Art reaches INside YOU

In less than a millisecond Chris Jordan's environmental art makes a massive impact and a confronting statement about the way we are polluting the earth and the animals that live on it.  To write a book that impacted in this magnitude would no doubt take hours to read.  It would be filled with endless heartache, romance, drama and all that goes along with the ebb and flow of life. Chris Jordan's environmental art gives gives rise to an emotional response immediately.  At first I was quite disgusted by the images of dead birds with their bellies full of plastic.  I had thought to myself, "Why would someone put all those plastics inside a dead bird and call it art?". Only after reading did I realise that the someone was "me" and every person who forgets to ensure that they are responsible with the plastics that they purchase and dispose of in our every single day lives.
Midway: Message from the Gyre holds a powerful message.  It speaks volumes as to the affect of our waste and pollution on all life on this planet.  We  must plan better on how to reduce, recycle, rectify and re-use plastics.  Plastic never becomes anything other than plastic.  Even in its smallest molecular structure it is still molecules of plastic.  Unlike canvas, wood, paper, leaves and so many other consumables plastic never decomposes back into the earth.  It leaves its plastic mark on everything and within everything.

 The sketch on the left is my first plan of how I will set about using animals and plastics to mimic the work that Chris Jordan has published. The concept is to use the outer elements of the animal in sketch black and white.  It is an attempt to give a stark contrast between the natural beauty of the animal and the man made plastics that become their demise.  The plastics in their array of colours and shapes will be glued to the piece where the body of the animal would normally be. This is my first sense of excitement about projecting and idea into an art form.

Art is not just PRETTY

Inspiration arrived today.  As if out of nowhere.  Okay it did come directly from somewhere.  I am sure Sue designed her final art class with this it mind.  Today was the culmination of many weeks of rumination.  The use of word association, brought a day of discussion and fresh ideas.  With listening arrived new understanding and I was able to feel free for the first time to search and see. I have finally found some inspiration as to my final piece.  Today's lecture really helped bring out some artistic ideas.  It showed the importance of allowing individuals to gather ideas with freedom and with a sense of openness. No censorship was allowed.  Until now I was toying with Green art and recycled materials, however today after stumbling on a video called "Midway" that showcased the plastics found in  thousands of dead marine birds. A little spark of creation began. The you tube clip below talks about how much waste is thrown into the ocean each hour and in particular plastics.  If our marine birds are dying from plastic then certainly too must other marine creatures.  Chris Jordan has taken thousands of photographs of dead albatross whose stomachs are full of plastics.  Bottle tops, pen lids, soy sauce bottles, pendants,  lighters and so much more that is not food.  It all  makes its way into the stomachs and feeding patterns of these unsuspecting birds; it was sad to realise that they feed the plastic to their young not realising that it is not a food source. The plastics then cause the perishing of these birds as they are unable to digested or passed through their bodies. If it could we would be hit often by small fast flying plastic missiles, which would be a quick way to put a stop to the needless littler creation and pollution of plastics.

Rubbish as ART

Today while researching environmental artists, I stumbled across the work of Tom Deinenger.  He creates massive installations from rubbish and then creates a digital image of a picture.  This concept of taking things that we lay to waste and creating images that highlight just how wasteful we are resonates with me. Environmental art that uses rubbish and waste to create pictures that are skilled and beautiful. Watching this video clip I think it is amazing that he has the artisitc talent to be able to create pictures from junk

Environment & art

The style of art I want to work with is definitely environmental.  John Dahlsen has created some amazing pieces using washed up ocean garbage that he has collected from beaches across Australia.  In his artist statement he discusses the dumping of thousands of tonnes of plastics and how important it is for our society to develop and care more deeply about the way in which waste is created and then "dumped".  He is an inspirational artist in terms of his development across several mediums.  He began as an abstract painter and then one day as he was collecting driftwood to create and installation piece from recycling ocean debris he came across masses of washed up plastics and rubbish.  Suddenly he was drawn and inspired to use these things in his art and to make a statement about the environmental impact and our lack of appropriate waste disposal.

The Greenie is in me

Reading today about Green Art inspired me to work on a final piece to discuss the environment.  In my mind  the world we live on is a living organism that needs to be considered and kept as a feasible and desirable place for all things to live.  At this stage I am considering picking up all of the cigarette butts off the beach or ground (this is a pet hate of mine) and creating an art piece that has the form of a cork board but is actually made of cigarette butts.To that  I will pin a note saying that humans are not the only things that every cigarette does damage to.
Recycling, picking up after yourself and minimizing waste by saying no to extra plastics and packaging are become more and more prominent issues in our throw away and fast food drive by world.

Artistic talent is in the eye of the beholder

Looking around the lecture today, I get a real sense that most of my comrades have a love, a desire and a flair for art.  I like it.....but I have just lived out the larger portion of my life without taking it into consideration.  However now I find myself willing to spend an afternoon painting, drawing and trying to learn how to create shades and textures in things, so that I can produce artwork that I am proud of.  Today we looked at Max Ernst and created collages using a resource that has all the pieces available, from the background and the cut-outs of items that become glued where they need not normally be.  The essence of surrealism....things appear where you would not expect to find them.  Originally I was disappointed with my final piece, because it was my intention for the lines of colour within the tower and the moth to be more vibrant.  As with a lot of art, changing the medium can make a difference to its quality.  I find this picture creates a lasting impression a photograph.

Its all too surreal

Surrealism seems to be that place between fantasy and reality and its a place that adopts the unexpected.  Salvador Dali was the artist I picked to look at and then I found Vladimir Kush.  Inspired by Salvador Dali his paintings are often more romantic than intense.  They often portray a sense of hope with his use of nature to inspire the natural.  Boats with butterflies with Sails usually are, owls that make up the underground cobblestones of an ancient English city.  Vladmir Kush creates an emotional response within me, and it is a nice one geared towards the wonder and intrinsic nature of all things.  Today I set about bringing surrealism into the forefront of any artistic talent I could find.  The following website were my inspiration to get started.  I was hoping more for a join the dots version of how to make a surrealistic art piece, but apparently it is not that easy.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2120801_paint-surrealistic-art.html

http://arts-fine-gallery.co.uk/index.php/artistblogs/art-history/11-how-to-paint-a-surreal-painting