Dürer print

My mother had the Dürer print and the other print on her wall in her room in Germany as a child. They are now hanging in my home, still in their original frames. I'm just sorry the one has some water damage, due to my neglect I am afraid.

Art Eye Gallery

I plan most Saturdays end to end with activities but then I get sidetracked or I get caught up at one point and the rest of the itinerary is abandoned. So it happened the Saturday I went through to explore Art Eye Gallery, there was an hour allocated but I stayed for five. So interesting and inspiring. 

Art Eye is made up of many rooms and different spaces each more exciting than the previous one. Sanele gave me a great and informative tour, even of the storeroom/basement, where I could have stayed all day unearth masterpieces. I just wanted everyone from the office to come on over and enjoy the experience. Alas, I haven't even shared the idea with them yet.

I love the colour of the walls in the Launch Pad, the dark grey, it highlights the colours of each artwork. 

It is too much to take in, a real wow. Honestly, I would have bought at least four pieces if I had the money. I even wanted to take up brush and paint and splash some design onto the wall. Haha!

They told me to go a few floors down and see if any of the artists in residence were about. A passage of closed doors until there was an open one. The artist is Thokozani Mthiyane. He made rooibos tea and we chatted about his incredible experiences and his art. He shared the notebooks, books and dairies covered in sketches from moments throughout his varied and interesting journeys. I felt honoured to have met him and the time he afforded me. As if the day had not already been awesome. Icing on the cake. I bought one of his small illustrations. 

At the other end of the corridor was another artist, that I had already met in the gallery, David. Also a lovely man, putting together artwork with printed images, textures and paint.

Another wonderful experience.

Just add cement

Turbine Art Fair 2015

I went to the Turbine Art Fair again this year. Very nice. It has such a great vibe.
There were four pieces I wanted. I sat in the bar, had a drink, and decided not to be impulsive.

There were so many great pieces but I thought my photographs didn't do them justice. So below are four close ups of some of the work. The one that really tickled me was the large painting of the side of a glass building with the one open window. When I was in college we were given a title: Happening in a deserted area. I painted a tiled floor with one loose tile at an angle, I didn't get a good mark for the project. But here now is a similar concept selling for R40 000.00. Hmm :-)

As night follows day

I made these quilts for a competition but I didn't make them up to the minimum required size so I couldn't enter them. Boo hoo!

Creative rationale (the full story)

Day - the sun moves from east to west, the light breaks through the darkness (batik material, orange on blue, on the right of the quilt). The colours represent the heat and cooling of the temperature as the sun rises and then sets again, as well as the intensity of the light. The horizontal lines (machine stitching) are the latitudinal lines on the earth. In the southern hemisphere l used more red thread since it has on far hotter climate than in the north. The 'flares' represent the different time zones as the earth turns during the day. The bead work is to show my African heritage. On the right it mirrors the fabric, day breaking through night, blue and orange beads. On the left, orange and white, colours for the setting sun. I chose the white because it represents the glare of the sun as it sets.

Night - moving from east to west (right of the quilt to left), the night starts to seep into the fading light of the day (batik material, orange on blue). There is hardly any true darkness on the quilt because we all try and light up the night. The piece of fabric, navy blue with white dots, reflects intensity of the 'grid' of artificial light we produce. The horizontal lines (machine stitching) once again are the latitudinal lines on the earth. In the southern hemisphere l used more earthy coloured thread since the land is more arid, and therefore green thread dominates the top of the quilt in the north. The bead work is representative of the starry sky. The strip of shimmering material (silver and blue) shows us the milky way, with the bead work concentrated in this area but spilling out across the sky. The movement of the beadwork encourages us to think of the changing night sky. The colours of the fabric get lighter as night fades into day.

Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.

Victor Hugo , Les Misérables

Buy art for charity

These are the 4 drawings I bought at the Night of a 1000 Drawings. Proceeds go to charity.

Art in the park

This bin with art attached is in a park in Troyville.

Rosendal

Contexturise

New works by South Africa's leading fibre and textile artists.

I am only showing detail/close-ups of the artwork because the WOW is in the detail.

FADA Gallery, University of Johannesburg