I received the book ‘Magic Power Presence’ by Iris Books today in the post. It includes a video still taken from my video ‘Path’ and a short description.
In their foreword Iris (an artists’ book collective based in Dumfries) writes:
Iris originally came together to celebrate the ‘presence’ of books. We don’t see books as ‘just’ words… we are drawn to the tactile, visual qualities of books, before or after you allow the words to absorb you. We are also intrigued by the magic of them. You can pick up and hold a book in your hand, open it and there, wherever you are, it opens out a world to you.
With more and more talk about digitising books it’s refreshing to be involved with a group of contemporary artists promoting the book as an object made from paper rather than a soulless e-reader.
The combination of creative text and image in Magic Power Presence is a stimulating visual experience comprising photos, video stills, objets trouves, prints, assemblages and paintings.
A major exhibition in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh and the College of Art is in the pipeline. I don’t yet know whether or not I’ll be able to show the video ‘Path’, or just the still, either way it’s far removed from me scanning that rocky track behind my house last year using a 150 metre extension cable and a lap-top that continuously over heated in the Mediterranean sun.
http://www.irisbookart.com/
http://www.jonathan-moss.com
Been working on a few prototypes for larger pieces… work in progress. Based on images from my video RSA4.
Something I found useful was photographing them during the early stages then altering the luminosity, contrast and colour saturation in photoshop… a new way of experimenting, then I made changes to the paintings. I’m now living with them for a while before I make any more alterations.
The large canvases arrive next week, so I need to decide which compositions work best to enlarge. It will be an experience working on a large scale in my new tiny studio, I could always work outside on the street, at least I’ll get to meet some more people in the village.
Last week when I painted outside on the street, dressed in my overalls, a little old lady asked me to mend her car!
Collaborations can emerge from the strangest of places. A fellow guitarist who initially I knew only through guitar forums turns out to be a bonafide composer of contemporary ‘sounds’ – studied composition at Dartington where his tutorials were extraordinary: “the uncomfortable silence when I played my latest DADGAD musings on my guitar to my composition lecturer who specialised in concertos for wardrobes and carbon-fibre fishing rods… “lounge music” was all he said after about 5 minutes of waiting…”
Just by chance Michael mentioned that he has been working on a conceptual piece. For a guitarist quite well-known on the international ‘folk’ circuit (albeit, ‘new folk’, i.e. contemporary, cutting edge, but within the confines of the heritage of a six string instrument) I was quite surprised at this. At first I thought it was a joke… then as we exchanged emails it became clear that he has another existence as a creator of ‘little sounds’ as I call them.
He offered to make some music for my videos – I don’t have anything on the go at the moment as I’m painting, but mentioned one video, in fact my first, that I recently resurrected and uploaded to Vimeo just last month.
‘Dot to Dash’ is a simple video of the moon, shot in negative with a slow shutter speed; it takes on a life of its own – insect-like, crawling over the surface of the picture plane (video frame?). The addition of atmospheric audio creates a completely new dimension.
I’m really grateful to Michael and now we’re eager to develop the idea… just got to wait for a full moon – well that’s tomorrow, better charge the camera!
I’ve been enjoying playing with cyanotypes over the last few days. The paper was in a Sigur Ros box-set to promote their new live album ‘Inni’ that I was given for Christmas. Once the photos have been made you can upload them to their website and then fans vote on the best ones.
Initially I wanted to place the light-sensitive paper on the computer screen showing my video stills… of course this didn’t work, which was a shame. So I opted to follow the usual technique of placing objects over the paper in sunlight. I nicked some ideas from the artists who showed at the V&A “Shadow Catchers” exhibition which has just closed…
Firstly I placed some palm leaves on the paper, I liked the pattern of lines… then it occured to me that I could make a pattern on glass and place the glass on the paper. With very few materials in my small, makeshift studio I raided the kitchen: flour and olive oil. I literally used it as I do paint and created a drippy type surface – the results are spookily similar to my paintings.
I’m now thinking that I’m onto something exciting here… plus the kids would love to be involved too – just like magic.
If nobody votes for my images on the Sigur Ros site at least I’ve been inspired.
Internet access has been difficult since I moved unfortunately, but it has allowed me to dedicate more time to renovating the house. (Internet now sorted thankfully.)
Today I finished painting my new studio – small, but just big enough to paint the new 180 x 200 cm canvases for a show in New York; it will be a tight squeeze and that floor may be a distraction, but it’s better than the corner of a bedroom.
I mentioned to our new neighbour, a very sweet elderly lady, that I’m a painter by trade, not a professional DIYer and she very kindly said that she could arrange for my paintings to be shown in the local hairdresser’s… I was touched by her kindness, I did explain that they are quite abstract, very large and not to everyone’s taste. It’s good to be known locally though, so I thought I’d introduce myself to the art school in Perpignan and see what emerges.
Just the facade of the house to paint now and the shutters, then on with the real paintings which I’m itching to start, it’s been too long now.
