Jeanet Honig - From painted canvas to painted floors.

Jeanet Honig, a German painter living in Zurich, Switzerland stepped 'out of her box' and I love that.

Feeling restricted by the size of her large painted canvases, she began creating furniture and doors and finally finding expression in huge pieces of floor art. She discovered polypropylene, used for creating industrial floors, amazed that although a huge palette of colours was available, no one had thought of mixing them together to create interesting floor design. She was able to 'paint' huge areas with her individual and colourful designs to create unique floors.

'Polypropylene was being used for factory floors already, but it was always a uniform colour. There were many colours to choose from but people never mixed them. I couldn't see a reason not to'. JH

Pictures from idFX Magazine. Oct 2003 p.102/103. Also from http://www.jeanet-honig-design.com/

Some of her floor art covers 6,000 sq. m. She must work fast as the polypropylene sets quickly and there is no room for error. Wearing spiked shoes, the large areas are scraped into pre drawn shapes with large wooden spatulas and 'edging' is poured from a watering can. Inspired by urban life, she uses minimalist shapes and bold colour. 'combining art and function'.

To my knowledge, Jeanet has created a unique way of working, creating art which everyone can enjoy and she creates each project herself.

I can see a link with my own dilemma. I have been obsessed with my love of working on the square, enjoying geometric designs which change with the drape and movement of silk. Working with the division of space within a boundary, I create simple shapes using a combination of 'free' screens and painting. These 'scarves' are my paintings. If it were a painting on canvas, I could price it at any price the market would stand, but as a scarf, there is an upper price limit. Creating 'one offs' is so time consuming that I know I cannot make a profit unless I value that piece at a price which takes into consideration the length of time it has taken to make. Such is the dichotomy - art or craft or design? Is Jeanet's work art or design?. It is both, and she has found a way of expressing her art through a new medium finding a way to make here work both desirable and commercial.

Study of 'Blacks'.

The Magpie is said to be black and white, but her 'black' feathers shine with blues and purples. The 'black' Dor Beetle shines with iridescent turquoise and purples.

The Australorp chicken is said to be black but it's feathers gleam with greens and blues.

The Corvus, (Crow, rook or raven), are black - or are they?.

'Corvus' Etching by Julia Manning.

COLOUR STUDY Terry Frost. 'Blacks'.

Colour Analysis from Nature. Terry Frost. Scolar Press.

“Being interested in abstraction, in Constructivism and in the experience of being around St. Ives, led me to deal with painting which was the result of walking, breathing the air and lying flat on our backs, ‘being intimate with the landscape’ ” – “in town the harbour, the streets the roof tops – geometrical division, space, movement and so on.” p.161.

"Roger Hilton and I were struggling to flatten things out, to accept that we were working on a flat surface. We wanted just flat shapes and colour. If you keep a colour flat, then you’ve got to find a shape that will hold it flat, therefore you are involved with proportion and relationship to the next colour you put on”. Terry Frost.

Although these statements are a deviation from his study of 'blacks', I was interested in the breakdown of landscape into geometry; flat shapes and colour. It struck me just how much bright colours are changed when seen in small areas with the luscious 'darks', just splashes of colour with 'black'. -

"There is no such colour as ‘black’ or ‘white’. Both are an amalgam or all colours, of light. There are matt blacks, glossy blacks, soft blacks, blue blacks, purple blacks, green blacks, maroon blacks. Each ‘black’ affects the colour juxtaposing it. Is a bright colour, say burnt orange, more powerful when placed in small splashes next to ‘black’ or a blue than when presented as a large area of colour on it’s own? This is one area I want to explore".

In Terry Frost's studies of blacks. P.179. He talks about: -

“Colour in acrylic
Colour in oil
On flat
On round
In stripes
In verticals
In curves
In harmony
In discord
In contrast
Through all intensities

The possibilities of
A yellow walk
A lying down sky
A smiling black
A soft black
A tight black
A fat black
A mean black
A blue black
A red black”

I was also interested in his use of flat colour and abstract form.

