THE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 16 : IN CAMERA

 inside a black room..

in the local contemporary art gallery..

the artist waits behind a closed door..

he has his Sony RX100 pointing at the blackness..

the door opens..

and our boy shoots..

this is what he thinks photography is..

the unexpected..

the happy accident..

the lucky break..

chance meeting..

like Kandinsky..

seeing his painting upside down..

in the moonlight..

abstract.. 

innit!

MISTER PITIFUL

yo!.. los angeles 3.. innit!

this image above is from psycho..

it's not marilyn..

it's Janet leigh..

apart from the appalling attack in the shower..

I have given her the warhol treatment..

to make her look like marilyn..

a soup can marilyn..

like pop art..

innit!

ICONOCLASM

the destruction of icons..

that famous and beautiful face..

has had some art worked on it..

I am sorry for my part in this now..

at the time I was only thinking of myself..

and my little screen print..

so here you can see..

my cunning plan..

one print with  the image on both sides and with cut out and folded flaps..

with the second print beneath it..

clever innit!

I SAW THIS AND THOUGHT OF YOU

andy had given her the soup can treatment..

pile em high and sell em cheap..

mass reproduction..

just like elvis or the mona lisa..

15 minutes of lame..

on reflection..

I feel now that this was..

a poor show..

in 'marilyn reframed'

we are introduced to a great person..

the greatest photographer's model of all time..

she ran the whole show..

she had all the guts they ever made..

possibly the most famous face in the world..

and a great actress..

I was ten when she died..

she was the most beautiful woman in the world..

you can spend a long time in Hollywood..

and never see the part they put in movies..

farewell my lovely..

THE OPPOSITE OF HOLLYWOOD

 yo!.. camera shy.. innit!

here in palookaville..

they ain't much ta photograph..

we don't have access..

ta the great celeb icons..

it's not hollywood..

OUTSIDE MY WINDOW THE SNOW BEATS DOWN

I'm bored and it's too dark ta paint..

so I thought..

I would look for something to share..

with the global hoard that is my fan base..

this is you babe..

dude, doll, whatever..

A CAMERA OBSCURA ALMOST

well one Sunday.. 

around lunchtime..

after a cappuccino..

at carluccios..

I was standing in a dark..

anteroom in the..

 palookville contemporary..

I had my camera with me..

a Sony rx 100..

and made a load of shots..

as the door opened..

and joes walked in..

and the light did cool stuff..

I uploaded the best ones to my..

saatchiart page..

and then..

I played around with them in photoshop..

adding stills from..

the misfits..

"you can spend a long time in hollywood..

and never see the part they put in movies"..

but the misfits is one of those parts..

anyway..

to put yous all out of your misery..

and save us all a lot of time..

here is a link to that stuff..

https://www.saatchiart.com/art-collection/photography/Darkroom/31203/654915/view

50 YEARS ON

FOUNDATION 1971-2

 

 

 

steve willets..

 

told us at our first fine art seminar..

 

that painting was dead..

 

and that the thing we should be looking at was..

 

 

CONTROL  

 

 

which was his thing at the time..

 

and he had a magazine that he published under that name..

 

I listened to what he was saying..

 

stuff about cybernetics and message boards..

 

information exchange..

 

I think now he was into an internet kind of idea..

 

but had not a clue of what it was..

 

or how I could use it..

so after a while I tuned out..

and went to do some screen printing..

 

BRUCE DAVIDSON

 

 

I was taken with an image of Bruce's..

 

from his 'east 100th st'

 

it was the little girl..

 

behind the net curtain..

 

at home alone?

 

in a slum tenement..

 

in harlem..

 

new york..

 

I had a haltone screen made of this image..

 

and proceeded to make screen prints of it..

 

someone had spilled filler..

 

over my screen..

 

but I printed it anyway..

 

on both sides of the paper..

 

then cut shapes..

 

and folded back the flaps..

 

overprinted them..

 

some folded over, some not.. 

I shot these with my old zenith B..

3.5 lens..

just thought I would share them with you..

 

today..

