We love finding out about new artists, and Jacinta Kyam sure is one that we’re pretty keen on finding out even more about! We have covered a fair bit of collage in the past (obviously, one of our favourites, Phoenix, makes an appearance on here often) and we’re damn glad to see even more coming out to put on shows – this show looks fkn splendid indeed!
"Exhibition One explores the process between instinct and fine art through collage making. Jacinta has become a collage artist, in her words, ‘by accident’. It all started as a teenager when instead of plastering her walls with posters of her favourite celebrities she would create elaborate collages on her walls with cut up magazines and bluetak (much to her mother’s delight!).
Kyam’s original collages take up to 2 months to complete. These collages are photographed, blown up and printed on metallic photographic paper. The effect is stunning. The viewer can observe the meticulous hand cut detail of the collages, viewing their sculptural detail and lucid, contrasting imagery as a photographic whole. Kyam’s works are inspired, contemporary and a refreshing take on collage. The inspiration for the collection has come from Kyam’s background in fashion and art magazines. The process of creating the imagery evolves as the pictures ‘speak’ to her.
Renowned photographer Rob Little has photographed each work. The resulting original prints are simply beautiful. The size, colour and detail – awe-inspiring. Jacinta recalls stapling one of her teenage bedrooms together with a staple gun until it resembled somewhat of an installation with fabric billowing from the ceiling, textural fabric ‘art’ on the walls and of course, her collage which resulted in a rather unpleasant phone call from her mother when she took apart the room after Jacinta left home. It looked like someone had gone over the walls and ceiling with a sewing machine.
These instinctual beginnings have flourished into mature surrounds, where approach to the medium is the only thing that has shifted over time. From childhood to adolescence we take in an entire life, reflected through the care and detail of the assembled images. Jacinta’s work is original and like nothing else. Jacinta prefers not to see what other collage artists are doing as she feels it may taint the purity of her work which is her own and not inspired by any other artist. The inspiration comes when the pictures start coming together.
“It’s like an infant growing to full maturity, evolving and changing every step of the way”.
Yeah, we’re really liking the look of this one, so get yourself down to House Of Bricks this Friday night to see this mad collage artist in action – colour and depth, oh my.
Who: Jacinta Kyam What: Exhibition One solo show Where: House Of Bricks, Budd St, Collingwood When: Show opens Friday 12th April 6-9pm and runs til 28th April.
Alas, we missed getting this up in time for the opening of the show (welcoem to the world of Guatemalan internet – or the lack thereof!), but it looks like a great one! Crew / Cuts will be on for two weeks and you should get down to see it – RAWHIDE is one mad collaboration between two talented artists, acting as one!
"Adelaide staunch and fertile duo, Ankles and Smile, of the rollin’ Rawhide crew, return to the gallery in a follow up to their debut exhibition ‘Frontier’ last November (editor, see my website for pics). Friday, 29th March, sees Rawhide present their second show, ‘Crew Cuts’ featuring new work in cut paper.
Ankles and Smile’s own collage work predate their collaborative vandalism as Rawhide, so they’ve put our paint rollers down for the moment to combined forces in paper collage, the least popular artform known to man.
The work aims to be the visual equivalent of sample-heavy scratch DJs such as Cut Chemist, Kid Koala and The Avalanches. It is a time-consuming, yet therapeutic process digging through crates of pre-1970s magazines and books, removing type and image from their original context and rearranging it to form some self-referential narrative."
Check out the video for the show below!
Who: Rawhide (Ankles & Smile) What: CREW / CUTS Where: Magazine Gallery, 83a Hindley St, Adelaide When: Show opened last Friday 29th of March, and runs for two weeks – head down and see it before its over!
Fezwitch had a pretty big night the other night, as he opened up his first solo show “No Frills Caviar”
The man certainly has his own style going on, and his first show is as ecclectic and intriguing as everything we’ve seen on the streets. It’s on at Egg Gallery in Collingwood for another week or so, and its very much worth checking out.
Check out all the photos from our man Dave Russell below …
So much great shit on this week, and we apologise for being a bit behind on our events – we’ve missed a couple, alas – the crazy season has truly come, that’s for sure.
Not to miss tomorrow night, however, is the next awesome show out of RTIST Gallery – and this time, its the kings of Australian collage and cut will making themselves known as Alterations, Disturbances & Rips makes its way onto the walls of one of our favourite galleries.
"Collage” originally a French word, derived from the word coller, meaning “to paste” is an art form very much reflective of our omnipresent consumer culture and a compelling medium in the contemporary art practice that seeks to interrogate it.
The cut-up aesthetic, the chopping up of found imagery and the reshuffling of the fragments, invests new meaning in familiar imagery. Themes of anarchy, instability and heterogeneity emerge as everyday images are deconstructed and reassembled.
Sampling and tapping into the ubiquitous scraps of modern life the exhibition suggests an investigation around the Collage medium and the various techniques employed by the 4 participating artists.
With each artist engaging with the medium from a different perspective the resulting assemblage of artworks will present as a complex tapestry of investigations – joined in the gallery space to become an extensive and multifaceted collage in itself."
This is something a little different, but really fkn awesome. We’re big fans of collage work, its a challenging medium for most – but these guys are real masters of their game, and their techniques for producing their work is phenomenal.
Definitely go and check it out for yourselves.