“The love of colour has to be real, in fact, like love. And it must be concerned with reason, with the logical extension of a colour to its breaking point in order to discover the relations of colour and form, and together a final totality and authority” Terry Frost

Terry Frost says, “ It is a question of reacting via the eyes through the heart and head for a full sensation. It is not a momentary sensation alone, for, from my experience; I see better the next time. It’s an additive experience; it’s a sort of cleansing process, so that each colour builds up more of its own spiritual value, its own being."

“Just to think in terms of colour is enough to set the soul alight. This colour without shape – in the spirit. Shapes are known to people by words but colour can make its own shape and exist in its own right”.

Yellows, Through paintings and black, p.186

The narrator says, “At Reading, Terry Frost asked 60 students to mix a black from red, yellow and blue. He wanted them to learn to mix oil colour cleanly and with a set aim in mind. Having mixed their different blacks, from the warm side until it broke to red and the same with blue, green and ochre, each student was asked to choose their mid-black, their blackest black. No two were the same. They made a mural of the blacks and this led Terry to a series of black paintings.”

A page of Terry Frost's black studies.

Terry recalls the words of the great gardener Gertrude Jekyll:

"What a wonderful range of colour there is in black alone to the trained colour eye. There is the dull brown-black of soot, and the velvety brown-black of the bean-flower’s blotch; to my own eye, I have never found anything so entirely black in a natural product as the patch on the lower petals of Iris Iperica. Is it not Ruskin who says of Velasquez, that there is more colour in his black than in another painter’s whole palette.”

A beautiful 'black' flower - Bloom Magazine.

Terry says; “I learned to mix my colours, to mix red, yellow and blue to make black, and if you do that, you find there are as many blacks as there are yellows. A lot of people don’t realise that; they think black is just black, but black, as the old poem says, is the container of all colour.”

Later he says: “I wouldn’t have painted the ‘Through Blacks’ or the ‘Through greys’ if I hadn’t insisted on the students finding out how many greys they could make or how many blacks, you see”.

AF "But you never told the students that you can just chuck a bit of red in the black. They had to mix it all out of red, yellow and blue, but you can actually just use spectrum black and put some red in it, can’t you"?

TF When you are in a bit of a hurry, that’s O.K. There are times when its right to do that but it doesn’t work in a poetic sense when you’re trying to stretch your imagination and your mixture of colour together to get your concept out. It’s a different thing. It’s not to do with trying to write a poem in black and it took me bloody weeks, all those fifteen different blacks from red, yellow and blue.”

A 'black' rose. - Bloom magazine.

I am quite excited about experimenting with creating 'blacks' from scratch on silk. How will they respond to a shiny crepe backed satin silk, or the matt finish of crepe de chine silk? Or even the translucence of crepe georgette silk?

I was interested in a quote in Terry Frost's book, (above) from Gasch.

“The artist should represent his own interior world, the visual counterpart of a poetic mythology. He argues that the interior is not pure fantasy because there is no such thing as pure imagination. It must feed on something, which is necessarily reality. The imagined world can become as real as the reality which kindled it….”

You could say that the artists world is always an inner world, a world of deep cognitive discovery and imagination. So, is my way of working with ‘Zen’ meditation any different? I wonder if it is. Although working in meditation, the 'unconscious' feeds from something ‘conscious’ and thus becomes part of reality. I am planning to try to work from a deeper space within, working on larger pieces hanging vertically on the wall.

I have been sampling my own 'blacks' by mixing equal proportions of various yellow, blues and reds. So far, the colours I have achieved have been gorgeous but rather pale. One black in particular, has worked well, a deep, warm 'midnight' black achieved by mixing yellow, red and navy. Tomorrow, I intend to sample further and show my results.

Pure beingness

Czernin, Nicholas. “Wasteland Words. The Heart of Wonder” Non Duality Press.

