Jim Hodges' A Diary Of Flowers

The pages of Jim Hodges’ A Diary of Flowers are but flimsy tissue, smudged with inky images of petals in ballpoint black and Biro blue. Comprising a total of 565 finely wrought doodles on cheap restaurant napkins, this early work by the American artist dates from 1994 and was created over a period of three years. Pinned gently to the gallery wall, these trembling sheets are a catalogue of fleeting moments, testament, we might suppose, to coffee shop daydreaming or time filled while waiting for friends or lovers.

The ephemeral delicacy of A Diary of Flowers, the sense that it could simply dissolve or flutter out of existence, is typical of Hodges. He came of age as an artist in the early 1990s at the height of the AIDS crisis and the devastation it brought to the gay community, and his art underscores the sense that life, beauty and love are as transitory as they are precious. At the same time, he suggests that the complex networks from which relationships are spun can be both fragile and restrictive, a point succinctly made by his little drawing, Chained, where the word “LOVE” is spelt out in chains and coated in cobwebs.

Flowers, tokens of both romance and death, are a recurring motif. Elsewhere he has strung indestructible silk blooms into streamers, or fixed them to walls to create poignant, sweetly kitschy works like Changing Things, which seems partly a momento mori, and partly a defiant freezing of time. Similarly frail objects of everyday beauty such as spiders’ webs have been realised as silver chains, while disposable newsprint is decked in gold leaf.

Hodges’ work confronts us with everyday epiphanies, the revelation that ordinary things have the potential to induce a state of rapture.

Regine Ramseier - A Dandelion Ceiling

German artist Regine Ramseier created a gorgeous art installation by hanging 2000 dandelions down the ceiling.

All the flowers were first hand-picked by the artist herself; then each puff-ball had to be sprayed separately with an adhesive in order to prevent the fuzz from being blown away. All the dandelions were then installed into a special palette and transported to the installation room. Once they reached the destination, the artist hung the flowers down the  ceiling one by one.

Ramseier project Dandelion Ceiling was being exhibited as part of the ArTroll Summer Lab 2011.

I can relate to this artist in many ways, I have chosen Regine because as an artist she is not very known, she creates small and very beautiful exhibitions that speak a million words. A lot of her work leaves people wondering for days about what type of message she is trying to put out to people. Her work is simple and dainty, it isn't overpowering. I love dainty and simple exhibition spaces, her work is like a breath of fresh air. (if you don't have hayfever). The fact that the work is placed a white washed room, makes me think about the purity of the dandelions. If the work was to be placed against a black background my perception would be completely different, i would think of the dandelions bringing a meaning of something far more morbid and sinister. The dandelions are hung above heads,which is interesting normally when you have to look up at something whether it be a plane you heard in the sky or something a friend is telling you to watch out for, you always look at that something in awe and fascination, and that is exactly how i look at the dandelions. Dandelions are pretty much temporary they break apart in the wind and can be destroyed with a simple shake or blow, these dandelions have been sprayed with adhesive so that they cannot be changed from the state they were picked at. This is important because Regine as an artist is not trying to portray the point that dandelions can be destroyed, the art work is not based upon what will happen to the dandelions when they are left suspended in an open room but more about the beauty of there stance in mid air and how they would die while still intact.

Nebo Peklo.

Nebo Peklo is a graphic based design illustrator. He runs his own blogspot and can be found at :nebopeklo.blogspot.com . He creates illustrations taking a lot of inspiration from his surrounding. He shares a keen interest in natural based and floral works, he enjoys looking at nature based artists to inspire him and branch off from. His work is unique in terms of the materials he uses, I haven't yet come actoss an artist that uses ink medium in such a beautiful way, comepared to els worth Kelly nebo peklo is far more dainty with his use of lines, and what seems scratchy. I chose him as an artists because i also use a scratchy approach when drawing, and I also love to experiment with ink and fine liners as my main materials. 

Pen And Ink Drawings.

Lynda Goldberg.

Lyndas work is informed by nature. Whether working at the coast, in the colors of autumn, in the freshness of spring, or in the radiance of sunlight.

Lyndas monotypes, oils, pastels, and watercolors focus on nature and her fascination with it. Her prints are one-of-a-kind; using monotype, monoprint, or collagraph techniques. Lynda starts with an idea or feeling which she then expresses in textures and colors using natural and manmade found objects. Lynda is a tactile person, always touching things and feeling their texture. Because she is a printmaker she will see an item's potential by how it might appear after color and pressure have been applied. When possible, she will apply paint to both sides of an object and use it in different ways in several prints. For example: Lynda will print the original print, then use the "ghosted" plate, also use the other side of the object and use the "ghost of the ghost" if there is enough color/texture left, etc. It is the unlimited possibilities and uncertainty of what exactly will appear (in addition to the image being the reverse of what one worked on) that makes the monotype process so exciting. Each print is unique and the result of an adventure. 

