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Old books

A life long love of mine is old books. Their covers, their texture, their pages, their stories, their authors, and their lives. 

 Every Saturday morning my dad would drive us all to the library. We didn't have much. No games and not very many movies. We had the beach and the library. 
We probably had more than that, but thats all I can remember.

 I remember winning the book reading competitions. And getting excited when a new book came in. The day I was finally old enough to accompany my mother to the Adult Fiction section. The day I discovered Terry Brooks. The day I realised I could buy my own books. The day I finally gave up my collection of Saddle Club and Pony Pals to the school library. That was a big step. The day I realised I could stay up past midnight reading and still make it to school. The day I realised I could read during English and Economics and no one would stop me. The day I graduated school. The day I got my first car and realised I could drive myself to the second hand book store. I remember the moment I realised I really loved books.


My two favourite books are my fathers dirty copy of The Hobbit, and an old magical thesaurus. Both have inspired me greatly. I have used the thesaurus to write many songs, and to think about words I may never have come across in todays world. Both books inspire wonder in me. I love books because of the utopia I find in them, an escape, a refuge. In my drawings I aim to create the same feelings, only these feelings are accompanied with exploration and creation. When I read, I go into their world. I want my artworks to push on the borders of my mind and imagination. Creating reality and substance.



Here are some quotes I found that really resonate with my thoughts on reading and books:
“What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.” — Anne Lamott
“Be awesome! Be a book nut!” — Dr. Seuss 
“I owe everything I am and everything I will ever be to books.” — Gary Paulsen  
“No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.” — Confucius 
“Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable of sensations.” — Vladimir Nabokov
Thanks to Emily Temple for the collection.

Work in Progress: The Dragon

(Disclaimer: I actually couldn't finish this piece, I felt I had rendered it the wrong way. Maybe I will pick it up again and fix it one day...)




My illustration The Dragon, from Peter Jackson’s movie; The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, was created using watercolours and ink pens. The watercolours form basic shapes, which make up the shadows inside the hall and the shadows cast on the dragon. The watercolours were used to make thick blotches of colour, and smaller thinner marks for some details on the hall’s structure and the the dragon. The highlights of the dragon, support beams, and gold, where the light is cast, are not painted. The details of the hall and dragon are made with ink pens, which form vertical and horizontal hatchings. These marks cover and darken the shadows and some mid tones on the dragon and support beams. There has been added watercolour over the ink pens, resulting in darker shapes and details. The covered marks look smooth and blurred while the marks on the dragon, which are untouched by water, are crisp. The colour palette is minimalistic; it contains Paynes Grey, yellow and indigo. The grey is used all over the illustration, while indigo has been released from the ink pens, and yellow where the gold reflects. The paper is very thick and very sturdy. The size of the illustration is 56.5cm (w) x 38cm (h). 
Figure 1, Smaug, Alan Lee, watercolours,
http://tolkiengateway.net/ wiki/File:Alan_Lee_-_Smaug.jpg

The reasons for using these marks and colours are justified in the following points. For example, I have used the watercolours to show an approximate of the shapes in the real image. In contrast to the large spots of watercolour, I have used the hatching marks to bring structure to the hall and dragon. I kept the head of the dragon as a point of focus in the piece. Artists such as Albrecht Durer and Michelangelo Buonarroti used hatching marks in their figure studies (figure 3). Though they used these marks differently, I have applied similar techniques in my own work, The Dragon. I have found the vertical hatching marks to be best for illustrating shadows. As for the dragon, I have studied Alan Lee’s version of Smaug(figure 1), and tried to replicate the way he uses the whites of the paper as the reflecting scales. The colour palette I chose is minimalistic, because I wanted to focus on studying different hatching marks. It was also inspired by Alan Lee’s colour palette in his painting of Smaug. The grey is used all over the illustration to create some cohesion. I used Paynes Grey because I feel confident with the colour’s texture and control. I used the yellow for the gold and the reflection of the gold on the dragons body. I made sure all focus was on the dragon. I liked the indigo that came from the pen’s ink so I made sure there was more of it at the front of the image to create a deeper depth of field. The paper was cut this size, because I thought it would challenge myself and my techniques.

How to Start an Artist Statement

I always find I need help to begin writing my artist statement. If you are like me, you will have a head full of research, information, and ideas; with no idea how to start your first sentence. 

To help myself and others start, I've found some good questions for writing the "Artist Statement", they are as follows: 
  • Why do you create art and what does it mean to you?
  • How does the creation of art make you feel? What emotions do you wish to convey?
  • If the statement refers to a specific piece, why did you choose to represent this piece in this way? What do you call the piece and why? What materials did you use? What are the dimensions of the piece?
  • What inspires you? How are your inspirations expressed in your work?
  • What message are you trying to convey to the viewer?
  • How much time is spent creating your pieces?
  • How is your work a reflection of you?
  • What artists (living or dead) have influenced you?
  • What is your vision/philosophy?
  • What are your goals for the future?
  • What are your techniques and style and how do these relate to the medium?
  • How do your techniques and style relate to your vision/philosophy?
The link to the site these were taken from is here.

Also, here are some examples I have found on another site that were very liberating to read. I know I get easily confused and disheartened without examples, so these helped a lot.
Jonathan H. Dough - Artist Statement"My artwork takes a critical view of social, political and cultural issues. In my work, I deconstruct the American dream, fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and lullabies that are part of our childhood and adult culture. Having engaged subjects as diverse as the civil rights movement, southern rock music and modernist architecture, my work reproduces familiar visual signs, arranging them into new conceptually layered pieces.
Often times these themes are combined into installations that feature mundane domestic objects painted blue, juxtaposed with whimsical objects, and often embellished with stenciled text. The color blue establishes a dream-like surreal quality, suggests notions of calmness and safety, and formally unifies the disparate objects in each installation. The texts provide clues to content and interpretation.
While I use a variety of materials and processes in each project my methodology is consistent. Although there may not always be material similarities between the different projects they are linked by recurring formal concerns and through the subject matter. The subject matter of each body of work determines the materials and the forms of the work.
Each project often consists of multiple works, often in a range of different media, grouped around specific themes and meanings. During research and production new areas of interest arise and lead to the next body of work."
Kathleen Bitetti Artist Statement & Explanation of Bodies of work"Since the early 1990s, my work has involved the creation of conceptually based sociopolitical objects and installations. In 1992 I began stenciling text by hand onto objects. Hand stenciled text/language has now become a very prominent feature in my work and I continue to use the same stencil and medium (graphite) that I used in 1992. In my work, I deconstruct the American dream, fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and lullabies that are part of our childhood and adult culture. My work also addresses gender roles/gender assignment, the fragility of family dynamics, domestic violence and the underlying threads of violence and danger that underpin American society. Often times these themes are combined into installations that feature mundane domestic objects, painted pure white and are often embellished with stenciled text. The color white establishes a dream-like surreal quality, suggests notions of purity and safety, and formally unifies the disparate objects in each installation. The texts provide clues to content and interpretation. My "conceptual sculpture weds minimal form with maximal content" (Shawn Hill, "BayWindows" Nov. 14 96 p27)..."

 The link to the site the statements were taken from is here. 

Here is a link to my artist statements, let me know what you think, and If you have anymore ideas for writing artist statements, please let me know (:
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