Looking to use an image of my artwork, in your next book, game, album, magazine cover, advertisement, film, prints and merchandise, then you’ll need to request a image license.
Australian requests click on the link above ^
International requests contact the artist directly info@outlook8studio.com
The first phase of Artaviso ‘s Door to Door project is now live! An evolving virtual exhibition that will culminate in a physical exhibition in November 2020 at No Vacancy Gallery in Melbourne.
Here’s the image of my entry showing the finished artwork followed by the page from Newnes’ Pictorial Knowledge 1950s Encyclopedia (edited by Enid Blyton) which, selected at random, formed the basis of the artwork.
Check out my a mixed media artwork, Iso Charging Machine here
Check out the virtual exhibition “Door to Door” exhibition here
For sales enquiries please contact Hayley at @novacancygallery info@no-vacancy.com.au
Iso Charging Machine. Jenny Davis Being ripped from our natural normal states, during unprecedented times, this machine collects our thoughts, ideas, emotions and turns them into ingots. A kind of sorting machine for making sense of thoughts and the human state. Using as a sorting machine we may then see the bigger picture.
Once filled, each ingot is ejected from the mould and left to simmer and collate. Upon settling, thoughts, ideas and emotions disperse into smaller sections. Once, we can identify and describe our own emotions, action, can then be taken, to sort, keep, or delete. Some gold, some less important.
A small selection of artworks available from my studio. To see the artworks below and more, please go to the Art section in the menu on the left.
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For postage outside of Australia please request a quote. Please contact me info@outlook8studio.com prior to purchase with your address and I will quote you the extra cost for shipping to your location.
It’s a chilly weekend in Melbourne, hope you are all keeping warm xox
Art and recycling goes hand-in-hand in the textile and mixed- media side of my arts practice.
My artworks are often
created from old, discarded clothing, vintage and antique textiles,
papers and found objects. I enjoy making use of stuff that has had a
life already; a life that is often purely functional and as far
removed from ‘art’ as you can imagine.
I’ve been recycling all my life to make art. As a child, I pulled apart, old clothing and nylon stockings “I used to collect fabric waste from mum’s sewing and knitting basket, making wall hangings out of that.” Nowadays, I cut up my own clothing and others, antique quilts, vintage linens, fancywork and men’s suits.
The process of searching and collecting materials, is also, a very important part of my art’s making. It may take weeks, months, even years, to find a piece that talks to me. Most of the time though, a fragment of fabric, clothing or object, will trigger off the idea. I collect and document many of the pieces I find, by labeling or remembering, its history of when & where it was found. This gives me another layer to work with.
The search for
materials has taken me to many weird and wonderful places over the
years.
The sometimes, dodgy, back streets of cities, in Barcelona, Italy and France. Markets and charity shops in Australia, France and England. Underground spaces, abandoned buildings, coast lines and vacant beaches. Friends, family and strangers, have also, donated materials to use in my work.
By transforming old,
recycled and reused materials, it enriches the stories I like to tell
in my contemporary art and gives a new life, to materials destined to
be wasted and thrown away.
Summer in Australia is the perfect time for eco and botanical dyeing outdoors. During Winter, I like to save little bits of fabrics, lace and papers in a box for Summer dyeing. This is how I rust dye my fabrics….
Many years ago, I collected heaps of metal junk to use for sculpture. As, I no longer weld, I now use the rusty bits and pieces that are scattered all over my property, for my dyeing projects.
The gathering of the metal objects, wrapping them with the fabric spraying with vinegar and binding with rope and wire is quite relaxing. I call it mummy wrapping.
Rust Dyeing Fabric
MATERIALS:
Fabric: cottons silk… work best
Rusty metal objects: cooking pans, car parts, rusty nails, screws, pipes, copper objects
Wire, string, wool or rope just
something to bind the fabric to the rusted item
Plain white vinegar
Rubber gloves
Plastic sheet or bags
METHOD
1. Gather all the items together wet
your fabric and spray with vinegar.
2. Wrap the fabric around and around the rusted object as best you can.
3. Make sure it’s tightly bound with the string rope or wire. Cover with plastic so it stays moist.
4. Leave and wait for the magic to happen.
5. This may take an hour or 2 or if you want deeper textures of rust a week or 2. Then un- wrap your beautiful rusted fabric.
6. Once the fabric is dyed to the depth you want, soak for 30mins in warm water with a couple of tablespoons of salt to make the rust dye colourfast.
