Summer Reflections on The Life of an Artist

An artist's life is a challenging one, akin to an old testament prophet  -most of the time we are striving to make known the unknowable, uncover the invisible and say that one word that most want silenced.. meanwhile dancing with empty pockets !

 our popularity is random and fleeting  and criticism flows freely when we upset established boundaries 

Overall it is a life of close observation and intense reflection

Here is the light  coming from a stain glass window on to a rug in the old convent hallway

and again on the cloister floor .

Occasionally it is our time to own achievement  take charge and like Jesus having his feet washed, accept those small moments of grace 

Here is a picture of me at the Opening of my exhibition and proudly in front of sold work

When the exhibition is over for another year you have to  to hold on to these moments to sustain you through the long months of observation art making and preparing... 

My first autumn at the Convent

These  are some of the many beautiful scenes I encounter daily  at the Abbotsford Convent in my first Autumn here . There is a slight melancholy about Autumn for me, exaggerated this year because many of my friends are where I was last year Europe and I am not as employed as I would like to be, but also an implied fertility as nature sets the preconditions for new growth

 - the season of mellow fruitfulness  

 

I have used  some of these textures and

colours  in my drawings and photo montages  for example

Eureka Joins the Convent

Today I took possession of my studio at the Abbotsford Convent one of Australia's largest and most diverse cultural spaces on the banks of the Yarra River Melbourne

I had to apply for the opportunity to lease the space and used this image made of components of the convent fabric and garden and of my studio view of the cloister as part of my application demonstrating how I will use the Convent textures in my ongoing exploration of the male figure.

 My studio was a nun's bedroom then a classroom and still has  a blackboard and chalk!  


My friends David Chris and Richard all practising artists came to visit, stay tuned for the studio party . ..

 

Video projects

I am fascinated by the contrast between the static object and  movement that I explore through video.

here is a link to my  video on mannequins in a shop-fitting store as seen from a car driving by at night
https://vimeo.com/84172448

Thank you to my son Conor O'Hanlon for editing the work

I am currently working on footage I took in Berlin with the help of the digital anthropologist Igor Karim tracing the progress of the bicycle symbol on the window of the S-Bahn

There is other footage  I have taken in Paris and in Melbourne all looking for that sublime unexpected  moment in the midst of the city. As my technical skills improve I hope to include video making as an integral part of the way I record and understand the places I visit

Berlin Manifesto

Written After completing a 3 month artists’ residency in Berlin March to June 2014

Some things I have learnt

1. I will again never apologize for using the male nude as the major subject of my work. In the history of art it has been one of the most important subjects across the Greek Roman and Renaissance times and through religious art in such subjects as the Crucifixion, The Baptism of Christ and the Resurrection.

2. I will go multimedia, go mixed media - keep drawing keep photographing but exploring video and written narrative

3. I will comment more on the process of what I do, demonstrate the process, play with the process, explore the process, subvert the process -make explicit the controversial and edgy aspects of my  work for example the sexual attraction, money, body image, exhibitionism and shame-overcome of the model procurement process

4. I will bring all my history, all my skills and knowledge from social work business and literature from whatever discipline I have worked into my work  

5. I will not be afraid of eroticism in my art but I will transform it into something more than porn! 

6. From now on my exhibitions will be different, they must include a performative element and a multimedia one. I must signal that I am to be taken seriously as a contemporary artist, even as I reference the history of art and religious imagery

7. Material circumstances cannot stop me making art, in fact often it is when I am living on the edge way outside of my comfort zone and with very few resources

that I conceive and execute my best work

o dome sublime

There is an excitement in  drawing a dome you take amazing risks making preposterous curves that cant be true but mostly workout there is no room for timid strokes or fuzzy outlines . If you commit the pen  you can do it ! my love for the dome comes form a lifetime in Melbourne where my favourite domes I have drawn and photographed include  the Exhibition buildings

the State library

former Howard Arkley studios Chapel street

and especially Flinders Street Railway station!

Model Behaviour Exhibition Berlin

Held at the Institute Cervantes in the Centre of Berlin this exhibition was the result of a collaboration between myself and 6 other artists selected internationally. .
These were

 Left to Right

Beth Dillon, Australia Peter Biggart USA, Amie Lin, USA, Michael O´Hanlon Merlin Carter Germany Raquel Nava  Brasil and Tomás Espinosa. Germany.

I collaborated closely with  the other artists contributing my knowledge of socio-drama and psychometrics in a performance as part of the final exhibition called Model Behaviours and held on 5th June 2014

Where does Art intersect with the Social? - the question posed by AFFECT in this first module with this group developed quite surprisingly, taking the residents, the facilitators and the team of Agora to unexpected results.

The artists, together with their facilitators took part in workshops, curatorial visits, walks, viewing art, talks and public activities. We danced together, shared meals, agreed and disagreed, worked through conflict and  found consensus in the time frame of 12 weeks to prepare Model Behaviours, this collective project presented at Instituto Cervantes Berlin and also produced  publication edited by Broken Dimanche Press.

 As a result of my time at Agora and contacts I made I also provided pro bono training and support to not for profit providers based at Agora seeking to engage with local disadvantaged groups.

On the night of the exhibition I welcomed guests to the exhibition and asked them to rate their level of social comfort  on a scale of 1 to 7 represented by 7 figures on a large chart. They were then reinvited to rate themselves at the end of the exhibition. People readily engaged with task and were grateful for the personal contact . I intended the performance to comment on the place of evaluation and measurement in art making and exhibiting- a theme that I constantly grappled with working with a small arts organisation but coming from a managerialist perspective

People really enjoyed the playful aspect of the process with one person coming back to rearrange all the postings into faces etc while I was enjoying a  glass of champagne !