Mario Esteves

Brian Sherwin -- Art Critic: The arts writers ‘strike’ against the Huffington P...

2011-03-15T13:52:00.000-07:00

Brian Sherwin -- Art Critic: The arts writers ‘strike’ against the Huffington P...: "The arts writers ‘strike’ against the Huffington Post is absurd! On March 1st I read an article on The LA Times‘ Culture Monster blog title..."

2010-09-11T09:28:00.000-07:00

Hammerite on canvas, 155x100cm. 2010 MARIO ESTEVES
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2010-09-11T09:16:00.001-07:00

Hammerite on canvas, 155x100cm. 2010 MARIO ESTEVES
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http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mario-Esteves/125727207448760?ref=sgm

2010-09-05T01:30:00.000-07:00

Hammerite on canvas 200x150cm. 2010 MARIO ESTEVES
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2010-09-05T01:12:00.000-07:00

Hammerite on canvas 100x75cm. 2010 MARIO ESTEVES
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2010-09-05T01:01:00.001-07:00

Hammerite on board 75x50cm. 2010 MARIO ESTEVES
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2010-09-05T00:58:00.001-07:00

Hammerite on canvas, 155x100cm. 2010 MARIO ESTEVES
http://marioesteves.tumblr.com/
http://pequenasebentapreta.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mario-Esteves/125727207448760?ref=sgm

2010-09-04T15:18:00.001-07:00

Black Hammerite on board, 2010. MARIO ESTEVES

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2010-09-04T15:16:00.001-07:00

Black Hammerite on board, 2010. MARIO ESTEVES

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http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mario-Esteves/125727207448760?ref=sgm

2010-09-04T15:15:00.001-07:00

Black Hammerite on board, 2010. MARIO ESTEVES

http://pequenasebentapreta.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mario-Esteves/125727207448760?ref=sgm

2010-09-04T09:13:00.001-07:00

Hammerite on board 75x50cm. 2010 MARIO ESTEVES

http://pequenasebentapreta.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mario-Esteves/125727207448760?ref=sgm

2010-09-04T09:12:00.000-07:00

Hammerite on board 75x50cm. 2010 MARIO ESTEVES

http://pequenasebentapreta.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mario-Esteves/125727207448760?ref=sgm

The Critic Sees by Jasper Johns

2010-08-16T10:33:00.000-07:00

The Critic Sees by Jasper Johns

You can now read John Holt’s answer to the question “What is Contemporary Art?” at Escape into Life. I think the questions he raises deserve a response.

He begins by saying that Kandinsky “anticipat[ed] a new era of spirituality and meaning in art, a new evolutionary stage in consciousness”, adding, “of course, that did not happen.” He then goes on to argue that “contemporary art” is a phenomenon of modern Western culture. Moreover, it is “phenomena…controlled by an agenda, a shifting cannon defined and leveraged by marketers and academics of taste within the Western Eurocentric tradition.” This is seen in contrast, he argues, to “non-Western preindustrial cultures” where art is “woven seamlessly into ritual, myth and everyday life.” And this begs the question: “Whose art is it anyway? What purpose does it serve (the people)? Is “contemporary art” authentic in any way and if so to whom?”

So far so good. But now Holt states that since contemporary art is a phenomenon of modern Western culture, then consequently the answer to those questions must be: “a white male continuum from the Italian Renaissance.” Which means, of course, that everyone else is “marginalised”, “unacknowledged” and “even derided”.

So far Holt has said nothing that I might take issue with, apart from thinking that his position is an extreme one. Taking such a stance can be useful for the purposes of debate. But of course having drawn into question the matter of who “controls” the conversation on contemporary art, Holt is not content to end it there. Given what he has said so far, one might think he fights for the people, that he would like to see the conversation undertaken in an arena where the common folk determine the path of inquiry. Therefore he begins by quoting Loretta Sarah Todd, a Métis/Cree filmmaker:

But what of our own theories of art, our own philosophies of life. Our own purpose for representation? By reducing our cultural expression to simply the question of Modernism or Post Modernism, art or anthropology, or whether we are contemporary or traditional, we are placed on the edges of the dominant culture, while the dominant culture determines whether we are allowed to enter into its realm of art.

And here is the line in the sand that Holt draws. All of these art terms–even the question itself—he argues, are controlled by white men in modern Western countries.

We need to hear from The Others. This is what I take from Holt’s response to the question. And still, all well and good. I agree. It is the argument for hearing the voices of those who have been suppressed. Is that why he then goes on to say that “Art is the linguistic outpouring of the present moment”? Linguistic. There is no room in that term for a metaphorical reading of the languages of visual forms. Linguistic means the language of words. Here is where I begin to have trouble with Holt’s position. It’s not a minor point. From here Holt goes on to argue that “some aspects of modernist and contemporary art practices is a form of exploitation” of marginalized people, by “appropriating” their ideas and using them as “an exciting “other”…to spice up the narrative of the Western mind in search of something new.” Now the enemy is the Western artist himself, almost always a white man, keeping The Other down in a selfish search for novelty. To be exact, this is the enemy as it has been handed to us as the official story.

But that’s unacceptable. Did Picasso, for example, exploit Africans by appropriating some of their forms and ideas? If so then he also “exploited” clowns, bulls and bowls of fruit. He did not exploit them by virtue of his success. But his success did allow others to exploit them. And we all know who they are: dealers in African “artifacts”. If Africans are pushed to the margins in a consideration of Picasso’s art, it’s not because he did it. On the contrary, he loved and celebrated their work. Who then does the exploiting?

