#biodiversityday : the Flower Mantis

 

This is an ink drawing I created last weekend, inspired by Biodiversity Day Saturday 22nd May. This insect is called a Flower Mantis because it has the appearance of a flower, making it extraordinarily beautiful. I chose it mainly because it is so colourful and has unusual wings. I drew it from life, as it were, because it is an insect specimen I have in my collection at home so I was able to observe it in front of me as I sketched it. It is labelled as a Flower Mantis, found in Vietnam, and looks somewhat stretched out because it is preserved in a cube which fits into an accompanying display box. Whereas in the wild, it would be seen standing on all fours or standing tall and upright, fanning its wings if it felt alarmed. In this drawing, you see the legs and arms fully, rather than just a hint of them underneath the insect. Here's the original specimen. 

The colours haven't quite come out true to life in this photo 📷 because I haven't used a conventional camera so it's harder to get the focal length for sharpness right and the lighting right for the shades of colours. For instance, the brown parts of the wings, underneath the pinkish bits are brown not pink tinted. So my drawing is more accurate than the photo above of the specimen.

I used very similar materials to the previous week's Japanese Hakata doll - green tinted calligraphy paper, liquid Indian ink, liquid coloured inks and bamboo pens. However, this subject matter is even more intricate so I also used some attachable ink pen nibs although I discovered that the bamboo pens were more user-friendly, especially for the black outlines.

I've scaled up the Flower Mantis while trying to keep to the same proportions because it is tiny in real life - I'd have to draw a miniature with a needle to make small enough marks! Mind you, I did paint a miniature Self-Portrait last year with a biro cap! Anyway, here I have sketched the mantis in the style of a zoological illustration/ink drawing, making it completely realistic to life, other than it being larger, so that the viewer feels as though they have met the insect and knows what it looks like. Part of the value of this style of drawing is that it documents and records animal species for future generations, which is especially important if they become endangered or extinct later on. 

This Flower Mantis wasn't easy to proportion in line with the original. I used a small ruler to give me a sense of scale and dimension, plotted out a rough guide in pencil before drawing it freehand in permanent ink. The medium of ink doesn't leave any room for error because you can't rub it out or adjust it then or later. So it's a medium which needs uninterrupted focus and concentration. And it's not just about the marks you do want to draw, it's also about the accidental smudges that you don't want - followed by an exclamation of "oh noooooo!" 😯 The thought of having to start again is enough to give me a meltdown! 😩 Luckily I managed to cut off one big finger ink smudge at the top with my scissors ✂, so the dimensions of the page for my final artwork are somewhat unconventional. 😏 Next time I go to my bug collection to draw an insect, I may go about it differently. 🤔🎨🖼 I think I'll go back to the same process and nibs I used the previous week for the Japanese Hakata doll, but remembering that the lines are proportionally thicker for the bugs because it's a smaller drawing. Hence on the doll, the lines look thinner than on the insect, even though both are identical lines. 😒 

The Mantis is an interesting order of insect, but that's a biological point which I will discuss on my environment blog: 

https://wildlifegardensandtheenvironment.blogspot.com

National Drawing Day

 

Today is National Drawing Day (16th May) and #SothebysSundaySketch's theme is Japanese art, with an example of a portrait of a Japanese woman. I combined the two and drew my Hakata doll ceramic ornament (made in Japan) with bamboo pens in inks on light green tinted calligraphy paper. 

I wanted to create a print effect because the Sotheby's picture was a woodblock print. So I began my ink drawing by using a thin bamboo pen dipped in Indian Ink, which is often used in printmaking. Once I'd finished the entire drawing, I added the red ink with a thicker nibbed bamboo pen, followed by the green, gold then finishing with the white ink to shine out against the light green paper. The gold ink glistens ❇ as the viewer looks at it from different angles because it is a metallic type of ink. It was very precise work which needed a lot of focus and concentration, especially since I wanted to create strong lines and blocks of colour to give it a print effect, rather than creating looser, freer marks. It is a representational drawing of the ornament, I haven't adapted her, her clothing or her hair in any way, in order to retain her strong cultural heritage. I chose an angle where she is glancing over her shoulder in a similar way to the Sotheby's picture. This angle also depicts the sense of movement and gesture she has in the ornament's pose. 

