Leschot, whom he had taken in and thought of as his adoptive son.

This was the beginning of a close and fruitful partnership.

Their work culminated with the three humanoid automata: The Writer, The Draughtsman and The Musician, presented in La Chaux-de- Fonds in 1774. These three masterpieces, admired by connoisseurs from all over the world, consolidated the reputation of Pierre Jaquet-Droz and the success of the business.

Encouraged by this success, the Jaquet-Droz family took to the road to exhibit their fabulous creations. From La Chaux-deFonds they traveled to Geneva and then, in 1775 to Paris where they presented the automata to Louis XVI and his queen, MarieAntoinette. They went on to show them at the principal courts of Europe, with visits to London, Holland and Flanders in 1780 and 1781, as well as northern France.

They returned to Paris in 1782 and 1783, and travelled to Lyon in 1784. The automata were also demonstrated at the Russian court in Kazan, in Madrid and beyond.

POCKET WATCH

25

In 1774, Pierre Jaquet-Droz decided to set up a workshop in London, a hub for industry and trade, under the management of his son, Henri-Louis. Sharing the responsibilities of the business with Jean-Frédéric Leschot who was tasked with overseeing the business relationship with prominent trading company James Cox London, whose agents in Canton opened up the Far Eastern market for the JaquetDroz Company and for many years represented it in China, India and Japan. Pierre Jaquet-Droz always had a passion for nature and birds which he transcribed through his clocks, snuff boxes, pocket watches and automata. With more than 600 pieces exported to China in 10 years Jaquet-Droz captivated the Qianlong Emperor and the Mandarins at the Imperial Court, who all had a keen interest in European mechanical watches and automata. It was the first clockmaking brand to be imported there. Several Jaquet-Droz automata and pocket watches are still carefully preserved in the Imperial Palace museum today.

For some ten years, the company continued to expand. It sold clocks, automata, watches and singing birds all over the world, especially in China. In 1784, Pierre and Henri-Louis Jaquet-Droz headed three production and profit centres: one in La Chauxde-Fonds, a second in London as well as a third in Geneva dedicated to low-volume watchmaking production. But the peak of business was short lived, given the disastrous economic repercussions of the French Revolution in 1789 and the conflicts that arose as a result. The business, now headed

by Jean-Frédéric Leschot, ran into serious financial difficulties.

Pierre Jaquet-Droz left Geneva to live in Bienne, Switzerland, where he died in 1790. His son died the following year during a trip to Naples with his wife. He was

26

GRANDE SECONDE TRIBUTE AMBIANCE

only 39 years old. The company continued to make high-priced watches, snuffboxes and singing birds, but would no longer sell to international markets. The Napoleonic Wars, which pitted France against nearly every other nation of Europe, put an end to prosperity for the nobility and well-to-do bourgeoisie. The Continental Blockade, decreed

by Napoleon in 1806, killed off any remaining market for very luxurious objects and greatly inhibited trade with England.

For Jaquet-Droz & Leschot, this was the end of a period of great creativity and prosperity.

At the beginning of the third millennium, Jaquet Droz joined the Swatch Group’s prestigious market segment, giving a strong new impetus to the brand. This was first embodied by the launch in 2002 of the Grande Seconde, its

most emblematic timepiece, which resonates with all the conventions it has upheld throughout its history.

In 2009, Nicolas G. Hayek, assisted by a steering committee, took over the direction of Jaquet Droz, opening the Atelier de Haute Horology in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 2010. That same year, Marc A. Hayek took over as President of Jaquet Droz, with the firm intention of cultivating the spirit of excellence and innovation while continuing to respect the emotional and poetic values that date back to the 18th century.

Pierre Jaquet-Droz’s expertise lives on today in the brand’s Atelier de Haute Horology where all of the timepieces are assembled and where master watchmakers meticulously perform their tasks overlooking a classic panoramic view of La Chaux-de-Fonds, home of its founder.

THE 8 CODES OF JAQUET DROZ The identity of the JaquetDroz family was shaped by its history, creations and encounters.

With each new venture, the Jaquet-Droz signature became increasingly recognisable through the distinctive characteristics and conventions that today lie at the heart of the brand’s identity: the Grande Seconde, automata, Ateliers d’Art, dials with Grand Feu enamelling, watchcases with sensuous curves, exceptional mechanisms, highly exclusive Numerus Clausus limited editions, and the use of minerals.

In the 18th century, the JaquetDroz family were pioneers in the art of luxury decoration. Through their work, they supported an entire generation of craftsmen.

Enamelled cases embellished with paillons, painting on enamel or even sculpted and engraved ornamentation contributed enormously to the family’s success and fame. Painting, engraving and sculpting, paillons and enamelling are worked in miniature and integrated into timepieces that thus become genuine works of art.

ENAMELING

Jaquet-Droz makes it a priority to develop its Ateliers d’Art within the Atelier de Haute Horlogerie in order to integrate and preserve the centuries of special expertise that define the brand’s identity and this spirit prevails 280 years on at the Jaquet Droz manufacture. The skilled hands of the artisans strive to perform the most painstaking, delicate work to create exclusive pieces. In celebration of the 280th anniversary of the brand,

PARROT REPEATER POCKET WATCH WORKSHOP

the Atelier worked in secrecy for nearly three years to bring to life an exquisite piece; the Parrot Repeater Pocket Watch. This exceptional one-of-a-kind piece represents the entire spectrum of Jaquet-Droz craftsmanship in a single pocket watch. A family of birds, all individually animated bring life into this timepiece, the bird on the left-hand side moves its entire body, while its partner on the right wiggles its head. The first chick hatches from its egg, while its sibling hops back and forth. The dial is adorned with vines and tropical foliage produced in Grand Feu enamel and set with gemstones. The beating heart of this pocket watch comprises of 668 components. The Parrot Repeater Pocket Watch bursts into life, via the cathedral gongs and chimes that ring the hours, quarter-hours and minutes, perpetuating the Jaquet Droz art of astonishment that was invented exactly 280 years ago.

