Natania's Art: 2011

Tuesday, 17 May 2011

Set of Seven Images submitted for my Post Graduate Diploma Option (Printmaking MA)

Size of each work displayed aprrox 42 x 55 cms printed on matte digital art paper.
Archival digital artwork.

All works displayed here © Natania Thomas 2011. All rights reserved.

After a very experimental first semester and enjoying using lots of different printing media and techniques, I realised I had to buckle down and create a body of work for my "Final Outcomes". Initially attracted by the diversionary poetry of Baudelaire, my interests developed into the WWII era. The escapism of popular art and culture, in stark contrast to the horrors of conflict particularly drew me. My work began to be more about the “truth” behind the whimsy, as I saw it. I began to question the beaming and wholesome optimism of wartime posters in my work. This might involve taking a morale boosting picture of ideal family life and altering it, slightly – to allude, if obliquely, to the reality of war and depths of human depravity.

As musician, (something I still wanted to reference in my work) I found the popular and iconic “Schirmer’s Classical Music” books proved an ideal vehicle for carrying images on my work. Initially, I created mock covers with my altered images but eventually, the images began to take on a life of their own, especially when working at my preferred larger format. Finally, I opted simply for the “song” titles with the image below them. I retained the recognisable and decorative border and box for the text however, which would still convey the association of music and song.

Below is an image of the original song music that I altered and finally transmuted into my final, larger images, above.

Monday, 16 May 2011

"Evanion" Collection Work "Harlequinade"

This is a large AO digital print incorporating my own hand-drawn harlequins and archival material from the "Evanion Collection of Ephemera" (stored at the British Library). The printing is all digital done on matte digital art paper. The BL partly sponsored a recent event at the Mumford Theatre, a performance of "Professor Vanessa's Performing Wonders" which included such intriguing artistes as "Miss Behave", (Sword swallowing), a fire eater and illusionist. This also included original footage from films taken from the period of the "Evanion Collection" from the late 1880s to 1918. Several Printmakers, Fine Artists and other CSA members were invited to create their own "takes" on the archive. We travelled down to the British Library in London (for which were funded) and worked on a variety of submissions. This one is mine which is also still on view in the corridor space just adjacent to the Ruskin Gallery.