YouDon'tHaveToMakeArtToLiveAsAnArtist

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"You don't have to make art to live as an Artist"

“Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing”

Helen Keller

It is commonly understood that most students who take art as a subject at school will not become artists. However, I feel that it is also understood that those who attend art classes will have their lives greatly enriched by an understanding of art and by the way they have learned to look and see. This is a great way to experience one’s life since it provides us with a visual appreciation of that which is freely available all around us. Plus it could provide us with an incredible tool for use in dealing with daily problems, creativity.

I remember entering the art room for the first time and experiencing a wonderful feeling of being in a comfortable, yet intense, space. It felt like my space. A space where I could be at home.

I realised that here in this room I could be like a child, (in the context of seeing the world as if for the first time.) no matter how old I was. Play and engage freely with materials to find out what they could do and thus assist me to discover and shape my world.

It was here also that I realised a very important lesson. That learning does not only happen in one’s head. All my learning, as an artist, has initially come from the engagement with the world through my hands. And through my hands my head became involved. Most of my learning has not come about from sitting in a desk, working with my mind/brain only. It has come about from doing. The rather narrow approach of desk learning does, for many students, at times more harm then good.

The art room is, or can be, a place of awakening to another self. A place of wonder and magic. A place where we can develop a sense of love for beauty, a place where we learn to enjoy the world from a visual point of view. A place where we are able to engage with, and possibly practice, the visual poetry of life. A place where we can play, and it is through play that much learning happens. Why do you think babies play all the time? It is the gateway to learning through discovery. Give a child a cardboard box and he or she will be away in play-land, in make believe-land, for ages. Discovering. Learning.

It was here, at the start of life’s journey, in the art room, that I realised that most choices, but career choices especially, were based on one of two ways of thinking. We can either choose for our heart (the love of, or passion for, a certain activity) or for our purse (how much money we will make from our chosen work). If we choose for our heart, we may, may, find happiness. If, additionally, we learn to trust the process we will always be able to take care of ourselves (I have a strong believe that that which has put us here, will also provide.) When, on the other hand, we choose for our purse we can be sure that we will be paying forever, in one way or another.

To get your hands into clay, to move paint around, to take that fantastic photo, to shape the earth, is all working toward the understanding of how to engage the creative spirit in your life.

The creative spirit, the single biggest asset we have.

“I heard a great story recently of a little girl who was in a drawing lesson. She was 6 years old and sitting in the back drawing. She hardly ever paid attention, but in this drawing lesson she did. The teacher was fascinated And went over to the little girl and she asked her what she was drawing and the little girl said: ‘I am drawing a picture of god’. And the teacher said, but nobody knows what god looks like. And the little girl said: ‘they will in a minute.” Sir Ken Robinson

Learning. Meaning to engage the creative spirit.

Take charge.

Petrus

Ceramicist, sculptor and writer

art@petrusspronk.com

TheLongGallery

At the start of a recent journey to Adelaide, I listened to a program about ‘the long paddock’. The strip of grass at the side of the road used during droughts for the grazing of animals. I thought that for my journey, I would look at the side of the road and for this trip call it ‘the long gallery’.

Found Art

I came across a most impressive artwork, near the town of Keith, just across the border into S.A. An installation reaching from horizon to horizon, consisted of huge horizontal fields painted in the most vivid greens. It appeared as if they were illuminated, as if lit from below. This intense green was interspersed with large flat areas of canola yellow displayed under a tightly stretched blue sky. (these fields reminded me of the hard edge paintings of the 60s). In this immense bright space, as far as the eye could see, brilliant piles of blindingly white lime rocks in the shape of large pyramids were placed in a chaotic pattern.  A beautiful and moving work made over many years by hardworking artist farmers. Would they be aware of the intrinsic beauty of these unintended works of their art?

Most of the passages between the individual galleries, which make up this intriguing long gallery, are lined with the woven yellow wool textures, created by numerous craft workers, in the shape and form of wattle trees.

Tunnels of honey sweet golden spring fragrance. This sweet perfume persists right throughout the long gallery, here and there tinged with the localised scent of fresh grass both grown and mown. A glorious addition to the experience.

