Evil bird god and the Anguished mothers

I've made some companons for the bird headed god . They look very distressed I havent decided why yet , other than the god is malevolent. i might leave the dead babies out if I make full size versions I dont think I have any paticular point to make with then , they are just gratuitously grusome

with thanks agian to Liz for modeling

Evil bird god

I've made a new bigger bird  God from clay and I've left him in ceramics to  be fired . I  hope he  dosen't explode in the klin but I think he might because he is evil

Death and Blood

something compleatly diffrent . Our house was used for a short film recently , I painted the big death scene being filmed in our bedroom . The make up girl had 2 bags with her , one labled DEATH &the other BLOOD I liked that

cat fish pond &project

Glazed & painted the little plaques i made last week , I rather like them . Also finished the standing figure , dont know if i like it . I need to focus on the project . I've decided to do 6 standing , white glazed ceramic figures , each holding themselves as a baby and encased in ice . In front of each will be a collection of ritual objects '. The bird God will be there with a bowl for offerings in front of him . It will all be on grass

A man in the corner approached me for a match

I went to a laundary to wash my clothes down , a man in the corner approached me for a match, I knew right away he was not ordiaary

Did another illustration for Isis this evening, the young man is Bob dylan , the reflection in the window of the washing machine is a combination of Grason Perry & Larry Grason, well , each has a touch of the other about them 

The worlds biggest necklace

Iv'e done another illustration for Bob Dylan's Isis ,I'm tired today out drinking beer last night and scuba diving today , so its just a quick one

Eye

I took a photo of a skylight in my pool room , it looks like an eyeand me,my swimming pool and house are reflected in it

Andie Goldsworthy

my "goldsworthy"

my house

I'm no Andie Goldsworthy but this what I did when mowing the lawn . I might try somthing for real with wood and stone , maybe echoing my house

Goodfellas and the Shell river shannon guide

In Martian Scorcese.s movie Goodfellas,the Joe Pesci charactor brings some fellow baddies to his mothers house for a meal . She shows them an amateur looking painting of a man and dog in a small boat on the river , I recognised it as from a 1975 Shell guide to the river Shannon that I own . I also knew it was in a 1979 article in National Geographic . I have a good visual memory. I think most artists do . I dont know how it got into the movie . Did the director tell some one to paint somthing suitable for a gangsters mothers house , and did one of the set artists trawl through magazines for somthing suitable ? I dont know but ithink artists do this . I noticed the cover of Jonie Mitchel's Hissing of Summer Lawns  is from an old National Geoghaphic . The canoe in Peter Doig.s "100 years ago" is also from an old magazine and a know Grason Perry uses the internet for images to use
 In the illustrations I'm doing for Isis all the images are derived from The Ladybird book of cowboys I loved Ladybird books so this, like a lot of what I'm, doing is an exploration of my child hood.
  you need to have more than a big stack of magasines , you need the memory to know " what i need is .. Ah yes i think there was one like it in ...." Its about being able to make connections, I hope unlike poor Peter de Koonig i can keep doing this for a while , the chilhood stuff I'm doing is linked to the awarness I'm getting old

Shape of things to come

karder attia

rebecca  warren

jorge mayet

sterling ruby

I have been reading New sculpture at the Saatchi Gallery. I was drawn to Kader Attia's  Ghost,Rebecca Warren, Jorge Mayet,s trees and Sterling Ruby . I seem to like models (minatures) and the sinister so I should like the Chapman brothers but I dont they are a bit obvious

Bob Dylan illustrated

I came to a high place of darkness and light
the dividing line ran through the center of town

I did a picture for another verse of Isis , after work today , busy day , ah well its the week end , beer and scuba diving with a bit of luck

Bob Dylan and semiotics

isis, the pyramids all embedded in ice, barry lemasney 2012 

When I was very young, the world was a mysterious and exciting place, full of new sights, I didn't understand what i was seeing, but it looked interesting and full of possibality. Now I know the world , it is  less interesting. I know roughly how every book I read or each movie I watch will end ,its all variation on fairly limited themes.  I think art should recapture that new world that every visual experience offers to a young child .A feeling of " I don't know whats going on here but it all looks very interesting " like first visiting a new country.
   I've been looking at the Cremaster Cycle . it seems  to record a parallel , superfically familar but bizzare world . I have no interest in reading the text , I'm just looking at the pictures . I'm not worried about the meaning in pictures, in fact knowing what they are about often removes the mystery, the truth is often very dull.      

