Basquiat, Rene Ricard, squeezing inspiration

"As much as undervaluation can kill, so can a false sense of the value of your work. Jean-Michel was advised to stop giving it away. But if your friends can't have it, why live? Overprotection is deadly; the stuff has to get out there to be seen. Making money is something between artists and their stomachs. To turn one's work into fetish that is almost indistinct from oneself, to overpersonalize and covet one's own work, is professional suicide. Fear of rip-off is paralysis. One is always ripped off. Keeping work a secret is the psychology of the applied artist, not the fine artist who must live in a dialogue. "

Poet Rene Ricard writing in his 1981 essay "the Radiant Child" that bought Jean Michel Basquiat to the attention of the wider art world and the New York art-collecting glitterati. This beautiful essay seems almost elegaic even though Ricard is writing about the new work from burning, incandescent artists rising from the world of graffiti, punk music and the streets of New York. He captures the longing, inspiration and intertwined practical, monetary concerns of being an artist and gives them all the finger, in disgust or delight. His sarcastic, sad, beautiful words are worth a read and a re-read.

Book of the Year

I read between one and three books a week. Sometimes it's genre fiction, fantasy and crime that slips down pleasantly without too much effort. Sometimes it's what I think of a "serious" fiction, the books that I remember and think about long after I've read them. "Serious" fiction are the books I consider buying because I know I'll read them again and again.

This year I read two books that were so intriguing I have been thinking of them on and off for months since I first read them. The first was T. C. Boyle's "The Women".

Set in the early years of the 20th century "The Women" follows the fortune of genius architect Frank Lloyd Wright through the stories of the four seminal women in his life. Wright followed his vision for a new American architecture that worked in sympathy with the environment, was monumental, simple and beautiful, with a passion that bulldozed through all of his human relations. His first wife Mamah was left, with six children and debtors knocking on the door as Wright decamped to Europe with his new mistress, the wife of one of his clients. This disastrous affair is the background to the building of Wright's sylvan masterpiece the, wonderful "ideas factory" Taliesin. Built in his home town of Spring Green, Wisconsin Taliesin provides the spiritual, creative and physical backbone of the novel. Described by the various women in Wright's life as an inspiration, a prison, and a fortress to be breached it is this building more than any other that serves to illuminate the brutal force of a creative vision on the lives of those involved.

"The Women" is a rollicking tale evoking the cult-like atmosphere that Wright encouraged amongst his apprentices and workers. He was always in debt and refusing to pay his workers and suppliers of materials and labor as money was always short in the grand Wright establishment, but never too short to buy original Japanese prints or commission furniture especially for Taliesin. The women in Wright's life had to cope with his long absences, freezing Wisconsin winters in the huge, stone house, and the dislike of the locals to whom Wright owed money. These four women are fascinating characters, all individuals who struggle to maintain their identity and their families in the maelstrom of Wrights creative genius.

Coming up........

I am in a few shows in Sydney opening soon.
"On the Table Too" at Planet Commonwealth is a group show that promises to be full of beautiful, amazing and practical handmade vessels. I love the group shot of ceramics on the invitation. It emphasizes the notion of the lively table, a place for food and ideas. In Italy the majolica ware used for the everyday table is bursting with history, colour and pattern. The food is there as an element, a vehicle for the flow of ideas and discussion around the table. I've often wondered what the trend for pure, white, factory made plates signifies. Is it a kind of control freak thing around food? Putting the food in a frame with nothing to distract the eater, none of the connection to community that a handmade plate brings to the table creates a strange kind of over-emphasis , almost a fetishization of food.

"On the Table Too" can cure this!

Exhibition from wednesday 8th - 22nd July to coincide with the Australian Ceramics Triennale

An exciting showcase of new ceramic tableware from Australian studio ceramists, including

walter aue,r bridget bodenham, kris coad, catherine fogarty, shannon garson
szilvia gyorgy, nicole lister, sandy lockwood, ruth mcmillan, sophie milne
vanessa owens, chris plumridge, simon reece, jane robertson, liz stops
dawn thirlaway, murray topham.

planet commonwealth is located at 114 commonwealth street
surry hills between reservoir and campbell streets

monday - friday 10 - 5.30
saturday 10 - 5
sunday noon - 4
ph 9211 5959

A little bit spice

Jiansheng Li is one of the speakers at the Australian Ceramics Triennale. I have seen Jiangsheng speak a couple of times and he is an inspiring, poetic and powerful speaker. Jiangsheng is the founder of the Sanbao Ceramic Art Institute in Jingdezhen , China.

