sept artists notes

'Fire and Eurhythmy'

More about the exhibiting artists:

Nagachoo – lives and works in Chiba, Japan.

He has a wide portfolio within performance Art and ‘happening’, involving dancing, painting or Calligraphy at huge scale, etc.
Also, he excells in creating works by combining the old and the new techniques such as: pyrography (a wood burning technique using a specific tool) and oil painting creating unique abstract artworks with a Japanese spirit.
His approach to performance is truly original through a combination of traditional folk based elements and contemporary art ideas and contexts. Has widely been exhibiting and performing and being awarded a few prestigious awards.
Nagachoo started to explore his dance ever since he was shocked to watch Antonio Gades’ film, “Carmen” to find such a unique way of dance. He unconsciously aware of Budo (marshal arts) essence, naturally built-in to his dance style. He finds happiness in re-discovering himself in different movement

”Since the theme of this exhibition is “Fire”, I aimed to incorporate energy, passion and vigorous elements into this subject matter. Pyrography pieces are “RETSU” series, which means “vigorousity or intensity”.
By combining the forms created accidentally and intentionally, I aimed to express them in more instinctive and energetic manner.
…works were drawn being conscious of the ideas of "a chunk", solid
object. I believe a chunk appears to be the core of the planet earth and also
human deeds.”

You can view below images and movie recorded during the Fire &Eurhythmy Private View, 29th September 2006, at Ikonography Gallery, Liverpool.

Mieko is a very talented Japanese glass artist who despite the fact that uses traditional methods of glass making, creates so called ‘Cosmic glass’ series, which I found very impressive as they appear to be some glass encapsulated Universal energies or forces, volcanic eruptions or silent universal sky landscapes and link well to the topic of Fire and Eurhythmy, through the fire element, that shapes them and that artistic ritual that allows them to be.

For this exhibition Mieko is inspired by the "Makura no soshi" (The Pillow Book), one of the classic
masterpiece essay written at the end of the 10th centry by Seisho Nagon, female classic Japanese writer.

Mieko's new work will be featuring the colours of the season - Autumn, mostly inspired by the red sunset in the autumn time.

"The theme is about the mind landscape but when I saw the photos
of the beautiful bay windows in the gallery, it inspired me to create
an actual landscape of the room with the view. Red vases are inspired
by the sunset sky on the waterfront and I would like to decorate local
red-ish plants (preferably red wildflowers) in them.
The Chinese character for "red" combined by the letter "big" and "fire",
therefore it seems the colour of red is symbolic to the fire theme.

”Fire Window” represents furnace where alchemy is practiced and I
created the work called "Children of the Sun".

”Autumn Window” is the actual view from his (alchemist) window. The vases were
made with inspiration of the evening glow (the sky the alchemist sees
through the window), which is linked indirectly to the fire context through
the colour of the sun.

I wanted to create contrasts between two different windows next to each
other by showing the alchemist's fantasy world, devoting himself in the
day-to-day experiments and the real world - the scenery of the season.”

“Makura no soshi" (The Pillow Book) is one of the classic
masterpiece essay written by a female writer, Seisho Nagon
at end of the 10th century. My work is featuring the colours of the season - autumn,
mostly inspired by the red sunset in the autumn time. “

This series of work is created and based on the concept of Alchemy's Landscape.
Represents the voice of the universe that intertwines the world of micro and macro.
The contrasting world of Yin and Yang, reality and unreality, mind- scape and the
view in the real life are blending into a form.

Fire is an indispensable element in the production process of glass. Day after day, a glass artist faces the forms and shapes that are created out from the flame. So as for an alchemist, fire in the furnace and the sparkles in his/her mind are also essential.

Sarah Nicholson is a practising Fine Artist based in Northwest England. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in 1997 and added MA from the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design in 2004.
For ten years Sarah has created drawings of the industrial landscape, using snatched glimpses from trains or cars to make thumbnail sketches, which are then worked up into large scale pastel drawings. The work is bold and bright – celebrating this country’s’ industrial heritage and the many people who work in it. She has exhibited and sold her pastel works widely in this country and her work is represented in private, corporate and university collections. She hopes to move her work on into Europe and the USA in the near future.
Having spent three years making large installations for her BA (Hons) in Fine Art, Sarah found herself without the luxury of a studio or even a domestic space large enough to work. She therefore returned to paper to create a range of works inspired by her travels around the country, under the title “Visionary Industry”, indulging herself in the aesthetic qualities of the industrial landscape without the constraints of academic theory to justify her pleasure.
However, inevitably, the more you do something the more you think about it, and Nicholson found herself gradually discovering the theoretical ground behind the images, uncovering relations to the tradition of the Visionary Landscape as propounded by Samuel Palmer in the 1800’s and more recently by artists such as Prunella Clough and David Blackburn.
“ My interest in the industrial landscape started in 1994 when I was inspired to visit and record Parkside Colliery in the final days before its demolition. The energy of the people I met there seemed to also reside in the buildings and I have found myself recognizing this energy in other industrial sites.
The vivid pigment of the pastels, applied in raw line or mixed in layers on the paper present the industrial landscape as both bold and fragile, reminding us of how brief but impacting their history is in relation to the environment and to our modern lives. These ubiquitous buildings are often almost invisible to us, or viewed as an eyesore, yet their impression on our lives is everywhere.”
It was with great pleasure that Sarah was able to take up studios at Norton Priory Museum and Gardens: having visited the site as a child the memory of the archeological processes she witnessed have made a deep impression upon her and her practice. Trying to make large-scale installations without a dedicated space had been extremely difficult and limiting; the new space signaled a burst of new works and gave Sarah the added impetus to pursue her MA. It also enabled the development of new pastel works and new links with the local industry that so inspired her.

