BEING THE ARTIST BEGINS WITH INSPERATION
In my travels, I collect objects that once lived to tell tales. While their stories remain untold, their essence retells a story. These objects of interest are displayed in my CABINET OF CURIOSITY* where natural and synthetic intrigues hang from ceiling, covering walls, shelves, tables and floor. My studio environment allows me to reach for a subject of insperation to study, ponder, adore, and if I so choose, use its medium to tell a story. A scattering collection of artifacts found through exploration include wood n leaves, coral n shells, stones n bones, feathers n skins, skulls, teeth and natural and unnatural oddities. Shelved bottles preserve the suspended beauty of flora n fauna. Libraries of books, antiquities, sculptures and paintings encourage my research and commitment to create.
My Twenty nine journals,(dateing back to 1987),have documented my visions and discoveries in life. These recordings contribute to illustrations of designs and concepts(speculated through trial and error),reflections of time and discovery, dreams, experience, lessons, philosophies, theories, observations, intentions, anticipations, shared desires, dilemmas, insight, Love, fears, fantasies, composed stories and ramblings, as well as ways of the world. My journal language is collogued in pencil, ink, paint, print, photography, clippings, and found objects. My expressions of creation are nurtured within these pages of these journals.
*CABINET de CURIOSITE; Where the grotesque and the beautiful of nature's objects co-exist for insperation. A status symbol for the gentlemanly scholar, the typical room combined sculpture, antiquities, and paintings(some depicting strange phenomena) with actual objects-often impressively large or unusually small-that ranged from natural specimens to manmade inventions and contraptions. Angus Wilkie;TRENDS, New York
Through video and still imagery, film is used to document the evolution of Nature. Video captures the transformation of life through the seasons. Still photography(both film and digital) preserves a moment in time reflecting Life through artistic language.
Printmaking became a passion after studying the process in the ART FUNDAMENTALS program at Lambton college(Sarnia Ontario). My education in the VISUAL ARTS PROGRAM at the UNIVERSITY of WINDSOR(Windsor Ontario) allowed me to enhance personal values through printing techniques as well open creative doorways through learning the experience and techniques of the Master's. The method of Gyotaku (ghee-yo-tah-koo), meaning fish print japanese (GYO meaning "fish" and Taku meaning "print" or "rubbing" or "impression"), intrigued me creatively due to the use of raw material as a means of documenting Nature. The custom began in the early 19th century when market vendors rubbed a fresh fish with black oil based ink and pressed the image onto rice paper to display the catch of the day. Three years after my first rubbing experiments, I acquired a 18th century hand pulled printing press, allowing me to conduct further exploration in using natural elements as printing plates. My honor of not wasting matter compelled me to experiment with recycling hides and bones for creations of Art. The discovery of fresh roadkill gave me access to skins and rare life forms I do not hunt for survival in the wild. Materials used are that of hunters throwaway, fisherman's discards, roadkill, or carcasses found fresh where no death is explained. Years of trial and error in skillfully skinning and tanning hides to develop usable three-dimensional plates, have formed into unique detailed impressions of mono-embossed printing: a technique I practice and teach with today.
My current work embodies a vast collection of Earth elements as my palette. Skins prepare as printing plates, leaves collogued compose natural hues. Charcoal, wood and bone ash fabricate shade. Feathers, seeds, and flower petals depict detail and tone. Stones perfect texture, wasp nest paper fashion as pattern, using sand and seaweed to mimic landscapes. Found objects create natural occurring serendipity and depth. Artifacts portray the passing of time.
In 2003 while sculpting, I watched clay dust fall from a three dimensional creation I was birthing. This dust interpreted time as it developed from one form into another thereby hatching a new purpose. The quest to compose pigment from the elements of time began, initiating the discovery and use of mud as organic paint mixed with matte medium.
My concept of collogued organic medium suspends textural realism in a true intuitive abstract form exhibiting elements of time. Sculptures evolve from two dimensional sketches into a three dimensional body representing time in stages. Photography captures inspiration in an exact moment of time, creating an image of past to be viewed by future. Embossed prints resemble time fossils in rag paper, offering a detailed glimpse of mystery. Tree sculptures invite participation in time by witnessing growth while taking new shape with embedded found objects. The essence of MUD renders a medium of time collogued with the ingredients of time.
The incorporation of earth's essentials (as medium), merged with my creative influence of Nature, completes a full circle concept involving, EARTH>>>AIR>>>FIRE>>>WATER>>>LIFE>>>DEATH.....the elements.
