John Lacey » Artworks

Painting Rage (Digitally Enhanced)

John Lacey — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 03:34:23 +0000

I’m going to level with you – I’m not really in the mood. Not really in a mood to do much of anything if I am being completely honest. But that doesn’t matter. I mean I wasn’t ‘in the mood’ (that elusive state) when I created the painting I present here. Infact this particular artwork was created precisely because I was in a horrible mood. I’m revisiting it today to show you what I did with it subsequently.

After I created this painting I really wanted to put myself in it. After all, I figured, whose rage was this exactly? So I edited myself into the photograph of the painting. Let’s call it mixed media…

I muse over this connection between art and emotion. Art makes us feel, but it can also embody how we (as artists) feel. Sometimes this can represent a long standing emotional response, other times it can be just a stolen moment. The video aboves shows this painting being created in real time. Ordinarily I am not this fluid. Ordinarily I obsess over every little detail. But I was so caught up in how I was feeling that I acted very differently. It was oddly empowering.

Mixed Media: Head Turned

John Lacey — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 06:08:48 +0000

Following my recent experiments with pen sketches, comes this image. It is a combination of pen and paper and digital tweaking with a graphics tablet. A very simple image but one I enjoyed creating.

[Click on image to open in new tab/window]

Sketch: Blake

John Lacey — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:17:41 +0000

I’m always talking about creativity and what I’m working on. I’ve been using my burgeoning interest in the visual arts to illustrate some of those creative sticking points. The result of this is that people keep asking to see what I’m working on. Ordinarily I’m quite ‘gung ho’ about sharing whatever I’m working on (online) but when it came to painting I was really apprehensive about doing this.

When I’m feeling really anxious about starting a new painting – and this happens all the time – one thing I find that helps is to start with a sketch. It seemed sort of fitting then for the first art I share on this site to be a sketch.

This dashing young man is a friend of mine, Blake. I think it’s a good likeness, though perhaps not a great one. The nose is kind of wrong. But mostly I just wanted to embody the infectious smile that appears in the photograph on which this is based. I’m not sure I’ve reached that mark either, but of course I’m a beginner and everyone has to start somewhere.

The thing I realised doing this sketch was how the smallest little lines can completely change a person’s expression. You hear a lot about “laugh lines” on infomercials for beauty products (the general consesus in that context is that they should all be botoxed away). But it’s amazing how really very subtle things completely change how we might read a face.

What Is Art Anyway?

John Lacey — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:24:07 +0000

In Memory Tree, a documentary about the life and art of Australian artist David Boyd, there is a great exchange between Boyd and fellow artist John Coburn.

John Coburn: What is art? What is it all about? That thing that’s in you and it’s got to come out.

David Boyd: If it doesn’t come out it will blow you up… [Both laugh]

John Coburn: Yeah.

Rod Pattenden, Chairman of The Blake Society, talked to David Rutledge on Encounter about The Blake Prize (Australia’s largest religious art prize):

The Blake Prize represents a territory; it’s a place, or an opportunity, where religion and art come together. So anyone who starts to criticise the Blake in that it’s this, or that, really has to come up against the question: what is religion, after all? And what is art, after all? They’re both speculative areas of cultural life, they’re both going to push the boundaries, by their very nature they’re going to annoy people.

Richard Gill, music director of the Victorian Opera, speaking on Artworks:

I would define art the same way that the author John Carey defines art. And he defines art by saying, ‘A work of art is anything that its maker believes it to be. So if the maker believes it to be a work of art, it is a work of art.’ And I think that’s a really good definition, because it admits everything. What it doesn’t admit to is quality. But I think starting with the idea of ‘this is a work of art’ is actually very encouraging. And so I take that to mean John Carey’s definition to be, for example let’s go to one of my pet hobby horses, music education, where we make music with children. And if a child comes up and says, ‘I think I’ve made an art work. I’ve composed a piece.’ You can say, ‘Yes, indeed you have. Now let’s listen to this piece and what are the differences between your piece and this piece.’ And it may be Bach or Beethoven or Schoenberg or Schubert or anyone. But then you’ve got to weigh in, to say, ‘Okay, so your work of art is like this; Mozart’s work of art is like this. Where are the differences? What do we do next?’

So rather than saying, ‘No, you haven’t made an art work…’ Then you’re telling the child, one, you can’t define art; or you do define art but you don’t really want to tell the child what it is. Whereas you agree, yes it is, you’ve got a starting point.

So in short art is whatever the artist says it is, if not dealt with it is likely cause considerable harm to the artist and it is, by it’s very nature, annoying. You know this definition really works for me…

Nina Simone: It’s Not My Problem Where It Touches Them

John Lacey — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 06:20:24 +0000

As artists we can’t be responsible for how other people respond to our works.

Nina Simone:

I’m quite pleased. At least they hear the song. They hear it. And it touches them some place. Now it’s not my problem where it touches them… but I am pleased that it touches them.

This quotation is taken from an interview included as part of Nina Simone’s Protest Anthology.

John Lacey » Artworks

Painting Rage (Digitally Enhanced)

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Mixed Media: Head Turned

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Sketch: Blake

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What Is Art Anyway?

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Nina Simone: It’s Not My Problem Where It Touches Them

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