six six nine four

I recently exhibited work in the, six six nine four- RMIT Graduate Show.

Photograph # 3: My painting and Heather Ogilvie's photographs
Photograph # 9 : Sculpture by Tricia Page
Photograph # 6 : Embossings by Tricia Page
Photograph # 10: Sculpture by Kaitlyn Gibson
Photograph # 13: Printed sculpture by Carly Diep
Photograph # 14: Sculpture by Luke Boslem and my painting

Abstraction # 2

Abstraction # 2

110 cm x 110 cm

Abstraction # 2 shall be shown in the group show, 'Reformation' at First Site Gallery in 2012!

The past year has been such a wonderful time of learning. I have been exploring my way throughout the depths and dimensions of color field abstraction. I have begun to experiment with video work- realising the potential and scope of different ideas and mediums that painting is able to encompass.

Critique and ideas are welcome.

Abstraction # 1

The culmination of my years work, recently exhibited in Six six Nine four.

2011

farewell studio

It's time to say goodbye to my lovely studio space, but not goodbye to the lovely people I have met and all that I have learnt over the past two years.

Steam Painting # 2

 Oil paint on canvas

2011

Graduate Show

Our Graduate Exhibition opens tomorrow, from 5-7pm!
All are welcome!
The exhibition shall run for two weeks
(weekdays 10-3pm)

A new website

I've just launched a new website that shows a brief overview of my work!

Feel free to take a look:

www.josephinemead.weebly.com

self.

Steam painting # 1

Steam painting # 1

Oil paint on canvas

65 x 40 cm

A new painting

Fire painting

Oil on canvas

30 x 40 cm

and the year draws to a close...

And the year is quickly drawing to a close...

Due dates and deadlines are approaching quickly and it will soon be time to move out of my lovely studio space.

However, exhibition proposals are on the horizon and I'm looking forward to Summer adventures and rest!

Last photograph is of an installation by Tricia Page.

Art and Nature

The aesthetic experience received from art can be seen as both inextricably linked and fully differentiated from the aesthetic experience received from nature. The profound influence that nature has had on art throughout history has lead to a blurred line of emotions that we distinguish between art and nature.
Ultimately, the factors that differentiate these two aesthetic experiences are scale and purpose. 
Art has the ability to focus. Whether it be focusing on a visual motif or color, a concept or a particular emotion- art usually speaks of something specific. Even when a piece of art is trying to be broad, to be limitless, the said intended broadness of the piece becomes a specific idea within itself.
Whereas nature is diffuse. The interconnectedness of nature is vast. The scale of nature is larger, the focus wider. The varying scale of natural experiences can be as minute as a single cell and invisible to the naked eye, or as vast and magnificent as a raging ocean. Ultimately these experiences are out of our control. We have not created them and we cannot always limit them. They are made up of many complex layers, so fragile they cannot be collectively discerned. Due to this, the aesthetic experience that we often encounter, within nature, is one of awe. The uncontrollability of natural environments leads to a physical, visual and emotional experience that is open. That has no set emotion or meaning. Aesthetics, a study of beauty, has gradually begun to encompass philosophy. It is often the lack of clear meaning and reason within a beautiful natural environment that moves us to feel and to think. The purpose of nature often seems to be to bewilder.
When confronted with beauty in nature we often feel simultaneously insignificant and connected to the complexities of the world.
When confronted with a specific piece of art, we are occasionally granted the opportunity to attain a higher understanding of these complexities. It is this understanding through imitation that moves us.
The aesthetic experience received from art is ultimately different to that received from nature because our human control over the two experiences are polar. Nature is entirely out of our control, whereas we know there is human touch and control over all pieces of art, whether through physical touch or conceptual decision. Whilst these two experiences can elicit the same emotions, these emotions are a product of different states.



-

Oil on Canvas
2011


Kaitlyn Gibson

Over the last two years, I have been lucky to have the presence of Kaitlyn Gibson in my life. Kaitlyn is not only a beautiful friend, but a wonderful printmaker.
She has been a constant source of inspiration to me.
Her works are committed and resolved, yet they evoke a beautiful fragility.
To me, her work speaks of the materiality, ephemerality and beauty of natural conditions and environments- particularly through the notion of animality.

Kaitlyn has recently participated in the 2011 Freak of Nature International Print Exchange.
The Exchange shall be exhibited at Switchbank Gallery, Monash University in Gippsland in September until October 2nd and at the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA in January 2012.
The exhibition is a must-see and I urge you all to go and have a look!

I wish Kaitlyn nothing but success and happiness in what I know will be a wonderful future.

To watch the progression of Kaitlyn's practise you can go to:
www.kaitlyngibson.blogspot.com