Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Interview with Aleksandra Waliszewska

Is destruction more fascinating than decay?


** Both phenomena are inspiring in their own respects. Myself, I would choose to be indestructible.



I often perceive death as coming from the inside. In you drawings, threat is often animalistic. Your characters are prey. Do you feel paranoid sometimes?


** I like animals a lot. I like to watch them, but I'm afraid of aggressive animals that might threaten me. It's not very frequent that I encounter such hostile animals, which is why I rather adore, than flee from them.



Do you also use them as symbols?


** There are no hidden symbols in my paintings.



Do you have a totem animal?


** I love many species of animals but I wouldn't describe any of them as totemic.



Could we interpret some of your drawings as the loss of childhood?


** The fact that I paint children is not based on any deeper

forethought. They just constitute an interesting form for me.



Do you think that thoughts, when too peremptory, can constitute an obstacle to fascinations, emotions and intimateness?


** Thinking often remains in opposition to emotion. Art is often quite weak due to over-intellectualizing it, particularly if arising out of wrongly understood ambition. Artists often do what they deem to be a proper thing to do, not something that truly interests them. I have the impression there is less and less emotion in art, rather coldly calculated boredom is predominant.



Many pictures of yours are quite peaceful. They seem to have sentimental and spiritual dimensions… Am I right?

** I try to depict various emotions. Sometimes utter peacefulness can be a background for an immense drama.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/walisz/


http://waliszewska.blogspot.com/




I saw that you used to paint. Could you tell us about this phase?



** I'm bored to death by 99% of so-called contemporary art. Old painting is still very vital for me, it makes me really emotional while approaching it. Maybe this is why I wanted to make things that would be on a comparable level, but I realized that the task is impossible to accomplish. Nevertheless, I tried my hand in tradtion-based oil painting. And I'm happy about it as a phase.



Is there any old painting you’d advise us to look at?


** I'm not trying to convince anyone to enjoy old painting. It is easily accessible through books, Internet etc. It is hard to recommend specific works as this is very personal. Regarding my personal favourites, these would be "Pieta of Avignon" and "The Coronation of the Virgin", both by Enguerrand Quarton.



“Contemporary art” is almost always displayed on white uniform walls… And each artwork stands alone… Where do think your work is better to look at? In a cluttered place? In a book? On the white wall?


** I like my works to be reproduced, book would be a lovely idea, but I also think of T-shirts, buttons etc. Regarding exhibitions, I was thinking of making an open air exhibition among the trees. My father breeds horses and he owns a large stretch of land that could nicely serve this purpose. But technically, it would be complicated so for the time I restrict myself to white walls.






Where do you draw? Do you need to be alone?


** When I work I have to be alone. Even my boyfriend is banned from entering my workplace.



Do you pay attention to yourself and your surroundings when you draw (the light, the way you perceive your body and etc…) or are you only focused on your picture?


** I always paint in daylight. I usually can easily focus on it. Sometimes I get distracted by my own leg or something, but otherwise I try not to get crazy.



How would you qualify your gestures when drawing? Are they precise, slow, nervous, impulsive… Dreamy? Imperious?


** I have no idea.



Are you very productive? How many drawings do you make each week?


** I paint for about five hours each day. About 12 gouaches get done in a week.




What sort of reaction do people have when they look at your pictures?


** I try not to be obsessed by opinions of other people. Painters are their own with their work, and this is good. However, it's nice that I have some followers.



How did you evolve in your artistic environment?


** My paintings were appreciated in my early working phase. Already when I studied at the academy I had solo exhibitions. At that time, it was unusual in Poland. Now there are many more galleries that often show very young artists. After I changed my style, I stayed in the background a bit, it was only possible to see my new works on my Flickr page.



Is there any project you want to tell us about?


** I never work on anything that could be called a "project". People who blather about their various "projects" are ridiculous. I simply paint.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/walisz/


http://waliszewska.blogspot.com/


Sunday, June 27, 2010

Not this again


I've been cleaning school classrooms for two years, not enough hours to really make the money to progress in life, and I really couldnt bear a lot more hours than I currently do. I want to quickly think of something to get out into something else and I've held on to Sean saying "you dont have to be a wage Slave". I really could easily end up doing this for years until I'm 30, but I dont want it to come to that.
The trouble is apart from art, I have no skills whatsoever. I'm often tempted to think of using my drawing skill for what other people want to see, but I'm sure I would only end up being unhappy with compromise, I'd rather be at bottom of the ladder blue collar jobs all my life knowing I have full artistic freedom when I get home.
I thought of other artistic things I could do, thinking of unrealistic jobs I'd love to be a porn photographer, but I can only see struggle there because I would want to build elaborate sets for the models to pose on and inject more art into the work than would be viable for a successful photographer in a business that would pressure you to churn out mediocrity. I'd love to do sculptures or stain glass windows, but they might also not like my approach and those materials are very expensive if you are not successful at it.

So have any of you guys got any idea what an artistic person could do without actually having to do art for people or having academic skills with art? I've been thinking for years and nothing has popped into my head. I really just want something to pay me and not be too demanding, so I can focus my life on coming home and doing my own artwork with no outside pressures.
I'd really like to be just a guy who shifts boxes in a stockroom, but those jobs are surprisingly hard to come by. The other hard thing to think of is finding a proffession that will still be alive for the forseeable future, most of the retail jobs I might have done years ago no longer exist. I know I was asking similar things 3 years ago but I'm really stumped now, and to be honest, I dont expect anything.

