ANONTATION

I want to convey the importance of  personal connections in my painting . Throughout my painting practice I have been concerned with representing a sincerity within my work in rendering these through painting. They're a symbol, a signifier of an identity, a mark, a sign, or word that indicates or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating links between otherwise opposed and unrelated concepts and experiences. The painters i chose show remarkable consistency through out their art practice and in many ways their work is a reflection of their immediate lives. Morandi says about his work; As he himself put it, ‘I’m a painter of the kind of... composition that communicates a sense of tranquility and privacy, moods which I have always valued above all."  I admire the humility of his values and how he they are reflected in his work. I Also chose two personal segments to post. My Mother being interviewed about her approach to cooking and growing food, and the film Pinocchio. My Mother placing the importance of a genuine personal connection to what you create and Pinocchio a symbol of true nature, material self and real self. He then transform into real boy after going through many trails. He is in some sense my alter ego. 

For me the discovery of theory is through the act of painting. Painting is the material I use to discover and explore the ideas. My work is a visual language of collected attitudes and ideologies. My challenge as a painter is finding and establishing my position within these ideas. I feel that the ‘art world’ is full of so much academic gibberish language and concept, through my practice I am trying to rid of that. I can go down a rabbit hole deep into the darkness and bring up enough so as to keep it simple and tangible for mostly me more so than the viewer. 

Morandi Giorgio

 

Giorgio Morandi was born on the 20th of July 1890, in Bologna, Italy. Affluent for his simple and contemplative still life's of every day objects; bottles, jars, boxes. He was considered a modern master, who couldn't be closely identified with a particular school of painting.

Morandi deliberately painted the unremarkable, he centred his practice on intense concentration and compositional balance, developing an intimate approach to art.

I draw influence from Morandi's work as he paints the familiar, yet purposely stripped bare. His style resonates with the functionality of these objects- objects that were designed to be used, rather than admired. Many of his still lifes have a weighty. chunky appearance to them, and where the perspective is always looking straight on.  I also admire his technique of painting, where brushstrokes are visible. he had no concern with hiding them to create a smooth looking surface. instead Morandi painted in such a way that the handling of the paint had just as much a contemplative importance as the objects. 

LE AVENTURA DI PINOCCHIO

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDHXo3hifOc

The story of Pinocchio has an emphasis is placed on a personal experience. I remember listening the story of Pinocchio on a 7 inch record in the family lounge, sitting on a shagpile red carpet when my father pulled out the book from the study and read the story of Pinocchio to me in Italian, concreting my Italian roots, looking at these paintings years later and in hindsight I realise I have not connected with the Disney version of the story thats first image that come to mind with most people when they think of the story. At the age of eight I travelled to Rome with my father and this is where I bought my wooden Pinocchio, with my pocket money, whilst walking up to visit the Vatican City. 

Returning to Australia I shared my ‘Italian Things’ for show and tell. For school plays I was chosen to be Pinocchio; running across the stage and pulling laughs from the audience and my class mates. I always knew that I was first an Italian kid and secondly an Australian. I understood that I was made in Australia with Italian parts. Whilst painting I am trying to empathise with this when painting Pinocchio. Am i painting a truth or am I painting a lie. I can see what is front of me but when I paint it becomes something else. 

https://vimeo.com/35974379 

My mother has by defualt has taught me the importance of having a direct personal connection to a story in respect to what your making and putting out in the world.

Michael Craig Martin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz_tEn98UjU 

Michael Craig-Martin was born on the 28th of August 1941. He is a contemporary conceptual artist and painter. He has developed a distinctive style over the past 50 years through the compilation of a whole vocabulary of objects realised through a variety of media including painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking and animations.  Martins work has been very consistent throughout his years as an artist. I find Martin's work interesting as his subjects are object based void of an environment, similar to my own ideals of painting.  Martin is fundamentally concerned with recording everyday things.  "I like the idea that the painting is the object, that i've tried to make an identification between a single painting and a single object. there is nothing else. one is in place of the other."

KEEP IT SIMPLE

 

Raw and base materials blunt and oozing to deceptively naive but sincere instinctive expression . My work is born with base materials. Remembering that felling of the fresh new crayola castle for Christmas, brand new set of 12 pack of derwents keeping them always in colour order and sharpened then slowing progressing up to 72 pack for my birthday and sneaking in a pack of twister crayons in a pencil case from the supermarket when my mother said I had to choose between the two. The returning army solider that was sharing a cabin with when I was 8 on the train from Calabria to Rome giving me his set of textas when he saw me drawing the world cup Italia 90 logo.  That fresh smell of the stationary store. When I work the materials the smell the the fell of them in your hand take me back to a place of innocence that allows me to empty my mind.