Photographic Artwork titled Casa obscura Andrew Deegan
ART EXPRESS 2014

ARTEXPRESS

is an annual exhibition displaying a selection of outstanding student artworks created for the HSC examination in Visual Arts in NSW, Australia. It includes many expressive forms, including ceramics, drawing, graphic design, painting, photo media, printmaking, sculpture, and textiles and fibre.
Art Express is not only showcasing young artists it gives students, who will soon be doing their own HSC examination, insights into what is being created and currently accepted by the  Board of Studies NSW and so informs the work they are in the process of designing.
ARTEXPRESS works are displayed at over 20 regional galleries around Australia and at the NSW Art Gallery from 12 February – 19 April 2015.

Recycled Art

Creating good things that are unique and visually inspiring from materials that may have otherwise been thrown out is what these artists are all about. Look at these treasures made from trash...

Recycled Art from an exhibition at Napa Valley Museum

Giant Spiral by Rob Petit made from old mobile phones.
Rob creates only with phones and sometimes incorporates light.

Roman Party Dress by Janet Cooper

 

Moth and Butterfly sculptures by Michelle Stitzlein
who has been creating sculptures with recycled materials since before 2000

London museum shows intimate side to singer Amy Winehouse

AMY Winehouse seemed to live in public, but her fans never knew the private person.

An exhibition at London's Jewish Museum aims to reveal an intimate side to a troubled star who was also, in the words of her older brother Alex, "simply a little Jewish kid from North London with a big talent."

"Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait" brings together items from the late singer's London childhood, her stage-school years and her short but stratospheric career in music - from her first guitar to a posthumous Grammy Award.

By the time she died in 2011 at the age of 27, Winehouse was a larger-than-life figure whose battles with drugs and alcohol, splashed across front pages around the world, sometimes seemed to overshadow her talent. The exhibition shows that she was also a young woman who loved music, loved London and loved her family. Read full article and exhibition dates at The Australian.

Thanks Kelly for the tribute drawing

 

Important Khmer statues were returned to Cambodia

Great news! Important Khmer statues were returned to Cambodia during the opening of the UNESCO World Heritage meeting in Phnom Penh.
UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said: “We are all encouraged by the historic voluntary restitution of two important Khmer Pandava statues by the Metropolitan Museum of New York to the people of Cambodia. This restitution is an expression of strong ethical and moral behaviour that provides an example of good practice to other museums and collectors...” Read more.

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee will consider the inscription of 32 sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List from 16th to 27th June in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap (Cambodia).  Find out more.

Photo: UNESCO/Eric Esquivel

More good news stories and events can be found at GNN Good News Network.

Get free Good News delivered to you by just adding your email 

Email:

Where is Cradle Mountain?

The Stunning Cradle Mountain, Australia by TahaElraaid

 

Cradle Mountain is a mountain in Tasmania, Australia. It is one of the main attractions in Tasmania because of its unspoilt natural and wild beauty. 

It is part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Jagged mountains, an ancient rainforest, alpine heath lands, colourful deciduous beech provide a range of environments to explore. Icy streams cascading out of rugged mountains, stands of ancient pines mirrored in the still waters of glacial lakes and a wealth of wildlife ensure there is always something to captivate you. Read more at Tasmania's Parks & Wildlife Service

Icelandic art

 

Location: Reykjavik, Iceland

This is an amazing practical artwork. It was a competition aiming to create a new aesthetic for the electricity towers in Iceland, there was also the criteria of a lower carbon footprint.

The Land of Giants™ : Icelandic Pylon Competition Entry Choi + Shine
Making only minor alterations to well established steel-framed tower design, we have created a series of towers that are powerful, solemn and variable. These iconic pylon-figures will become monuments in the landscape. Seeing the pylon-figures will become an unforgettable experience, elevating the towers to something more than merely a functional design of necessity.

Do you too love owls?

 

CELTIC OWL DESIGN

Owls are a perennial symbol for wisdom and seem to be very popular over the last few years as a design theme for all manner of goods. Did you know that owls were the guardians of the underworlds in Celtic, Egyptian, Hopi Indian and Hindu cultures?  The owl was ruler of the night and the mystical and intelligient see-er of souls, the watcher of the dark and the guardian of all underground things. The Ainu people of Japan  revered the Eagle Owl as a messenger of the gods.

If you love owls then you must down load your own free 2013 calendar. Try and down load it onto quality cardstock to do the lovely images justice.
40 artists from around the world have created artworks about owls to create this perfect gift. Many thanks to Shivani from My Owl Barn who has co-ordinated this wonderful project for three years now.

Quote of the day

“Hope” is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops – at all

Emily Dickinson  (1830 – 1886)

Read the full poem and see beautiful artwork at the lovely Jennifer Dye Visscher's blog The Feeding Edge which is an amazing place created using art, pop culture, and stories of people living with chronic illness in a positive and unique way. We all need hope.

