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- Dec 01, 10
Through my art practice I explore aspects of nature that I find to be extraordinary, (both our own inner nature and that which we see as external nature.) These wonderings have lead me towards Eastern philosophy, Shamanism and to research Scientific theories, and notably to the places where they join. My art practice is an ongoing search for some kind of truth and understanding of the universe we live in.
The art I make echos nature, sometimes I even collaborate with the elements, such as in wind records and rain records. I am drawn to materials that have qualities I associate with nature such as variation, complexity and wiggles. I apply them in ways where I have less control over their visual outcome. This is pretty much the opposite of our modern consumerist society; flawless and airbrushed. I aim to marry or unite the visual surface of the artwork with the content. Though this may be in a poetic way, I do not wish to confine my art to mere sense and logic. However, over time it may become evident and far more meaningful and potent than I would have consciously designed or planned. Much of my work could be described as the art of controlled accidents. Over the years I am learning to think more spontaneously as I work, so I can be in the moment as I make the the art.
I am examining the concept of ‘clever nature’. Challenging the self-held notion of mankind that it is the only ‘clever’ organism on the planet, with a possible distant second being other large brained mammals, by putting forward a body of work that explores aspects of nature that show signs of ‘cleverness’. I have made art work about such aspects of nature, from the earth healing properties of mycelium, amazing yet brainless jellyfish, the co-evolution of the Madagascan moth and orchid, the yearly salmon run and flight formations.
I am also intrigued by our own nature. When I paint or draw I go into a meditative state and allow the thinking rational part of me to become quiet, so I can discover more about the less conscious parts of myself. I aim to make art that reflects my own search for truth and along that journey find hope and freedom and a fresh way of seeing the world in all it’s perfect imperfection.
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- Feb 10, 13
Why should a frame make a piece of art worth much more than the additional cost of the frame? I can understand it can add a certain amount more than what it cost to frame, but it seems to be disproportionate. It is a lot to do with perception, I suppose. Yes, I would like to frame my drawings and paintings in beautifully made frames, the really expensive ones! Real wood, no wood grain effect chipboard that seems to be all you can get in any reasonably priced framers.
This fascination with “finished product” outweighing what is underneath the surface sweeps across many areas of life in the West. There is superficial idea of what beauty is, from our food chain to how we judge art and even people. This tendency to judge things by their outward appearances alone has tricked us, our “beautiful” shiny objects are breaking down, they are designed to, so we are caught in the cycle of buying the newer version. When we turn to use the old way it is no longer available to us because everyone is caught up in the cycle and the old way of doing things is obsolete.
Marketing is even taking over the way people talk about how to be an artist, how to sell yourself. I am concerned that if you are not already established as an artist, who are free to be eccentric, that artists by the hoops that they have to jump through to get any type of funding or exposure have to, by nature be a certain way inclined. I cant help but be reminded of those pieces of fruit or vegetables that are not the right uniform shape to get to the packaging stage of the production line being cast aside, and their irregular kind dying out.
I always made it through the system as one of those irregular pieces of fruit! I was lucky because I went to interviews with human beings and it wasn’t just about filling in allocated spaces in forms. People are all more than their C. V. more than the forms they fill in more then their 6 jpeg images. We have strange selection processes, I think we need to rethink the way we choose things and deciding what things are worth, not to do things the easiest way, because we all know what we loose when we just go for the easy option, we loose our integrity.
- Dec 30, 12
View of Bamboo Installation at “Vulnerable” by Marianne Slevin at The Secret Gallery October 2012
One of the rooms in the exhibition “Vulnerable” was this bamboo installation with text and the sound of a hidden Tibetan singing bowl. On every leaf I wrote one thought about myself that I found hard to say, they are my own suppressed feelings, growing up as a woman in Ireland. I had started my research for this work far away, both in time and physical distance, but in the end I had to look at myself, my own vulnerabilities. The biggest mistake I could make in presenting work about the mistreatment of women in other cultures would be to not look at my own culture and inevitably myself.
In order to be happy, humans have a built in bias toward what they are and do being better than others. I think we have this bias culturally as well as individually. Maybe if we are aware that this bias exists occasionally we can peer around its veil and see we are no better (or worse) than anyone else or any other culture.
What I found surprising was that my own suppressed thoughts and feelings were not just my own, but in many cases they were shared by other, and when I exposed myself in this light I found that others were quick to share their own inner feelings in return. It was a kind of fast forward exercise in honesty and sharing with others what you may only share with those close to you or maybe nobody at all.
There is so often an unrealistic striving for perfection in society which leaves us feeling unworthy and simply not good enough, this effects everything from aesthetics to emotions. We try to make sense and order out of just about anything! I wanted to make some work that made people feel good, by allowing people to see a glimpse of my own vulnerability. Maybe seeing it visually described brings home the enormity of the stuff we feel we have to carry around with us all the time, and perhaps it is so common that is should no longer be a weight on us.
