Dawn Whitehand: Visual Artist
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Object
It has been a while since I participated in a WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge because Christmas, New Years and getting married has pretty much filled my head!!
But, I do need to get myself back on track, so, in an attempt to do that, this weeks challenge the “object” has aroused my interest.
While my offering may not be very creative ‘composition’ wise, I am hoping the viewer might ask – which subject is the ‘object’?
This question may be difficult to answer because the contrast between the two living organic surfaces – one a moving ‘object, the other a stationary ‘object’ – is a dynamic highlighted by the individual textures of the two juxtaposed ‘objects’.
I also appreciate the ragged wings of this butterfly – in its short life it seems to have had many fights (so it is probably a male), and the contrast of this upon the lichen tree limbs demonstrates an ongoing theme in my artwork – IE : the environment and humanities inter-dependence on it, a theme explored in my PhD.
This image was taken in my backyard (a 10 acre property) where I have lots of wildlife, and I just love propagating the environment for wildlife, preserving it, watching it, photographing it and appreciating it!
Butterflies live from between 1-4 weeks depending on the species. I tried to google what this butterfly was, but couldn’t find it….
This post is part of the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge…. check out more entries here.
Weekly Photo Challenge: From Lines to Patterns
Usually when a creative prompt is given to me about ‘pattern’ I think of the the natural environment or the organic surfaces of my ceramics and how those two concepts blend together, but throw in the word ‘line’ and it adds a whole new dimension.
So, this weeks WordPress photo challenge immediately drew my mind to the urban environment which is quite often a combination of lines, patterns and textures – especially old and crumbling built landscapes.
I’d love to comb through my current and immediate environment for some inspiration, but am a bit flat chat at the moment, so after shuffling through some images I already have I decided to post some shots of gorgeous lines and patterns I collected while in Italy earlier this year.
I hope you think they are gorgeous too 🙂
Other entries in this weeks photo challenge can be seen here: http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/09/20/lines-patterns/
Weekly Photo Challenge: An Unusual POV
My POV involves looking ‘down’ a tree instead of ‘up’ a tree!
The image was taken along the shore line in Geelong – I am not sure what type of trees they are, but I love the textured bark on the trunks.
My other POV is of the same tree, but focusing in on one particular aspect of the papery bark.
This post is part of the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge and other posts can be viewed here:
http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/09/06/unusual/
© Dawn Whitehand 2013
Weekly Photo Challenge: Sea
Hhmmmm… What do I visualise when I think “sea”?
Aahhh…the Mediterranean!!
The following images were taken while on a residency in France in 2010 and while exhibiting in Italy in 2012.
During the France residency I made artworks based on the natural environment – it was the first time I had been to Europe! The final image in the photo mosaic is a series of pieces I made based on some sea pebbles I found whilst walking along the shoreline.
Enjoy 🙂
This post is part of the Weekly Photo Challenge : Sea – more entries can be viewed here
http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/weekly-photo-challenge-sea/
Weekly Photo Challenge: Masterpieces (1)
Weekly Photo Challenge: Masterpieces Part 1 & Part 2
I was undecided about how to tackle this weeks photo challenge – so I decided to publish two posts. this is Part 1. Part 2 can be viewed here: http://dawnwhitehand.com/2013/08/01/weekly-photo-challenge-masterpieces-2/
PART 1
I have come across so many masterpieces during my overseas travels, and while I would love to do a post on small incidental ‘masterpieces’, the big ones just so boggle your mind when you actually see them! Not to mention those you are not allowed to photograph (although with iphones everybody was clicking away!), such as David at Accademia Gallery in Florence and the inside of the amazing Basilica in Venice. Of course, then there there are the off-beat masterpieces, such as the ‘religious’ paintings I saw in a church in Rome on the via Nazionale. It was a church that had steps leading down to it from the street – something unusual in church psychology, as usually churches lead upwards towards the heavens. Within this church were quite unorthodox paintings featuring very natural depictions of the environment, nature and people – not at all the the typical depiction of saints and churchly activities normally decorating such sacred walls. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to research the church a bit more, as we were on our way to catching a train so we couldn’t stop and peruse, though I did get some photos; but it is definitely on my curiosity list for the next visit.
Having said all of that, I do remember visiting a gallery in Vietnam back in 2009 where there was no ‘gallery’ climate control, but merely fans to keep the visitors comfortable, regardless of how it caused the paintings to bang backwards and forwards on the walls. This was no fault of the gallery curator, who was educated on all aspects of preservation and curatorialship – it was to do with funding! The question that weighs down many arts projects world wide.
And of course then there were all the original Picasso’s I saw while in France, including the chapel he painted in Vallourus. And speaking of chapels, what about the Matisse chapel in Vence, France (couldn’t take photos in there, however)….
And so the big question of what to post as a masterpiece?
The challenge calls for one image – so I will post one main image, with a photo mosaic of some other images. Unfortunately all of these images are Italy shots, as my USB drive needs replacing on my computer, so I can’t access images from my other travels (France, Vietnam, Korea- I have been jiggling the connections for over an hour- maybe I will update this post in the future)…
The image I am posting as the main masterpiece I enjoy because it extends beyond the perimeters of the paintings boundaries – I like breaking rules….
Images on church ceilings are so hard to capture, but hopefully it captures the mood, and the gold gilding surrounding it!!
And here is the mosaic of images 🙂
Further contributions to this WordPress weekly photo challenge can be viewed here:
http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/07/26/out-of-this-world/
What’s in a Name?
Dawn : The first appearance of light in the sky before sunrise… sounds great, right? Discuss…
It seems kind of appropriate that I am writing about my ‘name’ on my birthday – yep 30th May 19*3 – 6.30 am at 6 Lb something.