50 years on

see my movie here

TOTO CHECKS IN

this is toto

 

in is his squirrel watch chair

 

but today  he is directing photography

he was named at the pound..

we rescued him

 

and he rescued us

 

we are re-shooting

 

SUBURBAN SAFARI

 

which I first shot in 1976

 

  

 

shot with my zenih B, f3.5 lens on kodachrome

 

all my safari stuff here

 

 

  

this one is digital and much later

the elephants were first seen roaming across my grandmother's sideboard

 

when I was three

 

1955

 

 

 

A TALE OF TWO INTERIORS

INTERIOR II
richard hamilton 1964


my friend alan..

had arranged with his art teacher..

for me to go along with them..

on their outing to london in 1969

we were off to see the magritte retrospective at the tate..

whilst there we came across..

the most exiting painting I have ever seen..

I was 17 so maybe not surprising..

when you get to see them in the flesh..

so to speak..





yes it's that room again..

we are back in harlem..

or somewhere the same..

this time the girl is a film star..

patricia knight..

and the room has had a make over..

but the tv is still there..


at 17..

it's the superb technical skill of richard hamilton..

that has blown the mind..

the chair seat is actually stainless steel and plastic..

the stem is a halftone screen print stuck on..

patricia is from a still that had been..

thrown into a waste bin..


EAST 100TH STREET




bruce davidson 1966

a single figure..

a window instead of an archway..

got the tv though..

compare and contrast these two interiors..

can you see why I was entranced?

love that clock and that fan..

fans really get to me as well..


SOMETIME LATER ALAN WROTE THIS


in charles stuart's paintings..

people are always drawn in boldly..

they are central to the pictures he shows us..

but always they are caught in the mists of paint..

trapped between patterns of brushmarks and scrubbed washes..


AND THIS


we can trace the memories of comic books..

half-remembered images from magazines..

the history of the painter's gesture..

the solitary immobile figure is captured frozen in a moment..

we pick up the clues and continue the story..

alan smith june 1979

VENETIAN BLIND

yo!.. kraven the hunter... innit!

steve ditko..

the greatest spidey artist ever..

gave me this..

venetian blinds and their shadows..

on the right is cap in the shadows of the blind..


here are some recent blinds..



blind leading the blind?

or..

teepees on the big horn riverside?



toto watching squirrels..



suburban safari..

toto nodding off..

moonbeams..

eclipse..

IN CAMERA WITH THE MISFITS

yo!.. all in the mind... innit!

something other today..

our sourdough bakery is closed..

so no wholemeal sourdough bread..

for a week..

lock me down and beat me up....


IN MY MIND I STILL NEED A PLACE TO GO


in palookaville..

there is an 'art' gallery..

they do not show paintings much..

so what's new?

anyway..

I am standing just inside the door to one of the gallery spaces..

it is pitch black dark..

they have created this box room thing..

to prevent light entering into an exhibition of some sort..


    WHEN THE DOOR OPENS


so in effect I am inside a camera..

like a camera obscura..

sort of..


I have my compact camera on a very slow shutter speed..

when door (aperture) opens..

ok..

so you get the idea..

and I'm happy enough..

for a while..


BEYOND THE OUTSIDER


in the dark I am invisible..

and beyond the life around me..

I can observe but I am not involved..

I don't belong..

I am alone..


SOMEWHERE IN MY MIND THERE IS A PAINTING BOX

And somewhere in my mind there is a painting box
I have every color there, it's true
Just lately when I look inside my painting box
I seem to pick the colors of you

I wear my body like a caravan
Gipsy rover in a magic land..

we are in my head..

this is an interior view..

imagination and memory..

a love affair with fantasy..

an imitation of life..

happy birthday mr. president..

I MUST GO DOWN TO THE SEA AGAIN

THE LONELY SEA AND THE SKY

I must go down to the sea again..

the lonely sea and the sky..

I've left my shoes and socks there..

I'm seeing if they're dry..


I have always loved the sea, coast, boats, beach..

you can see it in the paintings..


and here at the beach..

EAST 100TH STREET

yo!.. my back pages... innit!

SOMETIME DURING ETERNITY

so one day these ace photos show up..

in the 'sunday times magazine'..

and this one in particular..

becomes part of my life..

DRIVE ME TO HARLEM OR SOMEWHERE THE SAME

Bruce Davidson

 USA. 1966-1968. East 100th Street.

 

I used this pic to create new work..

while on the foundation course for dip. AD..

as it was then in 1971..

I made a halftone screen print..

and over printed it..

and cut flaps in it..

and created this..

I never called bruce..

never tried to get in touch..

that's not my way..

today..

this image still influences my work..

 

figures in a souk