Who: Kareem Rizk, Mauro Palmieri, Danilo Brandao and Phoenix What: Alterations, Disturbances & Rips group show Where: RTIST Gallery, 29 St Edmonds Rd, Prahran When: Show opens 7PM Friday the 16th of November, 2012.
A few weeks back popular Sydney based street artist Deb curated a huge group show, collating an incredible bunch of male artists from the nation and world wide. ‘Man Up’ was a charitable showcase with 100% of proceeds going to the Cancer Council of Australia to fund prostate cancer research.
Amongst the staggering array of work were pieces by Mark Bode, Mike Giant, Ben Brown, Ken Taylor, Ben Frost, and Edward Woodley. The works dotted the walls in monochromatic hues coming together to form an exciting and no doubt successful show. Making buying more art feel even better.
Brisbane artists Matt Stewart is a man of many influences, from architecture to fashion, to branding, marketing and painting. His work, drawing upon areas that have had close impact on his world, and yet are often eschewed by “underground” artists, he embraces the commercial and explores the alternatives. This, all wrapped in a melange of colour and form, his pieces sojourning over territory both illustrative, graphical and, undoubtedly, decidedly “now”.
Work that explores this mixing pot of mediums and style are of great interest to us here – as apparently adaptable to the commercial as this kind of work may be, it is this use of modern themes and design innovation in artistic works that really excites us.
Last year, Matt Stewart was invited to paint as a part of the Australian round of Tiger Translate, and, as a part of that, he will now be winging his way over to Mongolia for the event later next week. As curious as we were about both the artist, his work, the event and Mongolia itself, we decided to throw a few questions Matts way to get the lowdown on his art, and his upcoming immersion into the art and life of Ulan Batar …
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Can you tell us a bit about how you got started painting, and what your path to where you are now has unfolded?
I have always been artistic since I was young and took art classes right though my schooling. My professional career has consisted of creative outputs like graphic design right through to marketing and corporate branding. I started to sell paintings for a bit of fun on the side of a full time job about eight years ago and it gradually built up to become a monster of a side-business.
So, two and a half years ago I took it full time and haven’t looked back, moving ahead in leaps and bounds,
How about your mural work? We know that you have some skills with a spraycan. What is your history with street art and grafitti – is it a long time passion of yours?
Hahaha this is one of the big misconceptions that I get a lot with using a spraycan for some of my works. I actually don’t have a street art or graffiti background.
However, I follow and have a great interest in street art and it’s definitely a strong influence in a lot of my works.
We’ve seen a fair bit of your work, and can see that you have had a variety of influences, design, pop art and street art all seems to play a part – what do you try to channel when you are producing your art?
I have a large amount of influences on my work at different times.
Architecture, Interior Design and Fashion are all major influences in my works, so you will find resemblances of certain trends at times.
What about your views on commercial work as opposed to work for yourself, how differently do these two things present themselves in your work – what commercial opportunities have you had in the past, and what have been some of your more “create shit just for yourself” endeavours in the past?
To be honest, I love the balance between the two. Commercial work is very focused and precise and my personal canvas pieces are fun and more of a looser expression. I have been lucky to work with some great local and international brands in the past for commercial work and murals.
I’m fortunate that I can sell my “create shit just for myself” artworks to people that LOVE my work and follow my art career, but definitely do keep some of my favourites for my own collection.
We particularly loved some of the wallpaper work you did earlier in the year – this seems like such a unique way to present art ; we want to know more about this!
Yes it a great opportunity!!! It is a great bespoke way for both private and commercial clients to fit out a space, as it is all custom and made to order. I have created a single series which has had great response, so am working on a second patterned series as well as a much anticipated mural series.
It’s something different again to mix up my artwork and to apply it to different scenarios.
Tell us a bit about your involvement with Tiger Translate up until now? How did you get involved at the start, and tell us a bit about your winning the chance to be a Translate artist last year?
My entry into the Australian arm of the competition last year was a last minute entry. I literally started it and finished it about 2 days from the deadline….the rest is history. I was invited down to Sydney for the Tiger Translate event in November last year, where I painted several murals and had a chance to meet some amazing visiting artists from Korea, Mongolia and Singapore.
It was an intense few days, but very rewarding and my first look into the world of everything Tiger Translate!!
You have the trip to Mongolia coming up really soon, tell us a bit more about what you will be doing over there, and why you are looking forward to it?
Sure do! I will be collaborating with other international and local Mongolian artists on several pieces. These collaborations are fun and challenging especially when there is a definite language barrier. The process of using colour, shapes and style take over as a way of communicating that is universal, making the pieces work. I personally love collaborations as they force you to work outside your usual barriers and thinking and adapt to and merge your art and style with another artist who might have different thoughts on what ‘works well’.
Do you know much about Mongolian culture and it’s art already, and what about its cultural heritage are you most looking forward to, and what do you hope to take with you to share with lovers of art over there?
I know very little about Mongolian culture, art and cultural heritage so this will be a very rewarding trip for me! I am looking forward to taking in every second of the trip and event and making the most out of every opportunity that I get over there. I will definitely be taking Mongolian influences home with me and applying them to some of my artworks and I’m hoping to bring to Mongolia and Tiger Translate, my personal style and mix it up with some of the local artists to create something different and unique.