The Metaphysical Art Movement: #sothebyssundaysketch

De Chirico is an artist I had not come across, which is odd because I did study surrealism, especially Dali. So, before starting my #Sotheby sundaysketch I wanted to learn something about him. De Chirico was born in 1888 in Greece, died 1978 in Rome, and had both an Italian and Greek background. He studied fine art in Athens and Munich and was later influenced by the German philosophers, Nietzsche and Schopenhauer (Polish born German) both of whom informed his art. He started the Metaphysical Art Movemen (Pittura Metafisica) in 1910 on the strength of this. However, it was a short-lived movement, lasting only 9 years and ending only 2 years (1919) after it was officially established in 1917 with two other artists, his brother, Alberto Savinio, and Carra, who became a fascist in 1919. Carra became a supporter of art as state ideology which, post-1937, meant neo-classicism and anti-centralism. What I find interesting is that neo-classicism was the brain child of Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768), an openly gay man, who also co-founded scientific archaeology. Furthermore, Winckelmann is seen as the one who gave birth to art history!

What made Metaphysical Art distinctive was its use of light and dark, dream -like yet vaguely disturbing, empty quality. Nietzsche famous for his 'God is dead' declaration had a nostalgia for the ancient world which is seen as the Foundation of Western Civilisation (and often promoted as the ideal by Conservatives). Hence, de Chirico often included Roman architecture in his paintings such as columns and arches. One of the distinguishing features of his paintings was the inclusion of long shadows and, like all Surrealists, illogicality was a hallmark of his art. A disjointed perception of time and space was his aim. He disliked modern art or anything modern, especially after 1919 when he abandoned Metaphysical Art. 

In my artwork this week I have incorporated all these elements to create an original piece. Sotheby's example was that of a horse and zebra so I took the theme of animals and looked for an unusual animal that is very rarely talked about and is native to a particular continent. The jaguarundi fitted the bill. It lives only in South America and is like a wild cat except it has a very small head considering the size of its body. Hence, it already has a mysterious quality about it, almost sinister. I found a public domain image, free from copyright and under a Creative Commons license, on the internet. I started drawing it freehand on black cartridge paper with a 9B (black) graphic pencil to create the light/dark contrast de Chirico was keen on featuring in his art. The pencil would make black marks on white paper but on black paper, it gives a silvery, shiny, light effect which I used as a twist on the white de Chorico used. I drew it off-centre, so I would have space to show what the jaguarundi was looking at with horror. I used this space to incorporate the Roman architectural element. I chose an amphitheatre and, to show the disjointedness of time, I drew its ruins (Alberto was obsessed with Ancient ruins) being struck by a rocket falling to earth, which was something that was actually happening that very day 9th May 2021. The top right hand side of the painting shows the rocket falling while, at the same time, I've drawn the debris of the rocket in the bottom left hand corner in the foreground. The rocket is both falling and fallen at the same time which is illogical.

I've portrayed the dislocation of space by geographically clashing the South American jaguarundi with an Ancient ruin in Europe. The latter clashes with real time, ie the Roman era clashing with the 21st century. The other uses of space in my artwork include the notion that space enters planet earth by means of a rocket falling onto a Roman ruin. This plays with the word 'space' and space on the paper. An artist has to think where to place their ideas on a page/canvas. This placement can often carry meaning.

I have, in keeping with de Chirico, included long shadows within the work which, I think, gives an air of disquiet. Another clash is an ecological one: the jaguarundi lives in an area of the world which experiences a great deal of deforestation, destruction and loss of habitat, often driven by Western demand for products and a desire to expand so-called civilization. So the juguarundi's shock and emotional response to the dangerous destruction and loss exploding behind it tells the broader story of human destruction, and debris they leave behind, be it space junk or poor waste management, and how this impacts on the natural world. The jaguarundi is also expressing the human commentary, which was taking place that week/day, on the falling rocket and the concern that it could land in an urban area. It's depicting a nightmare situation which gives it a dream-like quality. A surrealist situation because a rocket has never landed in an urban area (although one has landed debris in an African village) but nevertheless, with a strange element of realism. It could have hit a densely populated area with potential for loss of buildings and lives. This suits the Metaphysical Art Movement because this movement brings out its greater emphasis on reason (and highlighting illogicality) than Surrealism which priorities the subconscious (and the irrational). 

