How do you get from a crazy idea to something that makes you smile ?
A day in the life: Darkest Star Studio
GETTING AN IDEA OUT OF YOUR HEAD AND INTO THE WORLD CAN DRIVE YOU BANANAS!
You can spend hours thinking about the best way to actualise a vision, but really it’s not until the process starts that an answer presents itself.
Picasso said ‘Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working’, in the same essence to develop an idea you have to make a basic plan, be open to change but essentially just get on with it.
Last summer, I decided to take pictures of fruit for my Instagram page, a creative recipe sharing post to encourage wellbeing. In true style, my head went into overdrive as an idea started to form. I’d just bought a wooden mannequin hand to hold fruit for my quickly escalating food styling concepts. It was perfectly crafted to grip a phallic fruit … which it did, I shot it and posted a banana smoothie, that should have been enough …. but I had to take it further.
There was something mentally stored away in a back room, under a bed, inside a dusty jewel-embellished box … maybe a remnant from Darkest Star’s erotic past, perhaps the love of Artist Kathleen Ryan’s beautifully grotesque oversizes rotting lemons. It could have been the enthusiasm to explore my creativity outside the realms of fashion, whatever it was I had an idea on one of the hottest Saturdays in July, which needed to come out.
SEXUALLY CHARGED INNUENDO; OR JUST A BANANA?
Since Andy Warhol immortalised the banana on the cover of The Velvet Underground Album in 1967 it became synonymous with his brand and an iconic object of playfulness used by artists over the decades.
Image from original artwork available at PHILLIPS auction house
‘Warhol’s innovative album cover featured the image of a banana covered by a banana-skin sticker that fans could pull back to reveal the flesh-coloured fruit underneath. Written on the album cover above the banana was the invitation to “Peel Slowly and See.” This interactive and artistic sensation would forever be a trademark for the band as well as for Warhol.’ masterworksfineart.com
Last spring, I was privileged to attend a private view of photographer Renell Medrano's work. Her project focused on the vibrancy of the Dominican community. Downstairs in the Newman Street gallery, a vibrant pile of bananas cascading from a hidden corner of the room in contrast to a stark white wall from which they fell.
The previous summer Italian artist, Maurizio Cattelan duct-taped a banana to a wall during Miami's Art Basel. It was sold for $120,000, creating a divide between art critics and the public alike. In 2004, artist Doug Fishbone unveiled his sculpture of 30,000 Bananas dumped in front of the National Gallery.
I clearly wasn't alone in getting obsessed.
Photo Credit : Art Basel
It started simply, with a wooden hand holding a banana, an image that really resonated with me. For some reason, it just made something click. The feeling you get when something visually just feels right. It could be a colour combination on a packet of foreign biscuits, the fringing on a vintage lampshade, a weathered grey metal handrail perfectly lining up with a pale blue horizon when gazing at the sea … you know when something just feels right.
Loving embellishment, I embroidered and beaded a photographic print. Liking the look, I'll revisit, but there was more that needed to evolve on that weekend.
So I started to plan, I knew there were some beads from a previous project… I really wanted the look to be intense, and I guess quite masculine. I needed to work fast, my first attempt being on an actual banana, although it was firm to the touch, on a hot day there were way too many pins passed through the flesh. You know what comes next.
After scrapping the splattered fruit off the floor and washing off the beads, I headed down to my local art shop. We talked about the best solution which appeared to be a self-drying clay. Something I hadn't work with before but immediately loved working with it.
It took an hour or so to mould the clay into the shape I wanted. Using a wooden knitting needle, I poked it up through the bottom just past midway. This gave me something to hold onto, I then let it dry for a couple of hours before painting it a yellowy white colour. Once the paint was dried, I started embellishing the hell out of it!
Taking a short pin, I used a yellow bead to give some contrast, next to a gunmetal hematite bead. I kept everything as in-line as possible; I began to cover the top portion of the banana shape.
To my surprise, it was completely intact the next day with the clay holding onto the pins just enough so they wouldn't fall out. I then raided my leather scraps to make the skin…. I remembered to cut a pattern from the skin before throwing it away and whizzed up a lined coat for my crazy little project.
When you've worked in the creative industry for so long it can feel like an indulgence to make something for your own pleasure. As artists, it's vital for our growth to experiment with different materials and techniques that take you completely out of your knowledge base.
The wooden hand holding it's studded leather banana sits on my desk, giving me a strange sense of joy when I look at it. Partly because it's something I've made and partly because it had no other purpose than for me to create thats just a bit of fun !
What have you made recently just for the hell of it?
