Introduction to screen printing

                 

                                     Emma Mclellan

The concepts of the grotesque and hybridisation have always piqued human interest. From the mythical gryphon - with its leonine torso mated to the wings and head of an eagle - to science fiction fantasies of android life, the fascination with otherworldly creations runs a darker thread through the annals of human life. As expected, these musings lend themselves to representation in cultural media and we can track a certain history of art - from Hieronymus Bosch through medieval bestiary to Patricia Piccinini - that comments on our fascination with the weird and ungodly. Viewed from this perspective, Emma McLellan's work is a contemporary interpretation of an age-old fascination.

McLellan attended Auckland University's Elam School of Fine Arts, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts majoring in Printmaking in 1993, before continuing on to compete a Masters of Fine Arts in Painting in 2001. The result of her affinity for these dual disciplines is a natural combination of the two that allows her to build multiple layers of colour, pattern and image, all the while seeking to conceal and reveal different elements of the composition. McLellan combines her fascination with the grotesque, the weird and the hybrid (drawn from an interest in the engraving techniques that produced works of medieval bestiary) and her love of the pattern, repetition and texture of antique fabrics and wallpapers to create a gallery of animalia laid out as if it were as innocuous a thing as a repeating wallpaper motif.

The effect of McLellan's approach to the repetition of curiosities is to generate a "second-glance" interest, whereby the sumptuousness of pattern draws the viewer into a closer examination of subject matter. It is here that McLellan's work begins to draw allusions on one level to print metaphors (replica, edition, copy) and at a deeper level to the concept of mutation and its introduction of newness, difference and diversity into a genetic pool - a concept that is often viewed in a negative light and which has lead to the pejorative connotations of the term 'mutant'. It is this idea of difference that is both societally unacceptable yet culturally fascinating and McLellan holds up her grotesque and hybridised animals for inspection in the same manner as one would inspect a museum oddity.

McLellan lives and works in Auckland. She lectures in printmaking and is currently the Programme Leader for the Bachelor of Visual Arts degree at Auckland University's Manukau School of Visual Arts. McLellan's work has been exhibited as far afield as France, Canada, Spain and Bulgaria and she continues to produce work from her Auckland studio.

Ex famillia muris II 

                                          Acrylic & screenprint on board , 500mm x 500mm 

Counting your chickens before 

                                         Screenprint & acrylic on board , 900mm x 900mm 

Emma Mclellan artwork is so exquisite it's captivating I was so surprise once I saw her artwork on the slideshow that she showed to our class made me focus more about screen print. I love the background it's enthralling i really like the vintage patterns . It's really creative using the animals and adding a different looking wings onto the chickens. I find her artwork really interesting you can see it in books and animation movie's. The counting your chickens before screen print is enticing the way she fade's the chicken on the screen print. Her screen print makes me want to learn more about screen print also learn more technique with screen printing. It's really clever of her repeating the patterns and the chickens onto the screen print it makes it so interesting to look at it also showing us it's telling a story behind this artwork. It's interesting how screen prints works my first time doing screen prints was in intermediate screen printings on bags also clothes but we didn't learn that much techniques about screen prints here in M.I.T that's why i love M.I.T you learn so much things about art and enjoy designing and seeing other students works give's you more idea's. 

Manipulating the image

Manipulating the image 

Francis Pesamino 

FACE TO FACE / KANOHI KI TE KANOHI / FA'AFESAGA'I (Frankfurt Book Fair 2012)

Francis Pesamino is a Samoan artist who grew up in New Zealand. He graduated fromManukau Institute of Technology in 2011 and recently exhibited at Mangere Arts Center in South Auckland.This is his first exhibition in Europe.

In his work Pesamino places a powerful focus on the significance of his own cultural identity. He uses hand-drawn typography to paint portraits of prominent Samoan and New Zealand community leaders and sport personalities. On closer inspection, his graphic style highlights the contradictory character traits, inner and outer compulsions and sensibilities of those represented – they are quite literally written in their faces.

Pesamino’s complex pen-and-ink drawings are exhibited alongside historical artefacts from the Weltkulturen Museum’s Polynesian collection. All of these items make reference to the subject of tattooing, just as Pesamino’s portraits also evoke associations with the form and content of this Polynesian body art. Elaborate patterns imprinted onto the skin are legible signs of a person’s descent and of their social and family status. The tattoos that adorn the faces of Maori men in New Zealand are especially striking. This style of ornamentation, like the typography in Pesamino’s portraits, follows the natural contours of the face. The most popular tattoo patterns of groups from other Pacific islands cover the human body so completely and fluidly that they almost look like writing on the skin. One particularly outstanding example is the ornamentation found in body tattoos from the Marquesas Islands, which with its strict angular shapes, reads like a text written in upper-case letters.

