V & A:philatelic design

Currently on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum is the work of Natalia Lamanova and Alexander Khopolov. These artists have created beautiful examples of philatelic design inspired by themes of personal identity, subjugation and control and work which is a celebration of Russian architecture and history, using a combination of subtle typography, layered digital and lithographic processes. 

These images also inspired me to create my own digital stamp designs - Lamanova's 'passport' piece is digital print like my own - and this process is reflected in the quality and clarity of the finished artwork. 
The scale of my final A4 stamp sheets enhanced these tiny Madonna-esque portraits, making them visually more attractive, intensifying their colour and design detail and producing uniform repeat patterns reminiscent of a fabric or textile print. 
I included perforations (and hand rendered dots are used to represent rows of holes for my InDesign file examples) in order to physically separate each individual stamp. Therefore, on an A4 sheet each image appears as a single portrait in its own right with selected type linking to each Renaissance image and a selvedge to mark the edge of the sheet as in Lamanova’s work. My series of final outcomes reflect both a nostalgic and contemporary view of these miniature framed Madonnas.

Natalia Lamanova (1964)

Passport and war card

2002

Natalia Lamanova works in graphic and digital media. Her prints are often arranged like sheets of postage stamps with perforations for separating the individual stamps and a selvedge or self-finished edge that marks the end of the sheet. These images come from a passport photograph of the artist and photos of her partner Alexander Khopolov, perhaps from his military identity card. They suggest issues of national identity and the limits of state control.

The stamps each bear slightly variant images of the same symbols for 'This way up' (an open umbrella) and 'fragile' a wine glass, plus variant lettering in Russian and English including the words 'LAMANOVA' and 'This passport'; the artist's date of birth and a date-stamp of 1999. The central image of each stamp is a passport photograph of the artist. Each is a different colour: red, pink, blue and green. The predominant colour of the sheet is greyish pink.

Alexander Khopolov (1948 – 2016)

80 Moscow Manhole covers

1996

Alexander Kholopov was a leading exponent of mail art and the artist’s stamp. This set of collectors’ stamps parodies the patriotic souvenir sets published by the Soviet government to celebrate architectural landmarks or technological achievements. Each stamp is dedicated to one of the events and personalities from history, the arts and popular culture that inspired the artist over the years. This work is a set of lithographs. 

MY St. Catherine

This digital print - again researching and sampling the paintings of Raphael, Titian and Da Vinci - but now with Matisse-style nude linear repeats to make up the patterns for this particular Madonna image. The final female is a combination of three paintings - Madonna del latte by Da Vinci, The Aldobrandini Madonna by Titian and St Catherine by Raphael. 

 I tried vibrant colours for one example but in an attempt to retain my current style for the other 'mother' prints kept to a more limited colour palette. I like the continuation of the 'bubble' pattern appearing as a constant - see Boris Mikhailov's 'red' series - where one idea - colour, shape, pattern -  becomes the thread running through the work.
https://frieze.com/article/boris-mikhailov

TATE MODERN

In London to see the Robert Rauschenberg exhibition I took these photographs from the following exhibitions -
Living Cities by Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen and Red by Boris Mikhailov. I was drawn to these photographers' female portraits. There is something visceral and 'real' about the way in which each image documents a moment in time, a considered snapshot of life. From the daily routines of women in Byker to Mikhailov's beautiful Russian subjects accentuated and accessorised by splashes of red. Both artists make the ordinary extraordinary.

LIVING CITIES

Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen

'Introducing the two room living cities display is a series of photographs by the Finnish born artist Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen which records an inner city community in the years before their neighbourhood was demolished.

Byker was an estate of nineteenth century terraced houses, located in Newcastle upon Tyne. She lived there in 1969 when the area was already destined for demolition to make way for a new purpose built estate. Despite this Konttinen was drawn to the humour, vibrancy and resilience of the residents and decided to make it her home, living in the area until her own house was demolished. The Byker series contains a variety of photographs taken over twelve years, from images captured spontaneously on the street, to intimate views into the home of the people of Byker.

Konttinen set up a portrait studio in a disused hairdressing salon, offering free portraits to local residents Her continued engagement with the local community helped her to gain their trust.

‘Being a foreigner gave me one advantage: I could be nosey, and be forgiven’. ‘ Many doors were opened for me that would have remained closed to another photographer and invitations extended to the kind of hospitality and intimacy that would normally be reserved for family only’.

In 1969 Konttinen helped to found the Amber Film and Photography Collective. 

Based in Newcastle, their objective is to establish a creative relationship with local communities and to document working class life in the region. Konttinen is still active in the group today'.

http://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern/display/living-cities/sirkka-liisa-konttinen

RED

Boris Mikhailov

'Red is the symbol of the soviet. Having united the picture by the colour red, I mad a series about ‘the soviet’ yes red in Russian is beauty and blood and the red flag everyone associate red with communism maybe that’s enough but few know that red went through all our life on all its levels'.

