I developed a habit of regularly following up interesting stuff I come across online. Actually, Facebook groups have become the most important source of inspiration for me. I’m a member of several OCA student groups and through this and independent research have found many additional art and artist sites. Through Facebook notifications there’s a constant stream of visual stimulation and it can get hard at times to even keep up.
Life with Facebook groups
There’s good things and there’s bad things about this. The good thing is that I feel connected to current art practice and see what other people are doing. Particularly important for this module is the OCA printmaking group, where students regularly post recent works, art stuff they come across, and discuss printmaking stuff. We’re all aware that the OCA student forum should be the place for this to happen, but Facebook offers much more social connectedness and easy interaction so this is probably the reason for its success.
On the downside, I observe that I’m quite quick in following up, but usually don’t do in-depth research because of the constant arrival of new stuff. I’m in a phase of learning how to keep up with all the information, and my reception might be somewhat too superficial. On the other hand, it does happen that things really capture my interest and this leads to prolonged research, as was the case when I came across David Bull and his Mokuhankan Project. I spent several days reading about his activities, and how he used crowdfunding to finance a printmaking studio close to his home in Ome (Tokyo), Japan. This also inspired my use of rice paper, some experimentation with flour paste and watercolours to print (not successful so far), and with image transfer. I used this to prepare one of the collagraph plates (the goose).
The Facebook printmakers groups also provide much stimulation from the prints members post. It’s interesting and inspiring to see work that’s done at a professional level, unrelated to OCA course briefs, fresh and not yet embedded in artspeak -isms. Linoprints by Hans von Doehren, a German artist and printmaker living in Berlin and Bretagne in France, come to mind. In December and January, he posted a series of prints made by his father, who was also an artist. The father lived and worked in Berlin, Germany in the early 20th century and made exceptional, expressionist linocuts.
In particular, the ‘Linocut friends’ Facebook group provided me with lots of visual input and showed me that I’ve only scratched the surface with my first attempts in the medium.
Other inspirations
During part 4, I haven’t been to an exhibition. There were the Matisse Cut-outs and the Cubist exhibition which I wanted to see, but didn’t make it. Reasons are a combination of busy work schedule, general exhaustion, and bad weather. I hope that as spring arrives and the weather gets better the enthusiasm for going out returns.
The most recent big topic for me is rediscovery of Elvis Presley and his music. I’ve been researching his life and performances and am off my feet by the way he sang. The memories I had were from his last years and I hadn’t realized there was so much more. Born in 1935 he was older than my father and would have turned 80 on January 15, 2015. What I find truely inspirational is the way he was present, in the moment, during his live performances. But also watching old footage from studio rehearsals is hugely interesting. He must have been quite an exceptional person. I know it’s not related to artmaking or my current printmaking practice, but I’m deeply impressed at a personal level.
References
David Bull, Mokuhankan project site http://mokuhankan.com/ (accessed 26 Feb 2015)
Hans von Doehren, artist and printmaker https://www.facebook.com/Hansvondoehren (accessed 26 Feb 2015)