7. Wash gently in warm water with soap powder rinse dry and voila!
I also rust papers and larger pieces of fabric using a different method that I will share in a future post.
Recently, I’ve been unable to focus fully on my work. I feel I may have too many things going on in my life and need to simplify. I’ve also been procrastinating too long, putting off a few decisions, I need to make, regarding my arts practice. I know, I just have to get on with it, if I only knew what “IT” was ? Also, its been hard lately having to divide my time, between creating and dealing with with other life circumstances that have been cropping up. I know as an artist, my main focus is to create, or nothing will get done, but more important, my inner- self will suffer.
In the meantime, my daughter and her partner (xox) , gifted me a trip to London to visit them. After not seeing her for a few years, it was so nice to catch up and do stuff together again. We managed to fit in some very interesting exhibitions. The Anni Albers (1899-1994) textile exhibition at Tate Modern, was excellent. She was student of the Bauhaus art school and like other women at that time , was discouraged from becoming a painter. Instead, she enrolled in the weaving shop and made textiles her means of expression. Albers rose to become an influential figure, exploring the technical limits of hand-weaving to pioneer innovative uses of woven fabric as art, architecture and design.
Fashioned from Nature, explores the complex relationship between fashion and nature from 1600 to the present day.
A Frida Kahlo exhibition of her belongings. There was also huge jewelry exhibition and video game exhibition on. The collections are immense. I particularly enjoyed Asian textiles & objects.
It took a bit of getting around the V&A building, as its built around a very large inner courtyard. The signage wasn’t brilliant and quite confusing. I only saw a small portion of the collections and if I get another chance Id like explore it some more.
A “Kunstkammer” of cabinets full of weird and wonderful curiosities. Extraordinary dioramas displayed in a dark underground cellar, reached only by going down a very steep, spiral stair case.
I also managed to do a brief bit of mudlarking on the Thames. I found a handful of bits & pieces. A handmade nail used to secure sails to the masts of sailing ships and a few shards of pottery and I think part of a Tudor terracotta tile.
I’m home in Australia now and slowly getting back into studio mode. Having spent time with my family and inspired by new adventurers, I’m feeling more nurtured to just get on with “IT” and not think too much.
I grew up in a “make do and mend” family, where nothing much was thrown away and would be mended or, re-purposed into something else, therefore, many of my textile pieces are hand- made, created from antique & vintage sourced materials and may include, discarded, abandoned, found objects. I have been working with textiles all my life. My mother was a dressmaker and as a child, I would collect the fabric scraps and make wall hangings and soft sculpture.
“TurkRedghost” series
Sometimes the antique textiles I work with, seem to yell at me, but mostly, they lay silent, as I make my own marks alongside, others gone before. Ragged bits, old and new stitching, tracing marks left behind on old textiles are a reminder, of a time when women, had many obligations and few choices. I feel comfortable, as I stitch, tear, dye and reinforce the fragmented pieces. Somehow, I hope, in a small way, by reclaiming and reworking the textiles, I can give a voice to those women.
After exhibition blues has hit! I’m all painted out at the moment, but still enjoying some textile pieces Ive been playing around with for a while now. Looks like some old photos and found objects will make their way into the project too. Please see “Spaces Below” exhibition details in the sidebar on the right.
Ragged bits , old and new stitching, tracing the marks left behind on, 120 yr old textiles.
Memories and ghosts from the 1800s, remind me, as I work, of a time when women had many obligations and few choices.
A time when, women were completely controlled by their fathers, brothers and male relatives and their sole purpose in life was to find a husband, reproduce and then spend the rest of their lives serving him.
If you were to break free, you would be crucified, ridiculed and seen as “not normal, insane, bullied and tossed aside.
The textiles from the 120 year old quilt toppers I work with, sometimes, seem to yell at me, but mostly, they lay silent, as I make my own marks alongside others gone before.
I feel comfortable, as I stitch, tear, dye and reinforce the fragmented pieces.
Somehow, I hope, in a small way, by reclaiming and reworking the textiles, I can give a voice to those women.
Just like in my own life, when I was powerless, art gave me a voice to express myself, where once I had none.
As a small child I pulled things apart. Even, before I could talk, I ripped apart dolls and toys. I used to make little displays, installations of the fragments and other discarded things. Today I still pull things apart. I find fragments more pleasing and sometimes, even more interesting than the original object.