Holt thinks that Duchamp helped to initiate this questioning or deconstruction of the official story. And he ends his article with a description of a story by J. R. R. Tolkien. It’s not the fact that they are both white men, both representatives of that Western tradition that is odd. It is that Duchamp, probably more than any other single artist, influenced the particular discourse on art that we all participate in today, and that Tolkien actually stands apart from it. How to explain this odd contradiction?

In short, what is at issue here is who will “control” the conversation. This is the issue that Holt raises. By combining these two highly unlikely sources—Duchamp and Tolkien—Holt himself is attempting to get a handle on the discourse. And why wouldn’t he? Isn’t that what writers do? Just as Loretta Sarah Todd wants her voice heard. Not to drown everyone else out, but to be a participant. Duchamp is the darling of modern art discourse, the champion of discourse on art as art. The Authority. To somehow cobble that with the story “Leaf by Niggle” is to attempt to garner some control over that discourse while maintaining a support of the common lot—all of the marginalized others, the “little” people, to use Tolkien’s word. It’s a word he uses over and over in that story, which drips with sentimentality for the “little” guy of no consequence, just trying to get by. It’s hard to miss the overseers in the story who determine Niggle’s fate. Who are they?

“Leaf by Niggle” is more than sentimental and patronizing. It upholds the populist love of illusionistic art. It is not quite clear if Holt upholds populism in the arts, but it’s important to remember that one can give an arena to the voices of marginalized people without patronizing or romanticizing them.

Finally, Holt says, “And so I have the fanciful notion that all living artists, poets, musicians, dancers, dramatists, novelists, sculptors are somehow making art in preparation for a future existence into which they will enter at the point of their death.” Back to Kandinsky. We have here the notion of an artist as someone who has no active role in making the world here and now. Jean Dubuffet’s statement does not mean that artists abdicate the discourse on art, but that they will always complicate it—and I’m very glad that they do! Yes, they envision other worlds, but not because they are disengaged from this one. If all they are doing is preparing for a world that can only arrive after their death, then that leaves the conversation in the hands of academics, critics and businessmen. The most I can say for this position is that The Stranglers wrote a great song about it: Everybody Loves You When You’re Dead.

Mark Kerstetter steals time away from restoring an old house in Florida to write and make art. His poetry is forthcoming in the July 4th issue of Unlikely Stories and he is the author of the blog The World Before the World Wide Web.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.escapeintolife.com/essays/whose-art-whose-agenda/

"ART IS WHAT MAKES LIFE MORE INTERESTING THAN ART" Filliou R.

2010-05-19T11:48:00.001-07:00

I am one person and I am no person.

I understand more when I feel confused.

I don't say what I know but I talk about what I don't understand.

And in conclusion I might be fully present when I feel lost.

Mario

"BLACK PAINTINGS"

2010-05-05T10:59:00.000-07:00

The series painting of “Black paintings” is created between other series of works in these recent months. The idea came from my thoughts and the question generated in my practice. To my thinking, the most charming quality of the blackness is that it reveals the dramatic between representational signs of desolation and lyric statements. Stormy weather can be represented by the motion of the brushes; drama and contrast can be shown by the different tones embedded on Hammerite.

As a trick of metaphor, it is the blackness which evokes the meaning, not the drawings. The Charcoal expression is one signifier replacing another signifier. The landscape is not a representational depiction of a natural subject but to reveal its meaning through its splitting from it’s signified subject. “Black paintings” is not painting mimicking landscapes, but the similarities between this subject.

These images not only give us disordered and impermanent experiences, it also offers different profiles of the image making. These images produced are the metonymy of drama. However, within the sense of the desolation, drama is not an element of what has being produced, but in the process of producing such reality. The existential wonder of the individual’s chance dwells in the uncanny feeling of the infinitude; every element in the painting prefigures finitude and infinitude. It only appears not in a long term contemplation but in a short glance.

My interpretation of stormy weather ideas is all through my recent paintings which have been inspired by artists such as John Virtue, Norman Acroyd, Tacita Dean and John Piper, lyric readings from Charles Pierre Baubelatire and Luis de Camoes. In the making of “Black paintings, one color of hammerite is used on the process to embody the concepts of romance and drama. Black is also a visual representation of the dark, bleak and tragic.

Mario

"ART IS WHAT MAKES LIFE MORE INTERESTING THAN ART" Robert Filliou

2010-05-02T01:58:00.000-07:00

LUIS VAZ DE CAMOES, selected poem.

Let Love search for new arts, a new talent
to kill me, and new indifference;
for it cannot take away my hopes,
for it will have difficulty in taking from me what I do not have.
See with what hopes I maintain myself
See how dangerous my safety is!
For I do not fear contrasts or changes,
sailing on the rough sea, my vessel lost.
But, although there cannot be any grief
where there is no hope, Love hides
from me an evil that kills and cannot be seen.
For there are days that have placed in my soul
an I know not what, that is born I know not where,
appears I know not how and hurts I know not why.

Translated By Google

ADIEU TO COÏMBRA

2010-05-01T10:20:00.000-07:00

by: Luis Vas de Camões (1524-1580)

WEET lucent waters of Mondego's stream,
Of my Remembrance restful jouissance,
Where far-fet, lingering, traitorous Esperance,
Longwhile misled me in a blinding Dream;
From you I part, yea, still I'll ne'er misdeem
That long-drawn Memories which your charms enhance
Forbid me changing and, in every chance,
E'en as I farther speed I nearer seem.

