THE CUBE

I have been searching high and low towards the end of last week to find someone that would be willing to crush up decaying material that I am gathering at the moment. I had a chap lined up about a month ago but he has now decided that it is going to make too much of a mess of his machine and has now withdrawn his offer (very frustrating).

Even my contact within the trade (Howard) has drawn a blank. This is really frustrating as the idea I have will make a really interesting sculpture and it would be a crying shame if I couldn't pull this one off.

I haven't given up hope yet but time is catching up with me and there isn't much of it left!!!!

YORKSHIRE SCULPTURE PARK

Having recently visited The Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Wakefield, West Yorkshire it gave me some ideas as to where I wanted to take my final practical outcomes.

One piece that I was looking forward to seeing was the Antony Gormley piece: "One and Other" but when I asked one of the staff which way it was she told me that the tree stump that it had been erected on was decaying and for health and safety reasons it had been removed (ironic that!!).

David Nash has his largest collection of work exhibited here until February of next year. If you haven't been to the exhibitions yet I strongly advise you to check it out - it may be a bit of a trek to get around the whole site but it is well worth it. As you walk around the park you can see work from other people such as Andy Goldsworthy, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, James Turrell and Jonathan Borofsky.

The installations from Henry Moore are amazing - there aren't many places around were you can see children using his sculptures as climbing frames and truely interacting with them.

One place that I really enjoyed was the Bothy Gallery, this is were Davis Nash's "Boulder" was exhibited. This wooden Boulder was a large wooden sphere carved by David in the North Wales landscape and left there to weather.

Over the years the boulder slipped and rolled its way through the landscape, following the course of streams and rivers until finally it was washed out to sea.

Since it was caught in the currents of the Irish Sea the sculptor has no idea of its location, and enjoys the notion that wood which grew out of the land will finally return to it. The story of the boulder is documented in a film by Welsh film-maker Pete Telfer.

This was a great piece of film documenting the journey this spherical wood took with no narration this piece was purely of the boulder and the sounds around it as it went on its journey.

The wooden boulder was last seen in June 2003 on a sandbank near Ynys Giftan. All creeks and marshes have been searched so it can, only be assumed it has made its way to the sea. It is not lost. It is wherever it is.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

Well - over the past few days as well as polishing my new bike! I have been rummaging around the scrap yards and metal dealers in the area. I have managed to acquire a couple of mountain bikes, a kitchen sink (yep you read right) and several other small objects that I going to experiment with over the next couple of weeks.

I have also been lucky enough to get a friend of mine Eric (a professional Photographer) to document the final outcomes of this project. I can take a decent picture when I have to but as these pieces are going to be merged with nature and the outdoors they are not the sort of things that can easily be situated in a gallery so the only way of showing them in a true visual way is through the medium of photography. I would hate to go to all the trouble of creating these final pieces and them be let down by some (ok) photography. So thanks to Eric Howard of Karen Wright Photography, www.karenwrightphoto.co.uk. much appreciated.

I have been pondering over some issues regarding how I can make some of these objects look as though they have been in situ for a long while. This has lead me to using moss, when I was out with Richard Shilling we had a discussion about creating art without disrupting the natural flow and cycle. This has put me in a bit of a dilemma in taking moss from its natural environment and placing it on a foreign body. I am just thinking out aloud as I type this post so I will hopefully find a solution to this over the next few days.

I have found the location to create these pieces (I think) it is on common land so I am hoping that there are no issues with trespassing etc...

I have dropped in a couple of pictures some of the elements I will be using.

Well today is scheduled for a little more dissertation writing so I will close this post for now.

LONDON SUBWAY DECAY

Back in the 1950s, old lifts were removed in the Notting Hill tube station in favor of more modern escalators. Recent work at the station revealed these posters in the old lift passageway.

There isn't any other information for this post other than it is great to not only find a place that has been untouched for some 5o years but look at the artwork for the old posters - they are great.

