Anatomically Inspired Grafitti

I am so excited to be back in my art zone! I have been wanting to do another lino cut for a long time now but couldn't settle on an image to carve. I thought a lino cut could lend itself quite well to my graffiti pages for the International Signature Exchange and for want of a better search term I googled "lino cut grafitti' or something to that effect. Look what I found! The whole website is fantastically inspiring for a graffiti 'wannabe' such as myself! Full of inspiration I seized the moment and spent several hours drawing, carving, printing and collaging. In the end I only stopped because my shoulder blades were insisting! (Standing hunched over a bench isn't as easy as it used to be! lol)  Below is the result of my efforts...an anatomically incorrect inspired linocut heart-nest!

I realised after printing several of these that my heart is not anatomically correct. The valves are back to front! I was going to re cut it and but had a little laugh at myself when I realised that I was worrying about making a heart with a nest in the middle anatomically correct! The existence of the nest made it incorrect  and the rest I am putting down to artistic license:)

This is signature two for the swap. I am enjoying adding collage elements to my grafitti inspired papers. Below is the inside of page two, which will have a blank double-sided page in the middle making these pages 1,2,7 and 8.

Above, my sketches, not included in my signature!

Below, signature one for those who missed it.

Below, a segment of the inside of this spread and the back of the signature, heart-nest added!

Sneaky peaks of the signatures I've collaged but not yet stitched. Anatomically correct or not, I love this heart-nest! 

PSSST> Watch this space to see my contribution to Seth Apter's Style File, coming soon!

Graffiti Papers- New Series of work

Graffiti Papers. This was made using rusty bottle caps, real walnut dye, paint, paper scrap and thread.

The page below is pretty much as it looks...dye, pencil and paper scrap

I am finding my feet here! Trying to mix graffiti with collage while  keeping true to my style.I am pretty happy with the results. The page was interesting to develope. Creating accidental and non-accidental layers of different mediums. I've been reading books on street art, enjoying the many graffiti posts that seem to have popped up everyhwere and thinking, thinking, thinking...

 I don't like tagging, defacing someones personal property isn't cool at all, but I would be delighted to find a work done by Banksy!

Image from http://www.banksy.co.uk/shop/index.html 

I know some of my attraction to graffiti is to it's rebelious nature and some of it is purely visual, like the photos at the bottom of this post. I like the transient collaboration between multiple people and nature. It intriques me that this sort of work is allowed to stay, even in the city centre yet if it was a sprayed work it would have been removed immediately. I decided that my signatures for the international signature swap will be my visual diary pages. I sense that this series is the foundation for something more and I am not sure where this exploration will lead me...but I am excitied to find out!

Nothing like a little inspiration...

I was at the Tauranga Art Gallery today viewing the work of Colin McCahon and Lynley Dodd. Very inspiring works although completely different from each other! On the way out I spotted a smaller collection of works by students (these were assesment pieces for exams) and that was not only inspiring but exciting! Some very, very good art and it's hard to believe they were done by teenagers! On the way back to the car I spotted these old posters. Quite fitting given how much inspiration I am drawing from the street at the moment!