(Sort of) meetings with (maybe) remarkable artists

During my stay in WA, I was not really expecting that any of the high points of my visit would have anything to do with art. Beaches, yes. Good friends, yes. Great sea-food certainly – but art? Not really. Following that opening, I would really like to follow with a pictorial of all the fantastic pieces I saw, and where and how, but frankly, I wasn’t that well organised. So, what follows are some fragmentary images from a delightful day.

And a recommendation – if you are ever in either Perth or Fremantle and you are wondering what to do – get thee to the Art Gallery of Western Australia and get thee to the cafés and sidewalks and galleries of Fremantle (and there’s a great train that takes just 20 minutes to get from the one to the other, by the way).  And, if you are disappointed, well, just have another beer, a swim, a walk on the beach…..

Dust ‘til Dawn (breakaways – two dogs) – Beaver Lennon – part of the 2013 WA indigenous art awards

Statue outside the WA art gallery

“…and meanwhile back on earth, the blooms continue to flourish –
Up in the heavens the gods contemplate their next move [secret charms are given to man]” – B Robinson. Winner of the 2013 Indigenous Art award*

*it’s not just the artwork, although that is pretty cool – it is the conception indicated in the title of the piece that gives it yet another dimension.

One of a group of three that I forgot to get the name of… – sorry.

Ironwork verandas in Fremantle.

Street-side mural in Fremantle WA….

….and the artist himself – Itinerant painter, philosopher, New Zealander; Horatio T Birdbath

For more information on the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the WA Indigenous Art Awards or Mr Horatio Thunder Birdbath, or indeed Fremantle, just follow the links.

Fun in Singapore (?) 1

To be perfectly honest, when I realised that I was going to spend the better part of five days in Singapore, I thought, “Here’s a chance to catch up on the emails and sort all the pictures”. Actually, if you are happy to play along, there is an energy and forward-looking verve about the centre of Singapore that goes some way to explaining its extraordinary success. Take some of the architecture…….

Let’s start with something you might have been expecting –

moving onto a guy who clearly wanted to open our minds..

Is it a boat, or maybe an open sub with cheese and a salad garnish….?

Whereas this guy was just providing a practical solution to the problem of getting space for a garden……

But I have to end on what happens when demands for new convenience, in the form of cool air, get bolted onto older technologies; the refurbished waterfront district that now houses the ex-pat bar and restaurant district….

Yes, those really are air-conditioners; all of them….

Has Photography Lost its Soul?

I met Patrick Keough on a street-corner in Vienna when we were both lost looking for a photographic exhibition. Later on, after we had found the exhibition he mentioned this blog – enjoy!

KeO BLoG

Photography has a rich and illustrious history and is a relatively new medium compared to other art forms.  I mean painting has been around for 0ver 30,000 years compared to photography’s relatively short history. Photography has also borrowed much of the visual language from painting and applied it for both composition and content translation purposes.

I personally believe our true goal as photographers is visually translating external /internal references (landscape, nature, people, architecture) and metaphorically (symbolically and/or blatantly) translating our expressive/emotional response to our subject matter into a conceptual bridge (path) for deeper awareness and understanding of the world around us spiritually, emotionally and intellectually. This can be accomplished realistically or in more abstract / conceptual ways.

Last week I spent 2 days reviewing photographic portfolios in Bratislava for the European Month of Photography and also have attended many photo exhibitions and opening during my travels in Eastern Europe over…

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Contagious inspirations

Bear with me on this posting – it does get to be inspiring….. promise.

You know how it can sometimes happen that it all seems too much effort to get anything done? Even the stuff you were quite looking forward to, yesterday, can turn up to you with all the attraction of a bowl of soup that’s gone cold and congealed and, “yeuch”.  (I remember at school, that sometimes they would serve this tomato soup – that was always too rich anyway, but half the time they left it in the pot for too long and it got really thick – like that, but cold and heavy).  Anyway, this is more or less how I felt as I dragged myself to the computer earlier this evening  – “Walkabouts and wonders, huh? Well, not much chance of that!” said I. So, abandoning a story I have tried to write three times already this week, I turned to “Freshly Pressed” with the vague idea that I might find something amusing to make it worth spending the effort of pushing the on button – get the idea.

But behold – what dd I see, but a blog title – “I’m tired”. So, I clicked on that and found myself in the slightly odd, funny, querulous and questioning blog-space of a rap admiring young black comedian by the name of Ola. And I found his posting so well observed and to the point, that first, I re-blogged it (you can see it below) and then I found myself writing this –

“So Ola,

What do you do and where do you go, to catch the moment and relight the glow?

Do you go out in search of new sensation, or inward towards your soul dedication?

Do you think your virtue is only in succeeding, or is it in the charge of the making and believing?

See you – see me – cry if you must, but keep on trying. See you – see me – my body is slow, but the spirit loves flying.”

Now, that got written in 10 minutes flat –  that’s the power of inspiration – it really is contagious, even to a guy who was dead on his feet 10 minutes before, and who last wrote in rhyme about 20 years ago, but listened to a little rap on Ola’s site a few minutes before.  There is more to art than just cleverness – training helps, of course, but there is a mystic something extra that anyone may touch.