Domestic Magic
Media: handmade paper, photographic image, glass, copper wire, gold powder
“ As a child I spent hours with my grandmother in the kitchen making apple pies and fairy cakes. In this precious time she would tell me stories about her life and I would tell her mine. This exchange of knowledge contained its own rhythm and energy.”

La plume de ma tante
Media: two hand-made boxes, wax, found pen nibs and box copper wire, gold powder

“ When my Great-Aunt Edith passed away we discovered a box full of old dip-pen nibs. As she was one of the first female head mistresses in Liverpool I found these objects poignant and wished to create a small shrine to the influence her letters must have had on many lives.”

"Nicholson inscribes tablets with memories dreams and desires. The way the language is strung together pays homage to the female literary tradition, especially ‘train-of-thought’ and places a feminine history and idea in the annals of history; like epitaphs to be re-read throughout history." (Sarah Gibson, Curator)

Based in Liverpool, actively creative. He surprises with his potential of transforming recycled materials into authentic works. Has been accepted to participate to few of the Open Art Competitions; most recently to the Kitchen Open, organised by the Kitchen Gallery.

His work is diverse: intricate drawings, mixed media, painting and collage. He likes exploring with organic (sometimes edible) and recycled materials. For this show Richard, will exhibit a new cycle of drawings and mixed media, focusing on the topic.

"In relation to my work I have for a long time been attracted to the idea that art does not have to be about an object, but work can in itself be the object, and does not have to be artificial of anything…. The work is what it is.
In relation to these ideas I have chiefly been interested in surfaces, textures, lines, depth and shapes etc.
When sometimes I do form figurative or part figurative or symbolic images it is usually to give purpose to my lines, forms, textures, surfaces, reflected light, etc.
Not that they need any meaning; they can hold their own power and beauty.
I do it because I choose to do it." (R.A.)

“The drawings are to be seen, and are symbols to internal happenings
But the drawings are private. And I don’t wish to explain them and don’t wish to add any more to the heaped up piles of explanations, connotations, meanings of art.
To explain the drawings would only sound long winded and pretentious added to a mass of other babbling explanations in the world and nonsense. Perhaps only to help magnify, glorify, vainly the art and the artist. Adding to an already heaped high mass of other babblers babbling out their clever, poetic explanations.
There is no reason for more ceremony of meanings and explanation.”
IS it not enough that these small dabbles of mine (The drawings) can defend them self’s?”

Illumination 1, 2
Matches, glue adhesive and acrylic paint on wood-board
2ftx2ft

“Realism - These burnt constructions are not illusions to anything, but are only the illuminations of them self’s. The idea that the individual who may read something in to the works, for example a person may see a face in a cloud, or the cloud may reflect past times are only his instinctive, automatics, of himself to him self, and are not Allegorical to any of the persons ideas.
They are made instinctively automatically from my self. I try to deal with realism in these pieces.
Some painter might say he creates paint marks to create the illusions of real objects, as seen with the naked eye, and another painter will say that the reality of the paint marks give illumination of its self…
Or illumination to feeling or composition it’s self.
IT’ S a notion its self that I’ve looked at and thought about, an art form that should be self existent, that the marks the materials, in relation to my own feelings knowledge, are real existences combining the creative process with the feeling, with what I am and know.
That is applying my own existence with that to the existence of the material.”

“I do believe in ‘illumination’.
It is these combinations such as facts and feelings that make the finished object an illumination of its’ self.
And illuminating our own feelings in the way a written story would illuminate feelings, facts truths in us, or music.
Illumination = the conception of mind and the material world around us, embodied in the created object. Illusion to nothing but illumination of man in relation to Nature, facts, material etc..
I found a quote in one of my books, which I think relates well; from DSUANG DSI:
“ The natures of the material and the man must be united before a real work of art can be created.”(R.A.)

Based in Liverpool (of Welsh origins). She recently graduated in Painting from Liverpool John Moores University, and looking forward for her MA studies in October. Her work is highly impressive: canvas or painted surfaces transformed, deconstructed using Fire (using a gas burner). The works she produces are the results of a unique performance ritual, which I regard as therapeutic and Eurhythmic exercise that transforms surfaces and creates always new looks and expressions. To create her work she is using Canvas, Bin Liner, Resin and Blow Torch.