I have seen quite a few artists speak over the years but Jackson Li was one of the ones that has stayed with me and genuinely influences my day to day work in the studio. I can't quite put my finger on why I loved his talks and demonstrations so much. Was it his story of travelling back from Canada to his hometown in China? The affection and connection Jackson Li feels for "his place"? Was it Jackson Li's preoccupation with finding good food in a small Australian town?
(a preoccupation I share) The first time I spoke to Jackson Li was when the bus carrying us further and further west for the conference stopped at a Macdonald's for lunch.. A large protesting groan went up among the potters but most people stayed at Fast Food Hell and made do. Jackson and I set off towards the town. After walking VERY fast for a couple of kilometres we came to a greasy spoon and before I could warn him Jackson Li ordered a Dim Sim! Delicious if you are eating them straight from the vendors cart in China absolutely horrible deep fried in five day old fat beyond the Black Stump!

Jackson Li gave me one of the nicest compliments on my work I have ever received which also contains some advice I try to follow.
"Shannon your work is just like you very sweet but a little bit spice" A little spice can make all the difference.

Here is an introduction to the Sanbao Ceramic Art Institute.

"Sanbao began as a dream of Jackson Li of Jingdezhen and Wayne Higby of Alfred University, USA back in the mid-1990's. They envisioned an international ceramic art center located in China, that would provide the opportunity to the international arts and crafts community to explore and exchange the culture, arts and crafts of China.

The concept of a first international ceramic art center in China led to the search for a suitable site on the outskirts of Jingdezhen, long the world center of porcelain production and the origin of the best porcelain artifacts in history.

The Sanbao Valley had for countless centuries been the source of China stone for the studios of Jingdezhen and was dotted with numerous old water-powered hammer mills for crushing the stone. A group of farm houses and an adobe building were chosen as the site for the future art center."
From the Sanbao Ceramic Art Institute Website.


Jiangsheng Li (also known as Jackson Li) is also a renowned brush maker and will be doing a brushmaking demonstration at the Triennale. I have one of Jackson's brushes and the quality of the line it produces would make any ceramic decorator swoon. These brushes are just a small sample of the wonderful brushes for sale on the Sanbao Ceramic Art Institute website.




Opening

On Friday the 17th of July there will be a screening of the international award winning film titled 'Potter and Dragon Kiln Village' by Jiansheng Li (Jackson Li)at COFA

(COFA is an easy 5 minute walk from the National Art School)

How to...... Get a Blog Started for Artists

beautiful fabric from Melbourne company Ink and Spindle

Here is another entry for those who want to enter the blogosphere. The first thing I would say is...IT IS NOT NECCESSARY TO WRITE YOUR OWN BLOG TO BE SUCCESSFUL ON THE INTERNET. You should only start a blog if you are interested in either writing or photography and you intend to keep posting regularly. A blog with infrequent, poor or boring content will not do you any favours.

You can successfully be part of the blogosphere by posting comments on others blogs and sending photos and press releases to other, established bloggers. The only thing I'd add about this strategy is that in sending someone photos and information you are actually asking them a favour, introducing yourself in a polite and respectful way is essential. I sometimes get -emails along the lines of "I am a Canadian ceramicist would you put my work on your blog?" Well......no.
Working with e-mail is like meeting people in real life. Would you walk up to someone a a party and say "Hi . I'm great will you promote my work?" Very bad pick-up line.

Starting a blog...
1. Think of why you want to write a blog. I think a theme is quite good as it narrows down your perspective and prevents your blog from becoming a boring list of things you have been doing (eg. "Strange Fragments" is about craft and design)

2. Go to the Blogger website and sign up. It is easy and the instructions will just walk you through.

3.Posting a blog is a bit like writing something in a Word document. The little row of icons at the top of the "new post" box are what you use to add images from your computer, add links etc.