So, what happens after Mongolia and TT? What are your plans for after the journey, any shows or other projects you are working on?
I have a very busy few months ahead…I will get back and start working on my next canvas series almost immediately. I also have a clothing range in production which is part of a side business that I’m working on, so that will be ready to launch upon my return.
The week that I return I have a couple of large commercial murals to paint, followed a couple of weeks later by several private ones, so it’s fair to say that I will be working pretty hard …
Last Friday night we helped to put on a show with a whole bunch of amazing artists, Paperápe, and we had a hell of a lot of fun! All the works were done on paper, and we wanted to imbue the walls with a little bit of each of us, and impart some of the fun that we have when we’re out painting together.
The art here in Melbourne is grand, but it is nothing without the amazing community of people that support it. We’d like to thank everyone that has come to check it out so far. Great to see so many familiar faces and friends, and a lot of new ones too!
Big thanks also to Doss Blockos and Redbull who kept all of our guests lubricated throughout the evening, their support was hugely appreciated.
The show is still running until Sunday, so if you’re in Melbourne head down to Egg Gallery in Collingwood and check it out for yourself. In the meantime, we have a shitload of photos from the setup, the opening and all the work to share with you …
Paperápe is a group show featuring seven Melbourne artists who, over the past year, have formed a collaborative friendship via their mutual love of art. Heesco, Jack Douglas, Pierre Lloga, Facter, Mysterious Al, Hancock and Conrad Bizjak are now coming together to share their passion for painting walls, drawing and enjoying the vibrancy of Melbourne street art, and life in general.
Often finding themselves escaping the trappings of 9-5 work by hanging out and painting on the weekends, these seven artists now paint together under the somewhat humourous moniker of We Spray Weekends (WSW). From the side streets of the suburbs to the cities laneways, exhibitions and live art events, all the artists within Paperápe are all highly prolific and consistently chasing the artistic dream.
Paperápe will be an exhibition of paper based works showcasing each artists unique style and talent, offering a snapshot of their current directions and a glimpse towards several larger projects planned for the future. With drawings, paintings, collage, prints and other paper based works on display Paperápe is an exciting showcase of current work from a diverse and talented group of friends.
Heesco – From Outpost Project to painting at the Cullen hotel, Oxford Art Factory and across Australia, this Mongolian artist has been making waves throughout the Australian art world in recent years. With his upcoming solo show at one of Melbournes premier urban art galleries, RTIST, in August, Heesco will be displaying several drawings and other pieces both new, and from his archives. Paperápe will be a unique opportunity to get a taste of his work prior to what is sure to be a landmark exhibition for the artist. Check out Heescos website at http://www.heesco.net (Instagram @heesco)
Mysterious Al – Known throughout the world for his iconic characters and playful street art, the international man of Mystery, Al has been painting with the WSW crew since arriving in Melbourne for an extended visit. Paperápe will be Mysterious Als first show here in Melbourne and is a unique chance to get hold of his work prior to his solo show later in the year. Check out Mysterious Als website at http://www.mysteriousal.com (Instagram @mysteriousal
Conrad Bizjak (Rad) – a well known name upon the walls of Melbourne, Rad is also a renouned figure in Melbournes growing live art circle, having competed in War of the Walls and this years Secret Walls. His work within a gallery setting, however, has been much anticipated, and this show will be the first chance for his many fans to get a glimpse of this amazing artists work on paper. Check out Rads website at http://www.conradbizjak.org
Jack Douglas (JD) – with his off kilter cartoon influenced work now taking a new direction with recent forays into tattoo art, Jack Douglas is another artist from the Just Another stable who has been painting up a storm in recent times. As an upcoming Secret walls competitor and avid painter of walls, Jacks work is highly regarded by lovers of his low brow, quirky creations. Check out Jacks website at http:/jdouglasart.blogspot.com (Instagram @jacklesdouglas)
Hancock – hailing from Perth, Hancock only recently moved to Melbourne, but since his arrival he has quickly catapulted into the eyes of an aerosol and illustrative loving public. His recent win in Secret Walls marks Hancock a semi-final contender, and with forthcoming artwork commissions and collaborations with Boywolf, Invurt and many more, Hancocks work is brilliantly executed and curiously macabre. Check out Hancocks website at http://hancockart.tumblr.com (Instagram @hancock_art)
Pierre Lloga (P-Yeah) – illustrator, comic book artist and painter-of-hot-chicks extraordinaire, P-Yeah is renowned for his illustrative skill with brush and ink, as well as his vibrant aerosol work. As a part of the Just Another crew, Pierre is as much at home in a gallery setting as he is on the streets. Check out P-Yeahs website at http://pierredrawsstuff.wordpress.com/
Facter (Fletcher Andersen) – Facter is an artist and writer/editor for the Australian underground art webzine, Invurt.com. His love of technology and its impact on our world is manifest in the unique linework within the creatures he creates. Delving into his most recent sketchbooks, Facter will unleash a new cohort of fantastical creatures at Paperápe. Check out Facters website at http://www.irikanji.com (Instagram @facter)
We’re really excited about this one, and its a bit of a party for us here as well, so come down to the show, say hi, drink some beer and have a look at some of our art!