Well may my Fortunes hale this instrument
Of Soul o'er new strange regions wide and side,
Offered to winds and watery element;
But hence my Spirit, by you 'companied,
Borne on the nimble wings that Reverie lent,
Flies home and bathes her, Waters, in your tide--



Translated by R.F. Burton

http://www.poetry-archive.com/c/adieu_to_coimbra.html

“A Professional Secret

2010-04-27T10:59:00.000-07:00

Image-Making Begins with interrogating appearances and making marks. Every artist discovers that drawing - when it is an urgent activity – is a two-way process.

To draw is not only to measure and put down, it is also to receive. When the intensity of looking reaches a certain degree, one becomes aware of an equally intense energy coming towards one, through the appearance of whatever it is scrutinizing.

The encounter of these two energies, their dialogue, does not have form of question or answer.
It is a ferocious and inarticulate dialogue. To sustain it requires faith.

It is like a burrowing in the dark, a burrowing under the apparent. The great images occur when the two tunnels meet and join perfectly. Sometimes when the dialogue is swift almost instantaneous, it's like something thrown and caught.”[1]

A Professional Secret first appeared in New Society Magazine, 1987.

Published in Keeping a Rendezvous by Granta, 1992.

[1] Berger J. 2005 Berger on Drawing, Occasional Press, page 77

WHY PAINTING?

2010-04-25T07:15:00.000-07:00

"Gathering the now proposing the next"

Having worked on the last projects with printmaking, drawing and painting I become fascinated with some qualities that each medium possessed. For example with printmaking the marks, tonal variations caused by aquatints, sugar lifts, the biting of the acid in conjunction with sepias and whites were for me relevant not only on the proofs but also on the metal plates.

The qualities of the mark made by the instruments used on drawings, the different range of felt tips of one color, the chiarosescuro qualities of a composition, the harmony on the image was again qualities that I felt attracted to. The dramatic contrast of charcoal in contrast with the empty space of the page, the rubbing and smudging of the lines.

The earthy quality of the chalk and charcoal together with the blackness of the ink, the glossy elements of some paints had for me references to a natural way of depicting the spatial elements of an athomosphere

I wanted somehow to do one thing that embraced all of what I had previously experienced and felt fascinated with, borrowing elements from each of processes. Extracting the essence of the metal plates that I felt in tune with, making them into pieces of work. Applying the dramatic tonal compositions from my drawings to develop a new way of working, to turn them into pieces of Art.

It seemed natural to me to paint with metal paint, making direct incisions on the canvas or board. To scratch them and let them speak through their own means as forms of metaphorical landscapes, like birds flying freely on the jet stream of the sky.

Choosing a restricted pallet of black and white to describe a certain subtleness. It allowed a connection between tension and harmony, balance and commotion, contrast and definition, with the dramatic perceptions that they already possess speak for them selfs. Like the storms overwhelming the skies.

Instinctively the pieces of work claimed bigger sizes, my gestures and physical actions could direct and influence the aspects of the mark and influence the next step, where to put it and in what direction.

Serendipity plays much on these actions they are random movements created by my arms, brushes and thickness of the paint. A variety of brushes sizes are used to make different marks and design aspects that become hidden until you look for it.

With actions without expectations, letting the canvas speak and do what the work wants to do, it becomes the initiator and the instigator of meaning.

My methods are simple. The canvas or board is first prepared with white chalk emulsion mixed with PVA glue. While wet I make marks with several instruments, like I would when working on an etching or dry point and let them dry hard. A coat of wood primer (oil based) is then applied on top and again more drawing is made.

The black Hammerite paint is applied as the top layer, when all of the other paint is completely dry. The viscosity and density is made with several sizes of brushes, just like I would do with felt tips when drawing.

They take some time to be prepared and to be completely dry. Each of the layers needs to be solid to receive another one on top.

Also I mix thinners and spirits with my paint to achieve different tones and create contrast. This plays an important part of the making of any of my pieces.

In summary I have an extreme affinity to my sketchbook work, they are crucial in my methods and process development. My still life drawing and etching have worked as catalyst with my new work. Having experienced the process of both disciplines I have become aware of what I liked and didn’t like, what I could and couldn’t apply in different ways. This resulted in a different way of painting.

I think this work is critically more interesting than anything else’s that I have done before, however I wouldn’t consider it better or more engaging than any of my drawings.

Mario

A thought…

2010-04-09T03:46:00.000-07:00

There is a tangible presence of hands in my artwork, meaning; it is handled, touched, dirtied and worked on. It contains the imprint of the instrument that made it, the pencil, the pen, the paper, the brush and the paint. There is an awareness of the connection to humans and the mementos they possess.

I want to create an art that is arresting, yet familiar, like a memento you find tucked away in between the thoughts of a romance. In an effort to harmonize my media with my message, I construct work out of the romantic encounters; poems and the little things that slip away into memory and sometimes become forgotten.

This voyeuristic impulse has inspired me to create drawings, paintings and prints incorporating the poetry that I find so enchanting. The process is instinctive and casual in choosing the objects and subjects but structured, layered and designed so the different elements harmonize to produce an artwork that is wholly nostalgic.

Mario

Why do I make art?

2010-04-04T04:21:00.000-07:00

When someone asks me about my art or what does it mean? I feel terrible awkward to respond.

I am always in love or feel lonely; love, nostalgia, melancholia or the need to create are a part of my heartbeat. Words wouldn’t be enough to express these; the need to create is like a volcanic activity within my soul.

Art is for me my way of letting this eruption surface to communicate what I feel, art is a friend that satisfies this desire of creation.

I have always felt detached from reality and reluctance to involve myself in the normal working life, fitting in or making part of it because I am thinking all the time. I make art because there is nothing else’s that I like to do and that I could do to express myself.
I have tried not to do art but that became painful, my mind has been heavy with ideas and thoughts since a very young age. I always feel separated from friends because my mind wonders from one thought to another; there isn’t much that I can do about this.

