Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Drawing
A few drawings from Abovegroup's most recent drawing session. These sessions are held every three weeks, not often enough. I am enjoying just taking a line for a walk to warm my hand up.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Slab work at Adam Williams' studio
White and red clay slabs with red slip.
Adam with one of his students.
Adam with one of his students.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Sacred Slabs
I have moved to clay...drawing, boxing, scripting, pushing and pulling. Clay slabs are tablets. Like sacred Abrahamic texts. It is exciting. I have since incorporated white slip. I will be working with Adam Williams at his studio this weekend. Very exciting!
Monday, March 2, 2009
This box
This box that I am in, does not fit. It is not comfortable. I shall make my own...
Is it a matter of making a new box? Or alleviating it completely? What then happens to the contents of the vessel?
Barely there, can't fit into the square
I don't really fit into the box in the first place. I think I am the only one who knows that.
The Mould
The mould is my box. My box was given to me without my consent. I am not sure that I quite like it. The story of one is not the story of all others.
The Presumptious Flock
Who are they? The are the present, the past and the future. Maybe not the future, I am hoping that will change. The are the collective that repeats the memory of the way things were...or never were. Taking the past and assuming it to be the present. Confusing new faces with old history. A history, for some, that never existed, for it was not theirs to begin with.
Little Alice
Monday, February 9, 2009
The Little Girl
I am playing around with my little girl. Cut outs, stencils, scratching, painting...
Thursday, January 15, 2009
The Creole School
I bit the bullet. I finally stopped procrastinating, and did something. White creole identity, or lack there of. The misappropriation of roles. I began to illustrate the gap between identities and roles where, as I grew up, I found myself. The confusing contradictions.
As much of these inconsistencies became evident to me while I was in school, I realized that the school itself was a strong symbol for me. It seemed to be a place where roles were handed out and enforced by everyone there, oftentimes with the recipient having little or no say in the matter.
They are all actually quick sketches done in colour pencil and the last in gouache.
Details...details...I will quickly run through the relevance of certain visual elements to me.
The little girl (she doesn't have a name as yet) is I think either a memory or a persona of myself, I am not sure as yet.I wanted to illustrate certain inconsistencies in roles that really remained in my mind after all these years. Things that for the sole reason of the way that I looked, were seeming tasks I should/could not do by my beloved fellow Trinidadians(braiding one's own hair, sweeping the floor , owning a fancy new car and eating creole food correctly).
So this character should appear with her hair braided all by her self and not by a maid. And she will also carry her broom which she has used many times before. She gets dropped to school in her mom's old Sunny. And she also likes to eat doubles, whether is its correctly or incorrectly, she bringing it.
It was a very natural thing to depict my character as a child and in her uniform. Then I realized the possibility of using the school as a symbol. These roles and the inconsistencies are enforced and reinforced at school, on the way to school and on the way home from school.
Who is doing all this enforcing and reinforcing? Classmates, teachers, one's parents, other parents, people you meet on the way and any random person who feels the need to shout it across the street, which is quite common.
But the symbolic nature of the school needn't always be implicitly there as in the last drawing. It is implied in the way she is dressed and in her hairstyle.
So there I am, I have made progress. The most progress I have made in a long time. And I feel really good about it.
They are all actually quick sketches done in colour pencil and the last in gouache.
Details...details...I will quickly run through the relevance of certain visual elements to me.
The little girl (she doesn't have a name as yet) is I think either a memory or a persona of myself, I am not sure as yet.I wanted to illustrate certain inconsistencies in roles that really remained in my mind after all these years. Things that for the sole reason of the way that I looked, were seeming tasks I should/could not do by my beloved fellow Trinidadians(braiding one's own hair, sweeping the floor , owning a fancy new car and eating creole food correctly).
So this character should appear with her hair braided all by her self and not by a maid. And she will also carry her broom which she has used many times before. She gets dropped to school in her mom's old Sunny. And she also likes to eat doubles, whether is its correctly or incorrectly, she bringing it.
It was a very natural thing to depict my character as a child and in her uniform. Then I realized the possibility of using the school as a symbol. These roles and the inconsistencies are enforced and reinforced at school, on the way to school and on the way home from school.
Who is doing all this enforcing and reinforcing? Classmates, teachers, one's parents, other parents, people you meet on the way and any random person who feels the need to shout it across the street, which is quite common.
But the symbolic nature of the school needn't always be implicitly there as in the last drawing. It is implied in the way she is dressed and in her hairstyle.
So there I am, I have made progress. The most progress I have made in a long time. And I feel really good about it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)