Creative Cauldron - Banksy

Banksy. If you haven't yet come across the work of this artist then you have been seriously missing out. Thank goodness not everyone takes themselves seriously and not everyone believes that art should be highbrow, or cutesy, or perfectly executed, or exploring esoteric themes, or trying to shock. Somebody remembered that art can be fun. It can make people think and have a laugh.

I admire the sense of humour, the irreverence, the practical joker who has something to say. And I admire the gutsiness that it takes to get some of his pieces out there. And the fact that he can paint well.

The artist's website:http://www.banksy.co.uk/index.html http://www.boredpanda.com/80-beautiful-street-crimes-done-by-banksy/ Banksy says what he thinks of Paris Hilton. Pretty similar to the rest of us really: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5310416.stm Museum pranks http://laughingsquid.com/banksy-museum-hack/ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4563751.stm http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/apr/08/arts.education

Did you enjoy this article? Please pass it on to others at StumbleUpon or Twitter with just the press of a button, or share your own thoughts in the comments section.

A Diary of Becoming - Round Five - Feb 10

A whirlwind of a roundup this time.

We got a puppy! Yay. And instead of tempting fate and naming her chaos, we chose Lux. She's pretty well behaved, but puppies are puppies.


The Good Stuff

My touch typing has improved tremendously. Hooray for quicker blog posts and email replies.

Urban Creatures got started.

After sifting through every professional and quasi/semi/part time art organisation in Australia that I could find, I whittled them down to a quite shorter list of relevant and actually professional bodies that might be wise to join. It's incredible to me that some organisations charge membership which only gives a member the advantage of being in their database, which may be a good marketing strategy if the databases' search actually returned sensible results. Just my personal gripe.

So if you are an Australian artist, here is a great list of organisations to start with. These all have really useful information and working websites. I'm monitoring these to see which ones will be worth joining. I suspect NAVA is the one to definitely become a member of. The rest are good to follow.

National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA)
Artist Career
Artworkers
Regional Arts Victoria
Arts Hub
Craft Victoria
The Arts Law Centre of Australia
Australian Copyright Council
Viscopy
Australia Council for the Arts


Planning for the recipes. Ah the brainstorming that went on. So many questions that found answers and so many experiments to unleash. All in good time.


The Not So Good Stuff

?????
Hooray.


So, The Get Done For March...

• Test the chosen book printers. After having a really good scout around, it seems that the best way forward is to use a print on demand service, and then if there is enough demand, switch to a print and distribute service. Without actually trying out the print on demand services, it's impossible to know what their printing and paper quality is like, how reasonable their packing and shipping is and what the experience of their ordering and customer service is like. So it's a faceoff between Blurb, CreativeSpace and Lulu. Online reviews can only tell you so much.

• Get this vegetarian seasonal art cookbook show on the road... more very, very soon.
  

Did you enjoy this article? Please pass it on to others at StumbleUpon or Twitter with just the press of a button, or share your own thoughts in the comments section.

Creative Cauldron - Miso of Melbourne

Miso. I like the soup. And I love the work by the artist who goes by this name.

Miso is a street artist in Melbourne. She, yes she, is nowhere near a run of the mill street artist. For starters, she's not a guy. Instantly sets her apart. And then she creates in paper. Yes, paper, of all mediums. Thin newsprint, posca markers, acrylic paint, a stanley knife and wheat paste.

I'd seen her work around for ages, but hadn't quite clicked that what I was seeing and liking was the work of one artist. Until I went along to see a screening of "Melbourne Ink" by French duo Romain & Julien, which is a documentary on the graffiti/street art scene in Melbourne. It's full of characters and there's plenty of the egotistical, macho guys with spray cans who've mastered how to write their made-up name in a fancy way (congratulations, you may now graduate from kindergarten).

And then there was Miso. Someone really contributing ephemeral beauty to the city. Whimsical, poetic, sublime, almost mythical images to ponder or just make you smile.

My favourite part of the film was the scene where Miso is walking along a street at night carrying a reusable shopping bag. She stops, pulls out a drawing on paper, unrolls it up against the wall, reaches into the shopping bag again, pulls out a wide brush covered in paste, and paints the glue over the picture, sticking it to the wall. Then puts the brush back in the pot in the bag, picks up the bag, and continues on walking.

Super.
































































Her Flickr stream is here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/city_of_reubens/sets/72157594452840186/

Her blog is here:
http://cityofreubens.com/

There's a great interview with her here:
http://www.thedesignfiles.net/2009/09/interview-miso.html

And another great one here:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3012/2579328699_8e225477d1_o.jpg

Did you enjoy this article? Please pass it on to others at StumbleUpon or Twitter with just the press of a button, or share your own thoughts in the comments section.

Creative Commons vs Copyright

I remember when photocopiers became available for public use. There seemed to suddenly be a big hoopla about copyright. Suddenly there were going to be hordes of people photocopying entire books and reselling them. Schoolkids had to 'watch out' or else they'd get caught photocopying sections of books for studying, homework and school projects. And then sense prevailed and the concept of fair use caught on. Who on earth would photocopy an entire book anyway? It would usually cost more and the quality was rubbish.