Unique expertise contributes to every stage of the process, from the development of new projects to the beautiful finishes which adorn the contemporary timepieces and which are a mark of their distinction. Jaquet Droz wishes to honour the art of painting in the 21st century and

uphold the traditions of its founder by applying this painstakingly meticulous decorative technique to a few remarkable pieces in its collection.

DISCOVER MORE www.jaquet-droz.com

MANUFACTURE

PAILLONNEE WORKSHOP

29

SAM PEACOCK

Sam Peacock. Born 11-08-1976 “Of The Land� is the latest collection of work produced and can be viewed exclusively at the Curious Duke Gallery from May onwards.

The work produced for the solo show is an artist’s response to coastal paths and forgotten areas hidden along the south coast. Pett Levels was one of these areas that I explored whilst preparing the work. Pett Levels resides between Winchelsea Beach and Fairlight Cove and is partly an ancient woodland. Remnants can be seen at low tide of this in the form of fossilised tree trunks and was part of the old Saxon Shore Way. This area was also in Hitlers plans during operation Sealion in 1940, so the amount of history, not just from a geological angle, but from a contemporary history point of view, both of which I try and bring into the work. The cliff itself is made from Weald Sandstone and has some of the original cave dwellings that were used by early hunter gatherer tribes, when the sea levels began to rise and the forest slowly began to disappear.

Tribesmen would use these caves to spot animals approaching which could have been either threat or prey. Part of the process of making the art, I collected samples of this to use in conjunction in making parts of the new collection. The sandstone was smeared onto the steel and mixed with medium levels of salt, then baked and sanded away leaving various residual effects. One of my earliest artist influences was a painter called John Virtue who worked in Cow fields and painted landscapes in his own style, his work has had great influence on me over the years.

Part of the work included in the new collection draws influence from further inland and villages such as Crowhurst, Herstmonceux, Catsfield, Silverhill and St Leonards have all been studied.

RIDGE

As part of the preparation for the work, I spent time walking the original route William the Conquerer took from his original landing site at Pevensey Bay and followed it through the original salt marshes and coastal paths that have since been forgotten. This enabled me to understand the landscape I was painting about better and then be able to create the painting in the ways I wished.

The work has always been made on steel plates, either flat or hand hammered to create the surface textures that I want. This has come around since creating Univeristy in Coventry in 1998, where I created all the pieces on recycled parts of motor vehicles. I enjoyed the textures that steel and aluminium give so decided to retain this element in everything I do. Part of the process of making the work includes using fire. I have always enjoyed the surface qualities heat brings to steel, it darkens and dulls down the surface before applying the layers of paint which are then treated with a butane propane mix to get the colours which I intend on using.

One of the most exciting parts for me about creating new work comes from finding raw and organic materials to use. One of

the commissions I had quite early on in my career led me to use olive oil, coffee and demerara sugar for a piece which was used at a hotel in Firenze, Italy. The original brief I was given led me to making a food inspired piece for the kitchen and dining area in the restaurant of the hotel. I created a virtual lasagne of materials before setting it on fire.

When the piece of art was installed, it dripped olive oil onto the floor, a complete mishap on my part. I have since ditched the demerara and olive oil from the making art process due to the complaints from the owners. I have retained the use of coffee however, as this adds greatly to my texture.

SAM PEACOCK

31

CHICKHILL

34

ROCKMEAD

WILLOW

NOVOTEL

Other commissions and projects have led me to be commissioned to produce work for Novotel and their flagship hotel in Canary Wharf.

The project itself was centred on creating a large scale installation, which would mimic the side of a ship’s hull as Canary Wharf is synonymous with the shipping and trade industry. I had been chosen for the job due to my use of raw organic materials, such as coffee and my previous work with textures on steel surfaces. The project itself took around 6 months to create and install, overall I used half a tonne of mild steel, not cortene steel as you may imagine for this project. The length of the work when complete was 18 meters in length and 4 meters in height and covered the lobby area and 1st floor coffee bar of the Novotel. The

steel surface in the coffee bar area which was predominantly using an Oxford Blue as the primary colour, was first rusted using a mix of chemicals, Chloride and Ferric which when mixed with heat give a reaction to instantly create a rusted surface. For the project, I had to do a vast amount of background research on the area, shipping companies, types of ships used, what goods were imported.

This helped create the back story when talking to the owners of the hotel about what was being installed.

I have worked with various galleries over the years on several projects, one of the galleries who represent me The Curious Duke Gallery, based in East London have looked after me and my work for 6 years,

spanning 3 solo shows and a host of art fairs. Creating work for a solo show allows the artist to work alongside the galleries curatorial team, to create a body of work for the event. In 2015 I solo showed a body of work titled “Fractured” which explored the effects of hydraulic fracturing on different places across Britain, where the extraction of shale gas from the earth was happening. Once again, the work was a visual artistic response to what still is a political hot potato. Each piece of work was based on a 30/30cm piece of steel and titled after a different place in Britain where there was a licence in place to frack for gas. At the time, I researched the politics behind this, looked at the various areas, read the press reports and visited various sites across the UK to get a feel to what was happening. This prepared me for the inevitable discussions and questions posed when being interviewed about the body of work I had created. I had tried to keep an open mind when researching but slowly it became harder and harder to sit on the fence when reading reports about seismic activity taking place due to the practices of fracking and realising that people’s houses were being damaged due to this.

