Exhibition and Performance October 2016

The Bee Line

Órbita

October 2016

 

Patio de las Armas, Zaragoza, Spain

Like a line marked out by a Bee in flight, I draw a line which outlines my sisters faces. I follow their movements and it seems like I am touching their faces with the marker while I draw them.

I use the line to recreate their faces giving them a new form in a different dimension. I play with the space inside and outside of the the screen.

The hand is as expressive as the words in this work. It moves in rhythm with the conversation, and as I trace the line it appears to be part of the dialogue.

It is a risk and it could make a mistake. The hand is at risk in the drawing in the same way as it is when handling the honeycomb in the beehive without using gloves.

Bare-handed, I hand the combs.

The man in white smiles, bare-handed.

Our cheesecloth gauntlets neat and sweet,

The throats of our wrists brave lilies.

He and I

...

(Stings, Sylvia Plath)

Como un trazo marcado por una abeja en vuelo, dibujó una línea siguiendo el contorno de las caras de mis hermanas. Sigo sus movimientos y parece que les estoy acariciando con el rotulador mientras dibujo. Con la línea recreo sus rostros para darle una forma nueva en otro dimensión. Juego con el espacio dentro y fuera de la pantalla.

La mano es tan expresiva como las palabras en esta obra. Se mueve al ritmo de la conversación, y mientras traza su línea parece ser parte del diálogo. Es arriesgado y podría fallar. La mano se expone al riesgo en el dibujo como cuando se manejan los pañales de la colmena sin guantes.

More on Franz Joseph

The series continues...
I have just finished this new drawing of Franz Joseph Glacier. I´ve gone in closer this time and tried to reflect the different textures of the land and ice flow. It´s like a big ice tongue slurping up the rocks and spewing them out slowly as it slides down the valley.

Remembering Franz Joseph III, 
Watercolour and ink drawing on paper, 40x60cm, 2016

Memories of Franz Joseph, New Zealand

I'm working on a series of watercolour drawings, based on my memories of New Zealand. I first came to Spain in 1986, expecting to stay for a year. I have now been living in Spain for 30 years on and off! Hard to believe. It's not surprising I'm beginning to feel nostalgic and this is coming out in my latest work.

A couple of months ago my sister asked me if I could do a New Zealand landscape for her to use for a wedding card. At the time, although I said yes, I actually felt a bit reluctant and in two minds, because the last thing I felt like doing was a chocolate box rendering of the South Island scenery. As time moved on this idea kept going round in my head and finally one afternoon I decided to get on with the task, so searching for images I stumbled across a book of photographs called A Portrait of New Zealand, by Warren Jacobs and Robin Smith. Flicking through the pages I was surprised the way the images did inspire me to draw the land. My sister wanted the image for her son who is celebrating his marriage to a Chinese woman and so this gave me the idea to do the drawings using a linear technique reminiscent of Chinese art and porcelain. I did those drawings using a vertical format often seen in Chinese landscape painting. While doing this first drawing I discovered ideas to do more drawings following this idea and I am continuing to work on them now.

I came across some photos I took on a trip we did back to New Zealand in 2000. I don't know why I had them all bundled up in a pile, hidden away. It was an amazing trip down the West Coast of the South Island, to the glaciers. When you could still catch a glimpse of the glaciers from the highway and the Franz Joseph still spread right down the valley so you could easily walk right up close to the massive wall of ice at the end.
These photos reminded me of how I felt then, slightly in awe of the land and its tremendous beauty. We felt very small as we explored around the base of this glacier.
I'm working on this series of drawings using line and wash, with watercolour markers and sepia ink.

Remembering Franz Joseph Glacier New Zealand, 

Watercolour and ink on paper, 25x37cm, 2016

Remembering Franz Joseph Glacier II,

Watercolour and ink drawing on paper,

60x40cm, 2016

LATEST WORK SELECTED FOR THE XXVII PREMIO DE ARTE "SANTA ISABEL DE PORTUGAL"

VIDEO INSTALLATION

DISTANTLY CONNECTED

This work was recently selected for the XXVII Premio de arte. Año 2016 “SANTA ISABEL de ARAGÓN, REINA de PORTUGAL”, an important art competition held each year in Zaragoza, Spain. 

“Distantly Connected” is a video installation and it is presently on show in El Palacio de Sástago. The exhibition runs until the 28th of August.

This work was done while talking to my mother on Skype. As my mother talked I drew on top of the computer screen. The work went through different stages and evolved in layers. I also projected her image onto a the canvas and continued to draw around her face as she read out poems. 

My mother and I have always shared an interest in poetry. She chose to read out a poem called The Islands, by the New Zealand writer Charles Brasch in which he talks about the distance between New Zealand and the rest of the world. 

The poem is also about departures, which has special meaning for my mother, not only because of the constant departures we have made over the years, each time I have returned to Spain which is where I live, but also because of my father´s departure. He died in September 2015.

The poem my mother reads aloud to me in the video is called The Islands, by Charles Brasch (New Zealand, 1909 - 1973)

The Islands

Always, in these islands, meeting and parting

shake us, making tremulous the salt-rimmed air;

divided and perplexed the sea is waiting,

birds and fishes visit and disappear.

The future and the past stand at our doors,

beggars who for one look of trust will open

worlds that can answer our unknown desires,

entering us like rain and sun to ripen.

Remindingly beside the quays, the white

ships lie smoking; and from their haunted bay

the godwits vanish towards another summer.

Everywhere in light and calm murmuring 

shadow of departure; distance looks our way

and none knows where he will lie down at night

(Charles Brasch)

I made this "crystal ball" some time ago and it got lost amongst the things in my studio. It´s travelled with me from studio to studio.

 One day the "crystal ball" caught my eye in a different way. By holding it up to the light I could see through its translucent red and pink layers suggesting hidden worlds. It fits perfectly in your hand and makes you want to move it around catching different light effects.
I kept it out and left it around the studio and its presence seemed to make meaning out of the surrounding objects. The glowing ball heralds change.