- Apr 15, 12
Baby Doll with Goose Barnacles by Marianne Slevin 2012
Baby Doll reaching for Goose Barnacles by Marianne Slevin 2012
Baby Doll with Driftwood and Goose Barnacles by Marianne Slevin 2012
I play hard at being a visual artist, in fact I do it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year, there seems to be no off button ! Don’t get me wrong my play can get pretty serious, challenging and exhausting! Actually I started making art because I could express my more “heavy” and “intense” feelings without feeling like a freak, when I went to art college I met many intense characters! I tend to be a very serious person, though I can be very silly too! So my art tends to be very seriously playful! The work part of my practice is the other stuff that I have to do as an artist but I try to keep “work” out of the whole process of making art. We are obsessed with working, we work too hard and too much we should be living instead. Is this why to be a successful artist nowadays you have to spend way more time working on you career than making your art? I want to stop calling my art “my work”. Art for me is inventing a new visual language, shape-shifting between different disciplines, merging art and our everyday life and going beyond it into fantasy and looking back into the past, all at the same time. Art is attempting the impossible, failing, achieving something unexpected, balancing our own will with chance. It is playing with life and exploring the world around us. Art is working on a personal level and a universal level without interruption. Art for me is about transformation, the process of art is transformative and I choose materials that are not considered “valuable” and through the creative process I aim to transform the simple materials into something meaningful and inspiring, drawing attention to the creative process. I invite the viewer to take a journey, and perhaps to feel this too. Art for me is about waking up fully.
I don’t want the audience to marvel at my talent at drawing or painting because I am so precise, for me that gets in the way. I would like the viewer to come away from my art feeling something, maybe inspired to be creative and inventive and imaginative and playful themselves. I have not set goals or aims for my art, in how it effects the viewer, I do think about it from time to time but I cannot control its outcome. The whole process of of my art is a game of control and lack of control, intention and accident, logic and intuition, knowing when to push away or pull towards, so inevitably this sort of dialogue will continue when the art leaves my hands too. I think these transformative acts ripples out into the universe in many ways.
I found this doll and driftwood with goose barnacles hanging off it last February. It was on my Birthday, I was walking on Fanore beach, it felt very apt and kind of funny, to find the little doll. So I lifted up the wood and placed the doll standing up underneath it, as if reaching up to pick a goose barnacle. The doll is one legged but is able to feed herself, it is a very unlikely situation! As was the chances of each of us being alive as a human being today on this planet, I have heard some very mind blowing comparisons of how unlikely our existence was, the chances of each of us being here and alive today as humans were extremely small. All of these weird and wonderful thoughts filter into my art somehow, often in very unexpected ways. The journey into the unknown is what keeps me making art. I really like going to a place and finding stuff that I would have never imagined being there, and doing something creative with it. I love being nicely surprised by the whole art making process.
- Jan 22, 12
Work in Progress, studio, Marianne Slevin, 2012
I am not one for any kind of dogma, so I do not think that Artists should have to make art in any particular way at all. For my own practice I see it like this: The ship is going down and what am I going to do about it? I do not want to make art for art’s sake alone, nor do I want to make art for artists alone. I want to make my tiny offering of art for the planet, and multitude of ecosystems and communities that live on this great whirling rock in space.
Two books on art have changed my thinking more then any others, the first one was “The unpainted Landscape” essays and texts, by Simon Cutts. The other was “Conversations Before the End of Time” by Suzi Gablik. These books shifted my practice that had been more about the modernist ideal of art for arts sake, towards a more socially engaged way of working. In the words of Suzi Gablik, “…for such artists, vision is not defined by the disembodied eye, as we have been trained to believe. Vision is a social practice that is rooted in the whole of the being.” from The Nature of Beauty in Contemporary Art, New Renaissance Magazine.
Currently, I am making an art work with muffin cases and another with maps folded into paper boats. On the paper cases I am writing different things that would change the world for the better, in my opinion. I would also like to write other people’s wishes for a better world. If you would like to send them into the comments, I would write them down and dip them in wax as part of an artwork. Happy dreaming of a better world!
- Jan 21, 12
Photograph by Marianne Slevin, Liscannor Pier, Co Clare 2012
Lately I have been writing up so many proposals and having to condense my art into a few words that it has done something funny to my brain. I was also influenced by a TED talk by Sebastian Wernicke who condensed 1,000 TED talks into 6 words. This was a funny exercise so I thought I would try to do it with art. There are so many different sorts of art but what holds them all together what is the common denominator?
New ways of seeing the world brought to its final conclusion could be seen as altering terminal relations.
Altering: because an artist endeavors to create different and personal ways of seeing the world we live in.
Terminal: because an artist challenges limitations, boundaries and changes endings, and the final outcome of things. In this context artists challenge preconceived notions about reality, breaking up static and fixed ideas through their inventions and creations.
Relations: because artists explore the relationships between things, whether through materials and or concepts. Nothing exists purely on its own, but is a stream of interconnected relationships.
ATR doesn’t spell ART but artist’s always see things differently so why would it!
I would be delighted to hear your thoughts on this matter, so please write a comment with your words on what art is, in a few words. Try 3 words!
- Jan 20, 12
The Mycelium and Earth Regeneration Project, ink and pigment on paper map, 2011 Marianne Slevin
If someone was ever to ask me, “what Art College I should apply to? or where should I live if I want to give my art career a really good chance?” I would say go to where there is a vibrant art scene, great galleries and museums and a lot of artists. That is if you care about being successful as a recognized artist. For a wonderful Christmas present James my husband gave me two mammoth books, Vitamin P2 and Vitamin D by Phaidon, new perspectives in Painting and Drawing. I was not entirely surprised to see where the Artists lived, nearly all of them live in major cities particularly New York and other American cities, even if they were born somewhere else. Another example of this is the artist Katie Holten, who is one of my favorite contemporary artists. She grew up in rural Ireland and now has a very successful art career in New York.