DISCOVER MORE www.samuelpeacock.com

35

COLIN FRANGICETTO

How would you describe your work?

I feel my work has a few faces but for the most part I make very colourful, psychedelically charged acrylic paintings. I also make a lot of surrealist pen and ink illustrations.

How do you select your subject matter?

I have been trying to take stories from my life or dreams that I have and tell them with symbols/ characters in an abstraction. The subjects are equally selected because of aesthetic attraction and inherent meaning.

What inspires your creativity and art work?

The creative act is basically what gives life meaning for me. I love making things. Ive been obsessed with making things since I was little. Whether its a visual work of art, a written story, a song, a board game, etc doesn’t matter. I just love making something from nothing. Relationships and the human condition are enough to fuel a million years of art.

back then, even working with text pretty often in paintings which I haven’t done in many years now.

Considering giving it a try again actually.

Which artists inspire your work?

Sooooooo many. James Jean, Janine Antoni, Richard Colman, Nicomi Turner, Joao Ruas, Monica Canilao, Esao Andrews, Kindah Khalidy, Jim Houser, Heather Day. I’m just rambling off contemporary artists who I genuinely look up to.... As far as older artists not alive anymore...

Probably one of my all-time favorites is Mike Kelley, Of course Picasso, Basquiat, Warhol, Twombly and Litchtenstein.

Outside of art what other subjects inspire your work?

condition... but of course animals and nature... myths and religions.... music, films and books of all kinds.

Psychedelics.

How did your education help you become an artist?

This is complicated because I went to a community college as an art major for 1 year of foundation but dropped out after a lot of negative professors... Perhaps this worked in reverse and freed me from traditional channels, expectations, etc? Not certain. I would say that regardless of this fact, living a privileged life where I had a lot of love and encouragement from my family, was free from most forms of suffering and afforded the luxury to obsess over art, music and creative endeavours, rather than just focusing on survival can’t be negated from the equation.

Well as I stated earlier, relationships and the human

How do you create one of your works/what’s unique or unusual about your technique/ process?

I try to stay open to changing my process as much as possible.

I suppose thats sort of unusual? haha. For many paintings I like to make a mock up/sketch in photo shop first and use that as my reference. For drawings I’d say its almost all out of my head or just sort of glancing at a ton of reference material.

Did you begin with this style or was it an evolution?

It’s definitely been a long evolution.

When I first started I never used reference material at all. I was creating much more abstract work

IN YOUR HONOR

37

What’s the worst piece of art you have produced and what did you learn from the experience?

Oh Gosh, I don’t know. So many bad paintings... I think I read somewhere that for every great painting you make at least 10 bad ones? That sounds about right to me. I love them all though. They all feel like journal entries to me now.

Do you feel pressure as an artist?

Only internal pressure. The pressure I feel is to find my true self. To find my voice, to always make art from an honest and pure intentioned place.

How has social media affected your work?

BROKEN CYCLES

I think its mostly made me feel like I’m not doing enough. It makes me feel like I do not make enough work and that I don’t post about it enough. Illusions... chasing dopamine. It certainly made things a lot easier to sell for awhile there but now with the algorithm changes and pushes towards paid promotions, it has gotten more difficult again.

What’s your favourite artwork that you have produced and why?

There is a painting I made last year called “Broken Cycles” that really feels satisfying. It expresses something meaningful, is pleasing for me to look at and was executed with minimum stress/agony. Other than that I still love an installation I made in 2012 called “To Battle, To Bed” . It was an antique canopy bed that I found on craigslist, sanded, painted and assembled with my then wife (now ex) and suspended 100+ arrows with fishing line, all seemingly flying towards the pillows.

At the time I just thought it was a cool image, but later my close friend Craig blew my mind when he pointed out that this was a visual representation of my marriage which was falling apart at the seams.

38

TO BATTLE THE BED

What advice would your 80 year old self give you?

Worry less, create more.

Do you learn from criticism of your work?

People are less honest these days, in person so polite and quiet but probably trash my work when I leave the room haha. I do not know, I think far too many people only feel comfortable criticising work anonymously on the internet and even then it isn’t a thoughtful critique. It’s just blanketed negativity or pure ignorance.

Maybe I am not important enough to criticise? I really don’t get much of it... if another artist were to give me honest criticism I would love it though and I would sincerely take

it into consideration/reflect on it.

My partner Sarah gives me good honest feedback however and I do learn from that quite a bit.

What’s your future plans?

I’m currently pretty focused on music at the moment but my goal is to create a body of work over the next 8-12 months and hopefully have a new solo show sometime in 2019.

If you wasn’t a artist what would you be?

Well I am a musician as well so there is that, but I really think writing would probably have taken me if I didn’t have that... who knows it may wind up taking me anyway.

Do you think this generation is part of a particular art scene?

I have no clue. I think scenes require community and connection and think everything feels very disconnected and solitary at the moment. Im sure there are a million little scenes all happening though just not in a majorly exposed way because media is less centralised.

What’s the future for art?

Holy shit I have no idea. I find however, cryptocurrency and crypto collectibles to be fascinating.

It seems that blockchain technology may be at least one factor in the future of art. I think the concept of digital scarcity is something to be explored for sure.

What advice would you give to someone trying to start an art career?

Don’t listen to anyone who tells you how to start your art career.