Winner of the $35,000 Dr Harold Schenberg Art Prize

Congratulations to Lachlan Petras. PICA announced the 2012 winner of the $35,000 Dr Harold Schenberg Art Prize.
Lachlan Petras, a recent Bachelor of Fine Arts graduate from Monash University (VIC), won for his work  Aggregate, a video projection onto a concave sculptural object made up of over 300 plywood facets.
"Lachlan Petras' Aggregate, a fresh, intelligent, ambitious and refined work that lead us to believe that this graduate had the capacity to significantly further their career as an artist".  PICA Director Amy Barrett-Lennard.

The Dr Harold Schenberg Art Prize is awarded each year to one artist, enabling them to invest in the development of their practice through travel, research or production support.
The exhibition is at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts until the10th of June.

Art prize of $35,000.00 in Australia

   Emerging artists around Australia are being offered an amazing art prize this year. 
36 artists chosen from art schools around Australia are currently being exhibited in Hatched - the National Graduate Show in Perth and the generous Dr. Harold Schenberg Art Prize will be awarded to 1 of these artists. 
Dr. Harold Schenberg was "a distinguished dermatologist, an enthusiastic musician and a renowned collector of works of art.  However, he was most noted in recent years for the fact that he gave donations of both art works and money to the Art Gallery of Western Australia and the University of Western Australia.  He gave away millions of dollars, especially during his final illness, and took great pleasure in doing it." Diana Warnock,  Statement by Member for Perth, in 2000.
The exhibition is at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts  until the10th of June. There is a wide cross section of mediums on show including animation, video and glass sculpture. Good luck to all the artists.

Interview with 2011 winner of Dr Harold Schenberg Art Prize Chloe Hughes from College of Fine Arts (CoFA), University of New South Wales.

VIVID FESTIVAL

Have you seen the Sydney Vivid Festival? 'Get along little dawgy' as it's only on until the 13th June.
You must see the Opera House, from 6pm any night and Customs House and Fire Dance at Campbell Cove.

Our family favourite was the large stone, colonial facade of Customs House which turns into overflowing water, fire, glass, mercury and hundreds of abstract designs. We stood spellbound for 20 minutes.

AUSTRALIAN FILM "TOOMELAH" SELECTED for CANNES

CONGRATULATIONS IVAN - "TOOMELAH" has been SELECTED FOR OFFICIAL SELECTION - UN CERTAIN REGARD - in the 64th CANNES INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL of 2011

Toomelah is the new feature film from Australian director, Ivan Sen. It is his second film to be released since his debut film "Beneath Clouds". It played in competition at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival, where it won the "Best First Movie Award". The film is set entirely in the remote Indigenous community of Toomelah, located on the NSW, QLD border. It was created as a mission during the 1930s, bringing together Gamilaroi and Bigambal people from the surrounding area. Continue reading...

"To be honest, the Cannes invitation was a huge relief. Toomelah is a pretty unique movie, which was made in a very unorthodox way. I try not to get too carried away about festivals, but Toomelah the community, is my family's home, and I'm so proud of them all. I'm related to almost everyone there, and almost half the population pops up in the film. It will be an honour to take the movie and cast to Cannes. One of them has never been on a plane before, and the lead actor Daniel, has only been as far as Brisbane." Writer/ Director, Ivan Sen.

Ivan Sen was raised in Inverell, New South Wales, Australia. He graduated with a degree in photography at Griffith University in Queensland. He studied filmmaking at the Australian Film Television and Radio School, where he completed a Bachelor of Arts in Directing in 1997. Throughout the late 1990s Sen worked on numerous short films, before making his feature film debut with Beneath Clouds in 2002. The film follows two teenagers, Lena (Dannielle Hall) and Vaughn (Damian Pitt) who hitch-hike together to Sydney. It won Sen global acclaim, winning a Silver Bear at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival, Best Director at the 2002 Australian Film Institute Awards and screened at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, Sen has subsquently written and directed a number of award winning documentaries. His documentary Yellow Fella screened in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005.

Good Art - A picture tells a thousand words

Good Morning,

Have you ever thought about why you like a particular artwork?

If you walk around any art gallery you will hear people saying "I like that ", " Oh wow, I like that one! " We all have done it.

Lately it dawned on me that the common link in the kind of art I admire is that the artist creates a world. It may be a strange idiosyncratic world, a kooky world, a raw edgy world, a romantic world or a mysterious world but it makes me want to find out more about the place...the place that the artist has created... and the good thing is I can visit that place in their creations. I can travel to new lands without leaving my house.

I admire these artists. Yes we all create - food, letters, our persona, our home, our lifestyle some create children but to create another whole world now that is seriously good.

Here is a short list of artists I am enjoying for this reason:

Eric Frietas and his amazing, moving, metallic world
Eric Orchard illustrates story books and comics amongst other things.
Greg Spalenka ancient world mystical illuminations
Tod Seelie photographs the everyday with an edge
Kinuko Y. Craft romantic fairy tale story world

They all have amazing sites too as you would expect from artists.
If you are a visual person, like me, here are some of their worlds. But I am not going to tell whose is whose - you will have to visit their sites to find out.
(If any one cares to identify them all correctly in comments I will send you a prize!)

" No great artist ever sees things as they really are... If he did, he would cease to be an artist. " comment by Oscar Wilde (please excuse him his use of the masculine.)

• OPENING ILLUSTRATION BY ERIC ORCHARD