September 2012

29th:  Oh Lisa Lisa.... Sad Lisa Lisa. I was given a poster for an Art Exhibition dated from I don't know when. I decided to photograph it and here is the result.

Together We Can: 15th September; we went up to Jeppes Town in Joburg to put up my Shack. A chance meeting Julie Lovelace inspired the decision to put it up. It had been sitting in my backyard for the last couple of years, and well the time had come to do something about it. So early on a rainy morning under the Joe Slovo flyover up it went. The weather was miserable, communications got mixed up, street names were misread, nerves got frayed but it went.

Here is Julies piece next to the front door of the shack.

Together We Can: 21st September; Six days and six hours later was the first time that I was able to go and see how the shack was doing. The news was not good. The only evidence of the shack having ever been was the footprint of Julies porcelain piece, and that too was gone.

9th: The end is Nigh! The shame of it, how can things come to this? Surely things can't get worse than
this - not to be selected for the Thami Mnyele Fine Art Awards!!! I have just about recovered from the shock, luckily there were paramedics on hand to administer CPR other wise who knows how things would have ended. So anyway once I have finished convalescing I shall be stomping off after Gordon and Jenna to find out why they both suffered from a mental seizure on the same day. To top off the whole farce their was a green sticker on my work which denoted selection for everyone else but me!!! Scandal I say....a bloody scandal. You can see it for yourself, its there.

6th: So how did the Opening of New Signatures go? All things considered pretty well. Arrived in time to miss the opening speeches but not to miss the winners being announced. Fantastic. And the winners? I think the best thing about this years show was the fact that the winner was.......older.....not a senior citizen but someone in their late forties. Which is great as it means that I have another ten years in which to carry on trying to win. That's great....

Work for the shows I am taking part in is going alright. I am assuming the printers have been able to print my prints for the Radiant Exposure exhibition which is happening at Cameo Framers. The image below is one of the pics that  am going to have on show. My work for Me 2 which is happening at Fried is going alright. I am almost finished with my Kaleidoscopes for the Erotica show which is also happening at Cameo Framers.

August 2011

24th : Just had a peek at the Sasol New Signatures website. Finally this years entries are up and can be seen. Looking at my own entry I have to admit that it doesn't look great. At best I could only describe it as a black murky mess without any artistic merit at all. I am sure that there are plenty of artists out there thinking 'I can't believe it - how the hell did that get in?'. As you can see below it does not look good.

While I have been here in the UK I have work going up at Fried as part of their Aperture exhibition. That runs from the 27th August to the 1st October. I have also had a piece entered into this years Thami Mnyele open. I decided to enter something a lot less low key than my effort from last year. Who knows I might win something...ha ha ha....yes. Anyway thanks to all involved for making it all happen.

Update form 2025 : My entry for Sasol's New Signatures art competition was stolen sometime late 2015. Not sure when or how but it just dissapeared.

May 2011

10th: Finally got going with taking some test shots with Trinny. Exposure times are looking to be more or less the same for her as with my previous cameras. Images though are looking like they will be much smaller than I had anticipated. The one below has a diametre of about 30mm.

Had some good news from Tam today with regards to the Leonard Coehen altar piece project. She recorded Hallelujah for me today. Going to go and pick it up on Thursday on the way to the Intoto opening. If the live performance I heard her give was anything to go, this recording should be amazing. Thanks Tam

19th: Work is slowly progressing for the Lenoard Coehen altar piece. To be honest though I think that Trinny might be a bit of a dud. Admitedly its early days and she could do with some tweeking. Right now the photos that I am taking with her are lacking the wow factor of the photos that Helga produces. Some of the detailing is nice, but nice is never good enough. They need something else.

I picked up Tams recording of Hallelujah last week and it sounds awesome.

There was an opening at Intoto last week. An exhibition of portraits. I had two works on show. One was hung below a Diane Victor piece which was cool. My other piece The Fight - part A was reserved. The potential buyers just want to see if it works in their home. Lets hope so.

24th: Progress report; I didn't like the photos Trinny was producing for the Leonard Cohen altar piece project, so I have decided to, with the aid of photoshop, cut and paste the images into something that I want. Its not finished yet, I have a very old slow computer that I am forcing to work its arse off to get this to work, but I should be ready on time.

News from Intoto is not good. The option on The Fight - part A wasn't taken. Bastard's, don't they understand that their thousands of rands could have fed a kind of poor, not really starving but shit they could really do with the money artist living in the suburbs of Pretoria. On the upside there is buyer for another piece, They are just proving to be a little ellusive at the moment. You like it? just pay the cash and be done with it.

One last not for the day, apparently I am going to be getting a mention in House and Leisure (South Africa) as part of a story covering Intoto.

 31st: The last week has been a bit of a pain in the arse. Boh of my dark room safe lights died. My new one because I bumped the poxy lamp and then the other because it was old I guess. Had to finish unloading, loading, unloading Helga in the dark; and then of course there were the photographs to process. It looks like I managed to fumble my way round succesfully as the pics came out ok. I also avoided head butting Helga which I did last week. She wasn't happy about this and I was fuming as not five minutes earlier I had managed to violently connect my forehead with a roll of paper. At the time of the second incident I was busy reminding myself to be careful.

The image above is a detail shot of a set up I did of some Jacob Zuma posters. The whole photograph looks like a series of police mug shots of the president. Although this was not by design I suppose some would say that this result was quite apt. So anyway I now have a rather expensive non funtioning light bulb that I just can't face throwing away as it was so bloody expensive. I guess they cost about 25 times the price of a regular one.