Thursday Thoughts...

Your art has to come out of your daily life. I really believe that if anyone is born an artist they've only got to look at what's round their feet and what's available to them. They don't have to be clever, they don't have to go to art school, they don't have to get the exotic stuff - make it with what's there. People think art's like you strike it lucky and you're famous tomorrow, but it isn't like that, it's a search for honesty on your own terms.  The journey to self-recognition took me decades.
Rosalie Gascoigne

Rosalie remains a bit of a hero to me - her honesty and down to earth approach to the world of art continues to inspire me . The fact that she never went to art school and her acknowledgement of how long it took her to find her voice and tell her own unique story encourages me.


This quote is very descriptive of the sort of work she made - by looking and scrounging and investigating the country around her, she found pieces that she could put together and make beautiful. 


It's the last part that really sings for me though - 'a search for honesty on your own terms'. I keep returning to this theme, and this quest to ensure I am making my own work and creating my own treasures. The more I do, the more I work each day on my art, the more I realise I have a well within me, of untapped and yet to be explored ideas and directions.  

Rosalie Gascoigne, White Garden 1995

Thursday Thoughts...

The artist makes works that move out into the world. When the work is relinquished, it should speak for itself. As its audience, you are on your own.
Rosalie Gascoigne

Rosalie Gascoigne would have to be one of my all time favourites... not only did she make beautiful work that responded evocatively and sublimely to her environment; she is an inspiration to all those who come to making and creating art later in life.

She was also a lover of words, and the titles of her works were always quirky, poignant and perfectly pitched. I liked that she spent time making sure the piece went out into the world with the right name.
In doing so I think she actually helped the viewer more than this quote would suggest.  Her titles give clues to her thinking or inspiration (or at least I always read them as clues).

Nonetheless, I think she is right about how a piece has to make it on its own; without the creator there explaining every concept, thought, or inspiration behind it; the work has to tell a story and the viewer has to make sense of it all - through the filters of their own experience and appreciations. A title can allude to the sense of a piece or offer a way in... but the rest is up to the viewer.

Sweet Sorrow by Rosalie Gascoigne, 1990, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth

Abstract calligraphic art - Rosalie

I think I'm about to go on a bit of a wander and try to pull together some thoughts and images on what I think about as abstract calligraphic art - art that uses words, letters, text as a base or a key element; yet is not proper calligraphy.  This has been gnawing at me for a while so I figure I need to explore it.

I came across some images of Rosalie Gascoigne's work in the newspaper today and they reminded me how much I respond to her works. The ones that use text, provided the initial way into her work for me. I am seriously enamoured of most of her work now; but the letters and the texts drew me in first.

Using broken up script from road signs or crates, these pieces nearly always hint, tempting the viewer to try to read the words and make some sort of literary sense of the work, providing clues only, not an answer. Rosalie loved language, poetry and writing and her works reflect this. She also had a wonderful eye for balance and patterns, producing harmonious pieces.

A number of pieces from different exhibitions can be found here.

Text, 1992

Sweet Lovers, 1990