Lynda is inspired and in awe of nature. In her prints she tries to recreate this feeling using natural objects such as leaves, ferns, grasses, seaweed. Sometimes I will take an object and cut or crush it to simulate another natural object. For example: stringy seaweed can become a tree, crushed eggshells can become stars, etc.
Lynda loves nature and the natural world and tries to communicate that love in her prints. 

Camille Henrot.

This project is a translation of an entire library into ikebana. According to Japanese tradition, ikebana was originally created to “console the soul”. The form of a piece of ikebana, its colours and the choice of flowers used constitutes a form of language. The function of consoling and language – two aspects shared by books and flowers – are the starting point. So each piece of ikebana represents the works chosen by the artist following a principle of translation the rules of which have been reinvented, using the evocative power of the Latin and common names of the flowers, the names designed for their commercial exploitation, their pharmacological power or even the history of their travels.Hence the ikebana piece that pays homage to the Discours sur le colonialism [Essay on Colonialism] is made up of a palm tree branch (alma armata) and an upturned tulip (Tulip retroflexa), while the one paying homage to the Caractère fétiche de la merchandise [The fetishistic nature of consumer goods] is made up of a rose named “freedom” and three carnations.
The thoughts produced by literature, philosophy or anthropology (which make up a large part of the library chosen by the artist) are an integral part of our daily lives. But, in some ways, they are also “decorative objects”, in this context meaning that they create a frame, a stimulating and comforting environment, a “leap out of murderers’ row, act-observation.” (2), just as a library can be. From books to flowers, the project highlights our prejudices about what is offensive or inoffensive, about what belongs to the arts of the intellect and to those of the everyday.

Jennifer Steinkamp

Steinkamp uses digital projection to transform architectural space, providing the viewer with a synaesthetic experience, often working in collaboration with musicians Jimmy Johnson and Andrew Bucksbarg to integrate sound into her work. While her career began with brightly colored abstract projections, since 2003 she has increasingly incorporated nature-based imagery into her work — gnarled trees that twist, turn, and change seasons; rooms filled with undulating strands of flowers. In doing so she has brought digital art into the mainstream of contemporary art.

Sue Arrowsmith

Arrowsmith photographs fields of abandoned scrubland. These images are projected and then meticulously recorded and traced in pencil, building a densely interweaving mass of lines that flicker and undulate across the pictorial plane.

The artist works without colour, preferring the seductive sheen of graphite on paper, exploring the different tones and shades that can be achieved through this method. These large scale works can take many weeks to complete but by using a photographic template Arrowsmith ensures the drawing is loose and free. 

The compositions reveal the linear structure of the landscape, poised between intensely detailed abstract lines and shapes and the more recognizable forms of the common land. What appeals to the artist is how the neglected everyday environment can have such extraordinary complexity and beauty.

Batik.

Batik is a process I am very much new to, it basically involves melting wax (as seen above) and using jantings (also seen above) to draw and create pattern with, the wax is then left to dry and using fabric paint, you paint the areas you desire, the wax is then later lifted using an iron.

I struggled to enjoy Batik for the simple fact that my outcomes were never strong enough, I tried this first with my tutor as a trial run, it was my first time using wax as a drawing tool and I was already nervous and disheartened before I had even completed an outcome, I think this played a lot in the result due to my poor attitude towards the process. 

I decided to give it another go on my own without any distractions, I melted the wax down and made sure I set up my own table, I had my sketchbook aside of me, and knew what things I wanted to draw, using the jantings I began to draw, I was happy with the was drawings until it came to adding the fabric paint. Fabric paint is very watery and therefore it causes it to really seep through the fabric uncontrollably, I found this challenging as I was loosing control of the image I wanted to create. I took my finished painted pieces to the iron and hoped for the best, two of them out of 5 were not to bad you could see the outline detail of the lilys but not much else. The other pieces I personally don't think resembled anything but paint splashes, but I'm not sure if that's me being negative in myself, but that's for others to see and perceive for themselves. All in all I don't think batik is a process I shall visit again in a hurry but it was fun and i have leaned a new process if it is needed in future for university. I have researched some amazing and certainly inspirational Batik artists and those can be found in my a3 visual diary, along with the finished samples.