We also just released a video in the leadup to the show:
Check out some preview images, and download the press pack below …
Who: Heesco, Jack Douglas (JD) Pierre Lloga (P-Yeah), Facter (Fletcher Andersen), Mysterious Al, Chris Hancock and Conrad Bizjak (Rad) What: Paperápe group show Where:Egg Gallery, 66a Johnston St, Collingwood, VIC When: Show opens Friday 20th July from 6pm til 9pm and continues until July 29th
Finale? Damn! Pop M’art is so cool, and it’s gained a lot of attention and fans over the past few months. It’s a great concept, and we’re sad to see that this will be the last one – but what a finale it’s going to be!
"Pop M’art is a pop up art studio. We can appear anywhere and anybody can come along. It’s what we call ‘social creativity’. In just 3 months, we have popped up in 16 different locations and have painted with more than 344 people in total.
We are showcasing 200 of these artworks, which will be silent auctioned and the top 10 works, curated by renowned artist Matthew Quick, will be available in the main auction. All proceeds donated to The Starlight Children’s Foundation. All starting bid are as low as $20 and we promise you it will be an evening of drinks, film screening, art talk, auctions and live music performances and maybe even a cat-fight or two over the paintings!
There will be a mobile bar serving drinks and a booth selling hot fresh pizza, delicious soup and hot chocolate from The Convent’s Bakery!
Come along and if you like an artwork you see, then write down your bid on the sheet next to the artwork. The silent auction will conclude at 8.30pm and the winning bidder will make payment and be able to take their prize home with them. Please kindly arrive on time.
Payment on the night – Cash preferred as payment. All bidding, beer and macrons proceeds donated to The Starlight Children’s Foundation."
if you’re keen on something unique and different, and entirely social, head down to Abbotsford this Saturday to check it all out!
Who: Could be anyone, that’s the fun of it! What: Pop M’Art – social creativity event Where: Abbotsford Convent, Abbotsford, VIC When: Saturday 7th July from 6pm til 9:30pm
Well, its finally come around – after landing in Melbourne a little while ago, international street artist and sojourner extraordinaire ABOVE will be opening his next exhibition, Jetset, at Metro Gallery.
We have been excited about this show for a long time, and we know how much work the man has put into it over the last few months - we really can’t wait to see what he has in store for all of us.
"Known for his constant global travels, his social and politically charged messages, one of the world’s biggest names in street art returns to Melbourne in July to present his solo show titled ‘Jet Set’ – an exhibition of new works at Metro Gallery. Deliberately choosing to conceal his identity, the often controversial work of prolific and established street artist ABOVE, can be seen in over 90 cities in more than 60 countries across the globe.
Inspired by over a decade of non-stop transient existence, ‘Jet Set’ will showcase the 10 cities that have most impacted ABOVE’s life and work over 10 years: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Paris, London, Rome, Sydney, Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires.
"I’ve lived a transient life since I moved from San Francisco to Paris at 19, moving from place to place with just a pocket full of ambition. I’ve not been in any given location during the past 10 years for more than 3 months before venturing off to my next challenging city and adventure that awaits me. Each of the 10 cities I have chosen have shaped me in some fundamental way and impacted me as an artist and person so with each artwork I’m going to channel those emotions and experiences into each relative cities piece. My goal with the Jet Set exhibition is to transport you to each city the way I have experienced it." ABOVE said.
ABOVE is widely recognised for his full colour figurative stencils, wooden ‘arrow mobile’ installations and large social-political word play paintings."
Its really only fitting that it’ll be happening this Wednesday, the 4th of July – and we’ll be there to celebrate!
Who: ABOVE What: Jetset Where: Metro Gallery, 1214 High Street, Armadale, Victoria When: Show opens Wednesday 4th July from 6pm til 9pm, and runs until 14th July
Lachlan Curtin-Corr got down to Prahran last Friday night for a great show down at Artboy Gallery! Lots of fun and action as a whole load of talented artists gave their spin on the age old struggle between good and evil!
Last Saturday, we took ourselves down to Art Melbourne – like many of you probably did, if you’re here in the ‘burn.
Total artgasm. There was so much work on display, of such variety, that it was almost a little overwhelming – it was as if we’d gone to twenty, thirty, or more different shows in the one day. Throughout it though, there was some amazing work.
A lot of our favourites and friends were there – RTIST Gallery, Just Another Agency, Blender, ArtSeries, Metro, Edwina Corlette, and then there were some great names that we didn’t expect or were new to us – Coates and Scarry in particular blew us away upon entry, US stencil artists Zerosix, Upraw, Will & Caro and many more. There was some live painting from Adnate and others, and several talks throughout the whole thing including ELK up on stage with a bunch of other "younger" artists in Young Guns III.
Oh, and can we make a special mention and congrats to our friend Kristen McIver – who was the very first winner of the inaugural Melbourne Sculpture Prize which was announced as part of the event? If you haven’t seen her work, its fantastic, and well deserved of winning this award!
All in all, there was only a small fraction of work that we had seen bits and pieces of in shows before, a lot of work from specific artists was brand new for the event, thankfully. We were constantly surveying the walls, spotting shit that we loved, shit that we didn’t really care for, and shit that we never actually knew we cared for until we saw it.
Of course, everyone has their own aesthetic when it comes to art, and that’s the great thing about these events – every taste is almost guaranteed to be catered for in one respect or another. Even when we arrived we could see people walking out, canvases in hands.