Francis Pesamino writes:
“I think of my drawings as a representation not only of things within Samoan culture and its people, but also the outside perspectives of how Samoan culture is perceived in the Modern World, whether it be through stereotypes, and recognisable high-profile Samoans portrayed through the media, all of which inform the way Samoan people identify themselves. My drawings are presented in a manner that articulates my position of in-betweenness.
The way in which I want people to view my work is through visual story telling. It is up to the viewer to not only decipher who the people depicted in the drawings are, but also through reading the constructed words, they are able to create a narrative of that person, as well as of the way they are being portrayed. This in turn influences the way Samoan people are viewed, both inside and outside of the culture.”

Curated by Dr. Eva Raabe, Research Curator, Weltkulturen Museum.

Kindly supported by the Government of New Zealand through the Cultural Diplomacy International Fund.

What we have been doing is looking for magazines looking for image to trace. We used the tracing paper to the outline of the image then writing lettering's one the image. So what I have done is finding a image from the magazine and I have found one from the fashion magazine and once i went half way drawing the image of my first work i didn't start to like it all because i just didn't like the way it turn out it just looked weird that i haven't draw her eyes properly. Then i moved on to my next one finding a another image from the same magazine and i just finish of working from it and it turn out ok it wasn't that as the first drawing. It wasn't easy at all being creating finding words to go with the image.    

Manipulating the image

                                                 Manipulating the image 
                                             (WEEK 4)

On week 4 we were been working on designing magazines so we were told to design a magazine with our own picture's not other famous images so i used this image of my uncle because it means a lot to me this day i was practicing using my new LCD camera taking photo's of my father & uncle playing golf this was the last time i get to play golf before he passed away this year. I'm so glad that I took my camera with me while at the time so much memories. 

So here's a my magazine that I have deigned. I used Photoshop to work on my deigned. I actually enjoy designing this magazine it was fun. We have told to designed a magazine of any topic like Food, Fashion or sports etc.. And i have chosen this image because it came into my mind when I've herd we have to design a magazine so i work on sports magazine a Golf magazine. I started on looking for what to write on my magazine also the front. So i came up with 101 top tips , Add some pro. Then adding another image down the bottom on the magazine and finishing it of with a barcode from the internet. 

Screen printings

                                               Screen printings 

                                                                   WEEK 7  

On the 10/06/13 we been working on our screen printings. We started of from drawing or working on photoshop to design our poster. Then we went to the printing room to clean our stencil board also putting on a coat of paint onto a board and took it into a dark room for it to dry. After we waited we moved on working with our design before we go back to the printing room. So we started using the big machine that vacums and print our artwork onto the board. It was interesting seeing how the machine works. Now i just need to start on printing of my poster. I didn't really enjoy cleaning the stencil board it took time washing the paint off. 

Favourite artist (TERM 2-WEEK 3)

                         ASKEW ONE 

THUNDERCLAP HEADACHE

Acrylic, spray paint, enamel, vinyl paint and waterborne glaze.
2500 mm x 1900 mm
['Smoke Signals' Solo Exhibition, Australis House, Auckland (NZ).] 2012
$18,000

DISPLACED PAKEHA BASTARD

Pumice gel, acrylic and cel vinyl on canvas.
1200 mm x 900 mm
2011
NFS

DIAMONDISM

Limited edition digital print.
18" x 24"
2011

End of print run.                           

BETTER NEVER STOPS Poster

Auckland Blues Rugby mural commission.
Auckland (NZ)
2013

TMD's " Miami Dream " Art Exhibition

LOST ISLAND LOST ANGELS

LA Freewalls Project
Los Angeles (USA)
2011

                                   

HELP STUCK ON THIS CRAZY ISLAND

Auckland (NZ)
2011

Askew One (Elliot O’Donnell) is a multi-disciplinary artist mostly renowned for his graffiti art paintings. Widely regarded as one of the New Zealand graffiti scene’s driving forces he has managed to remain at the forefront of the movement (both in New Zealand and throughout the world) whilst working tirelessly behind the scenes in a diverse array of projects.