What’s been your biggest success?

Everyday that goes by that I am still a self employed creator of things is my biggest success.

Today is my biggest success. This interview is my biggest success. My dinner later tonight that I eat in my home with my animals and my partner, while sketching some ideas on a napkin, will also be my biggest success. Hopefully that makes sense. If not, perhaps there is no such thing as success?

DISCOVER MORE www.colinfrangicetto.com

WANDERING

39

BLAKE DANIELS

He also promised heaven on Earth in the form of my own likeness and greedily I accepted.

forms and manifestations, could flourish.

What was given became known as history. My form repeated endlessly, every bad copy a further deviation from the last, every flaw in my skin and teeth exemplified infinitely. I only wish sometimes that I could have held the patience of others, instead I am left mourning my own passing over and over and over and over again.

The preoccupation I have developed with painting and image making comes from a deep desire I began to feel as a child, that the stories I was being told, the ones you are forced to accept regardless of their absurdity, were not the only tales of origin and existence. In fact, they often acted with an authority only bestowed by consensus and a group acknowledgement that what was being depicted was inherently true and as close a depiction to reality as possible.

As a young gay child, growing up in the relatively conservative city of Cincinnati in the United States, it became a mechanism of surviving to create narratives and stories that better depicted the reality I experienced. Where words and writing seemed to fall short, images and pictures flourished, making real my suppressed desires and fundamental understanding of myself which was often punished or violated in the social spaces I had to engage in.

While writing these impulses off as childish activity and youthful fantasy at the time, I now see how they have laid the groundwork for my engagement with people, spirituality, identity and history.

Those outbursts of naïve desires for taboo intimacy and an environment which was discernible, was my way of protesting exclusive social practice, of trying to reveal the existence of spaces and history in which sexuality, in its many

AHEM, AMEN

Working closely with the material of paint, I continue to articulate my interest in both revealing and coding desires, stories and experiences into images and visual language in my practice today. In my opening prose, I make a reference to myself being sublimated into history through my endless reproduction, having to live with and mourn each and every death of myself, eternally, living suspended between the past, present and future. I am playing here with the biblical narrative of God creating man in their likeness, and man then creating everything they touch, including history in their likeness, as an example of humanising a dominant narrative while articulating it in a way that is trying to address more honestly our human experiences.

These retellings then unfold in my paintings through scenes and portraits in a fluxing state of abstraction, by the history which bears it weight upon them. The scenes can be as benign the act of hanging laundry to a more charged setting of the mourning of a dead father in bed. Most all come from my own memory, or memories which I perceive I will have one day.

The work then does not act as a visionary genius into a future that will become, nor is it attempting to be merely an alternative to our current social standards and historical practices. They instead seek to bring visibility to what is, has and will always be there, to the coded languages of queerness and its intersections and rituals with race, culture, language and history. In my past research, I dubbed this ‘coded forms of queer counter-visuality’ though the more appropriate name may just be ‘all the gay and queer things you never see, that influence everything you’ve ever seen’.

What is important in my process of painting and image making is to actively track and resist any dominant or self assumed relationship with the material and how I work with it. While critically playing with visual cues (ex. How a curved body line may be read as feminine, or certain application of colour may call upon a different era or feeling), I am constantly remixing them, attempting to paint figures out of time, or that become abstracted into the spaces they occupy where it becomes hard to discern between what is human, humanoid, plant, building etc. I think about painting a figure lounging on a couch, where the body is not quite human, reads neither completely as feminine or masculine, whose flesh may just as well be frozen in stone. Or a scene where a figure is over a sink filled with water, looking at their reflection which does not mirror their face, in an act that may be both a baptism and a resuscitation from drowning. Each painting then requires me to think about the specific visual cues I want to engage with, my own relationship and identity with them and how they reflect back my own position within them. They are stories, told by myself, honest and susceptible to my own foggy memory and prejudice.

43

THE GARDEN OF THE LOVED ONES

This ability of painting to summon history and experience out of sync with each other serves as a translation of time, an object transmuting desire, lust and sexuality – capable of speaking towards complex human and bodily experiences – without having to explain them. There is no solution in the work, nor codex or formula of convention which either the

44

viewer or myself can become comfortable with. Instead the paintings intentionally try to leave enough space for the viewer to project their own narrative, their own experiences, shaped by desire, hurt, love and loss.

Further I am constantly trying to look at alternative ‘knowledge systems’ which have never been

given the same precedent as written language. We turn to books and words to affirm or contest our beliefs instead of images, smells, sounds and flavours. The necessity of language and writing as a means for gathering and archiving collective knowledge is not being debated, as much questioned for its need to often provide ‘rational and logical’ explanation

for everything from art to cultural heritage, without reflecting on its own form, history, power and limitations. I always ponder that if there is no word that can account for a gender beyond male and female in English, maybe we must turn towards another language which can. Or even more so, look towards another means of communication which can.

In an often futile approach, as I am using English to write about my work now, I often think about paintings, videos, food, music and their relationships to a silent history which has no written language to communicate. What if history was told and kept solely in the reverberating sounds of an instrument, or the palettes and depictions of a painting, not hampered or rationalised through lingual explanations and theory. A bit unreal and ultimately futile, it is an interesting proposition to me in thinking about what kind of potential an object, or my case, paintings, hold without leaning on written language to support them. That is in a sense asking how the viewer directly engages psychologically, emotionally, spiritually and physically to the material and image itself, devoid of pretext or lingual orientation. The context must not only derive from the painting and its depictions, but from the viewers own engagement with them, their own messy and often beautiful histories, both personal and social.