What are we to do about this? We cant all up sticks and leave to go to a metropolises seeking fame and fortune! One thing we can do is to create our own mini vibrant art scene around us, by joining others for reinforcement. Bringing our creative skills outside our practice as well, inventing new ways of working within a rural community. I have just joined the Artist’s group called Ground Up Artists Collective. These are a group of around 20 Artists who have their own practices but come together as a collective for art projects within the rural community as well is galleries. I am really looking forward to taking part in some new diverse works. The Altruism Movement T.A.M. is also starting to come together again and we will be starting to do some collaborative projects very soon again.
Another thing we can do is realize that while it might be harder to gain recognition in rural places as an Artist the rural is a wonderful and inspiring place to make art work, and the more Artists that stay the more creative a place it will be for everyone. However I do intend to visit cities more to create more openings to show my work to a larger audience. Starting with Dublin where I am also looking forward to seeing the work of Rivane Neuenschwander in The Irish Museum of Modern Art, then London then who knows! What do you Think?
- Jan 02, 12
Work in Progress oil on canvas Marianne Slevin
There has been a lot of Alan Watts recorded chatter going on around here lately. Alan Watts was a very entertaining philosopher. The book is called “Your it!” James gave it to me for my Birthday, he also gave me “Empowering Women” by Louise L. Hay, I have been really enjoying both of them. What really struck me from the very beginning of both books was that the authors said “I am not a healer” Louise L. Hay and “I am not a guru” Alan Watts, it is all about you. I like this attitude. What I also realized was that I want to be “digging the now” as Alan Watts puts it, when it comes to making art and doing it because I am really enjoying doing it, not to try to be good or make work to impress people. This my seem obvious but when I heard it, it made me rethink. There is so much pressure on artist trying to look and sound coherent particularly for commercial galleries that much of the enjoyment of making art is lost. Artists whose work was once exciting and unselfconscious becomes dull, tripping over itself. What is the point unless you are enjoying it! I know I enjoy making art but somehow I never fully realized just how important that was before. I wanted to make good work before, now I don’t care who thinks it is good or not I am just doing it because I enjoy it. I feel like I have defiantly lost a couple of wrinkles!
This sounds really simple but what happens then is that what you enjoy doing one moment changes and you become bored and have to keep finding the new things to keep you surprised and entertained. Each different painting will have many different stages of enjoyment in it. With the piece that I have been working on for the past two months on and off, more off than on! I painted until I ran out of excitement and then I stopped, I looked at it many times to see if I know what to do with it, not until yesterday was I able to and today I really enjoyed bringing something else to it that I didn’t have before. It is constantly moving and shifting like everything else. There are challenging times when you are not enjoying it and you are wondering how to! For me every painting is unique and you have to kind of trick yourself to get out of your own way and let it happen. The allure of paintings for me is not in the obvious or the details but the magical symphony that happens when you soften your gaze and disengage your rational brain for a while!
- Sep 05, 11
It has been a long long time, and my tech skills have got rusty to say the least. I tried to post this on The Altruism Movement website but it ended up here as I could not remember how to post it on that site, I hope I find out soon. On Sunday 7th August some of TAM (The Altruism Movement) Caitriona Sheedy, Sinead O’Connell and myself met in Ennistymon at “The Power of Local”. As it was raining we could not do what we had planned to do but instead did this boat sailing in a very large puddle in the centre of the town.
It was fun and great to be able to do something with the children, as art and children don’t always mix very well. There were actually three different performances going on in the square at the same time. Most of the artists were out in force for the festival that lasted for four days. I mentioned a while ago that we had been planning to leave our boats in some floods or puddles for a while so this was a perfect opportunity for it. We left the boats for passers by to see and take if they wished. Some other children played with them which was great. I think when the flood disappeared people could not really see them and they go run over. I picked up the flattened boats the next morning off the road, I probably should have followed our sons advice and brought them home.
- Jul 08, 11
The Ennis Street Festival was held last weekend on the 2nd and 3rd of July. Myself and a couple of others from The Altruism Movement (TAM) went to do some art, write some quotes and poetry and give away some art. It was a lovely sunny day, we met in the square. One of the group painted while two of us wrote in chalk on the pavement around the square. There was a Nazi symbol and something negative written on a wall in one corner. I thought that some poetry would be good to transform the space, so I wrote one of Bonnie Quinn Cotter’s poems called “Clean Slate” in the long narrow space under where there was the fascist words and symbol. Then we went to another area of town to write quotes. When I returned I could no longer read the racist comment on the wall, I thought that the bright sun had done something to my eyes. Or had somebody washed the wall?
Today, while I was talking to the artist that had been painting on the square, I mentioned this to her. She said when I left some man came and asked to use some of her paint. He said he wanted to paint over something. She could not really see what it was from where she was sitting, but he said that from one of the pubs across the square you could see it clearly and it had bothered him for years. So when he saw her painting he asked to borrow her paint so he at last could cover it over.