It was a great day, and we probably could have spent longer here, but our brains were exploding from too much visual stimulation after only a few hours – but all in all, it was a fantastic event. Here’s hoping that a whole bunch of artists made some cash from their passion over the course of the event.
Check out the pics below, and click through the pages … we’re not kidding when we say that there was a lot of shit on display!
Prahran continues to go from strength to strength, shrugging off its gentrification stigmas with galleries, shows and art popping up all over the place. One of our favourite galleries, ArtBoy, continues to bring new an cool art to the area, and this next show from Tim Shepheard looks to be another fine addition to what can be seen in the area in the weeks to come.
Tim Shepheard is a multitalented artist, who eschews a wonderful pop sensibility with his artistic output, taking timeless images and iconic figures and enlivening them with modern edge.
"From his small town beginnings to jet setting around the world, Tim Shepheard’s first exhibition in 5 years celebrates the fame and glamour of the ‘International Icon’ with a quiet nod to his country town ‘kitschy’ roots.
Exhibiting professionally since 2000, it’s the merging of Tim’s eye for detail together with his perception of visual imagery that has led his artwork to evolve into such a unique and detailed style. Tim’s collection of portraits of 20th century icons including the likes of Liz Taylor and Marilyn Monroe, are meticulously created dot by dot from vintage magazines.
“The image itself is entirely created with dots similar to the way old newspaper pictures were printed. By applying this same principal, an image emerges made from tiny 5 cent piece-sized pictures and words. It is sort of like turning pre-digital printing back on itself.”
With magazine headlines like “Can Liza Really Love Two Men?” and “What Really Killed Marilyn? ”, Tim has been able to pay homage to both the Icon and the gossip tabloid press of the day. Hunting down magazines relating to the subject is paramount.
“The portrait of Marilyn Monroe is comprised from an original 1962 LIFE magazine where she graced the cover, sprinkled with some 1960’s Woman’s Weekly for good measure!”
Tim gained his Diploma in Theatre Crafts at NIDA in 2001 and jumped straight into the film industry. His career as a fabricator for a Melbourne-based creature workshop has seen him apply his talents to various TV, Film and international Arena spectaculars including:
Star Wars – Episode III, Charlotte’s Web, Rogue,Farscape, Walking With Dinosaurs – The Arena Spectacular and How To Train Your Dragon – The Arena Spectacular. Having sold work both locally and internationally, Tim’s dedication to his unique style of work never ceases to captivate and amaze."
See, the things you learn – we had no idea that he was involved creating creatures for some of our favourite movies and shows – Walking with Dinosaurs! Awesome!
Can’t wait to get down to ArtBoy to see this one – cool as!
Who: Tim Shepheard What: Tim Shepheard solo show Where: ArtBoy Gallery, 99 Greville Street, Prahran, VIC When: Show opens Friday 18th May, from 6pm til 9pm and runs until the 27th of May.
The other week, we got down to Acmi in Federation Square to check out a new conference put on by Australian INFront and the Jackie Winter Group. The Field Trip Creative Conference caught our attention right from the start with its unique format – a collaborative exploration of a bunch of artists from the Jackie Winter stable; we realised from the start that it wasn’t going to be your regular design forum, and we were proven right in that regards!
Field Trip was different for the fact that one of its primary focuses was on collaboration and how different artists, designers, photographers, animators and other creatives are able to work together. Along with a detailed look into the presenters processes, they also attempted to show exactly how all of these things fit in with each other in terms of creative "projects". It was, for the most part, successful – and though we were familiar with a lot of the applications, techniques and mediums that they used, we also learnt a truckload of new tricks that we’re sure to be adding to our own personal arsenal of techniques.
Here’s a breakdown of the day in order of the speakers – we decided on a point format for this, as there was a hell of a lot of wisdom imparted throughout the day, and we want to give it to you in bite sized chunks … we hope you creative types derive a little inspiration from all of this, as we did.
Beci Orpin
First up for the day was Beci Orpin, whose work most of you are probably more than familiar with! Showing us through a whole bunch of illustrative compositions, she focused mainly on the design of the Field Trip flyer and how her process enabled its creation.
Beci is a great artistic talent, and it was really enjoyable watching her describe all of her processes to us.
Things Beci Said …
She loves Japan and enjoys travelling there once a year to check in on their awesomeness
She generally works from home, and can sometimes have trouble maintaining focus, but she sets herself a "reward" after accomplishing tasks, be it looking at blogs or checking out eBay. She does love working from home, but "if you’re not feeling it, you can get easily distracted"
She always puts how many changes there should be with a design brief in the initial contract – usually two or three.
Clear briefs from clients at the beginning of a project are very important, as are references!
Beci Orpins Illustrative Processes …
Beci is a big fan of Adobe Illustrator, it is her primary drawing tool these days
She spends a lot of time playing with her characters faces and modifying things, trying different combinations
She uses a lot of clipping masks in illustrator for textures and placement (watching this was really fun, as a non-illustrator fan it was cool to see the various techniques she utilised in her work)
With her textures, she uses the "dither diffusion" technique a lot to distress the artwork a little
Works with a lot of details. A lot of her work has a "hand drawn" aspect to it rather than the disinfected Illustrator style – it looks like she achieved a lot of this by concentrating on the small details and not making everything perfect, but leaving some things up to chance.