One of the galleries exhibited a series of the most exquisitely wood block prints of Silky Oak trees in their various manifestations, still, blown about, adorned with rain, dry, summer, winter. These works were expressed in fine spider web like drawings. The type of art Albrecht Durer would create. The black and white compositions stood out especially under a ceiling painted with galleon like clouds in the colours of the sunrise painted on silk.

The doorways between each gallery were arched and bridge like, solid stone and steel. Each one had, on the top of the bridge, a video installation, showing the sky with traffic passing on it. Effective, clever, and surrealist in feeling.

During my journey I came across numerous Sculpture Galleries. There seems a three dimensional spaciousness to these particular exhibitions. In one of the galleries there was only one work on display. It was massive. On a line patterned plain, arose a wonderful arrangement of dark rocks. Both elegant and strong. Studied simplicity. Images of the famous Japanese rock gardens came to mind, only much larger. The interesting aspect in this exhibit was an additional arrangement of clouds obscuring the very top of the rock arrangement. Besides the hard/soft contrast of the composition, the more intriguing aspect of this work was the fact that the top part was unseen. Our imagination was motivated to finish this work. Strong Grampians Art.

In another sculpture gallery two cars, in a close and final lover’s embrace, present a horrific still life. Very still. The engine block of one cuddled in the back seat of the other. Steering wheels around each other like caressing hands. Cracked headlights staring brokenly eye to eye. Steam hisses from the bend intertwined fenders. Final Hot Kiss. The visitor walks on broken glass. There are body parts and lots of the colour red is splashed about. The work is lit with flashing spotlights. Still life taken in, I move on.

Like most art galleries in this one I also found some another type of art, off-putting art, ‘lump’ as art. I refer here to a lump of dark grey concrete titled: ‘The Big Koala” It sits on the side of the road and people enter into it through its crutch. What are they looking for? What is it with this culture and the BIGGEST off everything? 

At the end of the long gallery I am rewarded with a remarkable installation. Painted against a backdrop of a South Australian spring blue sky I came across an installation titled: ‘The Adelaide hills in Spring’. A beautiful and intense work in many nuances of green, dotted with stunning displays of tree blossoms in pink and white. Memories of cherry blossom tours into the hills during the seventies. The whole washed in ethereal light, colour splashed freely about and all that to the soundtrack of the inevitable choir of magpies.

Upon my return, I am welcomed home with various messages written in the deep sun-tanned bronze calligraphy of fallen pine needles etched in the black wet forest paths.

At home, the silent still-life of the moonlit blossom of my garden’s plum tree took my breath away and reminded me of seeing nature as art, seeing nature with fresh eyes, seeing it as if for the first time. Everywhere.

I hope you are able to also turn your journeys into visits to long galleries and thus enrich your experience.

Petrus                                                                                           art@petrusspronk.com

TheArtyOfConfrontingTheBeasty

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Last Sunday morning, a soft gentle sunny day, so typical of this time of year around here, I was confronted by a snake.

"Was it a big one"? You may ask. Every snake who surprises you is big. This one was.

The Art of Confronting the Beasty

Stepping outside my studio for a breath of fresh air, there it was, basking its magical geometry in the mid-morning sun just outside my door.

First reaction. "Kill". I didn't though.

Why, I wondered, is our first reaction always to kill this magnificent beast. This symbol of the  creative spirit. This unfairly cast character in Adam and Eve's play. This most exquisitely patterned primordial piece of living rope. This silent slitherer.

Is this reaction built into our genes, is it the aggressive side of my male nature or is it fear. Blind fear. As in not being able to see. Not being able to understand.

I am not by nature aggressive and there was nothing to defend. I wasn't afraid of it in any way. A  little weary maybe, but not afraid.

We fear things mainly because we don't understand them.

In my case 'Fear' would have to apply to the meeting with the snake. Fear in relation to failing to understand. I don't know the particular ways of this marvellous mover. All I know about snakes are the indoctrinated and scary stories, whether they are from the biblical times of my childhood and therefore very strong, or more recent from anyone else, real or made up.

I slowly stepped back inside my studio to consider all this and, after considering, decided to try  and understand. To try and learn about the snake. After all, it was only early summer and I had a long snake time to come yet.

