What I think I should do in 2011

So its really late to say this, but Happy New Year to ART:Jamaica readers and followers, far and wide. Every year, I try to think about the things that I can do in the year. Last year, I wanted to work on doing some longer more insightful pieces and interviews as slowly I tried to build the catalogue of what this blog does. There are several things that I can and can't do based on my distance away from the Caribbean. However I think it gives me a chance to do things that are less dependent on location.

This year, I want to take the opportunity to do shorter pieces more often and on specific areas e.g. review of art pieces, the way exhibitions are created, the mechanics of being an artist etc. This year I am also looking to expand unto YouTube! I am really excited about that. So here is a call for persons with related events and exhibitions etc. happening this year to add them to the comments of this post or on the Facebook page.

So thats what I think I should be doing this year but feel free to suggest as well and we'll see what we can make work.

Best
Oneika

N.B. If leaving your contact below for your own ID protection please use this format 'username(at)emailprovider.com'
Also comments are now moderated so they are recieved and reviewed by me before being published to the page so don't worry about losing your entry.

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What to do if you are an artist.

So you're an artist and there are many things they didn't teach you in art school. Many things you have to figure out for yourself. The thing is that if you happen to be living in a world capital this isn't as much a problem as the art world may be bigger and more accessible or at least there is more of it. What if you don't live in an art capital or what if figuring it out is a steep learning curve ....

Emma Taylor on accreditedonlinecolleges.com has compiled a stellar list of videos from TED which discuss Art. TEDtalks drew my attention on YouTube over a year ago. Suddenly ideas and knowledge that wasn't always easy to find or understand was compiled into manageable videos online. They take the form of the expert presenting their research or field of study in engaging ways. These experts are from many fields e.g. social sciences, media, design, arts, biological research and the list goes on. There have been a number of art world professionals and top dogs making presentations and sharing insider knowledge. So now thanks to Emma you have this info at your finger tips.

20 Awe-Inspiring TED Talks for Artists & Designers

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Duppy Art: stories in clay

Ah the wonders of social networking. I wanted to find out if there were any persons in or connected to the Caribbean making animations or comics trying to develop some cultural identity through their work. I got a response from one person: Scally Ranks. Clicking the links to his videos was a surprise because if I expected animation, I didn't really expect clay animation. Why, because I associate it mainly with UK's Aardman Studios. 'Wallace and Gromit' and such. When a group becomes associated with a particular material or method, the aesthetics go with it too. in my mind claymation was for a certain style of representation brought to focus by Aardman. Of course at anytime your generalizations can be proven wrong and thats always a nice surprise. I asked Scally to tell me about his work so far. I wanted to understand where he saw his platform for his works, in a gallery, in a cinema, online, none or all.

' I created 'Dancehall Claymation' to both promote and share dancehall music to a wider audience,before i began filming i was sculpturing using wax,some of my early work icluded 3 life size rasta heads made from solid wax,also i was painting with wax,during this time my interest with dancehall and reggae was growing and i found my self making dancehall singers out of wax,i was also just about to teach myself video production and editing,one day the idea came to add my art with dancehall music and put them in a film,because wax was not moveable i changed materials and started sculpting from plasticine and my developement in claymation began.
I found that even using basic Claymation techniques i could produce a video good enought to be watched,i made the term ''Freestyle Dancehall Claymation'' as most of my work is unplanned.

In the early days of Duppy Art my models were more basic,often only having the top half of the bodies,the rest hidden out of shot,a 3 min vid would take me almost a month,taking one picture at a time and then putting them together,sometimes a hundred or more,my motivation was my love for the music i was working with and also my enjoyment at learning about jamaica,the people and culture,learning 'patwah' was essensial,being english i wanted to understand what was being said in the songs and educating myself was the only way.
I was able to use basic editing software to arrange the shots and overlay a soundtrack,once it was complete i would post them on youtube,this was really just a place to store them as my computer was always low on memory,but i noticed the videos gettin views and comments, i realise i had something special and unique.
I began to make the films to look like they were part of a bigger film,this was so i could go back an make more to either the start or the end,soon after i started i was being approached by people inside the reggae and dancehall community and i started to get promotion of many websites,as i dont own a dot com website i rely on youtube and facebook to host my work,as a problem in most artist's life is having a place to display there work i figued if it was online it would be available to a wider veiwing audience.

I have high hopes for my work,both in the commercial sector and the underground,i have been the first to put Dancehall dj's in Claymation and also King haile Selassie,the model of the king was soon sold to a reggae collector as im finding now my models are becoming alot better and filming with them often spoils them so i also do commisions for just models.
Duppy Art is on a number of websites around the world and was featured at the Reggae Film festival in jamaica in 2008 and has been shown on tv.


'Currently i'm working on re-building my studio after moving house,but coming up for Duppy Art will be more dancehall and reggae films,i have sold most of the models from my old vids to reggae collectors so im also having to make new models to use.

 - Edited interview with Scally Ranks

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