A couple of books i've recently created...

I find myself forgetting to keep up with this blogging... so I'm back on it this week.
For the past week or so I've been getting involved in the 'food project', following in the direction of my interest in book making. I love the antique quality of books, my work journals tend to develop into a piece of art in their own right, I like them to be visually interesting urging to be touched. I don't purposely chose to create books, I just find there to be something relaxing about the way in which their crafted, and for the time being I'm happy experimenting with them.
Children's books interest me too, the old fashioned Beatrix Potter type, in fact I love them, I think it's important for children to have belief in their imaginative outlook. The library at MMU has a 'special collections' section which I absolutely love, I've discovered some Dieter Roth books which have inspired me so much, also the childrens books are never ending.

food for thought.

Today in my interactive art class we were given a project based on 'food', having to document today's food intake
As soon as I thought of food related art I immediately thought of Dieter Roth, I love Roth's work, he can just do no wrong in my eyes. Roth was very well known for his paintings and sculptures which were made with rotting foods, such as chocolate, sugar, yogurt, cheese, bread, mince and spices, which subsequently beetles and micro-organisms would then transform.
Roth was interested in the characteristic of the decaying substances, it was the structure which he found most interesting, the play of colours,the variations of deterioration and mould and their general natural transformation.

With Roth's decaying work, it could be questioned whether there would be a point where his work reaches a state of aging, threatening their significance in terms of art history. I don't think the end result is really the importance of the piece, it is the creative idea which I appreciate more, also aesthetically amusing to look at.
Dieter Roth himself describes the end result;
"Eventually they do press the button which stops time, surviving as an image although they may disappear as material. The whole putrefying image actually grows and increasingly takes on museum life".

These images are of Dieter Roth's
'rotting works'.

Jonas Mekas (Walden-Diaries, Notes and Sketches)

I couldn't find the video I wanted to post by Mekas, but I also like the effects on this one, I think it demonstrates the speed of life just passing by.

Jonas Mekas

I came across Jonas Mekas about a year ago in an exhibition at London's Tate Modern.
I was mesmerised by a short film of his named 'Collaboration', the film made me question the meaning of life, and how fast it passes us all by. The scenes were beautifully captured flashing before our eyes, displaying visual encounters of specific events occurring in a lifetime.
Why do we as a majority conform to the general layout of life's events? birth, marriage, children, death, as though we feel obliged to go along with this routine.
These are some of the thoughts which i tapped into whilst watching this video, its strange but true. Before Jonas Mekas I hadn't begun experimenting with film, though now I am so interested in this media and I'm constantly looking for more insightful imagery and films.

Tomorrow I will find the film I saw and upload it onto my blog.

The challenge.

So I've decided to start from this week, blogging my thoughts and interests, in an attempt to create some form of secret journal just waiting to be read.

I figured introducing my artwork in to this blog should encourage me to create on a regular basis, generating new exciting ideas.

So that's the idea, now i will begin.

Beginning...

Inspiration needs to come from somewhere.

I always need images and photographs surrounding me to gain any kind of inspiration for the day, even to begin this blog, because it has to progress from something.
So this is where I'm instigating from, my collection of interesting artefacts.