I have stated that 'Learning is the best healer' in this column before.

First therefore,  a re-look at my 'snake history'. I started my life in Australia at Bonegilla, where the  authorities educated/scared us with horror stories about snakes and spiders. Following this my first job was on a farm in N.S.W. It was hot and there were many snakes. I was taught how to  kill them. Effectively. Next I moved to the city of churches, Adelaide. The only snakes I had to watch out for there were of an entirely different kind. After a short stint in the city, for my education, I  returned to the country, the Flinder's Ranges in fact. There on the very day I moved into an old farm house I found a snake moving in at the same address. I didn't ask its name, nor did I introduce myself. I killed it. Afterwards I wondered why that made me feel awful.

Since moving into the forest, locally, I have hardly ever seen any snakes. Yet there are plenty around. Maybe I don't give them any attention.

I considered our collective arrogance summed up in the idea of: There is an animal, it doesn't suit me, BANG. Kill it. It begs the question. Doesn't  any animal has as much right to live on this patch as we have. Probably more so. It has been here much, much longer.

What is it with this white man attitude? I know, the problem with most animals is that they don't understand that they need to claim their bit of real estate by going to the Council and obtain their claim with a proper document, like us, superior beings. Then they would be able to do what they liked. Shoot things, poison stuff,  cut down trees, the whole catastrophy.

After these thoughts ran through my head I still had to deal with the snake. My 'concept' of snake,  which is different to a real one. I took off my glasses labelled 'Fear' and sat down near the snake. I  talked to it. I explained that we could live together but that there were certain rules. Easy. I sat and talked to it quietly for a long time. I was able to get quite close. There was no reason for it to attack me nor for me to kill it. In reality there hardly ever is. I have shown it the respect it deserves and now we will work on sharing this space, on living together.

"Silly Bugger" a neighbour said. 'Blind fear' I answered.

Petrus Spronk,

Snake Charmer

something very special

dear friends

you may have heard about
the local lives global matters conference
which will be held on the 16th, 17th and 18th of october
in castlemaine.

check the website for the flyer and the fullk program notes
@ www.locallivesglobalmatters.org

i would like to make you especially aware of a lecture
i will be presented during sunday the 18th
from 11am to 12.30 pm in the ray bradfield room,
which is just behind the market building.

my lecture is another look
at the life of an artist
who has his own ideas
about small foot prints 
and sustainable practices.

this is an intense presentation 
with a poetic look at the practices of a ceramist
which i have delivered to great acclaim at two regional galleries
but so far not yet in my own home district.

this is a talk not to be missed.
come and do yourself a favour
plus give yuorself a sunday treat.

then stay around of you wish
for other interesting presentations.
a day ticket costs $80.00 for waged and $50.00 for unwaged,
while a single talk cost $15.00 for waged and $10.00 unwaged,
which is very cheap for my amazing presentation.

hoping to see you there

i look forward to present a great event

petrus

 

JustMona

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a Mona Visit, a Must

I went to visit Mona, I now believe in GOD.

After running the gauntlet of ‘stuff you don’t need’ at the airport. After being shot at high speed through clouds into a soft blue space. After landing with a slight rumble onto the tarmac at Hobart, we were ready for Mona.

Where does one begin with this amazing and magical place. I suppose at the start would be good. A ferry ride up the Derwent river to the Mona landing followed by 99 steps took us to the entrance. A wonderful way to arrive. However, before we entered the Museum of Old and New Art there was much to see outside. Set in a frame of heavy slabs of rusted steel, a border with the outside world, we wandered and wondered from one art piece to another.

A larger then life cement truck created from waste sheets of rusted steel welcomed us into the land of magic and wonder. Wandering on we found ‘Chapel’, a building created from similar rusted steel by the same artist. ‘Exquisite’ comes to mind. Next, a huge slab of aluminium, suspended in the sky, has a square hole cut in it. I sit below it and view a framed aspect of the sky. This simple but strong and beautiful work seems based on the concept of the Zen view.

