And their necks craned, as they turned to pray for rain.
And their eyes changed, as they learned to see through flame.
As I type this, New Zealands largest Urban art event is underway in Nelson called Oi You! It includes a significant exhibition of world renowned street artists including Banksy and Faile! I’m very thankful to be involved in this event with an installation entitled ‘The Great $5000 Art Giveaway’. I have donated 38 pieces which are currently on display, over the weekend of October the 8th and 9th, tokens will be hidden around Founders Park – find a token and you can claim one of these pieces for free! Two of the tokens are gold, which correspond to the larger, colour pieces. If you’re local, head on down and try to find yourself a token!
Oi You is an annual street art event held in Nelson and this year it is amazing with a significant street art collection on display including Banksy and Faile, an exhibition from the Auckland based urban artists Cut Collective and a competition made up of 40 finalists all producing work and competing for a chance to win a Faile print. Have a look if you’re in Nelson, it runs until October 22nd and well worth the look. Here are images of my competition piece.
So there is this place called Nelson, and in Nelson is a cool little shop named ‘Cubicle’ – It’s really awesome FYI and has heaps of cool stuff to see and maybe buy. Anyways! From now until November 24th they will be displaying around 27 pieces from my Quercus Suber collection, so if you’re in the area drop past and have a look. Your eyes will love you for it probably.
It seems that the rubble from demolished buildings and earthquake damage around Christchurch has given me a sense of waste, leading to a desire to re-use it in some way. The great thing is that these old materials have a fantastic texture and a sense of history and character - I love it.
Soooooo oh man! I have seriously been neglecting this blog… sorry blog. It’s been a pretty eventful year so far with earthquakes, a trip to LA any NYC and then epic snow – But I know I know, no excuses, none of these things prevent me from typing. Anyways, lately I’ve found myself becoming more and more interested in finding old and salvaged things to paint on, it seems more sustainable, more interesting and even a little romantic to paint on items that have some sort of history already, old signs and timber etc. Perhaps it’s just the earthquake-damaged side of my brain telling me not to waste things when so much of my city is being demolished – there are so many great things out there to find and use.
But in the mean time I have been slowly using up my box of old cork tiles, the more I sell and the less I have left – the more valuable these seem to me, like treasure! Here are a few of my more recent pieces, inspired by the combination of pop and urban art. FYI, these will be exhibited from August 23rd until November 24th at a gallery space in Cubicle, Nelson town.. Drop past for a look if you’re in the area and the owners Kim and Kirati a high five – they are awesome.
More customised shoes. Size 39 leather Mi Piaci – The shoes have been stripped back to the leather, re-painted and re-varnished so they have been done like, super professionally.
Giclee print of an antique medical image onto antique paper from an old science fiction journal.
After two weeks of functioning on a combination of broken sleep and instant coffee since the February earthquake, I took a day off work to chill out a little. Generally in the past when I’ve had a day off work, I’d spend most of it in town checking out the galleries and wandering the streets, soaking in the city, stopping here and there for a coffee.
But today that was no longer an option for me, and it got me thinking about the state of the artistic community in Christchurch as most of the good galleries and possibly all of the good art supply stores are located in the CBD, which is likely to be out of action for quite some time.
To name a few: Jonathan Smart gallery (who was displaced by the September quake, no doubt significantly more delayed now after February) Brook Gifford Gallery, COCA (Centre of contemporary arts) The Arthouse, Alexis Fine Arts, The Physics Room, the entire arts Centre along with it’s rentable exhibition spaces, The Drawing Room, Gordon Harris… and I am no doubt neglecting to remember many others.
I can’t help but think, what happens from here? Many of these galleries are in buildings that will need to be demolished and rebuilt, including a number that are deemed unsafe to enter, so no doubt a few works of art will go down with the buildings, including works from notable artists such as Bill Hammond etc. Sad, and there is always the possibility that adequate insurance was not in place since standard domestic cover (which many artists only have) will not cover items removed from their house for sale or exhibition.
The problem I see for the future, is firstly that professional artistic materials are not immediately available unless ordered online. I can only imagine that after a traumatic and emotional event, where many people are displaced and unable to work, that a small concentrated moment of artistic creativity will inspire many artists to develop new work.
The second thing that concerns me is the available space for exhibition, is someone going to make a space available to display our works of art in Christchurch? Please? I would love to do it myself somehow, but unfortunately the available funds are lacking at the moment!
The third thing, which nobody can really control: I believe that sales of art will take a bit of a plunge after these recent events. Art is one of those luxuries that are purchased with disposable income, and at the moment quite a few are watching their pennies and unsure about the future.
Anyway, these are my observations. Long live Christchurch and we will all get back on our feet, eventually. I just imagine that in the mean time many ideas wont be developed any further than being a note in a sketch book ,and if they are – these finalised pieces could end up in a pile of canvases stored in a corner of their house due to the lack of available exhibition space at the moment.
Some more heels for your eyes to observe. These ones are a bit flash, leather Mi Piaci heels. The finish of the shoes is removed and then I customise them with an acrylic paint that is strong and flexible. Once finished the shoes are re-lacqured. The whole process leaves a strong and good-looking finish. Do you want them? Well ok then! They are currently for sale on my Etsy shop. http://www.etsy.com/listing/69171512/customized-heels-mi-piaci
Check it out sometime! These guys are doing great stuff for street art in New Zealand, check out the shop sometime too, you may see a familiar print from yours truely.
I’ve worked in the corporate world for a number of years now, and one thing that I quickly noticed is that the male-to-female ratio in this industry seems to be greatly balanced toward the female of our species. Not that there is anything wrong with that, just an observation. Anyway, one hazard of being a dude among so many chicks is that you often become involved in unusual conversations about very girly things, handbags, accessories, haircuts, makeup and shoes. etc. It didn’t take me long to realise that girls love shoes, it doesn’t matter how many pairs of shoes a girl has, she still wants more! So I figured that I should exploit this weakness. Selling art can be tricky at the best of times, so I thought I’d just transfer my images over to some high heels and see how things go 
I have a stack of old stuff, going through it the other day I found this fantastic old advertisement from the 1950′s… I wonder if anyone actually found Uranium in their back yard with this thing?
Click To Enlarge!