Jeremy Ley
Jeremy Ley is a pretty cool dude, and a rad illustrator. You are probably familiar with Jeremy work, we’re actually big fans of his tape piece that you can find in Melbourne Central. He’s a funny fucker too – he spent a lot of the process joking around and engaging the audience as he worked.
He is also well known for his storyboarding techniques, which he showcased within the forum. Continuing on by taking some of Beci Orpins work and adding it into a storyline, he offered us a unique glimpse into the world of sketched out motion and action.
By the end of the session, Jeremy had blocked out an entire storyboard depicting Becis creations flying out of the computer to attack her – it looked like a hell of a lot of fun.
What Jeremy said and what we got from it:
He started out drawing as a kid growing up in England – he was a huge fan of Tin-Tin (though he hated the film) and got a Rolf Harris drawing book that set him on his path.
Jeremy studied advertising at RMIT, but ditched it fairly early on. He spent a solid ten months at home drawing, just to learn how to do it – and then landed his first job with Levis
He’s had a few studios, one with with fellow artists such as Nick Parker and Eveline Tarunadjaja, but he has since moved home to work there
Jeremy loves collaborating with other artists and designers
He’s currently working on a really cool little web series with Nick Parker called Draw Draw – an online how to draw series for younger audiences.
He has, believe it or not, storyboarded a porno for Sasha Grey. Lucky bastard (err, if that kind of thing floats your boat, of course).
Jeremy Leys Illustrative & Drawing Processes
When sketching, he starts loose and rough, going from small and simple without any details
With faces, he tends to draw in shapes and implement movement early on. He draws the eyes on the face first, and then the mouth, the nose will always fit between those – eyebrows are last!
He then bumps the opacity of the image all the way down, create a new layer.
He figures out his light source, and then begins to apply blocks of colours via focal tone swatches. He then adds a shade layer, and puts a bit of blue and brown in the shadows – as they are not hard black.
He suggests you keep the layer number down if you can, but it’s also good to have the separation, uses multiply a lot for blending textures.
Jeremy uses the three camera storyboarding technique. Internet, External and MTV. The internal camera moves with the character, the external camera is like in Indiana Jones, following the action, and the MTV camera just kind of moves around like a shakey cam.
Dom Bartolo & Flutter
Now, we do love ourselves a bit of animation, so the presentation from Dom Bartolo of Flutter renown was pretty interesting. Flutter has a trove of skilled individuals that represent all the facets of animation. Texture designers, concept artists, directors, music composers and animators all work within a well oiled machine. They’re done a whole heap of ads that you’ve more than likely seen on TV here in Oz, and they’re damn good at what they do.
The only issue we had with this talk, was that there there wasn’t much to join it up with the rest of the event – it was mostly spent describing the process behind the creation of a Telstra ad. Where the first two talks had a flow-through, as did the last four, the Flutter session stood mostly on its own. We get that animation takes time, but we really, really would have loved to have seen something that tied this talk into the rest of the conference.
Nevertheless, it was still pretty intriguing and it was a great breakdown of the whole process that goes into creating an animation – the ad itself is pretty cool too. Let it be said, that animators are some of the most patient creatives ever born!
What Dom said and what we got from it …
Things don’t move quickly in animation, but you just try to move as quickly as you can and many hands make light work – all of their projects have multiple team members. They spend a lot of time waiting for things to render!
There are two stages to the animation process – Concept & Storyboarding, and Design and Direction.
In Stage 1, they create rough designs, the eventual style may be different but they try to show the story in actuality with the storyboards.
In Stage 2, Production takes the story board blue print, and everyone gets to sign off on it
They use a lot of tools to do their animation, in this example they utilised 3D Studio Max
They started out on the Telstra example by texture mapping a face onto a cube, with character studies the team will often work on different components and develop little tricks, collaborations and scripts. li>Then usually apply some bump mapping to give the surfaces of the objects texture.
They predominantly use Adobe After Effects to apply depth of field mattes.
Travis Price
Travis Price was definitely one of our favourites for the day - but, of course, we are a little biased as we have a thing for illustrators, obviously!
Price lives out in Ballarat – not the usual place you’d expect to find an illustrator of his calibre, but, with the internet and all, these days it doesn’t really matter where you’re based. He is, admittedly, a bit of a control freak and enjoys being able to work at home. He’s a guy that has worked hard to get where he is (like all the creatives in the conference) = "Life isn’t easy," he remarked. "You have to work at it. You might not be in the right place – but what are you doing to get out of it?"
Price changed a lot of jobs during his life, and worked as a designer for over ten years – and didn’t think it was all that spectacular. He approached the Jackie Winter group several time after he decided to strike out as an independent illustrator, and it took a long time until they eventually brought him on board – he had to work at it, really hard.
For Field Trip, Travis took an owl that he was working on, and stepped us through his entire process from the very initial sketch – and it turned out absolutely fantastic.
What Travis said and what we got out of it …
Vector isn’t a dirty word, according to Travis. It has a stigma attached to it that it isn’t as good as traditional illustration – but a good vector illustration shouldn’t feel like a vector – it should feel loose.
He doesn’t feel like his folio should stick to one style, so he tries out a bunch of different things.