Time to enter the museum. Two doors of black glass, situated in a wall of mirrored metal, slide silently open into the entrance and the world of magic. The magic of art, the magic of architecture, plus the magic of both brilliance and madness combined. One takes a circular lift into a subterranean world and lands into a space, I imagine, not unlike that of Alice in wonderland. The first artwork to be experienced, besides the astonishing architecture, which, by the way, reminded me of being in an Egyptian pyramid, was a work where water dropped from a horizontal pipe and in that dropping created words. One word after the other dropping from above. Random words. Readable rain. A mesmerising work. 

Between this work and the last, which was a full size Porsch, manufactured in fire-engine red plastic, (Imagine this car blown up and becoming very fat,) were many truly fantastic works to be enjoyed, to marvel at and be surprised by. Works such as an eerie room, like a tomb. You walk on stepping stones, set in black water, towards a platform with two coffins, one with a mummy and one with video of the same mummy, which slowly reveals the inside of the mummy. So, in time, a skeleton is revealed. A powerful piece. In another space, on a black wall is a line of 77 3d white porcelain prints of vaginas. Each one different. Then there are numerous multimedia works and video installations. Plus throughout, special pieces of ancient art. One wonders where David Walsh, the creator of Mona, got these treasures.  

There was a clue when after a day spend in the museum, I once more wondered around outside and found his reserved car park. It stated in big bold letters ‘reserved’ ‘GOD’, with a slick car in front of it. GOD was home. Next to this was an equally shiny Mercedes with the words ‘reserved’ ‘GOD’s mistress’ on the wall.

That is why now, after visiting one of the most amazing museums I have ever experienced, I believe in GOD. Go and visit Mona. You haven’t lived until you do. You may even get a glimpse of GOD if he isn’t gambling somewhere, that is, to make more money to finance his wonderful museum.

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                                          At the cosmic filling station ask for a "full Tank"

 

Petrus

June 2015

thePleasuresofLearning

maeve staite with her sustainable house model

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The pleasures of learning

One of those wet watery windy winter days when the cold cuts right through your clothing no matter how warm you are dressed. I was walking up the bleakness of Vincent Street on my way to the Daylesford primary school to attend the sustainable housing expo, a project by the younger students of the school.

Entering the school I immediately became aware of ‘the warmth of welcome’.

This was carried right throughout my visit by the friendliness of both students and staff.

For this project the students of three classes had each made a model of a house with special attention to the possible sustainable qualities. Qualities which they had learned about as part of this term’s project.

There where as many different approaches to this brief as there were students. The variety of the work was enjoyable, impressive, inspiring and creatively exciting. I was once again reminded that whenever I see creative work by our young people I, as a member of the older generation, feel pretty hopeful that the future is in good hands, as I did once again when I viewed this particular expo.

I loved the creative answers the kids had come up with. The way things were interpreted. In some of the designs it was clearly evident that dad or mum had partaken in the task at hand, which I thought was another wonderful aspect of this project. Working together with your mum or dad. Working together with your son or daughter. Excellent outcome. In my mind’s eye I saw the family gathered around the table during a winter’s evening, knotting out the problems and finding answers. What stood out in all of this creation of architecture was the creative use of ordinary stuff. Stuff, that lies around the house, to interpret the various objects depicted as part of their buildings. For instance the use of a set of CDs as solar panels, or a drinking straw as a rainwater pipe. Simple. Effective.

This worthwhile project seems the natural continuation of the school’s kitchen garden project. Another project where kids are learning about care, wastage plus the growing, preparation and presentation of food. The thoughts entered my mind that in relation to my experience of primary school there was no comparison. Learning today seems such fun.

As if that wasn’t enough, there are those benefits of this project that you cannot see but that are just as important, if not more so. The fact that the kids who had taken part in this project will, from now on, have a new awareness about housing. When out and about, they will notice the things they have learned about in the environment around them and take notice. Thus they will keep on learning. The subtlest result of this project

With a project such as this, many aspects of learning are touched upon. Art, design, mathematics. model-making etc.

It is commonly understood that most students who take art as a subject at school will not become artists. However, those who attend art classes will have their lives greatly enriched by the way they have learned to look and see. This goes for all the other subjects as well. Learning about these things creates a greater awareness and thus a richer life experience.