4. Images are really important for artists blogs. Consider signing up to a photography site called Flickr. This site allows you to download high resolution images and creates an online gallery of your photos. You can put the photos on your blog from Flickr and also use it as a portfolio and send galleries and other bloggers to your Flickr site if you want them to see your whole body of work.


a weird little vase I made at the ANU summer school in Trudi Golley's workshop.

5.Sign up to Google Analytics so you can see how many people are visiting your blog , what country they come from, how long they spend on each page etc.

7. Blurb is a wonderful resource for artists. On this website you can start a book, chose any size, format, write your own text and upload images. When the book is finished you can buy as many copies for yourself as you wish and put it up for sale in the Blurb bookshop. This is a great resource for creating a folio to show galleries.

6.Start using the internet. Post a few entries. start putting up links in your blog. Contact blogs and websites you really like and introduce yourself and tell people you have linked to them. comment on others blogs. The more you use the internet the more you build community. Be part of the online community.

Be "swellegant" at your next gallery opening with the power of the blog!

7. Bring the blogs down to earth. It is no use being an online success if you are not getting work or actually meeting people in the flesh. Visit other cities and see if you can catch up with people you have met online. Conferences, art openings and industry events are great for this. Instead of lurking by the back wall desperately clutching your rapidly warming champagne next time you are at an opening you will know some people there through blogging. Say hello. It is important to supplement online activity with real events. Artists (particularly if you are a bit shy) can easily get caught up in the virtual world with no benefit to themselves or their practice, real contact with real people is the final, and most important step for getting the web to work for you.

How to Use the Web for Artists OR a Lifeline for the Technologically Reluctant

I am doing a blog workshop this Wednesday at the Maleny Artworks Gallery. This post is also part of a panel I am taking part in at the Australian Ceramics Triennale in July this year.

Blogging can give people greater insight into the artistic process, most particularly how entwined the process of inspiration and making is in everyday life. I encourage all artists to find their own little corner of the internet, reading blogs, posting comments on others blogs and posting images to established blogs are all powerful ways of connecting with other artists and the wider community.

I heard an amazing statistic the other day...98% of web content is written by 2% of web users. Many people feel that blogging is something they just can't get into because they haven't got time. I maintain that artists can use the internet better, to meet their peers, learn technical information, gain inspiration and promote their own work. With this in mind I've compiled a list of links (or as I like to call it a lifeline for the technologically reluctant) This will enable you to dip your toe into the sea of blogs and wade out as far as you feel comfortable- who knows some of you may become addicted and venture off beyond the breakers!

Art and design
These blogs are good for inspiration browsing and researching names of galleries/markets etc that might be worth approaching personally.
Moda Muse- Australian Contemporary Craft and Design
Handmadelife- an artists blog featuring work from Ramona Barry and Rebecca Jobson and exhibitions around Melbourne, Australia.
Dear Ada- amazing art and design blog based in America but featuring international artists.
Design Sponge- design and interiors based in America, if you can get your work on this blog you will definitely recieve approaches from galleries- it is very widely read.
Udessi- Brisbane based artist and business woman Kim Wallace's blog connected to her online store, beautiful art and design.

Illustration Art- drawing and illustration blog.
High up in the trees- Gracia Haby, illustrator, zine writter and bookmaker extraordinare.

Fashion
Kris's Colour Stripes- fashion designer photography and colour swatches. Isolates the colours from his photos, excellent resource.

The Sartorialist- pure inspiration from fashion photographer Scott Schuman. Street shots from European capitals and New York.



Food
101 Cookbooks- cookbook author and photographer San Francisco based Heidi Swanson's cooking blog.
Not Quite Nigella- cupcake queen and food blogger from Sydney, Australia.

Recipe on Not Quite Nigella Blog


Photography
Simply Photo- Jennifer Causey excellent photography blog featuring international photographers.
Simply Breakfast- Jennifer Causey (professional photographer) beautiful photo blog of her breakfasts.

Jen Causey's latest breakfast.

Textiles
Kirin Notebook- Lara Cameron, Melbourne artist and textile designer gives insight into her studio and inspiration.

A shot from Lara Cameron's studio
Mantua Maker- Ruth Singer UK based textile artist and fashion designer.