I was named by my dad, who was very sporty – footy, swimming, boxing, Olympics, you name it – after Dawn Fraser, a famous, and controversial(I like that bit) Australian swimmer. She won eight Olympic medals, including four gold medals, and six Commonwealth Games gold medals, and she held 39 swimming records. The controversy surrounding her occurred during the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. She marched in the opening ceremony wearing an older issue swimming costume because it was more comfortable than the one supplied by the sponsors, thus angering said sponsors and the Australian Swimming Union (ASU). During the same games she was also accused and charged of stealing an Olympic flag from a flagpole outside Emperor Hirohito’s palace. Released without charge, she was given the flag as a souvenir. However, the ASU suspended her for 10 years, basically destroying her swimming career. HOWEVER…. rumour has it that it was all a scheme because she was thought to be a lesbian!! Shheezz…
Anyway I love the controversy surrounding my ‘name’!
Me and Dad October 1964
Therefore, I have never really wanted to change my name…. Except for the time during the early 1970s (I think, approximately) when a product called Dawn’s Toilet Paper was introduced onto the market (yikes, now you’re gonna know how old I am), that was not an attractive time for me. AND, I don’t want to talk about it…
Then of course, there was Dawn dishwashing liquid! What is with the word Dawn anyways?? What has pure morning light got to do with toilet paper and washing dishes? I know, I know: purity, cleanliness…. but gee wizz, give me a break!
So, a few decades later and the name still sticks (if you’ll excuse the pun) but you may be happy to know I now have a nickname, sort of… well the only person that uses it is my partner, who also happened to make it up… DeeDee.
Today’s birthday card
How did this nickname come about? Well, a little known fact about me is that I have a PhD… so Dr Dawn – DeeDee!
However, I have extended the use of this name to some jewellery and ceramic designs I work on , and I am thinking of adopting it as the design name for my sculpture and drawing as well – decisions, decisions… basically I don’t know if I should be known by my name as an artist or brand myself – thoughts??
Anyway, that is my name.
I am named after someone.
There is a story attached to it.
And I would not change it for the world.
Swimmers Ankles!
Some links about Dawn Fraser 🙂
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_Fraser
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/stories/s306113.htm
this is a WordPress daily Prompt challenge and more entries can be viewed here :http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/05/28/daily-prompt-name/
Weekly Photo Challenge: Escape
I am responding to this weeks photo challenge with a cutesy funny image I took on 30th January 2009 on the grass area outside the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne. That Summer was particularly hot – so hot that the concrete footpath along the front of the library cracked and spewed upward like molten lava!
There are lots of seagulls on this grass area, as it is a popular spot for office workers to sit for their lunch breaks… but without trees for shade these seagulls were bustling for the shade of a slender lamp post to ESCAPE the heat!!
© Dawn Whitehand 2013
More entries to the Weekly Photo Challenge can be viewed here: http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/05/17/photo-challenge-escape/
Weekly Photo Challenge: Pattern
I’ve decided, for this weeks photo challenge, to post some organic, natural patterns – namely the type that occurs in the textured glazes I use on some of my ceramic sculpture. The glazes I use are formulated to highlight the natural shapes of the forms, and the patterns that eventuate are based on fractal structures – a term introduced by French mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot (born 1924) in 1975 to describe the ever recurring uneven and apparent random – yet predictable – patterns that happen in nature. This theory also ties into chaos theory – which is actually not chaotic, but in fact also predicable!
I have also included a detail of a piece of handmade paper made from natural materials… again this handmade process using natural materials has formed an organic, yet repetitive pattern.
Patterns such as this, and indeed fractal and chaos theory, are an amazing insight into the inherent rules of nature – as opposed to the constructed and controlled patterns of humankind.
More posts for this weeks photo challenge can be seen here:
http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/weekly-photo-challenge-pattern/
Weekly Photo Challenge: From Above
My inspiration for this weeks photo challenge once again comes from Harajuku, Japan where, as I walking over Harajuku bridge I spotted a calligraphy artist painting and selling his artworks to passer-bys… the perspective “from above” was certainly different to the usual view one encounters when passing street vendors at pathway level.
You can see more entry to this Weekly Photo Challenge here:http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/05/03/weekly-photo-challenge-from-above/
Street artist under Harajuku bridge, Japan
© Dawn Whitehand 2013
Weekly Photo Challenge: Culture
This weeks photo challenge is about culture and, as a challenge, prefers to have only one photo capturing the theme. So …. yikes!! what to choose – crazy traffic-scapes in Asia, fruit people/Lolita in Harajuku, water produce sellers in Vietnam, wall to wall vending machines in Japan, the list goes on.
Although tempted to post an example of each, I’ve stuck to the “brief” and posted, what I think, is the best example from the mix… I hope you agree…. but it’s all very subjective, isn’t it?
So I have decided on an image I took whilst in Japan in 2009 capturing the growing trend of young people dressing up in defiance of their rigid conservative culture and exhibiting themselves in Harajuku, Japan. This has become a weekly event that is attended from all over Japan by young people as a means to rebel against conventional ‘culture’ – so I guess this image is capturing counter -culture!
This Sunday event also entices a large amount of tourists, and the young gals and guys there love showing off their outfits and having photos taken… in the great tradition of breaking current cultural rules!
If you ever get to visit Harajuku, it is a lovely city, and there is a great market that sells all the Bo-Beep and Lolita outfits you could ever need 🙂
You can visit more weekly photo challenges here :
http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/04/26/photo-challenge-culture/
This work by Dawn Whitehand is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.