Doing art for me gives me the opportunity to create and visualise my subconscious, setting it free from the restrictions of my head.

Mario

Charles Pierre Baudelaire selected poem:

2010-04-03T11:39:00.000-07:00

“The Jewels

My darling was naked, and, knowing my heart, she had kept on only her sounding jewels, whose rich array gave her the all-conquering look that the slaves of the Moors have in their happier times.

When, as it moves, it throws out its sharp, mocking sound, that glittering world of metal and stone ravishes me into ecstasy, and I love to distraction things where sounds is mingled with light.

She was lying there, then, and letting herself be loved, and from her vantage point on the couch she smiled happily at my love, deep and gentle as the sea, as it rose towards her as if to its cliff.

Her eyes fixed on me like a tamed tiger’s, with a dreamy, vague look she tried out new poses, and the combination of candour and lubricity lent a new charm to her various shapes.

And her arm and her leg, and her thigh and her hips, smooth as oil, undulating like a swan, passed before my eyes, all seeing and serene; and her belly and her breasts, those clusters of my vine.

Thrust forward, more tempting than the Angels of evil, to trouble the state of rest my soul had entered, and to displace it from the crystal rock where, calm and alone, it had seated itself.

I felt I was seeing, by some device, the haunches of Antiope joined to the torso of beardless youth, so strongly did her waist set off her pelvis. On that wild, brown skin the make-up was wonderful!

And the lamp having died down at last, as the fire alone lit up the chamber, every time it heaved a flaming sigh, it flooded with blood that amber-coloured skin”.[1]

[1] Baudelaire C. P. Selected Poems, C. Clark 1995 Penguin Classics, Clays ltd, St Ives Plc pages 151,2 and 153.

Drawing stories and myths

2010-04-02T22:06:00.000-07:00

"When Nasa first started sending astronauts into space, they realized that the ballpoint pen would work at zero gravity. A million dollar investment and two years of tests resulted in a pen that would write in space, upside down, on any surface and that at any temperature from below freezing to over 300 degrees centigrade. When confronted with the same problem, the Russians used a pencil."[1]

“ The classical Greek story describes an act of tracing by the potter Boutades’ daughter. She is distraught that her departing lover is about to set sail, perhaps never to return. Whilst he sleeps, she watches, and draws around the shadow his face casts upon the wall with a burnt coal that she takes from the fire”[2]

“In Walt Disney’s Peter Pan, the 1953 adaption of JM Barrie’s novel of a journey to and from Neverland, a shadow provides the meeting point for the sweethearts rather than the moment of parting. Peter first meets Wendy while searching for his shadow, which he has lost…Peter finds his shadow but it tries to escape him, only eventually being caught after much tumbling through the drawn space of the nursery.”[3]

[1] Kovats T. 2007 The Drawing Book, Black Dog Publishing U.K. Page 7, quote.
[2] Kovats T. 2007 The Drawing Book, Black Dog Publishing U.K. Page 8, quote.
[3] Kovats T. 2007 The Drawing Book, Black Dog Publishing U.K. Page 8, quote.

The firts Drawing

2010-03-28T09:23:00.000-07:00

Drawing as almost a perpetual state for humanity and it predates and embraces writing.[me1]

"Barnett Newman swore that the first man, who happened to be an artist, made the line in the dirt with a stick, creating the first drawing and simultaneously the first art work”[me2]

To comment on this statement from Barnett Newman I would say this is perhaps true and the reason I say it it’s because Mankind started at prehistoric art representing the world in caves. These nomad tribes would depict the content of the landscape according to seasons and live stock.

Those drawings made with broken charcoal, limestone, chalk and other rocks illustrated artistically, were and when I that place you could find nutrition and other needs in an unpretentious way.

These representations at the Chauvet Cave, Ardech in the south of France and Altamira in Spain ‘to name a few” are examples of memory and observation drawings. The way that they have being made, the marks, composition, proportions and intentions evoke in my opinion what drawing is about.[me3]

Drawing taps the inner meaning of things as it formulates visual metaphor. This alliance, “process of drawing” and “capacity of wonder” have made part of humanity history well before medieval age witch makes drawing the earliest and most immediate form of image making. The qualities of this medium have remained unchanged for thousands of years, the magical qualities and its immediacy reinforce the effects of wonder and imagination and those still today as important.[me4]

[me1]Drawing now, between the lines of contemporary art/page 10

[me2]Drawing now, eight propositions/ introduction. Page 11 quote

[me3]Berger on Drawing, page 87. Le Pont d arc.

[me4]Contemporary drawing, page 6

Drawing and today

2010-03-28T08:13:00.000-07:00

Today artist are using drawing in other aspects, the conceptual and theoretical discourse that allow the artist to communicate in a loose way. Today the use of this media isn’t conferred to a set of rules on what drawing is, but rather in its capacity of talking and thinking in a particular way.

This media expresses authenticity and freedom.[me1]

This processed-based medium also connects the artist with physical world and connects the viewer with the artist.

These appealing components are today described and used by contemporary artists and also in the way that drawing is conceived of, made, used and categorized by some institutions or critics.

Much of the contemporary artists express ideas from the romantic surrealism period.

The storyteller, the narrator and the poet are today used in visual arts most concretely in the drawing scene.

Themes such as liberty, the sublime, emotion, intuition, the romantic, the vernacular and ephemeral are also the more common choices.