In all of these pursuits and interests some personal, political and social, I try to maintain a vulnerability, or sense of humanity within the work.

Above all else I want someone’s engagement with a painting to not be a matter of do you get it or do you not. Instead I push for them to act as prompts into these lost and erased stories which tell our history in a more honest, humanistic and impossibly layered manner. A history which by its nature can have no beginning or conclusion,

TENT PAINTING 2

but instead takes on the form and desires of the persons and communities whom engage with it, through our many forms of story telling and communing.

Blake Daniels (b. 1990, Cincinnati, USA) is currently living and working between New York, USA and Johannesburg, ZA. He is the recipient of the Edward L. Ryerson Fellowship from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and received his Masters in Fine Arts through the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

His paintings visualise moments of intimacy with history, both lived and remembered, depicting bodies and landscapes which are constantly being altered, dislocated and fragmented through their internalisation of

the socially built histories they experience. Reconfiguring figure and ground relationships, Daniels weaves tales of love remembered and times forgotten, never allowing a definitive line to be establish between abstraction and figuration. Daniels was included in the critical survey 100 Painters of Tomorrow published through Thames & Hudson and has exhibited internationally at Beers London, London, UK; Blank Projects, Cape Town, ZA; Room, Johannesburg, ZA; Canwood Gallery, Herefordshire, UK; Sullivan Gallery, Chicago, USA; Ne Na Arts Centre, Chiang Mai, THA; Fresh Exhibitions, Savannah, USA and Challery, Vienna, AUT. DISCOVER MORE www.blakedaniels.com

45

KIM KEEVER

ABSTRACT 36717, 28x33”, 48x57”, 2018

As a child, I was off to a slow start in life. When I was 9, my mother kidnapped my sister and I from a small town in Virginia and moved us to the heart of Chicago. Aside from the abrupt change in scenery, she took me away from my father whom I loved dearly. I grew up in Chicago without direction or any future I was interested in. It wasn’t until I returned to Virginia after high school to live with my father, that I realised I could do something with my life.

I had always made art. The high school I went to in Chicago allowed me to major and minor in art.

Though I can’t say I knocked myself out, I do remember the prescient

words of one teacher who was not even in the department. He spoke glowingly about some artists in history who became “masters”. It really made a distinct impression on me.

I saw Picasso express in his 70’s, as he painted on clear plexiglass with the camera on the other side recording his every move. I knew I would want to be that happy at that age.

After going through 6 years of engineering school, almost finishing my master’s degree and doing some work at NASA, I realised I really didn’t want to be an engineer and I really wanted to be an artist. There were several ideas that pushed me in that direction. I came to the realisation that I only had one life to live (that I knew of) so I might as well make the most of it. The other point I made to myself was the sheer joy

Moving to New York was the next and biggest step. I spent 3 months living with friends or staying in fleabag hotels until I finally found a place to settle into. At that time in the early 80s, real estate was dirt cheap, so I bought enough space to live and work in the East Village. I knew I would be in New York a long time, so it made sense and I must say it was truly a good investment, besides the utility of it all.

49

At the time I was mainly a painter though I tried many ways of making art including silkscreen prints, etchings, sculpture and endless drawing. I was happy with the work I was making but I can’t say I was convinced I was creating something brand-new, which has always been my main goal.

It happened for me, so I assume it happens for most artists. You reach a point where you know you have found something that defines you as an artist. For me it was water or at least the idea of photographing handmade objects and flowing paint underwater.

I started with a 100 gallon aquarium and eventually moved on to a 200 gallon aquarium, which is what I still use. This is actually the second 200 gallon tank. The first one leaked on the neighbors downstairs and I had to pay for their ceiling. There was also another ceiling I had to pay for a few years before that. There have been many other leaks too numerous to mention. Now I am very careful. I don’t leave any water in the tank when I’m not home. When I’m running water into the tank, I put a piece of white tape on my front door, so I don’t walk out the door with the water running. I’m also arranging to build a reservoir around the tank so that if it leaks, or water runs over the side, it will flow into the reservoir and then into a drainpipe.

Water continues to be the medium I use to create my work.

Photography is what records it. I like the idea of making really large photographs and as digital cameras have increased in resolution and file size, I have tried to keep up. I originally used a 4 x 5 film camera but it proved to be too slow and ultimately a lot more expensive when you consider buying endless amounts of film and getting it processed. At this point I use a 100 megapixel Hasselblad camera.

It’s really top-of-the-line and in

50

some situations, I am able to make 10 foot wide photographs.

Before 1991 my main direction was painting. I ultimately got tired of painting or should I say bored.

When that happens in life, there are 3 choices: quit altogether, push ahead anyway, or try something new. I decided to try something new. I really appreciated the unusual and groundbreaking work that Cindy Sherman was doing in photography. It was photo journalism but it was very personal.

She adopted a major photographic venue to her own creative means.

That was what I wanted to do. I wanted to take photography and twist it my own personal way. For me it wasn’t taking photographs of myself but creating photographs of my first love, the landscape.

I decided to create my own landscapes in my studio and photograph them. I started this in 1991. Landscape after landscape continued to crop up in my head.

Sometimes I would make drawings and other times I would keep the idea in the back of my mind until I finished the current project. I would build the landscapes out of papier- mâché and plaster. By 1996 I was installing “lakes” of water for large tabletop landscapes sometimes stretching 7 feet from front to back. The main drawback was that everything I made was without atmosphere. The big breakthrough was in 1997 when it dawned on me to use a large water-filled tank as my canvas.

