The fish
Materials collage on cardboard, 22.5 x 30 cm
I continued with the “Aquarium” strand of ideas started in the September submission. Here I made use of leftover paper machée which I had spread out to dry in the shape of a plate. I cut them into triangular shapes to represent the skin, arranged like shingles on the support. I wanted the fish to be a bit glittery and wrapped it into a shiny, transparent little cloth. The fish face, some bubbles and sand for the ground was added for decoration.
I’m quite happy with the symbolism of the image. The shingles could point to the rich interior life of the creature which is covered, at the same time revealed, by the transparent skin overlay.
The woman
Painted materials collage on board, 35.5 x 28 cm
An experiment with textured ground: I glued a piece of a knitten sweater onto board and used it as my painting ground. It’s an imaginary portrait and I recognize myself in it, the quiet observer. The style reminds me of Marc Chagall’s poetic phantasy worlds full of longing for something far away.
Bottles
Charcoal on paper, 35.5 x 27.5 cm
A still life made in my kitchen.
The high bed (R)
Mixed media on canvas, mounted on board, 38 x 51 cm
This painting was inspired by Natalie’s ‘Old ship structure’. I made a simplified composition with an imaginary object standing in a landscape to experiment with paint quality: Plain, textured, and heavy body. It’s a painterly alternative to my materials collages.
Keeping things together (R)
Painted materials object, mounted on board, 49 x 39 cm
A piece that’s hard to explain – I followed an intuition which I did not really understand. Technically, the piece is two layers of Kozo paper around a piece of chicken fence, connected with double-faced stiches in red band. The paper is painted with blue and green watercolours. The entire structure is three-dimensional – I shaped it into several waves and bumps, so that it’s lifted from the support and only connected to the board at three points. It was inspired by Natalie’s ‘Imaginary trees’ for the stitching and additional painting of the surface, but otherwise the piece is a mystery to me.
Who is Charlie Sheen, actually? (R)
Mixed media on paper, 35.5 x 27.5 cm
This drawing was inspired by Natalie’s ‘Catching a lamb’ – I started with the concept of ‘people’ and set out to sketch some folks. Currently I enjoy watching ‘Two and a half men’ which features Charlie Sheen, and chose this for a start. I tried sketching from television, but this very difficult because of film cuts every few seconds, and my first two sketches remained very vague. Then I switched to a photo for a third sketch on the paper. To bring out more clearly the portrait from photo which has more likeness, I dimmed down the initial sketches by overpainting them. The resulting composition conveys how I perceive the lesser known, difficult parts of Sheen’s personality, they are like demons luring in the dark. I imagine being with Charlie Sheen, you never know who you’re actually talking to.