Ceramics
Six Hundred Degrees- Sophie Milne, Australian ceramicist
Musing About Mud- Carole Epp's wide ranging ceramics blog. A good place to start.
Sawdust and Dirt- Michael Kline, a wood-firin' , country livin', dad from Carolina, beautiful pots and insights into the potting life.
Euan Craig- Australian born potter living in Japan and working with a top Tokoyo chef to create tableware and food that combine as one.



Australian Ceramics Triennale- Information about the Australian Ceramics Triennale and a comprehensive overview of the many exhibitors, speakers and ceramics. An excellent resource for those who can't attend in person.

The Wild Wild World of Vipoo Srivilasa

When I was in Melbourne I had the privilege of meeting amazing ceramicist Vipoo Srivilasa. Entering Vipoo's world is to take a wild journey through strange creatures that look disquieting familiar but have become, over the years of pollution and environmental neglect encrusted with wonderful, and colourful parasites and symbiotic organisms.



Vipoo's latest show "For the Future" at Uber Gallery in Melbourne explores the issues of being an expatriate Thai in Australia with an emphasis on global warming and the destruction of coral reefs. Coral is a perfect vehicle for Vipoo's fertile imagination, it captures the conflict inherent in the environment fecund and barren, delicate and strong, colourful and bleached. This subject seems to me to capture the essence of what Vipoo does with his ceramics. The surface treatment is rich and the initial impression is of excess, pleasure.



Looking deeper however one gets the disquieting sense that all is not well in this world of mermaids and shell encrusted koalas. Where the cleverness of Vipoo's art lies is in the seduction by surface to lure the viewer in to contemplating deeper issues.




a glimpse of Vipoo's Melbourne studio


Vipoo and Jane Sawyer unveil some work

The OTHER Shannon Garson

There is another Shannon Garson. She is a vocalist and keyboard player for a gothic/electronic band called Butterfly Messiah. The other Shannon Garson is described as having a "Lush, ethereal voice" I am described as having the sort of voice that only my own children could listen to, and even then only before they can actually speak and tell me to shut up!

The existence of the other, lush and ethereally voiced Shannon Garson makes me wonder what I would do if I wasn't an artist. I've come to the conclusion that I might be either a midwife or a mushroom grower.



Both professions are quite scientific and involve looking at a set of circumstances, (human body, foetus, general health of mother, or soil, compost, spore etc) and moving around all the physical elements to create the most harmonius set of circumstances- a lovely baby and healthy mother or delicious gourmet mushrooms! This has certain similarities to creating pots.

So hail to all the other selves out there .....and to all the other real Shannon Garsons!

drawing

Drawing on the web is an interesting phenomenon. The combination of digital and traditional media can create a surprising and moving new way of experiencing drawing. I love this.

self protecting crafters

Fliss from Udder makes wonderful toys

I wanted to write this post which is both alarming and inspiring. my friend Fliss from Udder made me aware of a theft. The victim is Ann wood (a wonderful artist who I have written about before) and I don't know the perpetrators but through the benign and protective influence of this strange little corner of the blogging world their dreadful crime was outed and stopped!



These people stole Ann's design for one of her birds. They then had the temerity to get themselves high profile stockists and press throughout Australia. I find this simultaneously believable and absolutely shocking. Craft artists work so hard to make their art and make so little money and Ann Wood's birds are so

original and whimsical. For these people who are obviously clever crafters, to think it would be OK to rip off another's designs and profit from them is outrageous.

What I found inspiring about this whole sorry tale is that the crafting bloggers went into Nancy Drew mode and not only defended Ann but also tracked down the perps and contacted the owners of the stores that were trustingly selling these copies as original works. As a result of this cyber-community effort the copied birds were pulled from the shelves. Excellent work everyone. I'm proud to be part of such a community.



This is some more of Ann's amazing work.

Dream Studios

I consider my insatiable curiosity about other people's houses part of my job. Being a maker for domestic spaces has always been my aim. Long before I went to art college and was asked "Why don't you paint it on the wall or...on the ceiling?" (!) I felt that getting into peoples lives was going to be my small way of changing the world. I love walking along the street at night and getting glimpses into other peoples windows. What books do they have on their shelves? What are they eating? How beautiful is their couch and what paintings do they have on their walls?

