Sunday, December 18, 2011

Pencil fetish...

It started many years ago and I didn't realise until quite recently that I have a bit of a thing for pencils, but the 'thing' is that they need to be found. I have subconsciously been holding onto found pencils that I have picked up here and there for as long as I can remember. Now that it has become a conscious thing I've decided to document it. The furthest back I can knowingly trace my current collection to is 2005, Israel, so here it begins...



WHEN: April 2005
WHERE: Negev Desert, Israel
WHAT: HB




WHEN: October 2010
WHERE: St Vincent's Hospital HDU, Melbourne
WHAT: 2B 




WHEN: June 2011
WHERE: My mailbox, Fitzroy
WHAT: 2H




WHEN: October 2011
WHERE: PLNE, The Parlour, Preston
WHAT: 2B (made from paper, not wood!)




WHEN: November 2011
WHERE: Greeves St., Fitzroy
WHAT: coloured pencil - red


WHEN: November 2011
WHERE: Flinders Lane, Melbourne
WHAT: HB (run over only a few times...)







Saturday, December 10, 2011

Artist in Residence program

For the last few months I have been hanging out with a bunch of really talented 14 & 15 year old artists. It's been a blast.

Every Friday morning I've been up bright and early (maybe less of the bright and more of the early...) to head off to Strathmore Secondary College in Melbourne's northern suburbs to join the class of 24 for their Artist in Residence program.

The program involved, in a nutshell, me talking about my art practice and then showing the students how to do what I do. Not that these guys needed too many tips in the drawing department, I was not making work any where near as good as most of them when I was their age!

My time there evolved into one big paste-ups workshop, which I have to say was pretty cool. Our first exercise was pasting up small artwork around the school - which was received with excitement and enthusiasm by teachers and students alike.

As we planned our next project and started working on new designs we took a short trip into the city to see what other artists had been doing on the streets as well as checking out the Space Invaders exhibition at RMIT Gallery.


 Checking out a Drab paste up off Drewery Place 

Union Lane

Sniders Lane


Feeling very inspired, the students spent the next couple of weeks working really hard (lunchtimes and afterschool!) to finish their paste ups for the wall they were to collaborate on. We did a paste-up collage on the fence at the Corner Café on Woodland St in Strathmore. Some students worked in small groups of two or three, others flew solo, but the wall as whole looked pretty amazing after the first week of pasting!



Most of the larger paste ups went up on this first week of pasting, and some more were added last Friday. I will snap some shots of the updated artwork next time I am up that way. The locals are loving it and the beauty is that it will continue to evolve.

Sadly though, Friday was my last day. I was spoiled by the class who bought me a really big bunch of flowers and made me one of the best cards I've ever received - 4 pages of really lovely messages from each of them as well as some photos of their paste ups.




A big huge thanks to Lauren, the co-ordinator of the Artist In Residence program for inviting me to be the artist for the last semester. I had a great time and I felt pretty lucky to be surrounded by such a great group of young artists, who I'm sure we will see around in the not too distant future.



Friday, December 2, 2011

Film clip goodness!

About a year ago my mate Joe over at Pots and Pans recorded a catchy little tune called Against the Grain (plus a few others) for Melbourne based muso Hudson. I then did the artwork for the EP titled Open Up Slowly.

 

 Just recently Hudson teamed up with Dropbear who put together this amazing clip. Given my love for pencils, I gotta say this could easily be my favourite film clip of the year (and I've had a few faves!) Nice work guys!




In other music video news, but still in Melbourne, we have a very cool clip by Bright Knights. Over a thousand people contributed to the making of the clip to This Love. I have a frame in there somewhere. A great collaboration, it takes quite a few views to take it all in!



Street Advent paste up

Having found a killer spot in the city for my Street Advent piece, I couldn't resist the urge to be the first artist in the line up!

This piece is located in Centre Place in the heart of Melbourne's CBD.





On December 2 we had Year of the Shorts contribute some nifty pieces around the Brunswick area, today we revealed Phoenix's piece off Franklin Street outside the Blender studios in the CBD. I've had a sneak peek at tomorrow's piece already and it's a quite fun and festive work by one of Melbourne's favourite street artists, so keep a watch out on the Street Advent website for photos! The participating artists are (in a completely random order to keep the good ol element of surprise)

Rena Littleson
Benjamin Reeve
skulk
Guz
Mason (Canada)
Mishap
Dopio
I & The Others
Year of the Shorts
Phoenix
Kaff-iene
Blomtrog
Decycle (Germany)
Andros
Olive47
Klara
Jinks
Terrible Horrible
Pete Daniells
Birdhat
Nommric
Facter
James Belveander
Fezwitch
Internet

Can't wait to see a new piece every day!


New paste ups

It was great to get out on the streets of Fitzroy & the CBD this week, on a warm balmy night (which seem to be few and far between these days) and paste some new work with my ever reliable and enthusiastic pasting pal Christy. Here's a taste below, more images and locations on Facebook