Artists such as Zak Smith’s and Elizabeth Peyton’s uses drawing like an analogue narrative of the revolution on the music scene. Based on photographs from magazines or books the hairstyles, the music instruments, the loved ones are a part of his subject matter. Their artwork is an intimate diary of fandom and friendship.

Raimond Chaves uses drawing like conceptual artists used photography in the 1960’s 1970’s using drawing as vehicle to convey information about social conditions.

Jim Shaw, Andrea Bowers and Julian Hoeber uses words such as appropriation, to describe his work with his second hand drawing “copy’s”, referring to a pop-ish style of tracing the contours already made from a picture. Bowered techniques from similar disciplines such as illustration and product design, felt-tip pen, ink, pencil and other medias are used to make pictures of pictures. The gradation of tone and the equality of lights and darks are extracted from the internal contents of photographs. This bypass from originality, are not the focus of these artist but rather the aesthetics of sensibility that are rotted on those already existing drawings.[me2]

Kai Althoff, Kara Walker uses drawing to convey popular culture and national culture opting to use figurative style, intimate scenes, sensibility, melancholy, loss and some pleasure.

Similar to illustration this could fall into the derogatory context of art, however these artists and more such as Shahzia Sikander and Jockum Nordstrom embrace this figurative drawing and styles of vernacular illustration with purpose and without sarcasm.

They are Romantic in inspiration and representative of storytelling, folk and novel’s, however they are not made to comply with a brief that as being commissioned.

They are easy to understand close to traditional methods with genuine expression to create delicate contemporary work and according to "Walter Benjamin, one measure of an artwork is its accessibility."[me3]

Drawing now can be from all types the connotative, the denotative; from the performative or narrative its emancipation is welcome now with the fine art context.

Swiss contemporary artist, Ugo Rondinome produces a distinctive depiction of nature directly onto his tiny sketchbook. Rondinone’s drawings come directly from nature and are later on at the studio-appropriated enlargements of his journeys on the landscape and Swiss Alpes.[me4

Ugo light and dark method to get close to the natural elements of nature, they have a feeling of chiaroscuro, charcoal, inky drawing.

[me1]Vitamin D, Emma Dexter/introduction/page 6,7.

[me2]Catalogue raisonne, page 28/29

[me3]Vitamin d, Emma Dexter page 60. Quote

[me4]Drawing now, eight propositions, page 17.

OTHER METHODS AND CONCEPTS

2010-03-28T08:07:00.000-07:00

In the 1960’s artists such as Richard Serra, Bruce Naumman, Robert Morris, and others approached drawing in my opinion in a very theoretical way. "Theysubscribe to a sense of time and the abstract object. These very conceptual notions of entropic forms, physics, thermodynamics and energy became objectified." [me1]

These concepts of temporary drawing, the transitive and the contingent as a process and became a way of recording an action or intellectual statement, sometimes used to visualise ideas, plans for installations, sculptures. These drawings had a different look from the traditional and contemporary drawing they would allow the artist to theorise visual aspects to explore and evolve well before any physical work existed. They would inform the artist of its intentions, they existed with the purpose of being work that could exist as finished. They would exist as Richard Serra said.

“ There is no way to make drawing-there is only drawing” Richard Serra, anything you can project as expressive in terms of drawing- ideas, metaphors, emotions, language structures- results from the act of doing.”[me2]

To extend these ideas further drawing also was released from the page, it became a line made by walking on the landscape in circles or straight or with a performance status.

Norman Bryson makes comments on the white background of the blank page of our contemporaries. He says the blank space being “perceptually present but conceptually absent."[me3]

This also contrast drawing with other means of expression, whereas painting uses the back ground to exist and to compose a structure.

He also says that the line moves in a confined path and space, freed from the need to consider the totality, “where the hand is now in parentesis”.[me4]

As well another interesting point that might allude to honesty and transparency arising from the act of drawing is this informality and presence in the absent space of the background.

Walter Benjamin writes ”the graphic line marks out the area and so defines it by attaching it self to it as its background…so that a drawing that completely covered its background would cease to be a drawing…the pure drawing will not alter the meaningful graphic function of its background “leaving it blank’ as a white ground”.[me5]

I think these are really interesting ways of looking at drawing in contrast with other means of expression and that is because it reinforces drawing capacity for wonder and imagination.

Nevertheless I believe these are references and comments made about the intended unfinished drawing, line drawing or even blind drawing.

Where in my opinion these ideas and points of view fit these descriptions.

[me1]Afterimage, drawing through process/page39, 41.

[me2]Drawing now, eight propositions/ page 11 quote

[me3]Vitamin D, Emma Dexter/ introduction/page 6. Quote

[me4]Vitamin d, Emma Dexter/ introduction/page 6. Quote

[me5]Vitamin d. Emma Dexter/introduction/page 6. Quote

Drawing and my practice

2010-03-28T04:43:00.000-07:00

Observation of a place and its contents is essential for me to attempt to record its fleeting presence and meaning. I usually draw daily on location; I observe, register and assimilate the form of what I see. I seat down, kneel or stand until I am satisfied with what I have done. Drawing after drawing I build an ongoing visual diary of a place preserving each day’s experience. Like John Virtue my methods are similar, I became customised with the form of the subjects, the lines and the shapes become more fluid and less fragmented. Drawing on the spot fixes a structure for the size, shape and caracheter of the elements within my field of vision. It creates a framework, which supports an expressive tonal chiaroscuro. Perspective proportion and tone also become harmonised with etched lines and overworked dramatic contrast of white and black the narrative emerges. Memory and imagination also now becoming implicated; it’s like riding a bicycle the more you do it the easier it becomes not to fall. They are references, as points of departure for a process of an ongoing documentation of a reaction and reflection a summary and effect of an experiential action.