Recently, I pulled apart an old chair that had been hanging around for years. The wood was still good. The cloth and leather had grit and rust, just perfect for sculpture. The rustic bits and pieces also related to some textile fragments, I unpicked from an 1800’s, quilt topper. I’m still working on outcomes and painting has crept in too. Below are some pics of the process.
I started this blog back in the early 2000’s as a sort of diary, to document my work and creative life and to give something back to others.
Going through some of my old posts recently, I was able to pin point, some pivotal moments in my life, of where my ideas and artworks originally came from, why my work and arts practice has changed and how, it’s evolved over the years, to where it is today.
After visits to Europe, UK and an arts residency in Spain, in 2005, I especially noticed some changes in the way I was working. Though I have always worked between disciplines, painting was always my main form of expression. I was becoming more dissatisfied with just painting and found it hard to do any creative work for awhile. Then, after a 3 month stay in France 2007, I realized I could no longer, only use paint, to express my ideas.
This led to a series of experimental installations, videos and a book of photographs. Touched by Dada and Surrealist ideas, I had to re-access what I was doing as an artist.
The installation and video below “Parisgrit” was shown at Tilt Gallery, in Melbourne in 2006. I can see quite a few interesting elements in it, but it’s way too long and very noisy. Maybe someday, I will get around to re-working it and revamping it into something else.
https://youtu.be/qUp3r-oEa-I
By looking back over my old blog posts or (diary entries) I find it helpful, to reflect on the areas, where I can make improvements and expand on previous ideas. I can also see where, my ideas have come from. I get a glimpse of how & why, my artwork, techniques and materials have changed over time and maybe where I could be heading in my arts practice.
I found an old army blanket from my childhood and couldn’t resist it’s raggedy worn, loveliness and further rusted it. Leaving it in the elements outside for a few weeks.
It can take ages moving pieces around to get the right composition.
then sometimes it just happens straight away.
Adding more marks…
The good thing about using a stretched canvas as a base, I can stitch right into it.
The process of transformation. Time, change, erosion and decay are qualities I like to celebrate. I examine and explore, the properties and possibilities, of my material and want to push the boundaries of something to get a deeper understanding.
In my latest project, I’m working with textiles over a 100 years old. I want to work with the worn and deteriorated textiles and collaborate alongside those, who in the past, so carefully stitched, mended and created, the pieces for comfort and warmth.
Each piece was once, carefully hand -stitched and now, breaking down and worn. I have very selectivity pulled apart and unpicked areas, and kept some intact.
Some areas of fabric, are so badly worn it breaks in my hands, so I have to reinforce it. Most pieces though are just left in their original state.
I then, like to push the process further with, natural & rust dying methods, mark making, hand stitching and painting with caste iron, botanical paints.
Numerous times, I expose the materials to the elements to experience the changes.
Getting to the essence of my material helps me to translate and describe its being. I rarely know the outcome of my projects and just go with the flow.
Sometimes, when I’m stuck for ideas making artwork and it’s just not happening, I like to throw a heap of things together and arrange them near my work.
The items, may relate in colour, texture and type or be opposing which, I find much more exciting. Your brain will automatically try to come up with solutions. Expanding your ideas and creating new ones.
The flow on of ideas is sometimes amazing. It can lead to, resolving the artwork in front of you, as well as, give you ideas for a whole new body of work.
Juxtaposition and connections of items together seems to work for me.
I believe there is a creative force that is connected to everything we do.
When making my art, I rarely follow rules. Not knowing, techniques, materials and technology, doesn’t bother me and can be a blessing. It gives me more freedom to play around and discover things, that wouldn’t otherwise, be found.
A few images of recent experiments in Photoshop and other programs using my own artworks.
A huge thank you to everybody who attended the opening of my new exhibition Wallmatter last Saturday. A special thank you to all the people who helped me pull it altogether and make it a special day. I feel so blessed and encouraged with all the support shown for my artwork and the new friendships I made.
Wallmatter continues until Tuesday August 16th at The Memo, Healesville Victoria. Free Entry. All artworks are for sale.
A few photos I took the next day as I forgot my camera on opening night.
An installation of paint, concrete, rust and
textiles, inspired by imperfections and
weathered surfaces, linking to the abandoned
and neglected spaces found in urban and rural
environments.
“Surfaces and objects touched by time tell a
story and are a raw reflection of their environment.
