Creativity in the Year of the Snake

Boosting Your Creativity in the Year of the Snake

Two cow sculptures from an art installation by Liz Leyh.
Photo by S. Raymond.

Making art is never about the equipment, it is always about the artist. 

Without intention and action there is nothing. 

A New Hope

As the 2025 Year of the Snake is associated with the Wood element, it symbolises a return to creativity, growth, and renewal. Yet, many of us are on a limited budget after funding cuts and 'cost of living' savings, so how do we move forward again?

As artists, we are frequently buying better equipment, going on courses for new techniques, having to buy tickets to exhibitions.* All of that is valuable to update our skills, or when old equipment needs replacing. Yet, none of this is an act of creation. We often don't always need to use something expensive to create great work. 

Consider this: Liz Leyh's cow sculptures (and a replica by Bill Billings) were made with concrete and chicken wire, as part of a community art project. They became a symbol of the new city of Milton Keynes (see photo above). Would they have made as much of an impact if they'd been made in bronze or marble?

Artists Are Natural Hoarders

Many arts and crafts people have a studio space, spare room, a shed, or even just a cupboard, full of art equipment they aren't using. Added to which, we often store our old work there too, as an archive or until we exhibit or sell it. 

For example, last year a friend 3D printed a mini press, by the Open Press Project, as a birthday gift for me. I was delighted and would have liked to try it straight away. However, last year was quite chaotic on a personal level, so I eventually put it aside, unused, into a drawer. 

Recycle, Reuse, Reduce 

There are alternatives though. The 'Recycle, Reuse, Reduce' approach to life can also apply to our arts practice. It's also helpful when funds are low. So here's a quick list of ideas for how we can all make more from less in the year of the Snake. 

- Reuse your old print art and magazines - print works can be printed or painted over, used in collage, or in craft projects such as as book covers, or to make cards

- Many b/w photographs or prints can be transferred to other surfaces, to be painted over or made into print blocks

- Photographers: join a 'shitty camera challenge' and reuse your old cameras that have seen better days

- Recycle your old art materials and magazines by offering them to your local art clubs and community services. Libraries and charity shops will accept books and magazines in good condition. Charities that offer art therapy may accept materials, as may children's play groups. 

- Give your old art to your friends, family, or a library. Now it's both a gift and also someone else's problem to store or display. Tell them "it'll be worth a fortune in the future", which may even be true! The central library was loaned paintings by internationally-exhibited contemporary artists Boyd & Evans, which made it more accessible for many as well as helping the artists free up some workspace. 

- Get inspired by the Arte Povera movement - making great art out of unconventional materials 


What do you think of these art tips - do any resonate for you?


* HMRC self-employment expenses

The Woolly Elephant in the Room

Migration

Mastodon 2022 logo design 
By Eugen Rochko & other Mastodon contributors
 https://blog.joinmastodon.org/, AGPL,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=120470930

November 2022 is turning out to be period of rapid change and a questioning of power structures. Whilst a lot of the US was focused on political campaigns, there was also a test of boundaries on social media as the Twitter platform reacted to the new owner's radical and mercurial attempts to reshape it. What he couldn't control was whether the users approved and continued to use the site. 

Like many, I felt that Twitter was nearing a point where it may collapse, after many important staff were laid off or resigned. That led to many questioning whether it was worth hanging on what started to be dubbed 'the hellsite'. As a result, many looked to other alternatives and one new option started to get a lot of traction - the Mastodon federated server site, or 'fediverse', of networked online communities. 

What Next?

With so much up in the air, what does this mean for artists, museums and galleries, online collaborations and so on, that used Twitter as a key publicity and campaign tool?

Ultimately, I suggest that it means a period of upheaval and uncertainty but I see a new, positive community spirit emerging on Mastodon. Questions remain on how artists and galleries will network on that platform, as it has no clear focal point yet, whilst still keeping their other accounts alive.

Even as and when Twitter burns down, many useful links have been formed on that site and no-one should leave it until too late to note their key contacts, just in case their favourite faces aren't on Instagram or the like. If you're unsure how to make the transition, there are lots of guides about by now and tools like Debirdify, Fedifinder or Twitodon produce a spreadsheet for you, which you upload to Mastodon to follow everyone on it automatically.

We adapted to the rise of Meta (Facebook/Instagram), YouTube and TikTok without too much complaint since 2004/2010, so I think that where there's a will there's a way and I hope for great things.

You can find me with my new woolly friend at ohai.social/@srfirehorseart

The srfirehorseart profile on Mastodon.

Something Old Something New - 2016

A photo posted by Suzanna Raymond (@srfirehorseart) on Oct 9, 2015 at 10:00am PDT

Welcome to 2016 and congratulations on getting through January if you've just done your tax return (more on that in another post)!

As luck would have it, my art year started with a photography competition that was easy to enter. I just had to point the organisers to an image (see above) I'd shared on social media last year. Once the photo made it to the shortlist, all the finalists then went to a public vote, which you can still help me with ...

Please help me out by voting (until 5th February) for 'Car Park Drama' at the MKsmart photo competition public vote page. Many thanks!