Drawing peculiar dependency on a direct physical process, elevate to me its importance. This work on paper can be done anywhere at home on the studio; life drawing classes, on the train, waiting for a bus and what I need its very simple too. The biro and the paper can always be with me, in contrast other media such as painting, photography or even printmaking might have to be planned. This immediacy allows me to document what I see and find interesting as if it was a diary of life, a record of the ephemeral and the vernacular daily living. It works as a depository of memories that are personal and intimate. As well it is the authentic documentation present in the same piece of paper, its evolution, development exists in the same space. Its becoming it is apparent, relevant and sometimes unknown. Its freedom and process is the core of its existence. Its primal qualities are also conjured through the simplicity of its marks, any erasure or mistakes on its becoming will convey honesty and transparency of its process. The accident is part of the drawing like anything else’s, it’s the drawing in its pure sense and this is the honesty that I like.

Drawing its my favourite thing to do because it is the result of a special kind of activity and even other processes such as intaglio, painting or etching do not offer such immediacy. Drawing is an exploratory and analytical process and embraces complex ways of looking at the subjects and that is sometimes a challenging exercise. Drawing is a focused and thoughtful process that engages me with the paper, subject matter and the mind.

Thin lines, bold lines, forms, shapes and shading are all used within this context to build or materialise a thought or idea.

From the diverse ways of doing that, another considerations can be made such as choices of papers. Those can be widely available to the diverse ray of thickness, roughness and scale where diverse marks that can be made, this media offers a versatile spectrum of possibilities depending on the artist ambitions. The acts of making the mark can also be very liberal, from wet to dry, concentrated or condensed the marks and materials are from an infinite list.

This almost obsessive medium gets into the soul deeply, that happens when you are drawing it is almost like going in to a meditative state where the mind and the body are connected and express them selves by the line tone and mark made on the surface. Absorption or a withdrawing from anything else’s, the world becomes reduced to a piece of paper with its boundaries, edges and centre. Its line, mark, intimacy, informality, immediacy, memory and narrative are also symbolic characteristics that connect us to our ancestor.

My work could be defined thematically as Still Life using objects that exist or have been created for the use of the artist, for example mannequins, triangles, spheres, cubes, pencils and other studio materials.

For me the making of the final piece isn’t necessarily important. The product might change and evolve until its finished it as not been started with the intention of having a final piece, but rather a physical interaction with materials. The doings and interaction with the object is my focus and preoccupation. The artefact is sometimes created by serendipity and its existence is sometimes casual. It works as a depository of memories that are personal and intimate. What I see and find interesting as if it was a diary of life, a record of the ephemeral and the vernacular daily living.

“My practice is concerned with a process, a record of the ephemeral and the vernacular daily living. The resulting works are casual and yet engendered with a poetic sensibility.”

“My practice is an exploratory and analytical process it embraces drawing, painting and printmaking as primary processes based media. Its usual for me to alternate from each other to borrow similar approaches and incorporate them in each other.”

“For me the making of the final piece isn’t necessarily important. The doings and interaction with the object is my focus and preoccupation. The artefact is sometimes created by serendipity and its existence is sometimes casual.”

Mario

Critique on Tuesday

2010-03-21T03:41:00.000-07:00

Bad news that is so common in the newspapers is present everywhere.

In my opinion the artwork had a humble homely feeling, which was evoked by the similarities of an unsheltered pet house. A cardboard box; resembling a cozy refuge from the outside weather conditions. If the box resembled a shelter, and the newspaper bad news and considering that the bad news is everywhere, we couldn’t get away from it. Therefore this paradox was the most interesting part of the artwork.

Moreover I felt that the artwork was representing personal experience and this was very strange for me, I felt compelled to be sensitive with empathy for someone else’s grief. This intimacy was a brave step from the artist.

Mario

“Optimistic Transcendence” Critique on Jackson

2010-02-06T06:07:00.001-08:00

The visual language used by the artist had a fictional motif. From a sketchy representation of a normal skull to a humanized reinterpretation the transcended subject morphed into a futuristic form of itself. Screen prints used to illustrate this narrative were similar in format but slightly different in content. The skull used as a convenor evolved in shape and size as our eyes move along the 4 squares from left to right. Almost wanting ironically to say, “this is a skull morphing after death”.

This is the important factor in this piece, it allows me to read and make interpretation of the piece of art. Technically the screen prints had being well made and modestly presented however I think they looked raw.The colour’s used could have been uniform on the four screens, contrasting complementariness all along instead of just having on screen like “blue, orange”. Also merging the narrative in one screen could, in my opinion, bring the narrative together adding to the piece a complex and artistic accomplishment.

To summarize impressions, I see a beginning of an idea demonstrating potential for investigation and evolution. Jackson was looking for a concept and for a meaning to create and merge a message in a modest and simple way. He used mortality versus life contextual subject to activate our collective memory. This fine art theme is being used by artist to evoke the loaded meaning of life and death. As we can see in the illustration, Pieter Claesz, Vanitas Still Life, 1630 where the object as being used to symbolize a transcending moment. For future references this theme can in my opinion be very evocative and a powerful subject working for Jackson benefit in future endeavours.

Mario

Seminar

2010-01-22T09:33:00.001-08:00

SEMINAR

In the 1960’s Barnett Newman declared that: “Aesthetics is for the artist what ornithology is to the birds”

Meaning that birds have coped perfectly well in ignorance of ornithology, and artists have coped just as well in ignorance of aesthetics.

Birds don’t need to know their history to be able to fly just as well the artist don’t need to know aesthetics history to do art.