Here I realised we were also presented with another very important lesson. That learning does not only happen in one’s head. Learning also happens from engaging the world with one’s hands, through one’s hands. Learning does not only come about from sitting at a desk. This rather narrow approach of desk learning does, for many students, at times more harm then good.

Looking at the result of this project and the absolute enthusiasm with which the students answered my questions and explained their work, it was obvious that this approach of making is successful and all involved should be commended for the creation of joy and pleasure in the learning process.

Petrus July 2015

for the NGV collection

series: the magic of the forest

title: 'intense silence

       falling leaves'

series: the magic of the forest

title: 'layers of leaf matter

 layers of history'

 

These two bowls

have been selected 

by the NGV 

for their collection

petrus

 June 2015

Mona AMustSee

I went to visit Mona, I now believe in GOD.

After running the gauntlet of ‘stuff you don’t need’ at the airport. After being shot at high speed through clouds into a soft blue space. After landing with a slight rumble onto the tarmac at Hobart, we were ready for Mona.

Where does one begin with this amazing and magical place. I suppose at the start would be good. A ferry ride up the Derwent river to the Mona landing followed by 99 steps took us to the entrance. A wonderful way to arrive. However, before we entered the Museum of Old and New Art there was much to see outside. Set in a frame of heavy slabs of rusted steel, a border with the outside world, we wandered and wondered from one art piece to another.

A larger then life cement truck created from waste sheets of rusted steel welcomed us into the land of magic and wonder. Wandering on we found ‘Chapel’, a building created from similar rusted steel by the same artist. ‘Exquisite’ comes to mind. Next, a huge slab of aluminium, suspended in the sky, has a square hole cut in it. I sit below it and view a framed aspect of the sky. This simple but strong and beautiful work seems based on the concept of the Zen view.

Time to enter the museum. Two doors of black glass, situated in a wall of mirrored metal, slide silently open into the entrance and the world of magic. The magic of art, the magic of architecture, plus the magic of both brilliance and madness combined. One takes a circular lift into a subterranean world and lands into a space, I imagine, not unlike that of Alice in wonderland. The first artwork to be experienced, besides the astonishing architecture, which, by the way, reminded me of being in an Egyptian pyramid, was a work where water dropped from a horizontal pipe and in that dropping created words. One word after the other dropping from above. Random words. Readable rain. A mesmerising work. 

Between this work and the last, which was a full size Porsch, manufactured in fire-engine red plastic, (Imagine this car blown up and becoming very fat,) were many truly fantastic works to be enjoyed, to marvel at and be surprised by. Works such as an eerie room, like a tomb. You walk on stepping stones, set in black water, towards a platform with two coffins, one with a mummy and one with video of the same mummy, which slowly reveals the inside of the mummy. So, in time, a skeleton is revealed. A powerful piece. In another space, on a black wall is a line of 77 3d white porcelain prints of vaginas. Each one different. Then there are numerous multimedia works and video installations. Plus throughout, special pieces of ancient art. One wonders where David Walsh, the creator of Mona, got these treasures.  

There was a clue when after a day spend in the museum, I once more wondered around outside and found his reserved car park. It stated in big bold letters ‘reserved’ ‘GOD’, with a slick car in front of it. GOD was home. Next to this was an equally shiny Mercedes with the words ‘reserved’ ‘GOD’s mistress’ on the wall.

That is why now, after visiting one of the most amazing museums I have ever experienced, I believe in GOD. Go and visit Mona. You haven’t lived until you do. You may even get a glimpse of GOD if he isn’t gambling somewhere, that is, to make more money to finance his wonderful museum.

Petrus

June 2015

ContainerContained

 The other day i had a good idea

and when you have a good idea 

you should act upon it, which i did

the good idea was to obtain a container

and to paint it white and place shelving around it

but then when i had placed all the brackets 

i couldn't help myself 

and do something different

just for a photo

which i did

 when, after a while

i installed the shelving

plus the bowls

it looked great

then, when this was finished,

(just have to install the led strip lights

which i will)

as a celebration of this result 

i took a walk in the forest and was rewarded 

with this beautiful image

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