- May 24, 11
Prayer flags in German and English, indigo on recycled cotton trousers
Art work by Svenja Seegers and Marianne Slevin, Kilshanny 2010
Sometimes you meet or see another artist’s work that relates so strongly to yours that it could have come from you. It is both a relief to find someone on your path but it can be a bit disconcerting. Sometimes you can find yourself not doing something you would have done because it is too similar to the other artists work, you might have started it before them but they realized their project, you left yours unfinished. Now their’s is hanging in a prestigious gallery. Or you fear that if you look at artist’s work that is similar to your own that it will influence your work too much. My husband brought up an interesting question about it. He said it seems when artists talk about being influenced by deceased artists work it is talked about positively, but when they talk about being influenced by contemporary artists it is seen as a bad thing. This seems quite true for some reason. Some of my biggest influences would have come from my art college friends. Not so much what our work looked like but our philosophies about art formed and grew together in some ways. We were all living in the same city at the same time, not only going to college and studying art together but socializing together, talking for hours about art and life almost every day for several years. It was a wonderful environment for creativity. But at one time or another you have to live again outside of that cosy world so you have plenty of material to work with, it is not just output, but you are refilling that inspiration tank. It is like having all the tools and skills without having experiences in life to take from.
There is something to be taken from this close community of artists that many of us loose when we leave college. Life takes over, many great things happen but for many their contact with other artists is on the sparse side. For me I live with a wonderful muse who has encouraged me to make art for the last almost 7 years, otherwise I would have probably stopped. A couple of months ago I started an Artist’s group that meets up regularly and it reminds me of being back in college, drinking tea and coffee and talking passionately about what art we are going to make. It is an organic type of group, growing and changing. It started out being about artists making art work including poetry and text in the public spaces that seem neglected both urban and in the landscape. This is still the main focus of the group but having a supportive network of other artists is a wonderful thing. One of the other benefits of working in a group is when you are working in a public space on your own can seem like a daunting and sometimes embarrassing challenge, but when there are a few of you doing it it feels a lot safer and less embarrassing.
We have all come from different art backgrounds and work in different ways, but even though we have just started there is already a sense of harmony between the group and huge potential for growth. We are open to sharing ideas and collaborating to make projects that bigger and more far reaching then any one of us could do alone. We wish to continue our own solo practices while having the opportunity to work with other creative people when we wish to. It is definitely a time to join forces and encouraging creativity in others rather then competing with each other and owning ideas.
A wise lecturer in College many years ago, called Mick Wilson told us some truths about contemporary art practice. He said we better think creatively about the whole of our art practice not just the actual art we make, but that we can’t relay on selling our art alone to make a living, but we need to be creative and inventive about the way we are artists too. He asked us all what we planned to do when we left college. I remember having some very naive plan to have a studio in some castle grounds where the visitors would come in and see and buy my art work. We may not get our studio in the castle but on a realer level we can help ourselves by creating a network of like-minded individuals and getting our art out without waiting to be invited or at least as well as being invited to exhibit in our chosen galleries.
- May 08, 11
An artist spends much time making their invisible world visible, and for long periods of time this stays invisible to most of the word, either it is not ready to be seen or the rest of the world is not ready to see it. When one catches up with the other and the art emerges out into the wider world a strange thing happens. Suddenly the artist realizes that people are looking at their work, the walls of their studio have turned into crystal and every thing they ever made stands bare and alone without the shelter of secrecy. This is the day the artist has long awaited but what happens now?
Why did I take such rushed photographs of my work? Why did I group my work like that, it looks so disjointed, why did I leave that writing the way I did without re-reading it? But most of all why did I waste so much time not believing in myself as a real artist? Worrying that my work would neither be the sort of art that the majority people would hang in their homes or ever be shown in the art museums and respected art establishments, but fall somewhere between the two in the great void.
One answer is to never shrink your talent to suit your immediate surroundings, you may not live in New York but there can be great artists living and working in tiny places too, can’t there? Do not rely on the fed back of strangers or even worse the lack of interest, it is no reflection on your work. I have come to learn that in many places many people don’t care about art.
One day out of the blue many people start to look at your work, are you serious about your work now? Nothing has changed your work was just as real before other people started to notice. It can be hard to keep your courage when even mediocre galleries turn you down, every application comes back months later saying you did not get the award/bursary/exhibition this time but do try again next time. You and a few others really believe in your work, but why does it take so long for other people to respect it? I have some ideas but I don’t really know. The art world is predominantly a fickle world. Commercial galleries have to make money to stay open so they have to sell art, and to sell art the artist often has to start to imitate themselves so people feel secure about what they are buying. If your work does not fit neatly into a box then people have not the time or energy to work out if it is of any value so they move swiftly on to the next artist for there are always plenty more artists.
So don’t wait till the rest of the work gives you permission to feel like a real artist. As my husband and muse, James advised me many years ago if you want something then pretend you have it already, so if you want to be a well respected artist then pretend you already are and it will be much easier and quicker for everyone else to realize it if you realize it first. What would a well respected artist do ?
- Mar 13, 11
Silence of early morning, interrupted by a bird.
I am guessing a magpie, but I do not know my bird sounds.
However, I am in the mood and mindset for guessing this morning.
Everything feels a little less harsh, where all the pieces of memories and sights and smells and thoughts infuse.
To make a misty hopeful feeling you imagine you could build with, like fantastic floating rocks.
This fairytale creation, fed from those first perfectly chosen stones.