from the cremaster cycle

 It's like Bob Dylan lyrics . The words and phrases them selves are the art not the story or message . Like "The pyramids all embedded in ice " It's a wonderfull image but the story of Isis is pretty daft

I married Isis on the fifth day of May
But I could not hold on to her very long
So I cut off my hair and I rode straight away
For the wild unknown country where I could not go wrong

I came to a high place of darkness and light

The dividing line ran through the center of town
I hitched up my pony to a post on the right
Went in to a laundry to wash my clothes down

A man in the corner approached me for a match
I knew right away he was not ordinary
He said, “Are you lookin’ for somethin’ easy to catch?”
I said, “I got no money.” He said, “That ain’t necessary”

We set out that night for the cold in the North
I gave him my blanket, he gave me his word
I said, “Where are we goin’?” He said we’d be back by the fourth
I said, “That’s the best news that I’ve ever heard”

I was thinkin’ about turquoise, I was thinkin’ about gold

I was thinkin’ about diamonds and the world’s biggest necklace
As we rode through the canyons, through the devilish cold
I was thinkin’ about Isis, how she thought I was so reckless

How she told me that one day we would meet up again
And things would be different the next time we wed
If I only could hang on and just be her friend
I still can’t remember all the best things she said

We came to the pyramids all embedded in ice
He said, “There’s a body I’m tryin’ to find
If I carry it out it’ll bring a good price”
’Twas then that I knew what he had on his mind

The wind it was howlin’ and the snow was outrageous
We chopped through the night and we chopped through the dawn
When he died I was hopin’ that it wasn’t contagious
But I made up my mind that I had to go on

I broke into the tomb, but the casket was empty
There was no jewels, no nothin’, I felt I’d been had
When I saw that my partner was just bein’ friendly
When I took up his offer I must-a been mad

I picked up his body and I dragged him inside
Threw him down in the hole and I put back the cover
I said a quick prayer and I felt satisfied
Then I rode back to find Isis just to tell her I love her

She was there in the meadow where the creek used to rise
Blinded by sleep and in need of a bed
I came in from the East with the sun in my eyes
I cursed her one time then I rode on ahead

She said, “Where ya been?” I said, “No place special”
She said, “You look different.” I said, “Well, not quite”
She said, “You been gone.” I said, “That’s only natural”
She said, “You gonna stay?” I said, “Yeah, I jes might”

Isis, oh, Isis, you mystical child
What drives me to you is what drives me insane
I still can remember the way that you smiled
On the fifth day of May in the drizzlin’ rain

Copyright © 1975 by Ram's Horn Music; renewed 2003 by Ram’s Horn Music

Read more: http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/isis#ixzz29gMAhmII

yayoi kusama

1st some pictures by Yayoi Kusama , I like the organic looking shapes
   Did a bit more on my piece based on Liz's instalatoin

Howard Hogkinson

I've been a bit pissed off about painting , its what I went to art collage to study. Once i arrived I found it seemed unimportant , I thought thats fine, they want us to loosen up and get expansive , I thought thats good and i'll get back to the painting soon . Then I really got into bits of sculpture , wood cuts , ice stuff ,clay and I thought the painting I was doing and even the ones I was looking at were limited and literally flat . I thought paintings dead . Then I got a book of Howard Hogkinson , I'd heard of him , and was familiar enough to know they were brightly coloured , seemed simple and had painted frames , but there never semed enough to them to be worth investigating ( theres more than a lifetimes art in the world to see ) . Anyway it when I settled dow and looked I realised this is what painting is all about .Here anyway its not fully abstract , views of Scotland or from bedroom windows are recognizable, but that not's the point of them . They relate to me  in a purely emotional way ,the colours and rhythm fill me with joy, they are fierce and sophisticated things and everything I do seems clumsey . There is a creative gulf here that I dont think i'll ever cross  

lily pond

I went to my first ceramics class today , as we were drawing with bamboo and ink I did a little plaque of a cat fish in a lily pond with the wind lifting the lily leaves , I thought it looked kind of oriental .I also made another version of the little figurine,the one I did yesterday is drying and crumbling , I'll record its decay with photos. Todays version has no wire stiffening and is of a better clay so can be fired .

Standing figure

I liked the figure standing in amongst the hanging threads in my studio picture . It is Liz from my class building a constuuction about moving thru space so I decided to try and making a little sculpture of the scene . This is it , with thanks to Liz for posing and appoligies for not doing her justice , she's much more elagent in real life .I'll do the frame and threads tomorrow.