Face the drama

27 February 202123 January 2022 by Theo

What will you face today?

Choose your drama: Tragic Comedy or Comedic Tragedy

Face the Drama – Tragedy, acrylic on wooden disc

Face the Drama – Comedy, acrylic on wooden disc

At the Ashburton Society of the Arts’ Monday Art and Craft group, we each received a wooden disc and were challenged to create something with the theme of faces. Above is my contribution, based on ancient theatre masks, with the faces painted on each face of the disc and “Choose your drama: Tragic Comedy or Comedic Tragedy” written, with my signature, on the edge.

This artwork is also practical. For those who struggle with procrastination, it doubles as a huge coin when you need help deciding how to face the drama of the day. Will your day be tragic or comedic or both?

This painting is currently in the exhibition at the Ashburton Society of the Arts‘ Summer Exhibition (21 Feb – 21 March 2021).

Clairmont, inspired by Clairmont’s The Chair

27 January 20215 June 2023 by Theo

The Ashburton Art Gallery currently has an exhibit of Mount Hutt College Year 10 Students’ work inspired by The Chair by Philip Clairmont. We went to the opening of this exhibit and it was fascinating see the work and to hear how the students had developed the work.

The gallery has the original of The Chair also on display and is running an activity for the public to submit their own artwork inspired by The Chair. Below is my submission based on Clairmont’s work and the Clairmont Swivel/Rocker Chair by Kincaid Furniture Company, Inc.

Clairmont, Fineliner pen on card, 147x210mm

This is not a banana

13 May 202013 May 2020 by Theo

Like René Magritte’s The treachery of images (This is not a pipe), this is also not a pipe. But it is not a banana. It is a digital photograph of a pencil sketch of a duct tape sculpture of a banana.

This is not a banana either

It is a digital photograph of a colored pencil sketch of a print of a photograph of a banana.

Duct tape banana

13 December 20193 January 2020 by Theo

In response to media surrounding Maurizio Cattelan’s work, “Comedian”, I have created this expression of a banana. Some media reports are incorrectly labelling Maurizio’s work as a duct tape banana when, in fact, it should be labelled duct taped banana.

My work is fastened to the wall with “blu tack”, some of which is not blue.

Is it duct tape or duck tape? This yellow tape is similar in color to that of a yellow rubber duckie. The tape used in this sculpture is branded Politape was purchased from a “dollar” store.

The banana that served as the model was also purchased from a discount store. The banana used in the production of this sculpture was later unknowingly eaten by my son.

Taking The Mickey

15 March 20181 April 2020 by Theo

Theo does quite a bit of “Taking The Mickey” in his art.

Here he takes the mickey out of Andy Warhol’s, 1981, Quadrant Mickey Mouse/Myths.

The Collins English Dictionary has these definitions:

take the mickey in British
or take the mickey out of someone
informal
to tease someone

take the mickey in American
to make fun; mock

The Urban Dictionary has this definition:

Taking the mickey
Joking, doing something without intent.
Making fun of someone or something.
A less offensive way of saying taking the piss.

Virgin and Child #1

12 August 20161 January 2020 by Theo

Inspired by Ron Tekawa’s Madonna and Child (1990) and various historical images of the Virgin and Child.

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Vitruvian Stained (“Lumo” Vitruviano)

22 January 201612 February 2020 by Theo

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, a pioneer of the hospice care movement, said

‘People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.’

Vitruvian Stained (“Lumo” Vitruviano) — An imagination of Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man as a stained glass image

Ten to talk about in hushed tones

26 March 201512 August 2019 by Theo

Featuring rectangles from the following works:
Mona Lisa (Leonardo da Vinci, 1517)
The Scream (Edvard Munch, 1893)
The Starry Night (Vincent van Gogh, 1889)
The Last Supper (Leonardo da Vinci, 1498)
Girl with a Pearl Earring (Johannes Vermeer, 1665)
The Creation of Adam (Michelangelo, 1512)
The Persistence of Memory (Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1931)
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (Georges Seurat, 1886)
The Great Wave off Kanagawa (Hokusai, 1832)
Guernica (Pablo Picasso, 1937)

Shop open

21 February 201528 September 2019 by Theo

Prints of 40 Most Mentioned are now available from our Society6 shop in various formats including framed and canvas prints, stationery cards, and phone/tablet/laptop skins.

Making of 40 Most Mentioned

15 February 201512 February 2020 by Theo

Acquiring the 40 famous paintings for 40 Most Mentioned was the hard part. Slicing and splicing was simple.

Creation of 40 Most Mentioned - Son of Man — *Creation of 40 Most Mentioned – Son of Man*, digital image

Creation of 40 Most Mentioned – Mona Lisa is based on Visitors of Louvre in front of Mona Lisa by Edal Anton Lefterov, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mona-lisa_in_the_Louvre.jpg, and is likewise licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Disclaimer: No physical paintings were harmed in the production of 40 Most Mentioned. The Mona Lisa was intact when I visited the Louvre in July 2013. If any of the paintings have been stolen or damaged, it wasn’t me.