A friend of mine was throwing out a 100 gallon aquarium so I quickly made arrangements to have it moved to my studio. I started building plaster landscape mountains to put into the tank.

Then I filled the tank with water and poured some paint into the water for clouds and photographed the results. This process was ultimately a combination of the real and the random. The mountains stayed mountains but what happened with the paint in the water was always random.

By 2013, after thinking about it for 2 full years and having made several non-landscape series, I concluded that I should just try dropping paint into water and see what happens. The first time I tried it, I knew I would drop everything else and explore this new direction.

It was the best decision I ever made as an artist. I truly love the surprising results I get every time I pour paint into the water. There are a few things I can do to direct the paint but in general it’s always a fun surprise to see what happens.

Sometimes I think of the tank as a painting machine, much like the painting machine that Roxy Paine invented. I pour the paint in and it goes its own way. I love the idea of endless discovery through random means. At this point I have taken over 36,000 photos of paint underwater. The most difficult part is to figure out which images are the most exciting and the most unusual. As an artist, you see and discern endless images all your life.

Most of them you see over and over again in one form or another but some are shocking in their own beautiful or non- beautiful way.

I’m always looking for something I haven’t seen before, either in the form of random shapes or colour combinations that strike me.

Though most of my career as an artist has been a struggle financially, I’ve never let go of the idea of creating something new.

It’s a driving force for me that wakes me up in the morning and continues throughout the day. The new abstract work is something new and continues to be a financial success along with multiple museum and solo shows. What more could an artist ask.

DISCOVER MORE www.kimkeever.com Images credit Waterhouse & Dodd Gallery, New York

ROBERT ANDLER-LIPSKI

even lie - then he will light up the picture, the same way – bright up and sharp up the colours. Not from today is known some joke about the artists creating ‘real’ paintings and those who paint ... ordered or commissioned canvases by the socalled ‘stars from the front pages of colourful magazines’.

AUTO WITH SOULPLAYER COLLAGE

Robert Andler-Lipski is a visual artist, designer and author. Born in Poland in 1968, since 2005 living and working in the United Kingdom. He studied Methodology of Arts Teaching and Philosophy (Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland). Also completed Artistic Tapestry Weaving (Poland) and Mosaic Design (Italy).

Robert Andler-Lipski is a committed artist of a humanistic frame of mind and exceptionally individualistic sensitivity. Generally understanding nature, elusive emotions, momentary impressions and the universalism of the human’s beauty, they are the main inspirations for his creativity.

He is experimenting with a wide range of styles, materials and subject matters. Specialising in mixed media collage, also in new media calligraphy and working both manually and digitally represented as prints on various mediums such as aluminium or wood. During his artistic work he has become strongly influenced by impressionism and fauvism, also by modern abstract art, trying to find out his individual way to compromising them.

NUDE ON THE STOOL

Robert Andler-Lipski is known for the philosophical term of “stochastism” in visual arts, for the very first time used by himself in 2015 to describe his own style of contemporary mixed media creative process. Stochastism in visual art, according to him, is: “some particular type of an abstract reflection characterised by the apparent randomness of the composition. It is a multifaceted reflection of the artistic perception. It is a search for some consensus between deep layers of subconscious, which is constantly stimulated by the external incentives and by conscious actions of mind”.

If the artist intends to show the truth, he avoids the light obviously.

He shows the reality in its natural colours... whose intensity depends on the lighting. Well, there’s the basics of physics. If the artist’s intention is to ‘embellish’ the reality - not to say, to deceive or

I can confess that I probably stuck stubbornly somewhere in the middle. There’s a pure ambivalence.

I do avoid ‘lies in art’ like a fire, however, with the passage of time it is increasingly difficult for me to find the real harmony which I have been looking for since childhood, something what I can call: the Golden Middle, or another way, the Golden Point... It is my artistic modus operandi: on the one hand I follow the truth in the process of creation, but on the other hand, I am moved and attracted by surgery with light and the true life that I can find in colours and in the brightness. I’m not sure a hundred percent if I am able to find myself in this ‘harmonious middle’ every time; in fact this sometimes requires dangerous balancing between truth and falsehood in all this ‘complicated simplicity’ of my artistic creation. That’s why my first British contemporary collage solo exhibition was called ‘Complicated Simplicity’. That being why my commitment to the unlimitedness of all the media I work with. My true love for mixed media collage, for assemblage and digital calligraphy created by using hundreds of pieces.

Despite the awareness of the undoubted intellectual and emotional value of abstract art, I stick to the so-called old Impressionist school, symbolists, at the same time still being attracted by abstracts and their poetics (I’m a publishing poet as well...) This is simply my artistic way, continuous searching, testing, moving, removing and probing.

Experimenting with unlimited and a wide range of mediums.

55

EMMA

56

artist is unable to cling to plans and previously made sketches in the whole creative process because on so-called ‘ the way ‘ everything can happen ... and this is the art itself. Again, continuous searching learning, touching and experimenting, until end and maybe beyond.

All presented works come from the series of collages under the collective title ‘Colourful Lies’.

OFF

I love the female body, first of all as a medium of communication. Very deep and emotionally personal communication. For over 20 years I have been specialising in figurative art, in a female nude. I believe and I try to prove that with every subsequent work that the beauty of the female body - not only for me as a man, but first of all for me as an artist - is one of the most thankful subjects and creative tools of the artistic message. First and foremost it offers unlimited possibilities being emotional and intellectual. My intention is to combine both of these elements.

In my work I combine elements with the strongest - in my personal opinion - power of expression and message, with elements of poetic abstraction that I think I understand differently than others.

