The word ‘Reflection’ can mean many things, among these are sending back i.e. the return of light, heat, sound or energy from a surface; a sign or result of something; and serious or careful thought. I have explored many of these different meanings in my visual diary.
The Greek philosopher Plato saw all of life as a reflection - we are all in a cave with our back to the fire and the life we live is actually just a shadow of reality dancing on the walls. (https://www.collegeofidaho.edu/academics/general-information/c-i-honor-code/philosophy-code)
I loved seeing reflective surfaces - windows, metal, puddles, lakes, water. water became an area of main exploration because of the way the light reflected and refracted things. All my childhood …show more content…
There is no life without water" (http://thinkexist.com/quotation/water_is_life-s_mater_and_matrix-mother_and/152766.html)
The artist Jason de Caires Taylor did an installation project under the sea to encourage coral to grow on manmade forms. 400 cement people were planted on the ocean floor, see fig 5.
. His figures portray a symbiotic relationship or balance between human and nature. The underwater world is really magical and made me start to try to create scenes and people that seemed underwater and this is what led to my waterlike inkworks.
Another artist who conceptually influenced me was Jonty Hurwitz. He plays with distortion of reflections yet in reverse. His sculptures are distortions of reality, the appear to be amorphic objects - you can see the actual image when you look at the reflection in a cylindrical mirror. He uses computer analytics where he scans in his subject and then skews it by using mathematical formulas, see fig …show more content…
The arrogance and cruelty of my forefathers to the indigenous bushmen who owned the land. My great great grandfather whipped a bushman helper so badly that he was near death. He got his clan together and they placed a bushman curse on the Keeley bloodline- all males in the line would meet misfortune. This has proved true. My great grandfather committed suicide, his sons committed suicide, his brother was in a bad tractor accident. Many suffered from depression. The profitable Karoo farm is in ruin. This got me reflecting further on this bushman curse rippling down the decades. How life becomes death.
I spent hours going through all our old family photos, right from Afrikaans great great grandfathers in the voortrekker days and listening to both my grannies stories of their past. My one gran is a writer and I read some of her early notes on her childhood.
I played with elements of Bushmen writing and how this has become weaved into my history. I also explored using my face echoed in my ancestors, my face becoming bushman, me as my older self. I used the map of the Prieska farm area to draw over my explorations. This got me thinking about how life continues in cycles and how death and destruction is so much a part of it.
I also did lots of small sketches
The Greek philosopher Plato saw all of life as a reflection - we are all in a cave with our back to the fire and the life we live is actually just a shadow of reality dancing on the walls. (https://www.collegeofidaho.edu/academics/general-information/c-i-honor-code/philosophy-code)
I loved seeing reflective surfaces - windows, metal, puddles, lakes, water. water became an area of main exploration because of the way the light reflected and refracted things. All my childhood …show more content…
There is no life without water" (http://thinkexist.com/quotation/water_is_life-s_mater_and_matrix-mother_and/152766.html)
The artist Jason de Caires Taylor did an installation project under the sea to encourage coral to grow on manmade forms. 400 cement people were planted on the ocean floor, see fig 5.
. His figures portray a symbiotic relationship or balance between human and nature. The underwater world is really magical and made me start to try to create scenes and people that seemed underwater and this is what led to my waterlike inkworks.
Another artist who conceptually influenced me was Jonty Hurwitz. He plays with distortion of reflections yet in reverse. His sculptures are distortions of reality, the appear to be amorphic objects - you can see the actual image when you look at the reflection in a cylindrical mirror. He uses computer analytics where he scans in his subject and then skews it by using mathematical formulas, see fig …show more content…
The arrogance and cruelty of my forefathers to the indigenous bushmen who owned the land. My great great grandfather whipped a bushman helper so badly that he was near death. He got his clan together and they placed a bushman curse on the Keeley bloodline- all males in the line would meet misfortune. This has proved true. My great grandfather committed suicide, his sons committed suicide, his brother was in a bad tractor accident. Many suffered from depression. The profitable Karoo farm is in ruin. This got me reflecting further on this bushman curse rippling down the decades. How life becomes death.
I spent hours going through all our old family photos, right from Afrikaans great great grandfathers in the voortrekker days and listening to both my grannies stories of their past. My one gran is a writer and I read some of her early notes on her childhood.
I played with elements of Bushmen writing and how this has become weaved into my history. I also explored using my face echoed in my ancestors, my face becoming bushman, me as my older self. I used the map of the Prieska farm area to draw over my explorations. This got me thinking about how life continues in cycles and how death and destruction is so much a part of it.
I also did lots of small sketches