Price once went to an Illustrators studio and asked him about his techniques, and the illustrator was very secretive – so he likes to show everything he can about his own process – we loved this.
He always has movies playing in the background while he works, and enjoys using them as references. He spends his night on the couch drawing and sketching – something we’re familiar with!
Price is pretty humble, one of the things he said was that "You can think you’re pretty good, but you just have to walk down the street and there will be someone better than you." – and he is so right. It just means you have to keep working, working and working to be the best that you can.
Tricks and Techniques in Travis’s arsenal …
Often starts out with a Mind Map of ideas.
Look at textures and use references and multiple images to find ideas in images to insert into your creation.
He often uses the warp tool to get non-standard shapes and forms
He used to dismiss "Brush strokes" in Adobe Illustrator, but is now a huge fan of them. He thinks that brushes themselves are one of the coolest things and are very powerful – especially when you have the ability to drag patterns over to the brushes and use those to paint with.
He thinks one of the nice things about Illustrator is the ability to use the gradients and fills.
Uses the "Multiply" function a lot to help blend things together. For texture lines he uses the soft light function.
He also loves the "Blend" took – he uses it to add texture and form between separate pieces
Feathering is also regularly used – almost every object or layer has at least a little bit of feathering on it.
Tin & Ed
Really, these two guys are completely au fait with what is cute, cool and hip in the world of design. Tin & Ed are multitalented – their skills range across illustration and installations. In this forum, you just got the sense that they have a shitload of fun with what they do. Having been working together for over ten years, the synergy between them was palpable.
Throughout the piece, they just seemed to work together seamlessly, like a multi-appendaged creature they cut, stuck and folded two head pieces. Seemingly very simplistic and looking, to begin with, like something that anyone could do with a bit of clag and coloured paper, there was something about the materials that they chose to use, as well as their design aesthetics that propelled the pieces they constructed to a different, vibrant level. This was professional, playful paperwork at its best.
Tin & Ed are highly experimental in the way they work, and they find themselves often getting design related work that they have no idea how to implement. Constantly innovating and developing new processes, they relish the beautiful mistakes that can occur along the way – because theirs is a true love for the learning process.
Words of Wisdom and things we learnt from Tin & Ed …
They work with a lot of deconstructive methods, often using computers, but they really see these things as building blocks for a final product
A lot of their work is all about the end result, as well as the function of the piece. They enjoy things that people can interact with
One of their favourite places to find materials is in Ringwood, called Reverse Art Truck
They enjoy the "Happy Accidents" that occur during the design process
Basic shapes play a big part in creating complex designs
They also often start with very basic, bright colours
Most of what they do involves collaboration of one form or another, they think its good to be pushed and questioned by one another, as well as clients, because its good to have differing opinions in the process. "You can have incredible conversations and fulfil the brief but sometimes it doesn’t always go the way you want – it may not always be the most exciting end point, but working out the process is the fun part."
They think its a good idea for artists and designers to team up with a photographer, or have some basic photographic skills – it helps with presentation or conveying ideas
"Design is anything you want it to be."
Jo Duck
Now, on a personal note, as I’ve said before, I’m no expert on photography, and don’t claim to be. For me, photography consists of taking an absolute shitload of snaps on auto (fstop, aperture, iso, wtfbbq?) and hoping to get a small amount of ones that aren’t shithouse. Which is why when I see someone who has so obviously mastered the art, and should be called a photographer (as opposed to someone like me, a mere camera owner) it’s a real treat. Especially when you can see a distinctive style in their work.
Jo Duck has a distinctive style – its recognisable, and we really liked it. After graduating in her early 20s, Jo threw herself into the harder-to-make it world of editorial photography. At the start, she would shoot and submit, very rarely receiving anything back for all of her hard work – these days, however, she is much sought after for her unique style. Hard work and little initial gain seems to have been the order of the day, but its exactly people like Jo who prove that persevering with your creativity can help you attain your dreams – listening to her talk, it was all pretty inspiring (yep, inspired, yet again!).
She also started out doing a lot of work for street press magazines, due to her brother being big into urban culture when she began shooting – a lot of her photographic work has echoes of this urban feel to it.
For her piece in Field Trip, she took the work that Tin & Ed had done, and conducted a quick photo shoot – you can tell that it was bare bones, but the result was pretty fantastic; sometimes minimal is good.
Things we learnt from, and about, Jo Duck …
When she started out, she used to put together a soundtrack for all of her shoots, and share it with the models, stylists and others. It helped to set the mood of the shoot. We really loved this idea, and, though Jo doesn’t really do it anymore, it still sounds pretty cool.
Before doing a shoot, Jo does a lot of research into the subject matter – for Field Trip, she researched a lot of owls. One video in particular, this one of an owl on Youtube, was really inspiring (crazy great video!)
She shot the entire piece for Field Trip to the song "Twist Again" – love it.
Enjoys playing with double exposures and movement
She shoots really fast, and with a good tempo – you can tell she loves music and loves working with some tunes on.
Jo doesn’t use Adobe Lightroom at all. Her primary camera is a Nikon d700, and a 35 mm Minolta – she also uses a large range of film camera.
Toby & Pete
Last up for the day, but certainly not least, was Toby & Pete. Toby & Pete is a Sydney based creative agency, with a huge range of talent and creative services. Of particular note in this session, was there digital compositing skills – taking various different images of different sources and blending them together in photoshop. Have to say, as well, their compositing skills are fucking rad – you know those Spring Valley and Daily Juice images? Yep, that’s them.