I want to highlight the significance of a random
mark, or the crumbling texture of a wall in an
underground space. They are evidence to a
previous time in history. My abstractions are
investigations into marks and traces left behind
in the urban and rural environment.”
– Jenny Davis, Artist
As mentioned in my previous post, here are some photographs from my published article in “Sew Somerset Summer 2016”magazine on, how to make your own mixed media collage’s, from vintage, Pulp Fiction paperback books or, any other damaged books.
I love reclaiming and re-using, old tattered books that would otherwise, be tossed in the garbage giving them a new life and a new meaning. Instead of them being destroyed and forgotten.
I collect discarded objects and litter from the streets, along with items people would otherwise throw away and use them in my art and installation work. I physically dismantle my collected items, and then reassemble them, with the intention to reconstruct its purpose, from its earlier meaning and appearance.
My artworks are little mixed-media collage’s, created from, vintage “Pulp Fiction” book pages, old linen cloth, thread, paint, coloured pencils and ink.
As a thank you to all my readers Use Coupon Code PUBL0616 for a 50% discount on this magazine when you checkout at Stampington.com, and buy four (4) or more copies of the title. Click on image below!
Congratulations on having your artwork and article published in Sew Somerset!
Earlier this year I was approached by Stampington & Company in the USA. to write a feature article, about my mixed- media collages, for their magazine.
Today I am happy to announce my article and artwork has been published and is featured in the latest, “Sew Somerset Summer 2016” magazine.
My paper mixed media collages, are created from old, damaged, vintage pulp fiction book pages, vintage pieces of linen and more. I will post photographs of the article and where you can buy the magazine soon!
“Wallmatter” Exhibition Progress. Jenny Davis 2016.
All my paintings are now finished and have been taken to the framers for my upcoming exhibition, in July and I managed to fit all, 17 paintings, into the car for the short trip to Healesville.
While the paintings are at the framers I have been creating and finishing off, other pieces in the show. It has also, given me pockets of time to concentrate on the written stuff, which I find a bit difficult sometimes.
My art statement has changed a million times, but I think I’m happy with it now. Id rather just let my artwork speak for itself but, finally, after many years, I’m actually starting to enjoy the process of writing the art statement. I see it now, as an extension of my work and not, just an unrelated, add on . As an artist, you know yourself, what your art is all about, but putting it out there, for the viewer, in words, honestly, without all that “artspeak”, is a whole different art, I’ve had to learn over the years.
If you need help writing art statements, here is fantastic book that has helped me. “Art-Write. The Writing Guide for Visual Artists by Vicki Krohn Amorose.” It’s a simple, step by step guide on writing, not only, art statements but also, speeches, proposals, bio, press release’s and more. Its all related to the visual artist.
The ad for “Art Almanac” magazine has been designed and sent off to the magazine and the invite/ad for “Wallmatter” exhibition, has been designed, with some help from my daughter overseas in France… Amazing Skype!
The catalogue price list has taken a long time as every detail of every single piece has to be written down and priced. It’s an ongoing venture and still in progress as I keep adding more pieces. The food and drinks for the opening have all been taken care of, thanks, to a couple of dear friends for their help.
I’m still making some flat concrete stands I want to sit my sculpture’s on. One of them broke, so I’m not sure yet, whether Ill to use them, or not. I also need to find a way to get my paintings to the exhibition. Once framed they won’t fit into my car. Something I didn’t think off:)
The last thing I will need to do is photograph and document all the pieces, before they are sent off to the gallery. Encase they don’t come back home again:) Hopefully!
More details of what? when? and where? coming very soon!
Rust & Shibori. Vintage Cigar Tins. Work in Progress.
A heap of vintage cigar tins in the process of change.
Vintage buckle, Japanese Shibori dyed scrap. Rusty fence wires and Victorian silk buttons were purchased from Penny’s antique and vintage mixed media supplies. Faginsdaughter
Old rusted door lock and fence wire with weaving made from beach- combed finds and indigo cotton string.
The beginnings of a textile book.
Rust and indigo dyed wall piece
Finally, another tin. Metal detector find, central Victoria, 1800’s suspender buckle, rusty wire and rust indigo dyed doily scrap. Unfortunately the beautiful buckle broke in this installation. It could be made from gold, as it was very soft.
I may use some of these artworks in my next solo exhibition, “Wallmatter” in July
