...but what about the noise of crumpling paper...

Cage’s Pavement

Jonathan — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 20:02:06 +0000

“I … was waiting for a bus and I happened to look at the pavement and I noticed that the experience of looking at the pavement was the same as the experience of looking at a [Mark] Tobey [painting] … the aesthetic enjoyment was just as high.” John Cage.

I can’t say I fully agree with the sentiments expressed in that statement, but the above image, the surface of an old tree, does remind me of an abstract painting…

Summertime

Jonathan — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 19:23:04 +0000

“Summertime, and the living is sneezy/pollen’s jumpin’, and my nose is on fire…” This is a variation of a standard hayfever lament that has been uttered by anyone who’s noticed the similarity of “easy” and “sneezy”. I don’t venture outdoors much in June, thanks to a spectacularly intense allergy to pollen (think of that guy’s head exploding in Scanners and you may get a good idea of my sneezes) but last Thursday the pollen count was low enough for me to emerge, blinking and pasty, into the afternoon sun. I brought the hound off to the woods for a walk and, while there, took the above picture. I hope you like it.
I’ve included a video below for two reasons: firstly, I wanted to learn how to insert a video into posts on WordPress, and secondly, because it’s bloody wonderful, and I’ve been listening to it all weekend.

A Michaelmas Daisy…

Jonathan — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 19:33:15 +0000

Above is pictured a Michaelmas Daisy, taken this afternoon in New Ross.

The Dreaming Forest

Jonathan — Sat, 28 May 2011 21:05:16 +0000

It was late by the time I got to the forest, and too dark to take decent photographs (especially with a camera that slips out of focus all to easily in low light). I snapped off a few anyway, and when I got home was pleasantly surprised that one of the images, blurred as it was, captured a certain dreamy ambience that really appealed to me. Half-an-hour of mucking around in Photoshop (the photographer’s best friend!) and I had the picture above , which I’m quite fond of. I hope you like it too.

Hook Head

Jonathan — Fri, 13 May 2011 12:59:04 +0000

In County Wexford it is almost mandatory for anyone who wields brush or camera on a regular basis to travel to Hook Head and try to capture the magic of that wonderful spot. And who am I to resist? I’ve been visiting the Hook for as long as I’ve been coming to Wexford, and for me there is no better time to be there then on a wild, stormy day, when the waves are pounding into the rocks and the wind blows the foam from the sea on to the road like snow. The above photograph was taken on such a day earlier in the year, and has two features that I particularly like: the seagull on the top right, and the fact that the only colour is the muted red of the lighthouse railing. I hope you like it.

Fragments

Emma — Tue, 10 May 2011 14:31:42 +0000

The images below are part of a series of prints to be included in the delegate bags at the CBI Conference being held on May 21st and 22nd (at which I’ll be speaking on illustration that has influenced my practice; see here). There are 250 little pieces in total, each one 4 inches square (the part of the conference at which I’m speaking is entitled ’4 x 4′, as you have four people each speaking for four minutes).

In my studio I had stuffed in a drawer a pile of old prints executed and exhibited several years ago. As I was tidying, I came across them again and was intrigued, not by the prints themselves, but by little sections of them, places where a splash of ink and a blob of carborundum came together to create a charming juxtaposition, a mini-composition. I began cutting up the prints into little squares, and eventually ended up with 250 tiny pieces. The idea resonated with me because I’ve been recently reading about Sappho, the Greek poet whose work is known to us only in such fragments, and it got me thinking of how fragile art is, and how easily it can be lost and damaged.

There is an added feature that amuses me: the pieces would, when put together, make up ten relatively complete prints, so they’re like a kind of dispersed jigsaw…