It's a pain in the ass to not want to draw for other people, sell my art or get in any situation where I have to compromise my art, not to go near supermarkets, most retail or anything that could injure my hands, anything demanding of your hometime, anything that wants you to drive or travel around various places, wear a suit and tie or have academic skills.
Is it too much to ask to just to want to shift boxes?

Friday, June 25, 2010

Mr Hyde




Here's 2 phases of a Mr Hyde portrait I'm working on for a new edition of Robert Louis Stevenson stories. The first was a quick digital composition layout based on an assortment of halloween masks and I think a bust of Edgar Allen Poe, was wanting to loosely emulate his wavy hair outline into the Hyde head. While rough, this is what I'm aiming for with a more contorted expression and some mad staring eyes. Probably work in ears in some twisted mishappen manner.

Second image is in progress phase of surface skin texture. Trying to get a Freddy Krueger burn victim vibe going while not going overboard. Will probably work back in clearer skin textures translucent over the knarled textures. Considering some limited color, maybe a lime green vague red splotchy areas, some nasty yellow teeth. Blood shot eyes. If I can achieve a semi realistic face that looks like a vintage Halloween mask that would be great.

Anyway, sorry I haven't posted for awhile, I haven't posted art anywhere lately been caught up with big projects that take ages. I'm doing a series of drawings in collaboration with Mat Brinkman that I hope to show samples of later this summer.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Nucklavee, In Work

Hello, everyone! Really seeing some nice work all around, and I'm very proud to be in such great company. My introduction to Eaten By Ducks was through Robert Adam Gilmour, who had seen a drawing I had done on Agony a Go-Go (picture on left). Somehow, I had forgotten the source of the creature. I looked through all of my mythology and folklore texts, as well as my notes, and couldn't find a thing on it. I put it up in my gallery, along with the caption that should anyone be able to identify it, they should email me. Well, Robert emailed me and said that the man-horse creature was known as the Nucklavee and then invited me to join EBD. At least, that's how I remember it. 

 Anyway, I've always hated this drawing. What you're seeing is actually a xerox of the original sketch that I clumsily colored with marker. It's not even cropped off right- you can see the edges of the sketchbook page it was taped into. So, I've started on a newer version. It's not done yet, and I'm not happy with what I have so far. I started with some sketches of sickly horses(ignoring versions of the creature that involved huge flipper legs and flipper appendages protruding from the chest of the horse):

 Even if I wasn't drawing a Nucklavee, it's always good to have some nice sickly horse studies. I'm positive that the description of the Nucklavee I had seen had said that the monster was comprised of a rotting horse with the rotting torso of a man , his head huge and his arms long enough to reach the ground, sticking out of its back.


  So, anyway, I started off with this drawing, but I made the original pencil line too dark- which is a bad thing for me. You see, when I go to ink it with a fine line, and the pencil line is so dark, I can't see the ink line very well, so what looks okay when you first think you're done looks like crap after you've erased the pencil line. You what I got was this ugly, disjointed bit of line work with bad hatching. I hate the neck, especially. So, anyway, I started another version, this time adhering closer to the descriptions that I'm reading all over the web on the Nucklavee, wherein the horse and "rider" are comprised mainly of exposed muscle covered with pulsing veins.


   It's an okay start, but I think my horse looks too much like a young horse or pony because of the proportions I've given it. So dainty. I think I'll go for a rotting musculature look, as opposed to the shiny wet look I've seen.


   Finally, I made a quick sketch of another idea, where the features of the Nucklavee are more exaggerated, like the horses in the paintings of Breugel the Elder. Even more so, than in this sketch. I'll let you guys know when I've finished anything.


Live by the sword

Saturday, June 12, 2010

First version



Not quite a failure, but I'll need to try this idea again as a painting.

Friday, June 11, 2010

MEGA MALL

Mega Mall
The Mega Mall has the ability to be the ultimate pinnacle of human culture. At its most basic form, it is a big box, filled with boxes. You can do ANYTHING with these boxes. To condemn the mall to what it has been or what it seems to be is to lock up one's imagination & deny the unlimited potential of human creation. The Mega Mall can be EVERYTHING. IT CAN BE CURATED.
“The most beautiful thing in Tokyo is McDonald’s.
The most beautiful thing in Stockholm is McDonald’s.
The most beautiful thing in Florence is McDonald’s.
Peking and Moscow don’t have anything beautiful yet.”
-Andy Warhol

Random page...


Page BD..., première mise en ligne par Yaiihin Yogœme.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

woodcuts by Nicholas Siegrist

Nick is a friend of mine from Philly. I'm a fan of his woodcuts. There is some interesting religious themes, and his personal take on the Crucifixion. You can see his website here

A little something for you

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Installation for 3rd Pyongyang International Arts Festival in Kuala Lumpur



Here's some documentation of a video Installation-cum-noise performance/video jamming piece made for a show held in a derelict building last week.

This piece is about a power struggle.


Our noise band, Hello Kitty Pirate Tattoo during the set up of the installation
The faces were painted on the wall, photographed, and then reflected in the video projection, aligned with the painting, creating the illusion of depth


During the performance, attempted as an act of 'Sabotaging' the binary interplay between the two faces

Video:






Wish you could have been there ^____^

I covered a cover on Covered and this is the cover I covered

Thursday, June 03, 2010

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Victim of Success


Victim of Success, originally uploaded by SEAN ÄABERG.

Garfield was one of the first characters i learned how to draw as a kid.

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Drawings done at work









My friend recently introduced me to the "Exquisite Corpse" game. Where you fold the paper into 3 parts, then each of 3 people draws on a portion of the paper with out knowing what the others have drawn. In this case I kinda played the game alone. It's not as much fun but I still think there's some artistic potential to it.