BABE   1st - 2nd April 2017 

'It's back! The sixth biennial festival of artist book making, featuring the work of bookmakers and small presses from around the world. Since 2007, BABE has established a great reputation as a relaxed and friendly event to meet and chat to book artists about their work and buy works of art. With more than 80 makers taking part, and prices start from just a few pounds, there will be something for everyone. Expect performances, interventions, talks and workshops across the weekend too. Featuring artists from all over the UK, Ireland, The Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Norway and South Korea. BABE 2017 includes a mini exhibition, performances, interventions, book making workshops and more! See the series of events happening throughout the weekend. Organised with Sarah Bodman (Centre for Fine Print Research, UWE) and Tom Sowden (Bath School of Art and Design, Bath Spa University).'

BABE 2017 was chock full of books. This event was a steamy cacophony of visually stimulating artists' books from absolutely everywhere. Big books, small books, books made unusual materials, wordless books, textured books, sculptural books etc. If you could dream it then it was there.

Kate Bernstein at BABE2017 after her talk:
Discourse and Delight a multitude of books

Kate Bernstein bookartist gave an intellectual and accessible illustrated talk, 'Discourse and Delight - A Multitude of Books, describing her current practice and showed inspiring images of the newest additions to her book family. Like Kate, many artists at the Arnolfini event spoke passionately about the work they were showing. I particularly liked the large format fold-out silkscreen piece by Tom McDonald and Tania McCormack - textural and splashy.

Tom McDonald and Tania McCormack

Amy-Jane BLACKHALL

Amy-Jane Blackhall

Producing sugar lift and carborundum prints
for Howard Hodgkin

Close up of Howard Hodgkin print

The most recent UWE lecture given by Amy-Jane Blackhall was inspirational on a number of levels. I found what resonated most with me was the mantra to basically keep going, even without an obvious direction keep making work, diversify and don't give up.

Gillian Ayres print

I won't explain the history of AJ's career or ingenuity as she can do that herself  - follow this link 


https://inkonpaperpress.com/about/ 

Though AJ is an artist who has transferable skills, an artist who 'does the business' collaborating with other established artists and successfully editioning their work, she is also an artist in her own right, continuing to produce work amalgamating the inspiration garnered from other creatives using all current technologies at her disposal. The Master Printer Jack Shireff was obviously hugely influential on AJ's career and through this creative involvement with him, also importantly, was her association with artists Howard Hodgkin and Gillian Ayres.
http://www.marlboroughcollege.org/art/art-school-life/artists-visits/printmaking-workshop-with-jack-shirreff/
https://www.artrabbit.com/events/template-exhibition

Amy-Jane Blackhall's calm, yet confident, demeanour reflects a successful artist who is pretty intrepid.

SERENDIPITY, ALCHEMY, INSPIRATION

GARMENT THREE: inspired by 'Madonna of the Yarnwinder' by Leonardo Da Vinci

This description details the process involved in developing this piece of work for my third garment. Im starting with the initial painting by Leonardo Da Vinci and have attempted to represent colours and symbolic imagery of the period which are both contemporary but relevent to the Renaissance.

The female portrait sampled from the ‘Madonna of the Yarnwinder (1499) has remained true to the original, apart from its conversion to black and white and with the addition of a textured halftone (in keeping with the previous two garment designs). There is a moiré pattern present here and the effect not only compliments the darker umber halftone pattern used in the background headscarf but also gives the impression of delicate flower buds. 

The halo contains the ‘Elizabeth 1^st’ pattern – keeping the link with ‘Yellow Lady’- and I have replicated a cherubic baby sampled from the painting ‘Madonna of the Carnation’ by Leonardo Da Vinci. This baby has been colourised, retaining a more realistic skin tone (complete with the same halo design).

Once again the positioning of this Madonna with child was central to the front panel of my third garment retaining the ’human’ focus. The back panel of the dress again is an abstract section of the faded terracotta background combined with a section of figurative nudes reversed out of black.

Gary Hume - Don't say a prayer for me now

The opaque hands (which encircle the child) are reversed out and lack any detail (reminiscent of the work of Gary Hume ‘ Don’t say a prayer for me now’). They are the final digital layer and are collaged photographic images. The hand position focuses the composition centrally on the child looking at his mother and reinforces the closeness between them.

A collection of earth tones make up the majority of this design – from the opaque faded terracotta background to the vibrant warm orange patterned halo – against the strength of the black circles of the body of the Madonna - these curved abstract shapes echo the female shape. This is the only digital image which has not been interpreted as a silkscreen print. The delicate details contained within the halo and the intricate figurative patterns on the robe are more effective when reproduced as a digital and textile print; giving an improved clarity of line and an enhanced, richer strength of colour.