Layers, Stories: Notting Hill and Camden
Camden and Notting Hill August 2023
Not the Best Pictures in the World….Yet, but
I photo anything that moves or not, way too many times. Primarily because I don’t want to miss a thing. However, the only story the above tells is ‘I went to Camden’ and Notting Hill Carnival. SO WHAT. That is not art or even photography that sets the world on fire, but memories and also a selection of useful layers that can be used to add depth to a story that is unfolding. Possibly.
They are a few maybe useful images selected from a bunch, that I took in preparation for a job in November this year, which is based at the Dublin Castle, Camden London, featuring Superfecta and is also the launch party for Aurovine Music Club.
Sometimes location appropriate imagery is helpful, and abstract colour always is. good to have for more complex fine art imagery.
layers
Painting on a canvas traditional style, used layers of paint to build up an image. This was for primarily practical reasons often, I assume for many of the classic, old-school favourites, but every artist has had THAT day where they annihilate their nearly completed creation and with fresh energy embrace a clean slate.
However, I am also aware many great artists use(d) layers, adding and subtracting to scratch and claw away dislike, as well as repaint and reimagine and recreate something they do like/a new outcome.
The canvas is not a piece of dead cloth or wood. It is an interactive energy field with its own raison d’être. Nothing exists by accident. And nothing is at molecular level, anything other than particles that resonant at a specific frequency, When the artist or scientist make a relationship with the canvas, they energetically connect., So does the artist just influence the outcome or does the canvas have any say in it? I think it really depends on your perspective. Or in other words how far down the rabbit hole you are prepared to go.
Stories
All decent stories have layers. Like a Disney film, you can watch it as a kid and enjoy the clever animation. Or you watch it as an adult and appreciate subtle depth that younger minds can’t see.
In real life, stories are never 1 dimensional. They always have at least 2 sides, which can be radically different, due to the perspective they are shared from.
My art, commercial projects aside, speaks of deep journeys where you are not supposed to see everything straight away., Life is complex and our stories change over time too, as the relationships, situations and perspectives involved, evolve. They are never ending, until we die, they just loop around, with the addition of new layers or subtraction of others, both those containing joy and sadness, until we close that book and say NEXT.