It was interesting for me to note that my image, created with a smartphone camera and app, joined a shortlist of pictures taken on better equipment. The size of my image means that any prints would be relatively small but the fact that my picture made a shortlist proves to me that it's worth making the most of timing and a good viewpoint, regardless of what camera you use. It would more professional to use better quality camera kit but I find that a smartphone allows for more freedom when taking quick shots. It lets me get away with taking a lot of shots that might have never happened if I'd had to keep a D-SLR slung around my neck, or in the boot of my car. As smartphone cameras improve, I expect to see a lot more photography entries like mine in the future.

Part of my preference for using a smartphone for urban photography is that few people question anyone stopping to take a shot with a phone in a shopping centre or busy public space, as it is currently such a common activity. Also my cameraphone is always on hand, whereas a D-SLR might require more than one trip if I needed to plan the shot. Some locations that put restrictions on photography may require asking for permission to take a picture with an SLR or a decent pocket camera but smartphones don't seem to attract the same scrutiny, unless there's an over-zealous security guard around.

I'd be interested to know if you value image quality and print size over capturing the moment. What do you think is more important for your favourite images?

---

Winners of the online vote will be announced at the exhibition and networking event at Gallery 200 in Milton Keynes College. Click here to book your place at the event on Friday 5th February.

News: Janus exhibition

JANUS at Arts Central

ARTS Central MK announces the opening of a new juried exhibition, based on the theme JANUS – Horizons, Reflection, Water, Mirror, Buildings. 

My work for the Janus exhibition was a response to an open call for work, around the themes described above. Both of my artworks have been selected to form part of a juried group exhibition to promote artists connected to Milton Keynes and raise the profile of the arts centre.

In the two works submitted to Janus, presented as digital inkjet prints, I was interested in the way our viewpoint can affect what we make of a situation and how much an illusion can create a form. The two photographs offer the illusion of a solid form, apparently beautifully lit from within whereas the reality is that the illusion changes by altering the angle from which we see it. As in life, we change the subjects we thought we knew just by changing our viewpoint.

The reflective qualities of the surfaces and the light they capture might prompt us to think about how we reflect on the situations in our lives. We may jump to conclusions about truth and beauty that are unwarranted by the facts and just one small step in a new direction can enlighten us in our quest to understand the situation more deeply.

Lightbox 1 and Lightbox 2, digital inkjet prints on paper.

The exhibition opens this week and runs until the end of May.

MKWeb article about the exhibition and how to visit: http://www.mkweb.co.uk/Art/New-Arts-Central-exhibition-reflects-Milton-Keynes-talent-20140330090000.htm#ixzz2xp6ODKTS

Arts Central on Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/artscentral/

Andy Warhol - Photographs 1976 - 1987

In 2007 the Stedelijk Museum organised an exhibition called Andy Warhol - Other voices, other rooms. The exhibition at the Stedelijk opened up more dimensions of Warhol's body of work by making space for 27 of his ventures into film-making, video and audio recordings. [1] The final section of the exhibition showed Warhol's interest in the cutting-edge technology of that era by showing the work he produced for television. Warhol's approach to film seemed ideally suited to his experiments in television, with its emphasis on non-acting and a generous approach to time, allowing us to take in our subjects as leisurely as we might gaze at a painting. In this format he was able to train the camera's voyeuristic gaze on everyone alike, feeding an appetite for trivia and detail.

Many people still think of Andy Warhol in terms of his best-known work which includes screenprints and paintings, such as Marylin Diptych (1962) at the Tate. In this sense we are well-versed in the artist's preoccupation with subjects like the commodification of celebrity versus the limited lifespan of its subjects. His prediction that everyone would have their brief window of fame was also something that we've heard a lot about,  a topic which seems to have reflected the public's rising interest in reality TV. However, until social media like Twitter started to drive news stories from 2007 onwards, it wasn't yet apparent how much the ordinary person would be able to have their own mayfly moment in the sun.

The current exhibition at The Photographer' Gallery promises to show us more of Warhol the photographer, noting that he received his first camera at the age of nine and started developing his pictures in his basement. It also reminds us that Warhol eagerly adopted new tools for his work in a way that suggests that he would be comfortable with our preoccupation with recording and sharing the minutiae of our lives with cameraphone snaps and videos. From his purchase of a Minox compact camera in 1976,  Warhol was rarely without a compact camera about him, excited by the possibilties afforded by the shrinking camera technology and the freedom it afforded him. Photographs 1976 - 1987 marks Warhol’s adoption of the compact camera, an important development in his career-long endeavour to turn image making into a production line.

Andy Warhol

Gay Pride, 1976-87

Silver gelatin print, 8 x 10"

© 2014 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / 

Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York and DACS,

London Courtesy FAIF Collection/Gallery focus21, Switzerland

 

ANDY WARHOL: PHOTOGRAPHS 1976 - 1987 is at The Photographer' Gallery from 17th January to 30th March 2014. The ticket price also includes admission to David Lynch: The Factory Photographs and Taking Shots: The Photography of William S. Burroughs, which are open over the same period.


[1] For a flavour of Warhol's sound and film experiments:
- listen to The Andy Warhol Tapes (1994), Narrated by John Giorno, on Ubuweb here:
http://www.ubu.com/sound/warhol_tapes.html
or  watch Andy Warhol's film Sleep (1963) on Vimeo, length 40 minutes