Chair

~ Acrylic on canvas ~

Even though this isn't a fantastic painting that you would die to see it has some history in it. I won't tell you but i'll suggest that you check out the top left corner. That's real.

Artist's studio

 ~Acrylic on Canvas~

1m x 1m

Based on the topic of an artists studio this painting was for my TAFE class. It was the very first topic we had at the beginning of the year but I hadn't completed it till a few weeks ago and so here it is.  This is not my real studio as I don't actually have one and so I used my creative head. It was very difficult at first for me to come up with this idea and I had to first go through all the bad ideas to come to this. I went through the immediately obvious choices, through the semi-plagiaristic ideas and then onto the mind block moments. I got there eventually though.

I rather like how this turned out; I love the balance of the painting compositionally and because it was supposed to be monochromatic I enjoy the greens and blues [I know, not exactly monochrome]. Anyway, I enjoyed this, even if acrylic is a pain, drying so fast!

Enjoy =)

©Holly Cashman.

Any images on my blog are not to be reposted without linking back to here or without reference to me as the artist and not to be altered in any way without my written consent.

Casualties

A Triptych I created for my Photography class at TAFE. The assignment was to be a political commentary using toys as props. During the plotting stage of these photographs I was reading a book my friend lent me called 'Raising my voice' by Malalai Joya. The book recounted her experiences in Afghanistan and the surrounding countries during her early years and the Soviet occupation and then later into her adult life and the war between the Taliban and America etc. This really inspired me to create these images based on the Afghani war.

I wanted to get across that its not the Taliban nor the American people who are the casualties of this war. Since the start of all this, including the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, there have been hundreds of thousands, and even possibly millions of deaths, nearly all being that of civilians. Between the few months when we hear about an Australian or American soldiers death [which is extremely sad, and my heart goes out to those families who have lost  members in this war] hundreds of civilians have died. I wanted to get that across in this triptych.

I know that peace is not an easy thing to come to. Its something which is so fragile it can be destroyed by even the smallest miscommunication and its is not something one person can create but we can all hope that one day some kind of agreement can be reached which will stop the tragic blood shed.

©Holly Cashman.

Any images on my blog are not to be reposted without linking back to here or without reference to me as the artist and not to be altered in any way without my written consent.

ICONS

A Triptych done for photography with the theme of 'Icon' and what it means to us. I chose to focus on the Iconic golden halo used to depict saints as religious icons. The saints who gain this honour deserve it and earned the right to wear the halo. My thought was to comment on the way in which they came to gain this honour.

Most of, if not all of the saints were granted sainthood after their death for their acts which were ironically in contradiction to the ideas and thoughts of those who sainted them. Frequently these are martyred people who have been adopted by the very people who killed them. I always found it so sad how these great people lived their life faced with opposition and were only really treasured after their deaths. I also despise the way in which those that murdered them then turned after their deaths and used their martyrdom for their own good, to say that, 'we believed in what they stood for all along'!

My thought was to get across the pain and suffering which went into their 'sainthood' but, I think as a result of my failed acting skills the facial expressions may not be quite spot on. I will continue to work on this and hope to develop this idea in the future, hopefully with greater success.

©Holly Cashman.

Any images on my blog are not to be reposted without linking back to here or without reference to me as the artist and not to be altered in any way without my written consent.

LUNA PARK

I was thinking the other day that my blog was a little desolate and empty and so the bright idea came to me that I should post something. To keep my many followers *cough* Mum *cough* happy, I decided to post this bright and colourful, yet bleak image to satisfy and I hope that it will suffice. I spent many hours plotting out its composition in my head before taking these photographs....*cough*

These were taken at Luna Park at the start of April for TAFE's Workshop week. For those who don't attend the St George TAFE and happened to have stumbled upon my humble blog this is a week dedicated to one project which allows us to do a self-directed work, rather than a structured piece within our syllabus or pre-determined classes.

The first day of the week is spent casing out our themed destination; getting all the info and reference materials we will need. In other words we simply walk around taking photographs while the rare dedicated student scribbles little sketches in their book. We are then required to use our creative little minds to shape an art piece in any medium we like, based on the previously mentioned place; Luna Park. We spend the rest of the week on this little side project under the tyrannical eye/guidance of our teachers (I'm kidding, the teachers at St George are actually rather lovely!) and then are required to finish the work in our own time... Something I'm not sure is best in my case.

Though I have these photographs they are not the piece I will be handing in. These were my reference photos while I was still not sure what I was wanting to achieve nor what I would create under the overwhelming amount of colour my senses were bombarded with. I liked these purely for self-interest.

The real project I have been working on is a patterned Paper Mache clown. He stands at approximately 2 feet and is still in the paper mache-ing stage. I hope to have him complete soon but I must first put rocks in his feet, finish papering his legs and then dunk him in a vat of House paint before I even get down to applying the delicate patterns I copied from Luna Parks walls and merry-go-round. In either case, I shall post photographs of him in his various stages at a later date, for now, I simply want to post these photographs.

Enjoy!

 LUNA PARK, SYDNEY, NSW, AUSTRALIA

©Holly Cashman.

Any images on my blog are not to be reposted without linking back to here or without reference to me as the artist and not to be altered in any way without my written consent.