Was it me that placed them there or was it the universe,
It must have been, I almost forgot!
Poem by Marianne Slevin
- Jan 16, 11
A5 Post card sized works for “Trasna” From the Mycelium Earth Regeneration Series
One of the above, Ink and pigment on a Map, from The Mycelium Earth Regeneration Series, 2010
So Far, 2011 has started off well with two exhibitions. The first one has just come down, “Trasna” in The Courthouse Gallery, a small works exhibition which James and I both had some art work in. This show was curated by Maeve Collins and Marie Connole, it comprised of around 200 A5 size works, they all had a reserve price of 40 euros. I think this was a great idea; to have an exhibition of affordable art , and that every artist’s work was the same price to begin with. Pricing work can be a dilemma, if you charge too little you worry people will think less of it and if you charge more it may be too much for people to be able to give. I decided to increase my prices a bit when I realized I was undervaluing my work, and that even if I sold all my work I still couldn’t support myself! As I haven’t increased my prices for about 15 years!
The next is an exhibition of my most resent oil on canvas paintings entitled “Amazing Nature”, it is on till the end of January. There are 9 paintings in total hanging on the ground floor, where there is a very charming cafe with an open fire, a children’s table and lots of board games for these rainy windy west of Ireland days. This Cafe and Art Venue is a great addition to Ennistymon. Some of the paintings in the exhibition are on my new website http://www.marianneslevin.com which James did such a brilliant job designing for me, thank you James!
- Oct 27, 10
Work in progress, “Organised Chaos”, mixed media by Marianne Slevin 2010
This is a photograph of a painting that I was just working on. I started it about a month ago and left it, not really knowing where to go next with it. I started it using pencil and pigment on cardboard. There was a drawing of branchlike lines and root-like lines beneath, our children had drawn something on it (they were allowed!) Then it was painted around the drawing with pigment.
I had been thinking about my art and how maybe I could combine many of the different aspects of the ways I work in one piece, such as working on the idea of mycelium but ion a freer way that my be more dreamlike and open to include other interests and intuitions. Content and focus can be great but sometimes you got to let go a bit and be more spontaneous and in the moment. I suddenly realized that I was like a painting I started about 14 years ago, but taking it to new places. It was like revisiting a moment in time, but with a different perspective. Now looking around the studio it does kind of knit much of the work together, like a missing link, maybe.
I have started reading about the chaos theory, it is early days yet to say how much or little it relates to my work, but so far it is fascinating and I am also fascinated with quantum physics, particularly an experiment where they discovered atoms behave differently when they are being observed. The one experiment I found is called Dr. Quantum Double split experiment. This really leads me to all sorts of wonderings! So what we see is actually changed by us seeing it. Are paintings and other Visual Art changed by those who view it? This is a theory James suggested being a possible reason for certain art works becoming exceptionally famous compared with other works of a similar quality. We noticed that when people came into the gallery a really liked a certain painting, often the next few visitors would also comment on that painting, had the previous viewers actually changed and energized the atoms in the painting by viewing it? And if viewing a piece of art with a positive feeling adds to it and if viewing it with a negative feeling takes from it? Maybe we will do this experiment one day, as James suggested. Has anyone any thoughts or experiences on this, I would really like to learn more about it, so please feel free to voice them.
- Oct 24, 10
Work in progress,” Scarab with woman pattern”, pencil on paper, Marianne Slevin 2010
This image is from a dream I had last night, I was amazed by it in the dream and also on waking! Today I went for a walk with my family along the cliff from Doolin towards the cliffs of Moher, it was spectacular! When we stopped by a large sloping slab of stone after laying down on it for about 5 minutes I picked up a sharp piece that had broken off it and drew something like this onto it. It will be washed away in the next shower of rain, I am sure. However I like this fragility in art and am trying to come to terms with it in life!
I am still working on some jellyfish paintings in the studio, shifting from one material to another can be really refreshing; drawing with the sharp nib of a pencil or even a rock after using oil paint on a kind of loose way can keep things fresh, and surprising.
- Oct 07, 10
Detail of Jellyfish2, work in progress, oil on canvas by Marianne Slevin 2010
“Flying fish” and” Coevolution”, both works in progress, oil on canvas, by Marianne Slevin 2010
This afternoon I put my finger on my painting to see if it was dry enough to start painting on again. “Dry enough”,So off I went! More layers, more detail, then erasing, merging, working slowly and thoughtfully then stop! Playfulness takes a turn when it all starts to get too serious a sort of painterly sense of humor! It is really hard for be to translate the feelings I get into words, I suppose that is why I paint them. It just would not make any sense in words; A kind of push pull happens in my painting it is very invigorating but using so many bits of yourself at the same time is also quite exhausting, it feels like a kind of dance between reason and chaos, taking risks and sometimes appearing to move backwards in hope of taking a huge leap forwards! I think this painting is moving towards being a better painting though it looks less harmonious and together than it did yesterday, but I hope in a few more days, l will have surpassed what it was before, with some more layers of paint, but I think it is important to be brave and put down those marks that may look awkward now, like the top left corner, but knocked back, vaguely peering out from behind another layer or two of paint will work much better. I usually prefer to work in a really concentrated way for shortish bursts then stop look, listen and today read National Geographic! I am reading all about Charles Darwin at the moment. It is amazing that nearly half of the USA prefer not to believe Darwin was right! I wonder how many people in Ireland believe he was right? The two paintings above are inspired by him; I love the idea of coevolution. Darwin saw the orchid and predicted that there would be a moth somewhere in Madagascar that he had not visited with an 11 inch nectar receptacle and years later then found it, it adapted to the flower and the flower adapted to the moth.