"I have been a fire performer for a number of years now. This past time has been a huge influence for my work. As a fire performer one understands both the destructive and dangerous qualities to the fire but also of the beauty it produces [in an environment as controlled as possible].
The piece shows how the effects of fire, though are initially destructive, develop into a creative force which leaves a visually interesting outcome."(E.H.)

Photographic artist, highly awarded for her photography; based in Huyton, Liverpool,
The principal subject for her work is the female form and the boundaries and constraints that faces. The process to creating the work is to mix the old with the new, combine traditional printing techniques with today's sophisticated photographic and digital print processes. This collaboration of old and new, together with the strong visual style of the images created, bring together an innovative and individual contemporary collection of work which reverberates traditions from past.
The finished artwork is encapsulated in acrylic or glass, which enhances the aesthetic beauty of each piece. Inspired by the exhibition topic, Sharon will exhibit the "Vessel of Confinement", photographic image encapasulated in acrylic.

“ I thought that this piece would fit into the theme of Fire and Eurythmy as this particular piece is a response to the lack of movement.” (S.M.)

"Fire&Eurhythmy"; Media: paraffin wax and mixed media on canvas; Approximate Dimensions: 60x60x4cm

Artist of Romanian-Hungarian origins. Lives and works in Liverpool.
Originally from Romania, Nicole has been based in Liverpool since 1998. She has exhibited widely both here and around Europe and has been awarded many accolades and scholarships. The artist has a background in ceramics and glass which is reflected in her approach to her two dimensional work. Her studies of Biology and Medicine have influenced her work and research and this can be seen in her predominant subjects of the natural structures of phenomena such as water and light and in subjects such as: Structures, Microcosms, Rhythm and Time flow.
‘My work is the result of imagination and study/research. Analysing individual inner resources and details from the Microcosmic scene, I approach various techniques and media such as graphic, painting, collage, ceramic, mixed media, photography and sometimes installation, to explore and communicate new visions. I intend to create an art which acts in many ways as healing therapy.’

" To me, self -healing and art are closely related, complementary.
I used wax, nails and other media to create a symbolic work that suggests energy content, burning and a living work. I have been working with wax since 1997 and always used it in combination with other media referring to self healing, to expressing thoughts, concerns and statements. I like the versatile properties of wax, the change of its properties, its translucency sometimes, its energy release and organic feeling…

An image of a symbolic ‘burning heart’, basically signifying a spiritual flame, love and living flame and also, detachment from the unwanted and from any burdening issues.

I had in mind and feeling, the childhood spirit and present day main concerns, relating to the idea of becoming a mother, which in my case is an ongoing burning flame, a constant thought, a present mature desire. Watching the flame burning was an attempt of release and calm, a focus of my thoughts.

The silence of thinking has its own sound inside our minds and diverse associative meanings.
Nails implemented in wax act similarly to alternative medicine healing, such as acupuncture therapy or, the effect of needle work and thought spinning that women were/ or are used to do. Movement comes within the repetitive sequences of ‘spinning’ the thought.
I intended to use the ‘fire’ and ‘eurhythmy’ terms as an obvious inner reflection of the mind and spirit and build a bridge between the two terms, determining healing and supportive thinking.

The linked terms ’fire’ and ‘eurhythmy’ were chosen with the intention of encouraging artists and myself to find interpretations and allow ourselves journeys of our own inner encounter, awareness of the subconscious thought, tendencies that grow from there, our dependence on energy expression and healing.” 2006 © Nicole Bartos

“Space and light are important concerns in the work, influenced by contemporary architecture and nature; I am trying to express a point at which the two meet. The translucency of porcelain contains light and space, form has connotations of retro design, while retaining organic qualities of the clay.
The purity of simple form is timeless, a life of space light and form, which has significance in some part of everyone’s life.”

As a practising artist I am naturally creative with an aesthetic sensibility influenced by contemporary architecture and organic material, being adaptable and hard working I enjoy problem solving, which has proved to be an advantage working two and three dimensionally with clay.

Walking my dog by the sea or in the countryside enables me to appreciate all the space and landscape, I am very independent, quiet, philosophical and determined to practice as an artist.

Metaphysical 3
Porcelain, fishing line and wire. Approx. ht 2mtrs, w 1mtr d 0.75 mtr.

Glass artist, based in St. Helens, Merseyside. Excels in creating 2D fused glass installations. Recently has been awarded 3rd Prize in the Open 2005 Art Competition for St Helens. His work is being exhibited in various galleries throughout the North West.

Red and orange squares represent the flame you would see when
lighting a piece of paper or a match.

Stripy panel represents the merging of the two types of flames.”

Fused glass and black acrylic panel
6 inches x 37 inches; back panel: 14 inches x 39 inches

“ The work represents the blackness of the aftermath of fire by trapping various
elements of everyday use in the glass.”

I have chosen to work with these artists because I got to know and appreciate their work. Younger and less exhibited or less known artists, who are coming from various professional backgrounds and who are working with various media, need to be encouraged to exhibit with more successful local artists and also with international artists. This way they get the chance to be rewarded for their works and creative concepts and hopefully will get there to networking and exchanging ideas, but most of all get confidence and reward.