“At the instant of perceiving, there is nothing – empty virginal space, but almost immediately the mind gets to work and fills in that space with all sorts of ideas about what is perceived, and so the original empty space is constantly filled up with thoughts, discriminations and emotions, plus anything else the mind can get its hands on to keep control of the originally pure beingness. And so, all through our waking lives, the vast, original empty untamed space is suffocated by the ever-busy mind – the jewel buried in the mud”.

'Cloth and Culture Now'

‘Cloth and Culture Now’. The Sainsbury’s Centre. East Anglia University, Norwich.

This exhibition was an impressive and thought provoking display where diverse techniques are used in innovative ways, using metal, even lead, laser cutting, print, weave and individual techniques, with craftsmen from Estonia, Finland, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania and U.K. I spent two days exploring the exhibits, fascinated at the diversity of the pieces and the way they were produced.

The work of Masaaki Tate, Japan mesmerised me. A rozome piece of about 8 canvases, a dark aubergine black with batik haloed circles, so subtle and perfect, fastidiously mounted because each canvas showed white drawn threads, both vertical and horizontal, one of the main features of the piece, and each line of threads was perfectly straight in both directions. The piece worked powerfully in it's simplicity because of the perfection in the skill of the making.

“A finely tuned aesthetic judgement to traditional craft processes, contrasting the density of the dyed surface with the structure of the cloth, revealed through the drawn threat”.
Masaaki Tate.



He also says:-

“I am concerned with describing the essence of the material and the idea in the simplest way. Using intuition is the artist and using skill is the craftsman. It is important that both coexist in my work”.


Aune Taamal, Estonia.

Of her narrative, she says,

“We humans have damaged the earth and I wonder how can we help the planet/”

“For me also, light is so important: the light within our bodies and the light of the universe. We consist of light and if we can bring more light into ourselves, then our cells become radiant. This is also tied into the sacred geometry………..We are all connected to each other and to nature. In our hearts there is a very sacred place…………. Sometimes I feel this connection which is a wonderful feeling. I feel that I am everywhere, then I don’t feel my body.”



Each day, I noticed a sign which directed us to Lord Sainsbury’s permanent collection. It looked rather stuffy and I almost didn’t bother to go. But – I did! What a treat. So many pieces I loved, ‘Little Dancer’ by Degas, many Giacometti pieces, both paintings and sculptures. Giacometti has always been one of my favourite artists, with the torment and passion portrayed in his sketches and his elongated sculptures. There were Henry Moores, a Chiam Soutine, Aztec and Inca and so many other pieces I loved.

The pieces which absolutely blew me away with their power and beauty were two bowls by Rupert Spira.

The beauty and soul in his work is overwhelming and this essence is something I would like to express in my work

Rupert Spira says,

"Objects that come from consciousness unmediated by any self-imposed limitations, could be said to be 'sacred art'. They have the power to reveal the universality of consciousness and it is in this capacity that their extraordinary potency lies".

The fact that he has inscribed poems and his other writings; spiritual words, around his bowls by hand, injects more purity into his work.

"The word 'consciousness' is the cognitive presence in every experience. The mystic's job is to explore the nature of reality, but more is required of the artist. He or she has to simultaniously make manifect the results of this enquiry in form".

"Sacred art is work that comes from a deep desire to explore the true nature of our experience, or from an intuition of it. So if we are trying to find out who we really are and what the work really is, it makes no sense to predefine or limit either. The ego is a self-imposed limitation on our true nature...................Sacred art takes us beyond these limitations because it is inspired by that which is beyond them. If a work of art is inspired by these limitations it will only lead the viewer back to them. We could say that a work of art is like a pathway. It bears the signature of its origin. The senses are the medium through which we travel this path".

Rupert Spira from an interview with Daphne Astor, 'Modern Painters', Summer 2001.

Hidden Imagery

I am fascinated with the oriental concept of design, where a creation is not just visual but an interactive experience, something which happens from the 'centre' or soul. I began working in deep meditation, working directly onto the cloth. Sometimes the images were amazing, having an existance of their own.

A North American Indian

Or an eagle in flight.

Now a beautiful hand-finished silk tie.