I can see very strong and positive accent inside of that! So I’m still learning them. I’m studying them precisely; with each subsequent job I’m creating my own style school.

In this way, abstract ‘stochastism’ arose in 2015...

These works are - on the one hand – some kind of continuation, on another the other hand - my own response made after years to the poetries included in my debut book “Woman on the Wind”, published in Poland, in 1995. The ‘Colourful Lies’ recent collage series is my artistic response to my own youth.

To all these loves and passions, emotions which continuously appear and disappear all the time, creating who we are, right here and right now. But... this art series was supposed to be unlimited, never finished ... however, as earlier mentioned artistic ambivalence, it was quite dangerous balancing between truth and deception, between colour and its absence, light and shadow that caused the subsequent works to begin to diverge from the foundation over time and that was the pure confirmation of stochastism in art and in life as well.

Never ending change, never ending development and never ending search...

Robert Andler-Lipski February 2018 DISCOVER MORE www.saatchiart.com/robertandler www.artsrevo.com/artist/ robertandlerlipski www.art2arts.co.uk/robert-andlerlipski

It aims however, not so much to show in art what is not there but to emphasise the fact that the

57

LISTENING SADE

58

JAPANESE GIRL PORTRAITURE

59

LISA TRAXLER RWS MRBS

CONSTRUCT “She’s the 21st century’s answer to a war artist, finding beauty in old military symbols and creating a pop-up gallery at home in a WWII radar bunker.” (from: ‘SUNDAY TIMES HOME : How a wartime bunker inspired a modernist home on the Isle of Wight’ by Hugh Graham. September 10 2017).

(Read the full story here: http:// www.lisatraxler.com/news/ news-holder/art-architecturesunday- times-feature-10september-2017/).

“Living in a converted RAF wartime bunker near Ventnor on the island’s south coast, Traxler continues to produce abstract work of daring intent. She is one to look out for in the future.” (art critic: Peter Davies, review from St. Ives Times & Echo, 2017).

My background is creative, for many years I worked as a fashion editor and costume designer in London before moving to the Isle of Wight. The early years on the island were spent living in a WWII motor torpedo boat in Bembridge harbour, before a move to north of the island and the first house build which was filmed for Grand Designs (channel 4) and featured the first of my vitreous enamelled steel murals and large scale steel sculptures in 2010-12.

My practice combines painting and 3D form, responding to the ever changing landscape and architectural spaces around me. My work is diverse including sculpture, painting, installation and public art commissions. The materials I work with are often associated with the industrial enamel on steel and solid paper composite, crossing the boundaries of art meeting architecture.

My most recent body of work titled BUILD has been touring in the Uk from the Penwith Gallery in St. Ives to the London Design Festival in 2017 in the

CHAIN HOME

Surface Matter materials library in Hackney, London to the Isle of Wight for the International Sculpture Network event in 2018.

Part of this show will be exhibited in ‘Dazzle: Disguise and Disruption in War and Art’ at St. Barbe Museum and Gallery, Hampshire and Southampton City Art Gallery during 2018.

BUILD reacts to a specific historical site, a former WWII radar bunker on the Isle of Wight.

Holding a great deal of significance to the Island’s heritage community, the bunker was the former Royal Air Force radar station, ideally positioned to monitor the south coast of Britain during WWII as part of the Chain Home network. Located on the south

of the island it overlooks the wild and rugged open coastline where my studio is also based.

After its service, from 1941 until it became non-operational in 1947, the radar bunker was left to deteriorate and became derelict.

The territory around the bunker is undulating and restless, ragged outcrops of gorse alongside craggy, weatherworn stone pushing through the land. The bunker itself has settled into this terrain, silent and forgotten as the undergrowth cloaked the brutalist structure concealing this symbolic reference to frontline protection during the war. The physical presence of the building in its natural setting and the context in which it was built have been key themes to this recent work.

61

IMAGE: JULIAN WINSLOW

BEAUTY CHORUS G

A set of eight vitreous enamel and steel sculptures titled the Beauty Chorus allude to this decryption puzzle. Heavy with this echo of history, the geometric shapes within the steel structures look to have been lifted from the blueprint of a technical drawing documenting a secret architectural design. Lightly interlocking and carefully constructed, these fragmented compositions are slotted together, each piece interacting with its neighbour. The cut edges of the steel function as lines in space interplaying with the mark making on the surface. The shattered composition of shape and form create interference and interruption, misleading the eye and causing a sense of unease within the light reflective inky black base enamel and shards of applied colour. This cryptographic drawing referencing dazzle camouflage and radar, the hidden messages of warfare.

The title Beauty Chorus is borrowed from the unofficial name given to the bank of contrasting coloured secret telephones linking Churchill’s underground headquarters at Whitehall to control rooms around the nation intercepting information and scrambling messages. It also honours the female pilots of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) also known informally as the Beauty Chorus during WWII. Research at the IWM London and the Cabinet War Rooms in

Whitehall into radar, encrypted code and camouflage alongside the light and shadows, angles and form of the brutalist architecture of the radar bunker has given depth and substance to this body of work. As Jonathan Parsons (artist and writer) explains: “Traxler’s is a logical extension of the way of thinking that she refined in her previous career as a fashion editor and costume designer. She has an instinctive grasp of patterns; not just in the sense of a configuration of shapes in the picture or design, but also in the way that a three dimensional object, such as a garment, can be cut, formed or shaped out of jointed flat materials.’