- Oct 05, 10
“Jellyfish 1″, oil on canvas by Marianne Slevin 2010
“Jellyfish 1 and 2″, oil on canvas by Marianne Slevin, 2010
These are two paintings I am currently working on, whether they are finished or not, I am not sure yet. I started the dark one a few days ago and the light one only yesterday. I like the contrast; they are like opposites but of the same thing. These were inspired by watching a David Attenbrough nature documentary, called “creatures of the deep”. I was blown away by the haunting images of the jellyfish. A billion years before there was life on the earth, life began in the sea. Jellyfish have no brains and no blood, I find them fascinating and really lovely to paint! As my painting is a lot about the process I am using the jellyfish as a starting point but allowing the paint and marks to have their own journey too. Building up layers of transparent glazes and opaque flatter areas, so it becomes deeper and quite dreamlike.
- Sep 19, 10
Mycelium Maps series “Aroha” Marianne Slevin 2010
Mycelium Map Series “ Red Lungs” Marianne Slevin 2010
These two map pieces above sat for several months awaiting completion today with the help of Svenja’s red ink she left me, I finished them both. On Friday I left one that I had finished several months ago into the framers in Galway, I cant wait to see what it is like when it is framed. My plan for the winter is to apply for a solo exhibition and work towards that. The piece above is on a map James and i found in a market in London. The word Aroha repeated over and over means love in Maori, a New Zealand woman sent a little heart with the word Aroha on it after visiting our Galley, such a lovely couple they were. The pink sandals belong to our daughter, they caught my eye and I really wanted to draw them. Apparently mycelium reaches up after we have walked over the ground to clear up any debris we may leave behind us!
- Aug 10, 10
“Self Portrait with Lungs and Plants” Oil and pigments on Canvas, Marianne Slevin 2010
So I still am alive and well! My no tech week seemed to trigger off a long spell of almost no tech. I think once we get out of the habit of something then it can be hard to do it again. I think a lot about making art is habit, so it is really important to develop good habits, as the more we do the better we get. Sometimes we are not in the “mood” but that can change once we don’t expect to be” perfect” (in our own our own eyes anyway). Surprising our selves can be one of the best things we can do in our art practice, why are we so afraid of the unknown? Art is a journey some times difficult sometimes easy but always exploratory. The painting above was a journey that took many twists and turns, and surprised me many times. Yesterday I came to the end of that particular journey, I had been trying to unite the figure (myself) and the rest of the painting, and finally I think I did.
- Jun 15, 10
Outside The Funny Little Gallery, Doolin photograph by Marianne Slevin
Artists often work on the periphery of society, rearranging or dismantling border controls and crossings, shifting boundaries and boulders and generally being a bit discontent with the current situation. Somehow the word “content” and the word “artist” don’t really go together. This discontentment and unease could be one of the reasons that the general public who are not in this creative battle find much contemporary art to be not what they are looking for. This “not what is being looked for” is a problem for artists; as in, people coming to view art with a preconceived idea and the art has to fit into their idea of what art should be, for them. If art is to conform to the wants of the masses, how is art to grow? This discontentment and unease is a catalyst for growth in art, like an athlete, an artist will push beyond the comfort zone, questioning and creating and developing, as if they were muscles being pushed to their limits.
We have “The Funny Little Gallery” on the road towards The Cliffs of Moher, you can imagine the traffic! yet the only people who call in are artists or have a artist in their family and/or have a big appreciation of art. This is a tiny percentage of the people who pass by every day. The masses drive to the Cliffs and do the Aran Islands. The majority of people feel alienated from art, unless it is something that they can relate to, such as a scene of a landscape that they like or something nostalgic or sentimental. This gap between the people who appreciate art and the people who don’t is gapping. There should not be such a gap, there is something wrong; as everyone is creative. I feel things are changing now, but in the past there was nothing taught in school since about The Impressionists. That’s about where the appreciation of art stopped, in certain places.
It is part of the job of the artist to take the audience into consideration, but not to be stifled by the audience. It is a two way thing; artists need to take a step towards the public and the public needs to take a step towards the artist. Many artists and collaborating groups are doing this and have been doing this for many years. My own step is opening up our house to the public and welcoming anyone who wishes to come inside into an informal setting, also by talking about my work to the people who visit in a way that you don’t need an art education to understand. My mission is to start filling the gapping void between the art world and the rest of the world, even in a tiny way. When the critical mass reaches a certain number or ratio then the general public will love art too!
- May 31, 10
Photograph, Doolin Pier at sunset with motor bike helmets
One of my earliest and deepest fears was that I was mad. Not in a kind of arty way, just plain mad. Yep my brain does not work in a typical way, this I must have been aware of from a very young age, hence the worry being mad! When I went to Grennan Mill craft school after I left school, I found my clan, in a way. I felt normal, it was great! Since then I have been learning that being different and eccentric has many positive aspects.
