Port Waikato Open Studio Art Trail - Port Report Article
Poster design by artist and designer GRACE THRESHER
Port Waikato is brimming with creatives. We are a group of local artists who are opening our studios in order to share our working lives as artists with the wider community. We’re encouraging people to come and see the mahi behind the scenes, to experience big messy studios or more focused and ordered ones. To see the tools we use and the materials in their raw state, and to talk with the artists about the physical reality of making, and the creative and intellectual drive behind working in an artistic field. Come and pick up a lump of clay and squash it through your fingers, look behind the canvas to its construction at the back, smudge a giant stick of willow charcoal across the paper, come and have a go! Why do painters build up layers upon layers of colour on their canvases? Why does a ceramicist mix black sand into their clay? What makes an artisan scour the beach after a storm - what are they looking for?
To introduce some of the creatives involved, and to give some insight into their art practice, we shared a few questions - here are their responses!
ROBIN RANGA - WindSong Studio
Q. How much weight does the provenance of the materials you use have in your work? Or are the materials hijacked to suit your purpose and are independent of their traditional uses.
A. Clay is but one medium I use to create ‘marks’. Using our Earth as a 3d paint brush concepts/context are (pardon the pun) grounded in this, as I sculpt organic form I pay homage to our environment. Humble clay’s characteristics I consider are metaphors aligned to ourselves: organic, malleable, fragile but strong when fired and tested and therefore my chosen tactile material to explore and propose universal compassionate issues that matter to me.
Q. In the act of making - how much do you attribute to your hand, your heart, your mind?
A. My heart feels, my mind thinks and my hands do the talking: as I strive to portray the essence of my concept. Shape and form evolve like sediment as my fingers instinctively listen from within… I may have an idea percolating for months before it reaches my fingertips.
CARIN NICOLA - Black Batch Ceramics
Q. What role does negative space play in your work?
A. “Negative space” is integral to my work on so many levels. From creating the space within a piece in which to fill with food or fluid or nothingness, to leaving an area of clay unglazed so as to create a more tactile and contrasting surface, to the tension created between the lines of decoration; where there is something, and where there is not, this ephemeral space between, this is the construct I strive for and seek within my practice.
Q. How do you know when a work is finished?
A. Once the pieces come out of the kiln after the glaze firing they are considered “finished” but each piece is part of the collection, and this collection continually evolves and changes, growing or decreasing to accommodate new ideas and ideals.
TERESA RODGERS - Pampas and Pine Gallery
Q. How much weight does the provenance of the materials you use have in your work? Or are the materials hijacked to suit your purpose and are independent of their traditional uses?
A. The materials I use are often salvaged from shorelines, curb-side or even rubbish tips. I would say they are somewhat hijacked for purpose but also dragged home and stored until I’m inspired to create something. I can often be found rifling through piles of salvaged timber to find just the right pieces for a particular creation.
Q. How is the idea of community important to your art practice, and your working life as an artist?
A. I see the community as a huge part of what I do. I’d say I collect things FROM our community, FOR our community. My intention is always to keep things affordable for everyone. If you have $10 in your pocket, you will find something at Pampas and Pine.
JANA WOOD
Q. Looking at the process as the action you submit the material to (is the paint thrown, washed, layered, is the clay modeled, cast, thrown, etc.) – what meaning do the processes you use bring to the work, or to what extent is the process a meaning in itself?
A. My process has developed from observation of environments that surround me, and I’ve developed an “Emergent” way of painting, that involves layering, scratching, rubbing, using a brush, using sticks, and it feels organic in that it develops much like an ecosystem might, I never really know how a work will turn out, I let it happen slowly over time, there is a lot of time in between layers looking and contemplating. It is becoming more and more contemplative.
Q. How does mātauranga Māori inform your world view, and/or your sense of place as it relates to your practice?
A. More and more, as I made contact with my iwi about 10 years ago, and have decided to start researching more about the symbolic and the philosophy of Māoritanga, so yes watch this space, some new developments may be happening. My ancestors Tainui are obviously all around me, and I feel it living here.
MARGARET FEENEY
Q. Do you tend to have a formal research process or is your research more impetuous?
A. Once an idea has reached a degree of coherence in my mind I’ll pull it out into the material world and test it with some drawing and maybe some rough 3D explorations. The idea will then move back and forth, between thoughts and a physical expression in the studio, until it settles on a medium and a form it might want to occupy.
Q. What strategies do you use to work through artists' block?
A. Artists’ block is just a bleak terrain that has to be endured periodically. You can try to stumble around looking for the exit, but I’m not sure if that affects the duration. But if you can work through it, you’ll have some ground to stand on when the block eventually dissolves around you.
GRACE THRESHER
Q. What proportion of instinct and conscious decision making goes into your engagement with the palette of your work.
A. My chosen paint palettes often fall within a similar colour spectrum. I am generally drawn to pastels, light and warm tones. However, this isn’t always an entirely conscious decision. I contribute most of the process to instinct and a smaller part to conscious decision. The conscious decision making around palette is usually so that pieces in a series of work have similar colours tied in at some level. Thus linking them together. Rather than a stand-alone artwork, which doesn’t need to be consistent.
Q. How do you know when a work is finished?
A. I often struggle with this, but once I feel a work is completed or close to completion, I take a step back and revisit it later with fresh eyes. I am confident a work is finished when it feels energetically complete, and my vision has been captured. Once I feel it’s done, I sign the work. If signing the piece comes naturally and doesn’t feel awkward or uncomfortable, then I know it is finished. There is also the issue of over-doing or overworking a piece and not being able to backtrack, which I try to avoid. As undoing mistakes entirely is much more difficult than adding more.
Come and learn more at the open studios.
@robin.ranga @blackbatchceramics @pampas_and_pine @janawoodstudio @m._.feeney @waituhi_collective @gracethresher @nippies_edibleart_
Coffee, food & refreshments will be available around the port.
THE PORT WAIKATO OPEN STUDIO ART TRAIL will be held over the weekend of Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th November 2022 from 10am - 4pm