A butterfly?


In the 'Zazen' designs, (art created in meditation by the Buddhist monks as a way to enlightenment) I see beauty and simplicity, hidden images of angels, birds, insects, also hidden colour and yet they have no identity in creation. Different realities appear if the image is turned. The images, to me, contain no 'hidden imagery' if created consciously, they have to be created in a state of 'oneness'.

A North American Indian?


A pair of Yin and Yang doves?

All images in this journal are copyright. No design or image may be copied without my permission. Any infringement of these rights will be pursued vigorously.

Ka-do

The philosophy of Ka-do (Ikebana - the art of Japanese Flower Arranging) led me into the world of 'Zen' and 'The Way', 'The Do' (doh), the journey to enlightenment.

Is this creation perfect balance and counterbalance?























Hiroshi Teshigahara



Is this the perfect balance I seek?











Ikebana arrangement


















Chilhuly.
Blown glass Ikebana




How can I introduce this into my work?

I studied 'Zenga', painting created in meditation, and began a personal journey working directly on to the silk using a variety of tools and brushes. My journey is far from finished and I am still trying to understand what it is I seek.

Zen through Ka-do (Ikebana).

Moved by the deep meaning of 'Zen' and 'the way', 'the do' (doh), the journey to enlightenment, I studied the philosophy of Ka-do (Ikebana, the art of Japanese Flower Arranging). How I could introduce this into my work? I studied 'Zenga', painting created in meditation and began a personal journey working directly onto the silk and on paper in Zazen, 'Zen' meditation.

The Geometry

Moving from a love of Geometry at school, I became fascinated with angles and space. What is perfect balance?

Luca Paciolli (1445-1571) says in 'Divina Proportione' that the Golden Section or Divine Proportion is

A____ ____M____B

The line AB is divided at point M so that the ratio of the two parts, the smaller MB to the larger AM is the same as the ratio of the larger part AM to the whole AB. (phi).

This is something we do naturally, rather like tying the ribbon on a parcel.

The subject of the Golden Section and Fibonacci numbers (divisions 1,2,3,5,8,13) is vast and I do not want to go into that now. Suffice to say that this breakdown of space happens naturally in nature, in the spiral of a shell, leaves on a branch, petals in a flower and also in the great artists' paintings such as Leonardo de Vinci and in music.

Working with geometry and with a fascination for lines and space, I created a series of one off pieces, using the screen as an art tool with masking and painting. My challenge was to leave large areas of pure white, or to print huge areas of flat colour, something a commercial printer would not do because of the high risk of uneven 'backs'. A commercial printer would only print an area not larger than 5" x 5".




'Optical' Collection of silk scarves.

Bridget Riley and her stripes have been a huge influence in my work




















1. 'Rooftops' One design of nine from drawings in the snow.

This print was working with the Golden Section

















2. 'Princess Nouchi'. silk scarf, hand printed and painted.


















3. 'Crackle' silk scarf.

For the Royal Society of Arts National Bursary Award, I submitted four boards of drawings and design ideas. This was the final piece. I was selected as joint overall winner.







All images in this journal are copyright. No design or image may be copied without my permission. Any infringement of these rights will be pursued vigorously.

365 Tao: Daily Meditation by Deng Ming-Dao.

"If you spend a long period of time in study and self-cultivation, you will enter Tao. By doing so, you also enter a world of extraordinary perceptions. You experience unimaginable things, receive thoughts and learning as if from nowhere, perceive things that could be classified as prescient. Yet, if you try to communicate what you experience, there is no one to understand you, no one who will believe you. The more you walk this road, the farther you are from the ordinary ways of society. You may see the truth, but you will find that people would rather listen to the politicians, performers and charlatans."

From 'Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life', by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer. Preface p.XV

The First Week

During our first week, our brains have been filled with useful information, from 'having a go' on the sanders, drills, band saws in the metal, wood and plastics department to learning how to set up a blog.

One could see which areas excited each one of us. For me, it was the Textile Print and Photography inductions.