There were tapes and then CD's. You weren't meant to copy using these either, but everyone did. And as long as it was for your own personal use and you weren't out selling the copies you made, no one knew or cared. Often you'd copy some music from a friend, take it home, listen to it over and over, and end up at the concert, buy a T shirt and some other albums and hey presto, the band has a new fan.

And now we have the internet which is a giant copying machine on steroids. I admit, it is insanely easy to get hold of anything you want online. But the paranoia over copyright is coked up and suffering hysteria. It's as if a revelation has occurred. People copy other people's work. Shit!

Why are people so paranoid over people copying their work? I mean, I totally understand being pissed at someone for sneakily copying and then profiting from your work. These slimy unimaginative rock dwellers deserve to be tied down and eaten alive by rats. Get your own damn thing to sell. FFS get permission to use someone else's work to generate cash.

But why is so little distinction made between sharing a creative piece with friends as a fan, spreading your obvious enthusiasm and respect for the work and artist to other people who you think will also be appreciative, versus slyly making money from someone else's creativity? I don't get it. Once it's in the world, it'll be copied. Fact. But there is a universe between these two scenarios.

And it appears that I'm not alone in these views.

Creative Commons has been put together for creators who want a middle ground between all rights reserved copy-any-of-this-and-you-die full draconian copyright, and nothing at all. Think of Creative Commons as 'some rights reserved'. It is a licence based on copyright that allows works to be legally available for sharing, on certain conditions.

My conditions are here: http://www.wherefishsing.com/contactprivacy.html

I hold all the commercial rights to any work I produce, including royalties. So if you want to make a buck from my creative output, contact me. We may be able to set up a deal. But if I say no and/or catch someone deviously profiteering from my work, I'll first set the fleas from a thousand camels on their eyeballs, and then have my lawyers suck the financial life from them.

Otherwise (a la NIN),
please post it on your blog,
share it with your friends,
publish it in your zine,
include it in your video,
etc.

And some final thoughts by Cory Doctorow:

"My fans’ tireless evangelism for my work doesn’t just sell books — it sells me.

This is why I give away digital copies of my books and make money on the printed editions: I’m not going to stop people from copying the electronic editions, so I might as well treat them as an enticement to buy the printed objects.

Most people who download the book don’t end up buying it, but they wouldn’t have bought it in any event, so I haven’t lost any sales, I’ve just won an audience. A tiny minority of downloaders treat the free ebook as a substitute for the printed book — those are the lost sales. But a much larger minority treat the ebook as an enticement to buy the printed book. They’re gained sales. As long as gained sales outnumber lost sales, I’m ahead of the game."


A Bunch of Useful Links
http://creativecommons.org/
http://creativecommons.org/choose/
http://commons.berneguerrero.com/2008/04/02/is-creative-commons-anti-copyright/
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3000_7-6357305-1.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/nov/10/rupert-murdoch-charging-for-internet
http://archive.icommons.org/articles/art-intercom-featuring-painter-joy-garnett
http://digg.com/dialogg/Trent_Reznor
http://craphound.com/content/download/

This work by Fiona Morgan of WhereFishSing.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License.

Did you enjoy this article? Please pass it on to others at StumbleUpon or Twitter with just the press of a button, or share your own thoughts in the comments section.

Urban Creatures

The potential that people busy past every day. These are maybe what could be seen if people slowed down. Take a breath, focus on a point, attune, relax. These are what I find in the patterns around me.

And so to begin:

Did you enjoy this article? Please pass it on to others at StumbleUpon or Twitter with just the press of a button, or share your own thoughts in the comments section.

A Diary of Becoming - Round Four - Nov 09 (and Dec 09 and Jan 10) Roundup

Where On Earth Have I Been?
Gah. Has it really been 3 months? What's happened? Which hole did I fall into?

Hmm, well there was a cancer scare (false alarm I'm relieved to say), there was the getting stuff done, then there was a large illustration contract, followed by having the inlaws stay for xmas. Then there were two road trips to Adelaide (a gig and then a wedding) - Adelaide is a day's drive BTW - and lastly another large illustration contract. So rest assured that whilst I've been away, it's been a full schedule. Perhaps I could be more organised on the blogging front while busy in future. Something for me to work on improving.
And while we're on the topic of needing improvement... from the last roundup;


Not So Good Stuff

• Pictures and prints for the market stall - haven't happened. Though I've produced plenty of pictures, all of them have been of the medical variety for contract. No use for a market stall.

• Market stall preparations - not all bad, but definitely delayed, as per above. I have though, scored a fine trestle table from eBay and have an RSS feed spying out for a suitable cane/bamboo room divider which I intend to paint white and hang pictures on as a backdrop to the stall. I'm now thinking that a stall will be more suitable for the next warm season. Part of a grander plan.

• Email friends - not done yet (grrrr). However this will be ideal to do when the big fun project is launched.

The Good Stuff

• The art collector lectures that were cancelled last year are back on and I'm in. Can't wait. They start next week.

• Modify blog header. This task is done. It should now be perfectly plain to tell when the blog is the current page.
  

• Creative commons. Investigated and pondered upon. Look out for the blog post this time next week which will explain what it is and my views on copyright in the world today.

