31 May 2012

collision. {personal}

I've been watching our silver birch tree change colour and the leaves are now a brilliant yellow which keeps yelling at me HELLO?!  I'D MAKE AN AWESOME BACKDROP RIGHT NOW!  And so, feeling the pressure from the tree and the impending leaf-drop, I've been pondering what image I could create.  There needed to be a figure in it but I felt it had to obstructed in some way.
Ping!  I had my light globe moment this morning (which luckily coincided with a small window of child free time) and worked super fast to create a flower mask with materials I had around the house.  I was literally working blind as I couldn't see through the flowers!  I set up the camera on a tripod, got the remote ready, tied the mask on and snapped away hoping my crazy idea would work.
Lucky for me it did!  When editing I added some texture and needed to bulk out a couple of the flowers, I'm loving the final result...




29 May 2012

actions. {personal}



Winter is upon us which means things will slow down for a whiles...  and as much as I bang on about how much I love summer I'm looking forward to a bit of hibernation.  


My next personal series is called actions. and its development will take some time; from location scouting to sourcing the costumes to making props.  I'll be spending the cold months with my head down researching and planning, and planning some more.  There'll be lots of trips to the country for walks in the bush to find the perfect locations, and the above image is one of the places I've found already.  I can't wait to get started!


I have this feeling that I'm about to embark on a wondrous journey of (self) discovery. 


Cheesy.  But true.

08 May 2012

Dance, Sucker - behind the scenes

I love a good old sticky-beak at other artist's practices to see how the magic happens.  I love learning about their processes, the ideas behind their work, seeing where they work, everything!  It doesn't have to be my favourite artist either, it's just fascinates me how these ideas pop into our heads and how we turn them into reality.  I saw a Jackson Pollock retrospective at the Tate in London in '98 or '99 and I wasn't really into his work.   But once I saw and learned about how his work developed over the years I had a new found appreciation for his practice.  I was glad I got to see the show and left feeling quite fond of his work.

Blue Poles © Jackson Pollock
So in the spirit of that I filmed a behind the scenes tour of my Dance, Sucker. exhibition talking about the ideas behind the series and the works.  Like most artists, talking about my work isn't something I'm so comfortable with/great at and this is my first attempt at a behind the scenes film so it's a bit dodgy.. plus I probably should have looked in the mirror and slapped on some makeup :)

I plan on doing some more behind the scenes films when I'm shooting new work so you can see the process between the scribble in my journal and the finished piece.  Feedback is very welcome, please let me know if there's anything you'd like to know about how my processes and I'll include your questions in the next film.

For now, enjoy, and I hope you like the ending!



03 May 2012

little blue, hunting her song {personal}















After completing a day of mini portraiture sessions I celebrated with this series which was just for the fun of creating and wasn't planned, I just picked the locations and started shooting...  Little projects like these are way too much fun, I love them!