The other day in an underground car park in Ennistymon my husband and I started to talk about madness. He said everyone is mad, just in different ways, but that the madness is was talking about is not a bad thing; that it can be the thing that is the most beautiful thing about us. I liked this statement. Suddenly it opened up a world of possibilities, for me. James said to me to think of one of my madnesses; one of the things that I have an urge to do but for some reason feel I should not do because of society. I said when I am on the back of the motor bike I feel like holding my arms out like I am flying. So for most of the journey home to Doolin I stuck my arms out, it was great! ( I am not recommending people do this!) What mad or crazy thing do you feel like doing? Allow you madness to express itself, our quirks and individuality are what made us human and ultimately beautiful!
- May 19, 10
Mycelium Map 2, ink and pigment on map, Marianne Slevin 2010
Detail of the above, baby starlings feeding
Below:
Mycelium map 1, ink and pigment on an old map, Marianne Slevin 2010
Yesterday a swallow came and sat on this map drawing when in was folded up, it stayed there for about one hour, it was not the one of the baby starlings but close enough!
To be continued
- May 07, 10
Spinning through
This perfectly messy world
Forgetting and remembering everything.
I am almost back from my tech vacation, it was nice! I actually made lots of stuff with my hands. Which I will write about soon. I have also tidied the studio and started making some new work, it is so helpful to be able to actually find your materials! I put all my paints and pigments in two lovely old wooden boxes, now I know what I have and what I need to get. I kept the stuff I like; such as nice pots and jars and got rid of the ugly ones, such as the plastic glass that was once used for black ink, that sat there for about two years. I rescued my hard paint clogged brushes with some old paint thinner which seems to work better than white spirits for recked brushes. Especially if you steep them for a few hours in it.
There has been lots going on in The Funny little Gallery, but more about that soon. We are open, so call in if you are in the mood for fun and creativity!
- Mar 18, 10
- Mar 16, 10
“Dazzled by Red Cabbage,” photographs by Marianne Slevin
Today, I am going to begin to write a little bit about, how some of my paintings or other art pieces come about. Well, just about everything that I am anyway aware of, effects my art work! That which I put in and also that which I omit. What is left out of an art work often says as much as what is in it. The art making process is a sort of distillery of time, space and experience. Sifting through the river bed at a rapid speed, honing in when there is a sparkle as not to miss anything precious.
Over time our specific areas of interest become more developed, embracing new ideas that fit in with the growing picture. I have always loved nature, now that love of nature is finding nature in all sorts of places, such as the kitchen.
There are many parts to this art making beast, but it may be helpful for them all to join hands and cooperate. Many artists talk as if their inner art critic is a dreadful unruly beast that they would be better off without, and perhaps they are right, but perhaps our inner art critic could be useful if we listened to them and gave them a little of our time, maybe they are just angry cause we think we know it all.
May I suggest a meeting with the inner art critic; a constructive interview. Hear what they have to say, and have a conversation, debate and put your side forward too. This may stop future torment in the studio mid movement! Which is far worse and hurtful. Put that dreadful little voice to rest for good or take some advice that could be worth taking. Grab it by the horns over a coffee or Jasmin tea! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could actually made peace with our inner art critic?
- Mar 15, 10
Charcoal Pencil on transparent paper, Marianne Slevin, March 2010
I have been painting using different layers for a long time so now I am using the paper to create the layers instead. I am very drawn (excuse the pun!) towards this effect. I used the same paper to make small hand made books before, so some words were fading out underneath other words, this created a random kind of poetry or word combo! I love using materials and certain techniques to create a sense of mystery and kind of orchestrating them! Playing with opposites such as control and allowing things to happen and finding some rare little jigs between them, as apposed to “balance” which for me has the connotation of being a little dull and without much room for sidesteps and deviations.
- Mar 14, 10
Some dried rose petals from Valentine’s day floated between bubbles,
Along with a yellow toy duck.
She started to put the wet rose petals around it,
she said she was trying to turn the duck into a rose.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Their first journey to the Green Road at Fanore,
It’s guardian a piebald cob with a green horse beard.
We walked along a perfect natural carpet edged with rocks.
Then to the fields, he took my hand,
to meet the enormous robots made from mighty stones.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Two Motherhood poems by Marianne Slevin
- Feb 23, 10
Pencil, Biro and pigment on paper ”Mushroom Field” Marianne Slevin 2010
It is funny when you discover the same thing coming from several different sources at round about the same time. Today has been a lot about mushrooms for me. How mushrooms can help save the earth. I just watched a great video on TED T.V by Paul Stamets about solutions to help save the earth. They grew Oyster mushrooms on some land where there was toxic waste and the mycelium, a fine but strong branch like network covered the land producing mushrooms actually revived the land and soon there were insects and birds and it was an oasis of life once again! Fungi uses radiation as food, Mycelium can absorb oil, it can even brake up rock.
The drawing above was from the idea of mushrooms saving the earth but done before I had seen the video more about my imagination then facts. This morning one of the Tweets I was reading jumped out at me so I followed the link about this discovery that mushrooms may save the planet. It totally inspired me. This drawing is like an elaborate doodle, very enjoyable to draw! I think there will be more to come on this amazing fungi at work!
Sketch book drawing of Mycelium by marianne Slevin 2010
- Feb 10, 10
Standing on the earth I see,
That you are quite the same as me,
We are both like leaves from an apple tree,
I think I am I, but I don’t even exist
surely I am, without the I added in
I look at you, as if you are you through and through
but we are all made from the same sodding goo!