Lesbian Visibility Week and Art

 

These artworks were done on three separate occasions, all inspired by #sothebyssundaysketch but turned into original pieces. 

The Street Art works (blue and pink) were done on 2 separate occasions then clipped together for #lesbianvisibilityweek (LVW) depicting 2 non-binary lesbians in a loving relationship about to kiss. The shade of pink I used is a vibrant pink, meant to evoke the gay/lesbian colour of pink, as opposed to a feminine, pastel pink. I wish to symbolise how both are non-binary by depicting both women in blue and pink, to deconstruct the gender stereotype of pink is for girls and blue is for boys. People seem to forget that, not that long ago, it was the other way round and blue was stereotypically for girls and pink was a boys' colour! When you look at them above, you see that one is mostly blue and one is mostly pink but you are meant to envisage that either lesbian could be expressing either colour - neither is more butch or femme than the other. Their colours and gender expressions are fluid not static. In future artworks, the viewer shouldn't assume that they are not the same lesbians just because I use different colours to depict them. 🎨🌈

As you look at them, they are physically still yet in motion - I was trying to capture a sense of movement as they move towards each other to kiss. 💋

This artwork is a combination of my Picasso meets street art 1 & 2, facing each other and pinned together at the back. They are both standalone pieces (following on from Picasso's female muses) as well as half of a combined artwork to create this piece, titled: 'Face2Face: Lesbian Kiss'. I used street art pens (Winsor and Newton ProMarker pens: Pink; Yellow; Cyan  Blue) on newspaper (on the left) and (on the right) the back of a sheet of wrapping paper and the front of coloured wrapping paper (eye; lips) and the front of shiny wallpaper (clothing), both mounted on cardboard boxes. They are 3D pieces which together are 24cm × 56cm in size (12cm × 28cm each). 

The sculpture above, titled: 'The Ancient Greek Vase: Lesbians Kissing' takes this further and sees the same two women kissing. This time, drawn on a clay modelling vase, in an Ancient Greek style, using a pottery tool. Ancient Greece was perfectly comfortable with gay/lesbian relationships and non-binary genders. (It was only when Christianity took hold that being LGBT+ became an issue, in a negative way!) So the Ancient Greek theme was particularly relevant for LVW (26th April -2nd May).

It's my first attempt at using this clay modelling material (DAS Pronto clay modelling) but using my old pottery/clay modelling tools. It didn't go smoothly at first because it took me a while to get used to how this material shapes and its level of consistency. The pottery clay I used on the City and Guilds course was stronger and easier to mold so I could do more complicated objects, such as a bird. However, that pottery clay was a specialist type which needs to be fired in a dedicated kiln oven, which the pottery studio had on-site. It's a very different experience when you don't have specialist equipment, or even a regular oven in the kitchen to use for setting the clay! So I chose an air-drying type of clay and was pleased by its rate of drying - not too fast so I had time to experiment and reshape it until I was happy but fast enough that it is solid by the next day. I took this photo 📷 while it was setting (air drying) so this is prior to glazing it. 

This vase also relates back to Picasso because he also did ceramics. I saw some of them in an exhibition at a London Art Gallery a few years back. It was when I saw his ceramics that it struck me that pottery/3D sculptures and art are not two separate disciplines - they are all artworks and artists engage in both! 

I have cross-applied this street art theme into street dance for International Dance Day because they are parallel genres and Dance Day took place in the middle of Lesbian Visibility Week. Therefore I choreographed it with the overlapping purpose of both a dance video as well as a performance art video installation (showing art in performance). The 'street' element in both is: it's away from a studio, an institution, be it an art or dance studio. 

See my dance blog for the video of my street dance mentioned in this post:

https://danceaesthetic.blogspot.com/2021/04/international-dance-day-2021-street.html 

#lesbianvisibilityweek #lesbianvisibilityday 

#lesbianlove #lesbiankisses 

#lesbianart #non-binary