Dispatches from the Field
Still An Artist #6
Do you believe in magic?, Do you believe in luck?, Do you believe in ghosts? An ambivalent magic that embroiders every experience – just ask artist Mark Bletcher, who’s paintings fuse magic, mundanity, and unlikely muses. Bletcher’s work is a self-professed compendium of ‘Modern Magical Realism’, with influences ranging from writer Haruki Murakami to British painter Howard Hodgkin. His work, […]
Still An Artist #5
Most paintings require a leap of faith of some sort – trusting an object is real, believing in the life of a landscape, or extending empathy to a lone figure really before us. In the work of this week’s artist Emma-Louise Grady, the viewer is asked less for their faith, than their upmost attention and […]
Still An Artist #4
Your average day probably involves looking at an electronic screen. From work emails and texting, to social media and news stories, the eyes are always on a relentless quest for knowledge, communication, and entertainment. ‘Screen fatigue’ is a guarantee – where did caution go? Where’s the person who used to yell “Don’t sit too close to the TV or you’ll ruin […]
Still An Artist #3
What makes a story? It can be hard to tell, especially when stories so thoroughly make up the fabric of life. As writer Joan Didion famously wrote, “we tell ourselves stories in order to live”, so do we even want to separate life from story? For artist Stephen Todd, it’s a tricky predicament taken up […]