Similarly I love seeing others studios, this is where the hard work and hard inspiration happens. I collect photos of my dream studios, my favorite at the moment is Thomas Brolin's studio in Sweden,



although Hector Pottery in New Zealand comes close, imagine potting this close to the sea?



Karin Ericksson in Sweden is moving to a new studio and follwing her blog in the next few weeks will yield photos of an amazing space, here is a tantalizing glimpse...





My studio is under our tall wooden house. I painted it golden yellow, thinking of the burnished colour of ripe wheat. It has a large messy working area and a special cupboard for displaying finished pieces. I have 1930's style cut glass lampshades. It is dim and cool and humid, sometimes my pots take 2 or three days to dry enough to turn.





Here is my challenge to artists whatever your space, a corner behind the wardrobe or a purpose built palace of design post photos with a small description of why your studio is like it is.

Losing My Mind

The sun comes up,
I think about you.
The coffee cup,
I think about you.
"Losing My Mind" from Stephen Sondheim's "Follies"

Having a dishwasher makes me a better artist. Before we had a dishwasher my heart would sink every time I walked into the kitchen and my eyes were drawn to the pile of breakfast dishes on the sink. These dishes would in turn create a housework anxiety where all the jobs I had to do would start whirling around my head. Anyone who has ever seen my house will tell you that I'm am no cleanliness freak, but in the difficulty of starting the inspiration momentum the housework would become a (strange) priority. I realized that if I was going to work from home I had to liberate my mind from this terrible cycle.

I truly had to lose my housework mind. Making art is all about losing your mind, sometimes when the rational, thinking mind gets lost and wanders into strange byways and down dark paths a new idea just appears in front of me.

Our dishwasher is environmentally friendly and only takes about 10 litres of water per cycle and keeps all those pesky dishes from tethering me to earth as I walk through on my way to the studio!

Shock- proof , shit detector

The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof, shit detector. This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it.
Ernest Hemmingway

This quote from Hemmingway is something all artists could learn from. Being your own best and harshest critic is an essential survival skill in the rough and tumble of the art world. But it is important to be realistic. When I studied painting at college there was a whiff of the attitude that every piece you make should be a masterpiece, that working for years on one artwork was OK as long as it was great in the end. To me this smacks of the dilettante and hobbyist rather than the serious artist. Great artists from the past have mostly all worked hard, spruiking themselves, finding patrons and producing work so that they might survive. The work that you produce should be the product of thought , design and the skill of the artist. To be professional means that even when you are not inspired, you can still produce professional, beautiful work.
...And sometimes the gods are with you and there will be amazing pieces that transcend the technical aspects and become masterpieces.

Could these magnificent robots from the Bennett Robotworks be "Shock- proof , shit detectors"? I don't know but I think I could use one of these around the house!

What's in the cupboard?

What's in the cupboard?


New pots! Fresh from the kiln!

Nests and.......

Herbarium, tiny viola hederacea.

These pots are headed towards "Lille - a shop" in Chicago, America.

being human

I've been watching a documentary called "The Choir of Hard Knocks" . It follows the work of an opera singer, Jonathan Welch as he forms and records a cd of songs with a choir of homeless and disadvantaged people in Melbourne. Jonathan saw the idea in a Readers Digest magazine, secured sponsorship and donated his time and expertise to this wonderful program. Apart from being a great philanthropic venture "The Choir of Hard Knocks" is a documentary about the power of art.

The documentary follows some of the singers, exploring their home lives (what little some of them have) and following the difficulties they face through illness, poverty and struggles with drugs and alcohol getting to rehearsal. When these people arrive and begin to sing it's as if their secret, inner selves are coming out through their voices. If you closed your eyes and just listened you wouldn't know that the beautiful, innocent young girl was a single mother, battling addiction, with a care worn face and nervous manner, some of the old ladies sound just like they are singing along to the church organ ( You know those voices that carry the whole congregation and pick the mumblers up to a higher level?) and will go on to scones and tea afterwards. This alchemy captures the power and vulnerability of being human.

I think this glimpse of the human condition is one of the most valuable things an artist can bring to the world. Great artists manage to capture this vulnerability and passion in every genre. The drawings of Cy Twombly....


food of Thomas Keller....


The rough delicacy of a Simon Reece teabowl...