My personal opinion and view of this subject is that this 6^th sense is purely subjective to each individual’s choice and judgement. The artist chooses what importance the aesthetic ideology takes in the making of artwork accordingly to their taste or intentions. I think it’s impossible to make artwork by a table of contents that tells what to put in or what to take out. Moreover this subject and ideology can cause confusion and hamper the artist artwork because surely artwork needs to have some beauty in order to work, however that doesn’t mean that everyone will like it.

From an academic perspective and point of view each artist have the option of analysing their work, disconnecting them self’s from their practice to formulate a critical opinion that might influence future ideas and in this sense aesthetics values may well be taken into consideration however this doesn’t happen in the making of the work but rather after the work being done.

This is a ill defined and highly disputed area of philosophy, and it’s principal concern is at the moment to define the concept of art its relationship to moral, political issues and providing a philosophy of criticism that explores how works of art are interpreted and evaluated.

The ideology is part of the art world and of the elite and it’s the way that art is valued and baptised as an artwork.

Mario Esteves

Alice Aycock: Sculpture and Drawings / Frederic Snitzer Gallery, Miami

2010-01-20T10:38:00.000-08:00

Alice Aycock: Sculpture and Drawings / Frederic Snitzer Gallery, Miami

Art Basel Miami Beach 2009

2009-12-03T13:03:00.000-08:00

Art Basel Miami Beach 2009

Papers in your way. Critique on Matthew Exley Artwork

2009-11-16T10:48:00.001-08:00

Please don't walk fast, because you can upset the Artwork.

Grey circles on a white paper squares appeared in the middle of the gallery floor to provoke an intense discussion about the Artist intentions.
Placed on the floor this uniformity was initially quite appealing However I then noticed one of those squares was very different from the rest, it was much smaller. That attracted the attention of some and made me wonder if it related to identity? However, what was symmetric was unsymmetrical, what was similar was also different. The aesthetic perfection was also the aesthetic imperfection. The gaps, the squares and the circles were similar, identical but not exact.

The dialogue was created and questions and opinions started to be raised.
“Can I walk on it...?” The viewer wondered.
“Sure, why not?” Another viewer says in a teasing mode. “There isn't anything saying that you can't do that...!”

It seemed to be a temporary piece in all of its existence, origins and intentions. The disregarded perfection of little squares didn't hold its symmetry for too long.

The settled viewer, who initially asked if she could walk on it, couldn't hold the unsettling feeling for too long and, zap, with her feet on a 90-degree angle disturbed what for some was already disturbing.

I didn’t feel sad after the event, but I am not sure that's the same way that the artist was feeling after this art attack. What happened couldn't be undone and I was wondering about the artwork. We sat in silence for a while and then started commenting on a possibility of this being the case of a site-specific installation. Also references were made to the fact that the artwork was placed on the floor in the middle of the gallery as a form of conditioning the movement of the viewers. That it's a good point, but in my opinion it raises some doubts. Those doubts are based on its form and format. It would be possible to exhibit them in a different place but other considerations would need to be taken into account. Maybe Matthew is being influenced by his extensional studies and didn't make the necessary connections to make this an interesting film or animation?

Apparently what was in the mind of the artist was only a ritual, a process, and a repetition of a drawing. Some professional observations were made about his comments; if that was the case he could have done things in a different way. Suggestions of research were made in this context.

Critique on Matthew Exley Artwork

Trivial

2009-11-10T13:36:00.000-08:00

Part of my professional practice is to look for places where I can put work on the walls and it works.

From art@xuma

Mario, as I guessed an artist I have a space for 9 pieces downstairs in our January exhibition, how does that sound to you? Loved your work, one brought back a very happy memory for me.. Not sure if I told you, but dont charge commission however if anything happens to the work I can not be held responsible, we have cctv and other precautions can be taken but just want you to know the conditions straight away. Thanks

2009-11-01T06:10:00.001-08:00

brian alfred paintings.

Only things can come out of this...Critique on Ollie Place

2009-10-29T15:27:00.000-07:00

Only things can come out of this...

I say this because I have learn that concept, context and form of any Art work have to be considered and put together as one piece, and when that doesn't happen the work loses meaning.

I was expecting more from this piece of work and I believe that the potential is there however other considerations have to be put together before it becomes an exception.

I think that when we only consider the form of a piece we are taking risk of it becoming only what it is and nothing elses. To make it harder we have to analyse and desconstruct whats in front of us without many references and that is hard work. I am sure that isn't the intentions of the artist and if so what's the point?

Conceptually I had great expectations, when standing in front of something really interesting to look at, pieces of founded wood creativelly put together in a clumsy manner creating a form that looks like a ramp...and it is a ramp. That's when I loose interest, a ramp...and?

Aren't we forgeting something here...aren't costs, size, transport and other matters important if we only want to say this is it...

Trivial

2009-10-29T15:00:00.000-07:00

Its great when you put the work in and get the results, I am only guessing, but good things will come out of this...

Hi Duarte

It was lovely to meet you yesterday, thank you so much for your donation of art. I have spoken with my managers, including Andy Winter, the Chief Executive of BHT and they are all thrilled that you will be donating this art work to us. We will be very happy to display this in the reception.

Please let me know when you would like to bring them in, or I can arrange a time to collect them from you if this would be more convenient.

Once again many thanks

Karen Robinson
Resource Assistant
BHT Support4housing
144 London Road, Brighton, BN1 4PH
Tel 01273 645430 ext 430
Fax 01273 645402
www.bht.org.uk

Trivial

2009-10-28T14:30:00.001-07:00

I am the kind of artist that produces a lot of work (good and bad) and that it also part of my method and process, because that’s the way that I find myself working and making it work. There isn’t always possible to have space to store or to exhibit to sale or to make money from it.