They started out doing photo retouching, and a large majority of their work was high end stuff, including cars and digital retouching. Pete had studied photography and 3D, and Toby had been working at Sachi and Sachi – in 2009, they decided to go into business themselves, and the rest is history.
For Field Trip, they took all the images from the afternoon, Travis’s owl and Jos photos of Tin & Eds dancing headwear dude and meshed it all into one image. The result was, for a fairly quick job, pretty spectacular and just goes to show exactly how well multiple people with various different talents can produce a collaborative piece of cool.
Stuff we thought was cool about Toby & Petes panel …
They source things here and there, but only if it is legally available. Otherwise, they will take all of their own photos.
One of their primary focuses when doing compositing, is to ensure that all of the light sources are correct – this can throw things off really easily. The photography is really important, the shadows must be consistent – they also showed the simple "skew" method for doing shadows.
They use lots and lots and lots of layers, as well as a lot of channel masks in Photoshop to help break things up.
They never flatten any images until the very end – its very important to keep all of the layers intact, because you never know what you will need to change
They suggest using the "Noise filter" as a good way to help keep different elements cohesive – they spend a lot of time "messing it up? and then recompositing things.
They suggest that if you really want to learn how to do it, just work stupidly long hours – they’re all mostly self taught!
The first instalment of Field Trip was a huge success – if those who attended (and the event was a complete sell out) walked away without feeling a little inspired or with a new idea, then they probably need to reduce their prozac intake.
We only really had one very minor gripe with the event, and that was with the lack of cohesion. We had just hoped (or expected) that there would have been a little more continuity between the morning panels, and the work that was produced in them, and those in the afternoon. Of course, it is hard to co-ordinate so many people from such different walks of design and art into a cohesive whole, but, if they nail it next time, then this event will quickly turn into a must-attend event for creative people from all spectrums. Hell, it already is, and we’re probably way too hung up on the continuity part of things – the panels were fkn grand – and the afternoon, where each panel flowed right into another, was a perfect example of how cool this format can be.
Field Trip was, at its heart, primarily a showcase of the artistic and design talent for the Jackie Winter group – and though it did at times feel a little like an info-sumer dump on the range of talent they have available, and who really cared? Not us. They are a vastly talented group of individuals, and the JW group has done an incredible job at "collecting" them all together. We learnt a shitload, got to see some great art and design, and came away wanting more.
Most importantly, it was a great showcase of home grown, enterprising and creative individuals and teams. We’re looking forward to the next instalment – hopefully we can get up to Sydney in November for it!
Big thanks to Jess Brohier for helping out on the day. Any errors in this article are purely unintentional – we had a shitload of notes to go through … and if we got it wrong, just let us know!
So this dropped into our inbox the other day, and after reading it two or three times over, we think we’ve managed to work it out – this is a show about the weird shit that constitutes reality. More importantly, though, its about our place amongst the weird shit that surrounds us in this universe. Make no mistake, weird shit is cool (I mean,we just repeated the two words three times because it sounds cool), especially when that weird shit delves into temporal concepts, photonic musings and pseudo-Schrödinger perceptions.
"Curated by Theodore Wohng at Dark Horse Experiment. Lux 0.27 consists of works by artists Kit Webster, Sam Fagan, Hanna Tai, Alex Purchase, Kate Stryker, Tiziana Borghese, Tim Sterling and Julia Francis. Pursuing the theme of void/nothingness and our perception of reality through light and technology.
"In science our perception of reality is limited to the finite speed of light, as it is in a linguistic system, reference to a present reality is forever postponed from the temporal delay of meaning. Our univocal universe is full of constant metaphysical flux of change, difference and becoming. When we gaze upon the stars at night, the multiple instants in time are seen as simultaneous from our vantage point on the earth, the very same set of events will occur in different time combinations from other perspectives in space, the concept of ‘now’ is irrelevant, the only two things that remain the same are the wave-particle duality of photon and our perpetual curiosity of what reality really is."
You know what? We have no idea what to expect from this – but it sounds really different, and that’s the kind of shit we love best. Plus, there’s familiar names in there that we just know are rad, and we’re looking forward to acquainting ourselves with those that we’re not. We also just saw something pretty exciting on the event page on fb – apparently Jason Haebich will be doing a LAZER show. That’s it, this show just ramped up to awesome mode – fucking LAZERS!
A Dark Horse opening is always a really fun event, which you’d know if you’ve already been there – great art, great people, great place. Light. Reality. Void. Lazers. Weird shit is the new normal – go see it in action.
First up in a whole bunch of pics from the epic four day There’s More event that we put on with Cocoa Jackson and a bunch of other friends are, obviously, opening night shots.
It was a really good night, the exhibition that SEAR put together was fantastic – and this is a rundown on the artwork from the night. There are a lot more photos coming of both the event, and the paintups that happened, but here’s the highlights from the show first.
Invurt webzine provides information on AustralAsian street, urban, illustrative, graffiti and other genre defying, nu-contemporary art to readers around the world. It specialises in events and artists who are working, displaying and visiting Australasia – particularly with a focus on exhibitions, live art and other events the artists are partaking in.
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