The Guernsey Arts Commission are promoting a new event you can all get involved in. The details are as follows:

Pianos in the street of St Peter Port…

Musical or not, we invite you to play the pianos and get involved with this community arts project.

‘Let’s Play’
Pianos in the streets of St Peter Port is a community arts project which has been masterminded by local musician conductor James Henderson and supported by the Guernsey Arts Commission. Read more

Artists, architects, academics and arts administrators from around the world will be in Guernsey on the 23 and 24 September to examine the position that art holds in our society. Discussions will include whether an island such as Guernsey can play a more active role and benefit from being part of the international art world.

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Cymbolism is an online experiment that lets you associate colours with words. A random word is selected with a brief description and you can click the coloured box that you feel most closely captures the essence of the word. I think the palette from which to choose is rather limited, being primarily bright colours but it’s an interesting idea and I like the way previous results are displayed using coloured bars at the bottom of the site. Being able to view results by gender, age, geo-location etc would also make it more valuable as a tool.

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A new exhibition is opening at the greenhouse gallery later this month entitled St Peter Port: past and present.

Showing for the first time in public, drawings with watercolour washes of three streets in St Peter Port. These townscapes from the 1970’s, were commissioned by the Environment Department and were drawn by Robert Reed (while he was attending the Central School of Art in London). They capture a moment in history and, alongside these long landscape drawings, we plan to show photographs pf some of the same detail as they are now.

The exhibition runs from 25th July - 11th September 2008.

A new exhibition opens at the Greenhouse organised by the Film, Writers and Poets Sub-Committee of the new Guernsey Arts Commission, of locally sourced literature and film.

Poetry and Prose readings will be scheduled throughout the evening of Thursday 26th June between 5.30pm - 7.30pm. As well as the readings there will two short films (arranged by CinéGuernsey) designed to transport you through the power of film into a poetic world.

Exhibition runs until 17th July, exhibited poetry will change weekly.

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“With the help of a GPS device and DHL, I have drawn a self portrait on our planet. My pen was a briefcase containing the GPS device, being sent around the world. The paths the briefcase took around the globe became the strokes of the drawing.”
Eric Nordenankar - Biggest drawing in the World

An exhibition which explores art in the public realm, considering its breadth, range and positive social and cultural impacts upon the community. As part of the Guernsey Arts Commission’s mandate to raise the profile and provision of Public Art in the island, this exhibition considers the possible adoption of Public Art in Guernsey. With examples from leading British sculptor Antony Gormley, and also examples from around the globe in the accompanying exhibition publication. This exhibition stands to challenge your percenptions of what Public Art can be and what it can achieve.

The exhibition runs from 11th April  - 19th June 2008.

Visit the Greenhouse website

Accompanying Lectures - free admission:
Alastair Snow:
Former Senior Public Art Officer for Bristol City Council now working as an independent advisor will give a lecture on the importance of art within the community.
Tuesday 15th April, 7.00pm - 8.30pm at Frossard Theatre, Guernsey Museum and Art Gallery, Candie Gardens.

Antony Gormley:
Leading contemporary Birtish Sculptor.
Friday 18th April, 7.30pm - 8.30pm at the Performing Arts Centre.
To attend this lecture please register at info@orchardevents.com or contact Fiona Murray on 240600.
This lecture is sponsored by HSBC Private Bank.

Way back in 2000 Sodaplay was let free to roam the internet. I remember seeing and being amazed by all Java the creations that people had made; wire-frame, mechanical/organic constructs that ‘walked’ by way of perpetual motion. Anyone could create their own creature, adding limbs, movement and changing the psychics, it was fun and playful as well as educational.

However as the years past I forgot all about Sodaplay until I saw the Kinetic Sculptures called “Strandbeests” (Beach Creatures) by Dutch artist, Theo Jansen. They are Sodaplay creations in the wild, large skeletal works powered by the wind. Beautifully engineered their wings flap and legs scuttle, as they walk across sandy beaches, traversing both the wet sand near the shore and the softer dry sand higher up.

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This may be a couple of years old now but it’s still a great piece of animation. It was created by Alan Becker in 2006 and has now been updated with smoother graphics.

Click on the image, or the following link to view the animation, then click play and sit back and enjoy a piece of creative brilliance.

Animator vs. Animation

Alan has created version 2 of the animation which can be seen on his DeviantArt website: alanbecker.deviantart.com

Whilst at the Bristol Artists Book Event in 2007 at the Arnolfini I stumbled (not literally) across a very nice lady and her very nice typewriter. This was the illustrator Nadine Faye James, She was creating these amazing typed portraits. No photo was required, I sat for a couple of minutes and my letter-head was created.

I am incredibly happy with my portrait and its surprisingly cheap cost, a fantastic £1. It came in a little brown envelope which, also included a card with the text ‘Available for Weddings and Bar Mitzvahs’. So if you would like to add a bit of illustration and fun to your big day get in contact with Nadine Faye James.

Nadine is working as an illustrator and her clients include Random House, Bloomsbury and The Guardian. I recently saw a write up on her in Januarys Grafik magazine which was the review of the year issue, so I’m sure she is doing all the right things.