That’s also important to make the work visible to others and to the general public. That is something worthwhile to consider and to find ways of making that became a reality. I am working in some strategies to might increase my popularity and those are.

Lend work to coffee shops, restaurants and friends.

Donate work to charities

Locate galleries

Participate in collective exhibitions

Create exhibitions.

I have already accomplished some of these and I am hopping that some others will be my next step although there are a few ifs that I am coming to realize and that is costs and management of the locals where you want to have the goods.

I have also checked the Arts Council website for grants an support and maybe that’s the way to go forward.

Critique on Dee Edmonds

2009-10-22T11:55:00.000-07:00

There we go, another group crit.

Considerations have to be taken how well we actually deliver what intended and I should make that clear considering that English is my second language to make sure that my mistakes don't disturb the message.

I am not passively ignoring the merit that each one of us deserves for what we do, however What is to deliver a message... If I paint, draw or use any other medium to say what's being said before, have I being successful?

Or for an instance if I paint a child crying, isn't clear that I am saying that she is crying? Or that something is causing her discomfort. Yes, thats obvious... so why do it, then?

I am not wasting my materials and minerals to do what's being done, I much rather to use them to do what doesn't make any sense... at least I have done it myself.

Another thing is... that we can be wrong and repeat the same mistakes over and over again... but we do what we believe...

Interesting method

2009-10-21T00:04:00.000-07:00

2009-10-21T00:02:00.001-07:00

Interesting approach and process

http://www.markchadwick.co.uk/

Mario

Frieze art fair

2009-10-20T13:43:00.000-07:00

I I am glad that I went to the Frieze Art Fair this year and that is because the level of work that I saw was excellent and right up my street. I mean the freedom of expression, execution , sizes and aesthetics components of the pieces had being extremely considered by the majority of the artists. Much of these whore simplicity, minimal components and lateral thinking.

Mario

2009-10-14T11:09:00.000-07:00

Being an Artist today is part of a past in Art history and is to use a new way of thinking in the way that we produce and make people think about Art? Are we meant to represent the world the way we see it or are we to use what allredy exist and... with inspirations use new technology to deliver?....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gfbDCi2RIA.

Mario

2009-10-12T14:39:00.000-07:00

http://www.tinagonsalves.com/interactive.htmlGood FEEL:CHAMELEON: An emotional algorithm video installation
It is a collaboration between artist Tina Gonsalves, social neuroscientist Chris Frith, emotion neuroscientist Hugo Critchley, affective computer scientists Rosalind Picard and Rana El Kaliouby. It brings together two world renowned institutions: The Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience (WDIN), where the artist is honorary Artist in Residence, and the Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, (MIT) where she is ‘Visiting Artist’. Curated by SCAN Media Arts Agency, the project will be exhibited extensively, and a corresponding catalogue will document the project.
Neuroscientific research will be finely integrated with innovative sensing technology creating an engaging art experience that empathically adapts to participants, leading them to a deeper personal understanding about innovations in biomedical science. For science, the work illustrates research in new ways, and the platform may evolve as a flexible research tool, exploring of social-emotional skills in human-machine interaction, informing psychophysiological neuroscience with the potential to generate abundant data relating to patterned emotional expressions. For the arts, the model and techniques may be applied to probe clinical disorders of social emotion including autism creating new experiences for new and under represented audiences. Moreover, the cross disciplinary foundation will lead to the building of more empathic interaction scenarios which may impact future display of media arts and museum displays, pushing further understanding how machines/art experiences can adjust with people to support learning, creativity, imagination, and motivation.
This project integrates the tools of biomedical science and affective computing, which are both seen with hope and fear. The interface design may lead to debate of how sensor technologies may infringe privacy of participants and ignite feelings of vulnerability. Simultaneously, the interface generates a framework for collaboration with the "audience”, using the feeling of ‘vulnerability’ to facilitate productive self-expression, and social awareness, enhancing public understanding of how new innovations in biomedical science can enhance communication and the understanding of empathy.
Orson Welles created panic when his radio theater broadcast The War of Worlds? Albert Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiments demonstrated that individuals learn aggressive responses from observing others. Emotional contagion is a significant feature of spectators' engagement with narrative fiction film (Amy Coplan). Emotional Contagion effects us moment to moment through the cultural, social, the personal, though as it is often unconscious, few people are actually aware of its impact on our everyday. CHAMELEON will achieve an illustrative power that would not be attained by conventional scientific or artistic endeavours. Seeing and interacting with CHAMELEON will allow viewers to study the effects of dynamic emotional contagion with in an immersive virtual context. Through participation, questions about the role of emotional contagion for the need for survival and adaptation to our environment, the use of emotional contagion in art and the use of mirror neurons (and other biological functions) in emotional contagion will be stimulated.
video file of the Chameleon Project April 2009
Chameleon on New Scientist, April 2007 (video)
Chameleon The Australian August 2007 (text)
Tina Gonsalves, Digicult 2008 (italian)
Chemeleon Project, Culture 24, April 2009
Chameleon Project, Natural History Museum, June 2009
Chameleon Project, Biopychology, April 2009

Mario

What is Pequenasebentapreta?

2009-09-29T03:23:00.000-07:00

Pequenasebentapreta is the Portuguese name for Sketchbook, or a little and insignificant school book where you can write you thoughts, notes and things like that, they are normally made from cheap paper and the pages are blank. They cost about 0.70 for an A5 and have over 50 pages.....the equivalent of a Journal, diary or note book or a reporter pad "from Asda".

Mario