• Art collectives. Researched. And blow me down there's one in Ballarat. And a cool one in Bendigo. And the Abbortsford Convent in Melbourne grabbed my interest too. It was enlightening and somewhat horrifying to learn that most places work 6 to 12 months ahead with their exhibition schedules. Yikes.
  

• Strategy session. OMG!!! So much awesome. More later.
  

• CD commission. Done, and now more required. Cool.
  

The Unexpectedly Great

• While the medical illustration contracts certainly took a great chunk of my time (annoying), and the client suddenly decided partway through that everything was to be done in Illustrator (really irritating), the wonderful unexpected result is that I now have a solid grasp on Illustrator. Nothing quite like learning on the job. So that's an extra feather to my cap. I think I'll slot it in next to the Photoshop feather!

• But that's not all!!! Thanks to me getting peeved with how long it takes me to write these posts, I decided to do something about it. Now I'm touch typing at a modest 22wpm (words only). Yay. Onward and upward.
  

The Awesome
Discovering the coolest project that covers a whole bunch of my interests that will tick the full gamut of artistic and online experimenting that I want to do and it was right under my nose. Right in my face actually. Thanks to hubby for pointing out what has been hiding in plain sight. The recipe series. Seasonal, vegetarian, fully illustrated. It's gonna keep me busy for a full year. Fine details still to be sorted, but there will be downloads, polls, prizes, videos, prints, loads of scrumptious meals and artwork and a complete book at the end. I'm excited.


So, The Get Done For February...

• Improve my touch typing to include numbers. Same speed.
  

• There's a bunch of recommended professional art organisations. Methinks I should join them up.
  

• Shadow Creatures. Or maybe Urban Creatures. In any case, a second installment on the Found Creatures. A suitable creative project for this month otherwise full of...
  

• Planning for the recipes. So many questions to find answers for... Printing. Dinner exhibitions. Videos. Publishing. Scheduling. Publicity. Classes? Ways to get you guys involved...

Did you enjoy this article? Please pass it on to others at StumbleUpon or Twitter with just the press of a button, or share your own thoughts in the comments section.

At Home Far Away

When Steph and I first arrived in Switzerland from Australia (3 years ago) we got the phone connected in the house, as well as mobile phones and internet etc. I put the new, Swiss simcard in my phone and was storing phone numbers. I decided to enter the phone number from our house and I asked Steph "What shall we call this place?". She looked at me quizzically and replied "Home?". "Yes, of course, "home"".

As the first album (Escape) was about escaping, this one's about what you do post-escape - when you arrive in the place you escape to. Home.


At Home Far Away -
The idea being a 3-fold meaning: I'm at home when I'm in a place far away from where I am at this moment, or, I'm at home in a place which is far away from where you (the listener) is, or I'm really happiest when I'm lost in my thoughts, ideas and dreams.

If I was going to take a photograph of it, I would have a close-up of someone wearing mirror sunglasses, with a background of snow-covered mountains, and a reflection in the sunglasses of a sandy beach - but that's kinda too literal and obvious.

People take their countries with them when they move. Europeans couldn't paint Australian plants, animals or landscapes for at least a generation. As we get older we get more and more out if touch with the outside world as the inner world fills up with memories, habits impressions. of an increasingly distant time... ok I'm rambling now, but if there were some way of showing the giant discrepancy between what is around someone and what is in their head, certain things would be massively magnified whilst other normally huge things are rendered small and insignificant by comparison.
----------------------------------------------
So that was the brief, and the background.

What did I come up with? 7 different sketches to try and show in pictures what people carry with them when they go away from home.


The idea here is that as everyone journeys through life, (the flying) they both take and are directed by their past (the balloons).

And the reaction? "I love the one with the people in various phases of being carried away by their balloons - brilliant!!" And later after all the idea sketches made it over to Switzerland (thankyou to whoever invented email), "The idea I love the most is the one with the balloons dragging people around - but the balloons to me seem more like people's dreams, desires, destinies, which take them far and wide, and which also, depending on their size take them 'up in the clouds', with their feet off the ground."

It's very cool. It's too Swiss though, with the title it's gonna look like I love living in Switzerland. It would work for the inside cover, but can you do an Aussie one for the outside?


Ta da!

----------------------------------------------

Then it all changed.
The title for the album (and the theme) shifted. The CD is now called, "Notes From Land". The feeling theme moved to the feeling of being in the wrong place, of being wrenched away. So the balloons had to be changed to birds and the people to bloody fish. Of course! Thankyou to whoever invented Photoshop!

So the result is that these two custom paintings representing people's dreams, desires and destinies, which take them far and wide, need an appreciative home of their own. Sound like you?

The facts: two lovely mixed media paintings (gouche, ink, pencil, collage) on 290gsm canvas paper. Each image is sized 355 x 155mm on an A3 sheet. Finished with matte varnish for artwork protection. Available now in the WhereFishSing official art store. Available separately, or get a discount for the pair! Go on...

Did you enjoy this article? Please pass it on to others at StumbleUpon or Twitter with just the press of a button, or share your own thoughts in the comments section.