Oh no that’s not right cause it’s not goo at all
it’s something that’s no thing at all!
Now I am no wiser I have just down sized me
to a ant that is beside me,
Then I realize there is no separation at all!
For I am as large as the planet which is still rather small
And I am not sure if my cousin is the moon!
Poem by Marianne Slevin
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Tweets
- Right now, leave your phone or computer and walk outside to face the sun and take some deep breaths. I am going to anyway!
- @aophotos thanks yes! I have just been to our local well. I give dog and chickens well water too!
- Is going fluoride free
- RT @BuildMolAnOige: Looking for people who attended #steiner school and would endorse our project to #crowdfund new school in #ireland, ...
- Frames and Shiny Things http://t.co/fAm14mqs
- The mudskipper's eye a watching planet, their eggs are blinking eyes
- Iceland banks on the arts (Wired UK) http://t.co/e5OSJxna
- Well done to @BuildMolAnOige tonight for an inspirational meeting, it is totally happening! our children will have a wonderful school!
- RT @BuildMolAnOige: ‘To truly know the world, look deeply within your own being; to truly know yourself, take real interest in the world ...
- Sea foam like giant snow flakes in Luogh North Doolin today floating through the sky. Wind records with ink and possibly sea foam tomorrow!
- Outriders in Estonia http://t.co/W1zPU0PM
- Tip for buttering with hard butter use a potato peeler, its great for cheese too!
- Just in from photographing star anise ink drawings on rice paper in the snow. Put a roll in film in my camera hope it still works still!
- No more #DelhiGangRape - send an email to justice.verma@nic.in urging the government to stop sexual violence and end war on women #India
- I just followed by own link to see what my blog looked like on my mobile and there was an add there, not impressed at all at all at all !!!!
- Happy New Year everyone! I had a very irritable start, big improvement with a nap, Barry's Tea and plum pudding in bed, brought in by James!
- Inner Thoughts as a Bamboo Forest http://t.co/boJcCZbb
- RT @globalartleague: Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to ...
- Just finished a painting of Savita Halappanavar part of a body of work compiling the culturally/religiously sanctioned mistreatment of women
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Info
- Fine Art | Ireland, IESummary
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
January 2000 - Panorama Gallery. Carrer Barra de Ferro 2, Barcelona, Spain
October 1996 - Tara Ceramic Studio. Exhibition of paintings and prints as well as a separate installation , Tara, Co. Meath, Ireland
December 1994 - Tara Ceramic Studio. Exhibition of Paintings and Prints, Tara, Co. Meath, Ireland
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Nov-January 2011 - “Trasna” small work exhibition, The Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon, Co. Clare, Ireland
December 2009 - Christmas Show, The Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon, Co. Clare, Ireland
August 2009 - Three Person Show, “Merging 3” The Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon, Co. Clare, Ireland
December 2001 - RHA Ashford Gallery, Christmas Show, Ely Place, Dublin 2
September 2001 - Two Person Show, Photographic and video, Ashford Gallery, RHA, Ely Place, Dublin 2, Ireland
August 2000 - M.A. Show Winchester College of Art, Winchester UK
June 2000 - Open Studios, Winchester College of art, Barcelona, Spain
May 2000 - Can Felipa, Barcelona, Spain
March 2000 - Panarama, collaborative book exhibition, Barcelona Spain
December 1997 - La Tabard, Williamstown, Co Dublin
June 1996 - Solstice, Crawford College of Art, Degree Show Installation
June 1995 - Crawford College of Art, Diploma Show
May 1995 - Wexford Arts Centre, Artist’s Book Fair
Experience- Jan 2008 - PresentThe Secret Gallery and The Funny Little Gallery / 2008-2010
Where we open our Home as a Gallery and Open Studio
- Aug 2010 - Aug 2010Artist / -
Took part in a Collaborative Performance, facilitated by Artists Maeve Collins and Maria Kierns, Documented in The Clare People on the 24th August 2010.
- Apr 2010 - Aug 2010Artist Mentor / -
Acted as Mentor to student at The Funny Little Gallery. Resulting in collaborative and individual art projects.
- Jun 2004 - Dec 2007Artist / -
A series of long distance walks, site specific, time-based and public art projects - various locations along the Camino de Santiago, Spain
- Dec 2000 - Dec 2000Stage Designer / -
Painted set for “Cherry Orchard” in New Theatre Temple bar Dublin 2
- Jun 1997 - Jul 1997Stage Designer / -
Worked on set design for the production of “Mr. Joyce is Leaving Paris” Samuel Beckett Theatre, Trinity College, Dublin
- Nov 1996 - Dec 1996Stage Designer / -
Production of “Hall of Healing” Performed by children from Rutland Street School, Dublin
Education-
1999 - 2000WINCHESTER COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGNM.A. in European Fine Art
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1995 - 1996CRAWFORD COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGNBachelor of Arts 1st Class Honours in Fine Art Painting
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1992 - 1995CRAWFORD COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGNNCEA Diploma in Fine Art
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1991 - 1992GWYNEDD TECHNICAL COLLEGE, WalesFoundation Diploma in Art
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1990 - 1991GRENNANMILL CRAFTS SCHOOLArt and Crafts
Additional Information-
Websites:
