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.

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!

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!

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?

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!

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.

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.

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.

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 ?

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

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 www.marianneslevin.com which James did such a brilliant job designing  for me, thank you James!

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.

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.

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.

“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.

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! 

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.

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!

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!

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

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!

I’m off the computer for a week as an experiment. So I will reply to any comments when I plug in in a week. I am off to use ink and paper and wax now. Have a great week everyone!

“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?

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.

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

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



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

Yes I promised and here some of them are! I want to try to keep these little things and not the major obvious ones like Loving my Family dearly, and art and music and poetry! Stars and the moon and nature and big trees and flowers on the table!

Bonfires! I adore them, camping, cooking ones and big tidy up ones.

Early mornings when everyone is still asleep having this kind of “extra” time for a long coffee.

Completing things, even pots of jam, filling them or emptying them! so I can tidy it away, as this is rare for me, things generally get half done constantly!

When things flow really easily, like getting the perfect car space, and things feel effortless.

Planting seeds in the garden, and eating from it later on.

First primroses, well all primroses really.

Dancing with my husband.

When I don’t burn the toast! (while I am dancing with my husband!)

Having just the right amount of something. (or sometimes more!)

Letters and cards from friends and family. (parcels are great too!)

Hugging the ones I love. (and kissing you know who!)

Long walks through places I have never been before.

Laying on the earth. Grass or warm rocks or sand or bog.

Getting a tan. It has been a couple of years now without a summer.

Watching my horse when she is happy leaping and bucking, and riding her when she is calm!

Seeing and hearing wild geese.

My Birthday!

Eating outside or eating lovely food inside.

The smell of incense, honeysuckle, coffee, foreign places, Edgeware Road with all it’s different types of food, the ground in Connamara smells of sweet wild flowers and clean sea.

Sledging.

Looking at our wedding photographs again.

Sorry this is probably getting boring! Not for me because I could go on all day!

I like to try and keep a relaxed happy expression on my face but some things provoke the snarl face! I thought it would be fun to write some of them down and share my own pet dislikes and foibles.

Some of them are:

Things that are actually designed to brake after you have them a while, so you probably will buy a replacement, stupidly I usually do!

When you transfer money from one account to another in the same bank it actually vanishes for a couple of days, while the bank charges you a fee because the money did not reach the other account on time!

The time trick of there being actually no hours between midnight and 7am, or is that just a Doolin phenomenon?

Mud, I try to appreciate the earth but not fully there yet!

Wind, especially when it blows the car door open with such a force that it nearly knocks us all over, naughty Husband says that it is the only time the car gets cleaned out! Hair over eyes and in mouth so snarl face is hidden.

Rain, this I really need to work on over coming as there is just so much of it living in a cloud most of the time!

Spell check and its lack of understanding me!

Cables, hundreds of cables every where!

Last but certainly not less “stuff” everywhere, growing by the day, toys and loads of stuff I just cant throw away!

Once while I was having a snarl face episode I stopped and realized how lucky I am and suddenly became really grateful instead and I was no longer irritated just very happy! I must remember that the next time!

Tomorrow I will write about little things that make me feel very happy just to keep a balance!