MICHAEL KAREKEN

Michael Kareken received a BA in Visual art from Bowdoin College in 1983, and his MFA degree from Brooklyn College, CUNY in 1986. He also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture (1988) and the Yale Summer School of Music & Art (1982). After graduating from Brooklyn College, Kareken lived and worked in New York City until 1993, when he moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Since 1996 Kareken has taught at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design, where he is a Professor of Fine Arts.

Kareken is the recipient of a 2010 Bush Artist Fellowship and a 2009-2010 McKnight Foundation Artist Fellowship. He has also received grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board (2007, 2000, 1996), Arts Midwest (1994), the New York Foundation for the Arts (1990), and the Vogelstein Foundation (1993), as well as a residency fellowship from the Millay Colony for the Arts (1988). He has received three Faculty Research Grants from the Minneapolis College of Art & Design.

In 1997 Kareken received The Louise Nevelson Award for Art and The Childe Hassam Purchase Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, and has also received awards in printmaking (2002, 2000) and drawing (1996) from the National Academy of Design.

Kareken has exhibited his work in numerous group and solo exhibitions regionally and nationally, including New York, Los Angeles, Seattle and Santa Fe. His work is held in the collections of The Walker Art Center, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Minnesota Museum of American Art, the Frederick Weisman Museum of Art, and the Minnesota Historical Society, among others.

VALERI LARKO

The landscape I am most compelled to paint is the city or more specifically the fringes of the city. I spend a lot of time wandering around the vast industrial parks that have become a common part of our environment. I am attracted to the rich visual experiences these places offer. As a painter, the sensuality of the forms and the play of light and shadow, as well as the pure enjoyment of laying on paint engage me. I find beauty in these arcane structures, even if it their beauty is of an unconventional nature.

Valeri Larko has had numerous solo and group exhibitions of her paintings throughout the New York metropolitan area. Notable solo exhibits include The New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, Safe-T-Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, Bronx River Art Center, Art Guild of Rahway, NJ, Johnson and Johnson Corporate Headquarters Gallery, New Brunswick, NJ and the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Summit, NJ. Notable group exhibits include The Jersey City Museum, The Morris Museum, The National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, Aljira, a center for contemporary Art, Newark NJ, William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ, MB Modern in New York City and the Bruton Street Gallery in London, England.

In the fall of 2000 Valeri Larko was awarded a major mural commission from New Jersey Transit and the New Jersey State Council on the arts for the Secaucus Transfer Station. She painted four murals for their north mezzanine. Completed in August of 2003, the Secaucus Transfer Station is the largest train station in the state of New Jersey.

Valeri was awarded a public art commission in 2004. This time by the city of Summit to create two Fragmented Glass Murals for the Bus Shelter located in front of the city’s train station. Other honors include grants from both the George Sugarman Foundation for painting and the New York Foundation for the Arts Strategic Opportunity Grant in 2006, an Artist in Residence Fellowship from the Newark Museum in 2002, a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship Grant in 1992 and several awards from the National Academy of Design in New York City. Ms. Larko’s work is in the collections of the Jersey City Museum, The Montclair Museum, The New Jersey State Museum, Johnson and Johnson, Rutgers University and a number of other significant organisations.

Educated at the Du Cret School of the Arts, Plainfield, NJ and the Arts Students League, New York City, In 2004, Valeri moved from her long time residence in Summit, NJ to an artist loft building in New Rochelle, New York. Presently she holds the position of Director of the Tomasulo Gallery at Union County College, Cranford, New Jersey, a position she has held since1996. She is also a painting instructor at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Summit, NJ and teaches international landscape painting.

ANNA HELD AUDETTE

Anna Held Audette began her career as a printmaker and later evolved into a painter. She taught at Southern Connecticut State University for many years and her books, The Blank Canvas and 100 Creative Drawing Ideas came out of that experience. Her main studio is in New Haven, CT. During the summer, however, she works in southern Vermont in a studio near the old farmhouse handed down from her family.

Her work ties in with this research project and her paintings are mainly of urban and industrial decay.