On The Shelf: Sculpture or Ornament?
My grandmother ran a boarding house next door to the town police station. Her lodgers were mainly policemen, other working men just starting out in life, and the occasional travelling salesman. Lining the walls of her dark, linoleum-floored passage were a series of child-sized girl figures holding charity collection boxes labelled: ‘The Blind’, ‘Action for […]
Reflections on Life Drawing III: Naked or Nude?
While washing my hands in the model’s makeshift “changing room” (really just the toilet), she walked in and started getting dressed. I quickly apologised, saying I’d be out in a moment. Just as she was about to step into her polka-dot knickers, she burst out laughing: “I always find it funny when artists apologise for […]
‘Mark Making’: Art-world Jargon?
I’m with a group of artists looking at a piece of poor-quality artwork that is being critiqued. Someone adds their penn’orth, commenting enthusiastically on the “mark making.” I sigh inwardly – here we go again. This is a classic example of baffling art-speak, used by the sometimes clueless to sound knowledgeable. It’s a phrase I […]