A great selection of the Canadian Illustrator Jon Klassens work can be found on www.burstofbeaden.com. Well worth a look! A selection of prints of his work is available on www.gallerynucleus.com, reasonably priced from $30 there's even some t-shirts shown here.
I particularly like his "Nextdoor" print, a beautiful winter print, very apt with this weather.
www.itsnicethat.com features a interview with Jon and gives us a little information into his background and influences. With a training in animation but with a confessed interest in textiles his work certainly holds a certain traditional style in terms of process. His work translates into animation very well however Jon prefers to leave that aspect to others. It's Nice That sums up his style as having "a distinct, considered mark that more often than not manages to make you feel as if you're inside his picture".
Jon feels he has not yet set his artistic style in stone and hopes this will come with age. However I feel this only adds to his work. The fact that he approach develops through the subject and message.
Forget the X Factor Final, the real talent show final is on TV tonight. Yes, it's the final of The School of Saatchi. For those of you who don't know about this show it's basically The X Factor for artists. The contestants are fighting it out for the prize of a year long exhibition at The Hermitage Art Gallery in St Petersburg.
'Artists' might be too kind a word for most of them in my humble opinion! It seems that Modern Art now involves doing basically anything but painting. Baking chuppattis, re-assembling found objects (junk) and installing mirrors on bookshelves are apparently all art.I can't say that I'd agree with that but it does make for some compelling viewing. One contestant, Eugenie Scrase, seems to be such an arch-chancer that I'm beginning to suspect that she is a plant by the producers. She has yet to show any drawing talent (or any other talent for that matter). Last week the judges struggled to even see where her piece was in the room and her off the wall theories are as amusing as they are bizarre.
Well worth watching even if somebody really needs to point out that the emperor is naked!
NCAD Gallery is running an Adam Games series of lectures on the postwar period in Irish graphic design.
I attended the talk given on 17th November, a conversation between the well-known Dutch designer Jan de Fouw and Conor Clarke, founder & Director of Design Factory and author of ‘Orange and Green'.
As a Dutch designer, educated through the Bauhaus style of design, Jan's move to Ireland in the 50's must have been quite a culture shock. However, perhaps this was the very thing, as he put it "looking in from the margin" that allowed Jan to mould the international image of Ireland.
This talk was very educational for me, getting an insight into the early days of design in Ireland, particularity the commercial work created for Aer Lingus, IDA, Chester Beauty Library, RTE and Ireland of the Welcomes Tourism Magazine. His design work for Aer Lingus and Ireland of the Welcomes Tourism Magazine did not just promote the airline but lead to putting the spotlight on Ireland and a whole. Conor indeed paid tribute to the fact that Jan had held the client "Ireland of the Welcomes" for 44 years. This seemed to be due to the single-handed nature in which he took on this magazine, becoming designer, director and editor.
What stuck me was the vast talents of Jan, introduced to the group as graphic designer / printmaker, and more recently artist and sculpture.
A quote from Jan de Vouw which stayed in my mind was “Have a very good reason to get up in the morning” . . . and the rest will happen by itself.
Some of the most stunning and remarkable pieces of beauty are found where they are not supposed to be. Recent examples that spring to mind are the Tara Brooch and Ardagh chalice.
These pieces are an integral part of our Irish history but what about things that were not never intended to be recognised as beautiful. Buildings, and more importantly, ruins are the visible evidence that architectural beauty can mould our societies and document their changes. Building ruins are essentially the documentation of change that happened at every point in history, the volatile result of change, the left-overs of eras gone by and the fall of empires.
These structures effect on our landscape often go unnoticed in the sense that they are frowned upon as diminishing the standard of our cities. However, like many things in life and especially art, you need to be able to think laterally and be open to alternative visual stimulus. Photographers like Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre understand the relevance and beauty within these buildings. Admire them or loath them, these structures will certainly question the permanence of things. Nowadays, our cities are littered with these structures; they are the full stops that inhabit our idyllic view of how we believe our cities should look. Maybe in time these splendid decaying monuments will be viewed as “no less than the Pyramids of Egypt, the Colosseum of Rome, or the Acropolis in Athens, remnants of the passing of a great civilization”.
I can't say that I'd agree with that but it does make for some compelling viewing. One contestant, Eugenie Scrase, seems to be such an arch-chancer that I'm beginning to suspect that she is a plant by the producers. She has yet to show any drawing talent (or any other talent for that matter). Last week the judges struggled to even see where her piece was in the room and her off the wall theories are as amusing as they are bizarre.