I studied fashion design and textiles at Croydon and Birmingham and later worked as a fashion editor and designer in London during the mid1990s. After moving to the Isle of Wight with my daughter, I lived in the award-winning eco-house: ‘Tane’ constructed from glass and wood by designer Lincoln Miles and baring a wall-clad exterior mural in vitreous enamel on steel. I made a similar wall panel for the interior of Stourbridge Art School in the West Midlands.

As (art critic) Peter Davies writes: “These are not just embellishments or decorative additions to adventurous buildings, but are also part of the formal fabric and concrete design. Despite the slow, complex and elaborate industrial process of producing these vitreous enamel works through firing at the Newport firm A.J. Wells on the island, Traxler keeps her painted forms fresh and improvisatory, the gesture of ‘mark’ recalling both Lanyon at his freest in the late glider paintings and Cornish modernists of more hard-edged intent like Nicholson, Wells, and Canney. Her use of landscape evoking colour takes geometric abstraction back towards nature, which it refers to through analogy rather than faithful or pedantic description. To that extent, her

work traverses the two and three dimensional divide and links the disciplines of painting and sculpture. In this capacity, she produces work that makes her a genuine kindred spirit to modernist post-war St. Ives artists. One hopes that a commission would allow her to put her visually striking work on the exterior of a building in south west Cornwall.

In distinction to her large 2011 exhibition ‘Lives of Spaces’ at Quay Arts Centre, Newport, which displayed large free-standing painted constructions, Traxler opts to show at the Penwith to show more intimate and smallscale ‘models’ or working studies.

Her small abstract expressionist paintings, accompany these tactile and spatially probing smaller works.

Living in a converted RAF wartime bunker near Ventnor on the island’s south coast, Traxler continues to produce abstract work of daring intent, she is one to look out for in the future.” (part of the Art Review for the St. Ives Times & Echo by Peter Davies (art critic) to coincide with ‘BUILD’ Lisa Traxler solo exhibition, 2017).

I am an elected Member of the RSS (Royal Society of Sculptors), RWS (Royal Watercolour Society) and NAPA (National Acrylic Painters Association). My art work resides in colleges, technology centres and has been seen on national television.

DISCOVER MORE www.lisatraxler.com and follow me at www.instagram.com/lisa.traxler/ ‘DAZZLE: Disguise and Disruption in War and Art’ 16 June - 23 September, St. Barbe Museum and Art Gallery, Leamington, Hampshire.

‘Dazzle’ Southampton City Art Gallery, A group exhibition showing alongside artist such as Bridget Riley I will be painting a large dazzle wall mural and showing some of the enamel and steel sculptures.

65

MARLENE JORGE

Marlene Jorge’s art display, a complex set of influences from her rich and varied life. Born in the Dominican Republic in 1974 when in her adolescence she obtained a major at Laws, the artist expressed since when she was very young and throughout her life a deep love, sensibility and ability for the fine arts which she cultivated throughout her life. Marlene’s art reflects her Caribbean inheritance with the bold colours, stylish poses and echoes of the warm and tropical surroundings where the artist grew up. Intensely melancholic gazes and movement are essential elements to her oeuvre, as too is the gentle dominance of the human figure expressed in a nostalgic manner.

One of the recurring features Marlene‘s artwork possess is the accentuation of the figure through blank outlines in each one of her pieces dramatising it in a illustrative way.

THE GAME

SPRING JOY

67

INTERLUDE

Figures wrapped in a nostalgic atmosphere are usually the subject of Marlene’s work signature, a subject that expresses a demanding act of support and recognition of the value of the most interesting subject, as the artist expresses, Women.

A tactile and gentle relationship pervades both her and pieces, as she explores playfully the anatomical before teasing out the dynamic linguistic relationship between faces always in an ever so subtle motion. This

70

allows for highly evocative aura expressiveness in her compositions at times. Marlene invites us to witness a scene full of artistic intent and personal reflective representation of her vision about the human figure, inviting us to be part of her world from a different perspective and through the many faces observed in her artwork, the artist gives a poetic meaning to that vision.

I believe in channeling energy through creativity. I also try channeling my creative urges in

order to produce unique artwork.

The biggest inspiration for my work is the simplicity and colours of life along with the grace of people.

Creating has served as a healing tool in my life. It is my greatest outlet and my most loyal confidant in this life journey. Creating has defined my character and has provided purpose to my life. It is what I do best and that “thing” I can’t ever get away from. My style is born out of a combination of selftaught education, self-training and experience, which allows my perspective as an artist to remain

K-K

traditional yet contemporary.

Art is how I battle against the indifference of humans and offer new ways of viewing the world to others, keeping the core values of human existence.

As an Artist, I want to achieve during the next 10 years, to be able to open my own gallery. I want to either establish my own nonprofit or join forces with another one and implement art as a healing tool for emotionally, physically and sexually abused children and women. I want to own an art publication

so I can support artists and also through my gallery by providing the opportunities we often do not have or the support. I want to use the gift I was given to serve others, not just to make a living and be in the spotlight but to reach out to people and help them somehow.

of life and my environment that influence my artwork are fundamentally the human figure, as they represent a symbol of great strength to me.

The artist now divides her time between New York and Austin, TX, where her studio is located.

While living in NYC, I completed an art studio painting from the School of Visual Arts, a Law bachelor’s degree, an Associate in Healthcare and Accounts administration from Queens College, New York. The elements

DISCOVER MORE www.marlenejorge.org

71

“SOME WATCHES TELL TIME, SOME TELL A STORY” CELEBRATING 280 YEARS OF JAQUET DROZ

ISSN 2515-6586

9 772515

658007

05