With an abundance of achievements and experiences over 21 years in the graffiti scene which include a guest artist invite to Primary Flight - Art Basel Miami and taking out two consecutive ‘Write 4 Gold’ world titles as part of TMD crew (who remain undefeated), Askew is also versed in graphic design, illustration, photography, publishing, music and moving image. A self-taught, self-sufficient one-man army with no formal art qualifications behind him, Askew is an artist schooled by life itself.

Showing in March 2012, Smoke Signals is Askew’s biggest solo exhibition yet. A comeback after 5 years of struggling to identify a true style of canvas painting that best represents himself and his experiences as an outdoor artist, but within a confined indoor space. Said to be triggered by a ‘stroke-like’ event he experienced in 2011 called Call Fleming Syndrome, this newly found style was discovered five months later out of frustration whilst painting on a particular canvas at an art residency program (Fountainhead Residency, Miami), the moment captured on video.

A perfect blend of bold illustrative line work influenced by comic-books, the graphic power of the letter and his cynical yet patriotic slogans, with a mature taste of abstraction and finishing, these new paintings deal with his identity in New Zealand context but more specifically from the perspective of someone that grew up through the 80s and 90s. He cites the Americanisation of local culture during that era and growing up inner city as informing his aesthetic and creative direction. Four generations Kiwi but a mixed bag of European descent, Askew's Smoke Signals show discusses the cultural displacement of all the people living on this isolated island at the bottom of the Pacific ocean.

Askew One (Elliot O’Donnell)

What I love about Askew One is that he's so creative. I really look up to Askew One how he self-taught him self one-man army with no formal art qualifications behind him and he is an artist schooled by life itself. I was so happy that he invited my family and I to his SMOKE SIGNALS & THE MIAMI DREAM exhibitions i found it really interesting watching people looking at his artwork and talking about his artworks that how amazing talented he was. THE MIAMI DREAM EXHIBITION was my first time being at a exhibition i didn't know what i will expect to be like it was on Thursday 21st October 2010 at shed 6 Upper Deck 90 Wellesley st. It was so interesting seeing famous Kiwi Bands and Musicians there also. That's the other reason why i look up to Askew One (Elliot O'Donnell) because how he work so hard and having his own exhibition. I also love how he painted my grandma's shop in Samoa it really means a lot to my family I.  

 SAMOA                

 2013                 

 FASITO'OTAI SHOP

Manipulating the image (TERM 2-WEEK 1)

week 1 

7/05/13

What i've done on week 1 07/05/13 is finding a quote and then cutting letters from the magazine. I've found my quote from a song. The then after I cut the letter's from the magazine I paste it to a A3 paper. The other paper that I cut out from the magazine I also used it and paste on another A3 paper as well.

                                                                 week 2  13/05/13

This is my mono print that i've printed. I've started from drawing the quote BE HAPPY. Then drawing a point down the bottom on the A3 paper then connecting the lines to the dot. After I finish that I started working with the mono print by using 2 colour blue and red.

Kumi Yamashita's

KUMI YAMASHITA'S 

2011 H46,W36,D2cm
Wood panel, brads, single sewing thread

Private collection

Kumi Yamashita's "Constellation" portraits are an incredible exercise in minimalism. Yamashita, who was born in Japan and now lives in New York, constructs the portraits out of simple materials: "a wooden panel painted a solid white, thousands of small galvanized nails, and a single, unbroken, common sewing thread."

The National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. has chosen Kumi Yamashita’s entry, Constellation – Mana, as a finalist in their Outwin Boochever Portrait Competiton.

The competition, which is held triennially and is the first national portrait competition to be held in the United States, asks artists to create a “portrait” from a living individual with whom they have had direct contact. Artists may use any medium. Ms. Yamashita’s winning entry is a portrait of her niece comprised of a wooden panel painted white, approximately 10,000 tiny nails, and a single unbroken sewing thread.

Approximately 50 finalists from over 3,000 entries were chosen. All finalist’s work will form a major exhibition on view at the National Portrait Gallery from March 23, 2013 until February 23, 2014.

What i love about Kumi Yamashita artwork it's so different also she's so creative. I've enjoyed looking through her artworks it's so amazing the way she use so many nail's and sewing thread creative a amazing artwork.I just wonder how much time she's been working on her artworks by the way she's been working with so many nails and sewing thread it's just so interesting. It's just so interesting the way she pulled on the threads in a pice of fabric and creating a picture of a boy. I also like the way she even use a lot of threads to shade in her artworks like the little boy's hair and eye's.