In my travels, I collect objects that once lived to tell tales. While their stories remain untold, their essence retells a story. These objects of interest are displayed in my CABINET OF CURIOSITY* where natural and synthetic intrigues hang from ceiling, covering walls, shelves, tables and floor. My studio environment allows me to reach for a subject of insperation to study, ponder, adore, and if I so choose, use its medium to tell a story. A scattering collection of artifacts found through exploration include wood n leaves, coral n shells, stones n bones, feathers n skins, skulls, teeth and natural and unnatural oddities. Shelved bottles preserve the suspended beauty of flora n fauna. Libraries of books, antiquities, sculptures and paintings encourage my research and commitment to create.
My Twenty nine journals,(dateing back to 1987),have documented my visions and discoveries in life. These recordings contribute to illustrations of designs and concepts(speculated through trial and error),reflections of time and discovery, dreams, experience, lessons, philosophies, theories, observations, intentions, anticipations, shared desires, dilemmas, insight, Love, fears, fantasies, composed stories and ramblings, as well as ways of the world. My journal language is collogued in pencil, ink, paint, print, photography, clippings, and found objects. My expressions of creation are nurtured within these pages of these journals.
*CABINET de CURIOSITE; Where the grotesque and the beautiful of nature's objects co-exist for insperation. A status symbol for the gentlemanly scholar, the typical room combined sculpture, antiquities, and paintings(some depicting strange phenomena) with actual objects-often impressively large or unusually small-that ranged from natural specimens to manmade inventions and contraptions. Angus Wilkie;TRENDS, New York
Through video and still imagery, film is used to document the evolution of Nature. Video captures the transformation of life through the seasons. Still photography(both film and digital) preserves a moment in time reflecting Life through artistic language.
Printmaking became a passion after studying the process in the ART FUNDAMENTALS program at Lambton college(Sarnia Ontario). My education in the VISUAL ARTS PROGRAM at the UNIVERSITY of WINDSOR(Windsor Ontario) allowed me to enhance personal values through printing techniques as well open creative doorways through learning the experience and techniques of the Master's. The method of Gyotaku (ghee-yo-tah-koo), meaning fish print japanese (GYO meaning "fish" and Taku meaning "print" or "rubbing" or "impression"), intrigued me creatively due to the use of raw material as a means of documenting Nature. The custom began in the early 19th century when market vendors rubbed a fresh fish with black oil based ink and pressed the image onto rice paper to display the catch of the day. Three years after my first rubbing experiments, I acquired a 18th century hand pulled printing press, allowing me to conduct further exploration in using natural elements as printing plates. My honor of not wasting matter compelled me to experiment with recycling hides and bones for creations of Art. The discovery of fresh roadkill gave me access to skins and rare life forms I do not hunt for survival in the wild. Materials used are that of hunters throwaway, fisherman's discards, roadkill, or carcasses found fresh where no death is explained. Years of trial and error in skillfully skinning and tanning hides to develop usable three-dimensional plates, have formed into unique detailed impressions of mono-embossed printing: a technique I practice and teach with today.
My current work embodies a vast collection of Earth elements as my palette. Skins prepare as printing plates, leaves collogued compose natural hues. Charcoal, wood and bone ash fabricate shade. Feathers, seeds, and flower petals depict detail and tone. Stones perfect texture, wasp nest paper fashion as pattern, using sand and seaweed to mimic landscapes. Found objects create natural occurring serendipity and depth. Artifacts portray the passing of time.
In 2003 while sculpting, I watched clay dust fall from a three dimensional creation I was birthing. This dust interpreted time as it developed from one form into another thereby hatching a new purpose. The quest to compose pigment from the elements of time began, initiating the discovery and use of mud as organic paint mixed with matte medium.
My concept of collogued organic medium suspends textural realism in a true intuitive abstract form exhibiting elements of time. Sculptures evolve from two dimensional sketches into a three dimensional body representing time in stages. Photography captures inspiration in an exact moment of time, creating an image of past to be viewed by future. Embossed prints resemble time fossils in rag paper, offering a detailed glimpse of mystery. Tree sculptures invite participation in time by witnessing growth while taking new shape with embedded found objects. The essence of MUD renders a medium of time collogued with the ingredients of time.
The incorporation of earth's essentials (as medium), merged with my creative influence of Nature, completes a full circle concept involving, EARTH>>>AIR>>>FIRE>>>WATER>>>LIFE>>>DEATH.....the elements.
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